It seems to me fairly self-evident that much of impact literature makes on a reader depends on the reader themself. More specifically, it appears to be the case that mental imagery plays a significant role in how literary narratives are received and remembered by readers. For people with reduced mental imagery, I suspect that much of the literature that relies heavily on it is, almost literally, rather less memorable.
I am maddeningly unable to recite the whole of the introduction to 80s Monkey. "The name of the egg was Thought. With our thoughts said the Buddha we make(?) the world. Aeons changed and passed(?) er hem er hem The nature of Monkey was irrepressible!!"
I also came across Li Qingzhao earlier this year. I liked her but the way Chinese poetry is translated into twenty-first century English free verse I don't know that I could tell it from Du Fu except where he or she are clearly speaking as a man or woman. I don't know if that's my unfamiliarity with the conventions of Chinese poetry or the translations or so on?
I remember different fragments, but this is the whole intro:
In the worlds before Monkey, primal chaos reigned. Heaven sought order, but the phoenix can fly only when its feathers are grown. The four worlds formed again and yet again, as endless aeons wheeled and passed. Time and the pure essences of Heaven, the moisture of the Earth, the powers of the Sun and the Moon all worked upon a certain rock old as creation, and it became magically fertile. That first egg was named Thought. Tathagata Buddha, the father Buddha said "With our thoughts, we make the world." Elemental forces caused the egg to hatch. From it then came a stone monkey... The nature of Monkey was irrepressible!
There was a fair amount of cultural appropriation going on. It was a Japanese production of the Chinese novel Journey to the West (as already mentioned) about a pilgrimage to India and enlightenment, dubbed with a variety of dodgy accents and broadcast in a number of countries around the world.
In short I can't recall the translation. As for our conversation, it was mostly recommending various authors in our own traditions to each other, and being delighted to find some were already familiar to the other.
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I also came across Li Qingzhao earlier this year. I liked her but the way Chinese poetry is translated into twenty-first century English free verse I don't know that I could tell it from Du Fu except where he or she are clearly speaking as a man or woman. I don't know if that's my unfamiliarity with the conventions of Chinese poetry or the translations or so on?
Born from an egg on a mountaintop…
There was a fair amount of cultural appropriation going on. It was a Japanese production of the Chinese novel Journey to the West (as already mentioned) about a pilgrimage to India and enlightenment, dubbed with a variety of dodgy accents and broadcast in a number of countries around the world.
Above Molière? Sacrilege!