Monkey King: Journey to the West translated by Julia Lovell

Like everyone else using Facebook, I will come across a variety of video Reels that show up on my feed. One in particular has captured my interest. The Reel is produced by someone going by the name of Wenjiang Caihuaxiaoyuan. The videos are Chinese language comedies with English subtitles. The premise of these videos is of a place of business run by a middle aged woman, employing three or four younger women.

In one, the punchline was one of the younger women saying she was the daughter of Sun Wukong. Of course, I had to do a web search of Sun Wukong.

According to Wikipedia:
"Sun Wukong, also known as the Monkey King, is a literary and religious figure best known as one of the main characters in the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West.In the novel, Sun Wukong is a monkey born from a stone who acquires supernatural powers through Taoist practices. After rebelling against heaven, he is imprisoned under a mountain by the Buddha. Five hundred years later, he accompanies the monk Tang Sanzang riding on the White Dragon Horse and two other disciples, Zhu Bajie and Sha Heshang, on a journey to obtain Buddhist sutras, known as the West or Western Paradise, where Buddha and his followers dwell".

Journey to the West seemed like something I'd be interested in reading, so I searched online for English translations. I located a four volume unabridged version translated by Anthony C. Yu as well an abridged, one volume work translated by Julia Lovell (Monkey King: Journey to the West). I decided that I'd read the shorter, abridged translation first.

Journey to the West has strong roots in Chinese folk religion, Chinese mythology, Chinese Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoist and Buddhist folklore. Sun Wukong is a monkey born on Flower Fruit Mountain from a stone egg that forms from an ancient rock created by the coupling of Heaven and Earth. The Monkey King possesses supernatural strength and magical powers and is the inspiration of many modern manhwa, manhua, manga and anime series.

One of the downsides to the adventures in the novel is Sun Wukong always finds his way out of any predicament by the use of his supernatural powers. Like a Superman comic, it can become wearisome reading at times. Overall, I enjoyed the novel, although I'm certainly glad I choose the much smaller abridged version. Four volumes of the same thing would have been too much.

Two Books by Denzil Meyrick

I had never heard of the Scottish crime fiction novelist Denzil Meyrick until I read of his death online last February. Murder/crime fiction is a genre of novels of which I'm particularly interested in so I downloaded his entire ebook collection - his DCI Jim Daley series contains 12 books.

In March, I read the first two books in that series - Whisky From Small Glasses and The Last Witness. I put Meyrick on my list of writers to read, but things being the way they are, I didn't manage to continue the DCI Jim Daley series until January of this year. Two more books - Dark Suits and Sad Songs and The Rat Stone Serenade.

Having read four in the series, I think I can form a better opinion of the books. The stories are interesting enough and I like the characters, for the most part, but I've mixed feelings on the stories taking place in Scotland. I enjoy reading of the country and Meyrick's description of the scenery and customs of the people. I'm not, however a big fan of Meyrick's putting such a strong Scottish accent into the mouths of so many of his characters. It makes it a bit difficult for me to follow along at times.

Meyrick wrote the scenes as if he were writing a television program rather than a novel. The scenes jump back and forth at a quick pace......too quick for my tastes. And although the stories are interesting, they do tend to drag on in spots.

As I said, I enjoy his novels over all, although I wouldn't rank him as high as some of my other favorites (Donna Leon comes to mind).

Rereading Bram Stoker's Dracula

After having rewatched Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat's 2020 TV series Dracula on Netflix recently, I wanted to reread Bram Stoker's original novel. According to blog posts and book lists on my PC, I last read the book in January of 2016. Ten years ago this month.

I've seen countless film adaptations of the novel but it wasn't until the mid- 1970's that I first picked up the book. An older cousin of mine had given an annotated edition of the book to my younger brother and I picked it up then. Naturally, I don't recall much of the reading from over fifty years ago, other than I was turned off by the epistolary nature of the work. It's being a series of letters and diary entries kept me from rereading the book for many years.

As I said, it had been ten years since I last read Dracula and I suspected there would be much I'd forgotten. The book is very different than 99% of the film adaptations. Although some films follow the book better than others, I've never seen any Dracula film that is anywhere close to being 100% faithful to Stoker's novel.

The epistolary nature of the novel didn't bother me so much this time. What surprised me most was the fact that Count Dracula really isn't the main character as portrayed in film. We see him, of course when Harker comes to Transylvania at the beginning of the novel, but through out most of the book, the other characters take center stage.

There are long winded portions in the book and I wasn't happy about having to figure out Van Helsing's rather bizarre form of English. Still, it was a worthwhile read.

Replacing the Rear Tire

 

As I wrote earlier this week, I'd ridden my bicycle about 5,000 miles since I last changed my tires. The front tire had been getting frequent flats, so it was replaced on Monday. I had to wait until payday to replace the rear. The cost Monday to replace the tire and tube (including labor) came to ₱ 1,590. Today, for some reason, the cost was ₱ 1,525. Perhaps, the tech who replaced the tire Monday charged a little more for his labor. I had tipped the first tech ₱50. I gave the 2nd tech a ₱ 60 tip. I believe taking off the rear wheel is a bit more work.