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说部之乱
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 17, 2016
3.5/5
Zhu Yue is known for his wildly original short stories in China. It's easy to see that he is heavily influenced by Calvino and Borges. Most of the stories in this collection are like fantasy or fairy tales, ranging from one paragraph to about fifteen pages. I really like his tone and prose for their accuracy and economy in storytelling, and the stories are fun to read, often leaving me to ponder over them for some time. However, they are more like literary games and lack Calvino and Borges's philosophical profundity.
Zhu Yue is known for his wildly original short stories in China. It's easy to see that he is heavily influenced by Calvino and Borges. Most of the stories in this collection are like fantasy or fairy tales, ranging from one paragraph to about fifteen pages. I really like his tone and prose for their accuracy and economy in storytelling, and the stories are fun to read, often leaving me to ponder over them for some time. However, they are more like literary games and lack Calvino and Borges's philosophical profundity.
November 26, 2023
surrealist short story collection with no deeper meaning to most stories... kinda disappointing overall, but imaginative i guess...? (i could just write down my dreams if i wanted 1 page meaningless anecdotes though)
原路失踪 4/5 super surreal story, very cool and hooked me but i was left pretty dissatisfied by the ending... it was all just nonsensical, felt "fake deep"
默片人 3/5 "well that just happened"
说部之乱 4/5 actually has cool ideas in it, and one of the only 2 or 3 short stories in here that feel like they have a message/made a point
黄金 3/5 ok lmao
词隐 3.5/5 neat wordplay-driven/gimmicky idea, goes on for way too long
儿子 3.5/5 cool idea, fairy tale vibes, wish it got expanded on tbh
星际远征 2/5 literally what, and why
食竹记 2.5/5 another pointless random thing
写作计划 3/5 very meta, prob the author's own actual scrapped ideas lmao... but like damn hes rlly scraping the bottom of the barrel for these short story ideas
再见 1/5 cringe and juvenile?? "i am groot" on ao3 did it better
泽尔尼克之死 3/5 long-winded story where nothing happens
救鱼 3.5/5 neat twist lmao, surreal fr but again, zero meaning
咽牙 3/5 neat ig?
仙药，黑人，月亮 3/5 neat ig??
古老童话 1/5 this isn't anything...?
迷宫制造大师 2/5 borges-esque and hella boring
双眼 2/5 another chuanqi-esque anecdote
隐士游戏 1/5 what happened in this one, am i dumb?
草原礼貌 2/5 these one paragraph stories feel so low effort im sorry.... anyone could write these. "weird" stories are good only when they have meaning. that's the difficult part
在海边 2/5 weird ninja story or smth idk
鱼腹 4/5 feels like theres actually meaning in this story for once damn
白发 3/5 neat concept that again feels like it ends up with no point
回信 3.5/5 slightly feels like it has more of a point?
四元素 1/5 huh
后记 4.5/5 actually very cool getting to read the author's perspective on writing fiction. he talks abt how there's serious literature and popular/entertainment literature, and his is in-between that, sort of an "aesthetic" literature. he says if an event occurs that's poetic in itself, you try not to embellish it when u retell it, right? so that's why his stories are wack but very matter of fact. he says all things have a reason and interrelationships with other things, but if u look on the whole, things have no real rhyme or reason, and to him this is mysterious and interesting and makes one wonder... ig he intends for readers to wonder at the surreal stuff in his stories? TL;DR: he's silly and doing it for the aesthetic lmao (or alternatively u could say it's all bullshit 🤡💀💀)
personally I think fiction should attempt to have a deeper meaning or point... sure these stories are fun, but in a quirky forgettable way, they're not poignant and I dismiss them bc the author clearly didn't even write most of them with any point himself besides intentionally trying to mystify the reader with how much of a non-point these stories have. even the stories that have a plot or seem to be verging on a message end abruptly in a subverted or oblique way.
