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/lit/ - Literature

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File: 42 KB, 430x311, wu cheng'en.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
18913927 No.18913927 [Reply] [Original]

Do I read the Monkey version of Journey to the West or the original?
350 pages vs 1,873 is a pretty big difference.

>> No.18913955
File: 250 KB, 1066x1600, Dragon Ball - Dragon Ball 191 - 6.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
18913955

>>18913927
You read Dragonball; The greatest story ever told that so also happens to be inspired by the journey to the west.

>> No.18913970

>>18913927
Might as well read >>18913955
Journey to the West is just ancient Chinese shonen manga anyway. Half of it is power-level wanking, and the other is comedy.

>> No.18913976
File: 45 KB, 512x219, shumuhong.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
18913976

Neither, you watch the pic related animated children's series in Cantonese, with English sub if you are uncultured.

>> No.18914018
File: 12 KB, 236x340, guenon.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
18914018

>>18913927
There's only room from one monkey in the West.

>> No.18914033
File: 625 KB, 320x240, gutpunch.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
18914033

>>18913955
Greatest panel/scene in shounen history imo

>> No.18914375

Read Monkey, then decide. It’s wonderful and much more fun and witty than any shounen.

>> No.18914385

Read Romance of the Three Kingdoms instead

>> No.18914425

>>18913927
>Monkey version of Journey to the West
what? show me

>> No.18914505
File: 60 KB, 336x500, Anthony C Wu.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
18914505

>>18913927
The first part on Monkey's rise to heaven is the best part. It turns into a Buddhist apology after that about how Monkey is tamed, much prefer his upward self-actualisation and conquest of the gods narrative of the opening desu. Anthony C. Yu has an excellent translation of both a full and abridged version of the entire Journey.

>> No.18914531

>>18914505
A big advantage of Yu is that he includes all the verse/poems of the original, which are really beautiful and some of the best parts IMO, even in the abridged version. If you go for a retelling they may not include them.

If the length puts you off the abridgement is only 528 pages, and I think you get the most out of the opening Monkey story anyway that happens before the actual journey. Once you get to that point (under 200 pages) you can decide to continue or drop it.

>> No.18914541

>>18914505
me too anon

>> No.18914569

>>18913976
Shame there's not an English dub of Havoc in Heaven for kids. Thankfully we always have based Monkey Magic.

>> No.18914618

>>18914541
You get the sense that Monkey is supposed to be the Taoist alchemist who Faust-like seeks to attain aggrandizing powers through occult magic to surpass the human condition, and that he serves in the narrative as a fall character, to be humiliated and corrected by the superior Buddhist teachings as part of the sectarian clash of schools then current in China. Probably why he is cast as a monkey in the first place, to insult the Taoists as monkeys to be civilised by a superior dogma.

But the irrepressible Faustian nature of the Handsome Monkey King is too charming and heroic and steals the show against melancholy Buddhist temperance, bit like Milton's devil.