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/lit/ - Literature

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788485 No.788485 [Reply] [Original]

So, I decided to unass myself and read the 4 chinese classics.

I couldn't find them anywhere where I wasn't going to have to drop a minimum of $50 for a set, so I just downloaded them and got them all on my eReader.

The Three Kingdoms
Outlaws of the Marsh (Water Margin)
Journey to the West
A Dream of Red Mansions

Tell me what I am going to experience as I finish the conversion process to make them fit my eReader's screen better.

>> No.788494

Long bullshit for most of the works

Water Margin ends on a down note
Journey to the West is pretty entertaining and funny at times
Red Mansions is pretty much shit
Three Kingdoms is decent but there are a crazy amount of character with extremely similar names and it can be kind of bitch to keep track of everything going on.

all in all, it is a long boring read for all of them. (like most books considered classics)

>> No.788495

I enjoyed journey to the west a lot actually, but then I love all mythology/folklore/fables etc. so I was bound to.
I was half way through three kingdoms vol. 1 before I lost the book, found again but have yet to pick up again. I remember it was hard going, but enjoyable and rewarding.

>> No.788496

Three Kingdoms: Bros
Water Margin: Interesting characters and lots of troop lists
Journey to the West: I dunno, some monkey guy. I never finished it.
Red Mansions: Ancient Chinese soap opera

>> No.788537

Three Kingdoms is all about being bros. It is one of the original works with the whole 'power of friendship' themes and it does it really well.

Journey to the West is god damned crazy. When you have god level creatures crashing a party to steal the food and disguising themselves as statues of gods it is pretty odd, but then to have them convince a priest a miracle is going on by pissing on him as statues, shit had me rolling.

Water Margin is pretty good. I read a pretty hilarious translation of it that had the characters spewing of the phrase 'I don't give a tooting fart!' on a pretty frequent basis. It made the thing so cheesy and horrible that I loved it.

Red Mansions on the other hand, I haven't read so I don't know a god damned thing about it.

>> No.788558

It's funny how some posts above me imply that Three Kingdoms is about being "bros". If anything, that title should go uncontested to Outlaws of the Marsh.

p.s. Proper english translation is the key to enjoying some of the works, I fear that while the other three are not difficult to translate, Dreams of the Red Chamber is.

>> No.788576

>>788558

I believe both are about bros, personally.

I also believe that if you read one first and then the other you tend to think the first one did a better job with the message of friendship.

I think they are both awesome.

>> No.788627

Good reads

>> No.788666
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788666

>>788494
>all in all, it is a long boring read for all of them. (like most books considered classics)

>> No.789475

Hey OP where did you download them all?