also the author is sexist as hell 🤡🤡🤡🤡 women in this collection exist only if the nature of the narrative absolutely requires they're female, e.g., they're a romantic interest, a mother, a girlfriend. half of the time a woman appears she's described as pretty or beautiful, whereas there are 0 instances of men being described as attractive or handsome. 13/24 of the short stories have zero female characters at all, and on average these stories have 3-8 characters. let alone passing the bechdel test - theres not even a single story in which more than 1 woman has dialogue 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
原路失踪 4/5 super surreal story, very cool and hooked me but i was left pretty dissatisfied by the ending... it was all just nonsensical, felt "fake deep"
默片人 3/5 "well that just happened"
说部之乱 4/5 actually has cool ideas in it, and one of the only 2 or 3 short stories in here that feel like they have a message/made a point
黄金 3/5 ok lmao
词隐 3.5/5 neat wordplay-driven/gimmicky idea, goes on for way too long
儿子 3.5/5 cool idea, fairy tale vibes, wish it got expanded on tbh
星际远征 2/5 literally what, and why
食竹记 2.5/5 another pointless random thing
写作计划 3/5 very meta, prob the author's own actual scrapped ideas lmao... but like damn hes rlly scraping the bottom of the barrel for these short story ideas
再见 1/5 cringe and juvenile?? "i am groot" on ao3 did it better
泽尔尼克之死 3/5 long-winded story where nothing happens
救鱼 3.5/5 neat twist lmao, surreal fr but again, zero meaning
咽牙 3/5 neat ig?
仙药，黑人，月亮 3/5 neat ig??
古老童话 1/5 this isn't anything...?
迷宫制造大师 2/5 borges-esque and hella boring
双眼 2/5 another chuanqi-esque anecdote
隐士游戏 1/5 what happened in this one, am i dumb?
草原礼貌 2/5 these one paragraph stories feel so low effort im sorry.... anyone could write these. "weird" stories are good only when they have meaning. that's the difficult part
在海边 2/5 weird ninja story or smth idk
鱼腹 4/5 feels like theres actually meaning in this story for once damn
白发 3/5 neat concept that again feels like it ends up with no point
回信 3.5/5 slightly feels like it has more of a point?
四元素 1/5 huh
后记 4.5/5 actually very cool getting to read the author's perspective on writing fiction. he talks abt how there's serious literature and popular/entertainment literature, and his is in-between that, sort of an "aesthetic" literature. he says if an event occurs that's poetic in itself, you try not to embellish it when u retell it, right? so that's why his stories are wack but very matter of fact. he says all things have a reason and interrelationships with other things, but if u look on the whole, things have no real rhyme or reason, and to him this is mysterious and interesting and makes one wonder... ig he intends for readers to wonder at the surreal stuff in his stories? TL;DR: he's silly and doing it for the aesthetic lmao (or alternatively u could say it's all bullshit 🤡💀💀)
personally I think fiction should attempt to have a deeper meaning or point... sure these stories are fun, but in a quirky forgettable way, they're not poignant and I dismiss them bc the author clearly didn't even write most of them with any point himself besides intentionally trying to mystify the reader with how much of a non-point these stories have. even the stories that have a plot or seem to be verging on a message end abruptly in a subverted or oblique way.
also the author is sexist as hell 🤡🤡🤡🤡 women in this collection exist only if the nature of the narrative absolutely requires they're female, e.g., they're a romantic interest, a mother, a girlfriend. half of the time a woman appears she's described as pretty or beautiful, whereas there are 0 instances of men being described as attractive or handsome. 13/24 of the short stories have zero female characters at all, and on average these stories have 3-8 characters. let alone passing the bechdel test - theres not even a single story in which more than 1 woman has dialogue 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
August 8, 2019
江洋大盗在草上飞，越过边界，无处可去
December 21, 2023
太牛逼了，想象力爆棚了！喜欢
March 29, 2024
作者的想象力无疑很充沛，故事里都是满溢的想象力。可是想象力是工具，不是产品，把想象力的碎片呈现给读者是不合适的。
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews