Dear Monkey!
Oct. 12th, 2008 10:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloMonkey is China's Don Quixote. Or maybe it's China's Gargantua and Pantagruel. Or maybe- and this is a longer shot- it's China's Pilgrim's Progress. What is has in common with all of them is that it comes out of that transitional period between the middle-ages and the modern era- which in Europe we call the renaissance- and it's an ur-novel.
And like these three very roughly contemporary European books it takes traditional material- from romance, fairy-tale, legend- and passes it through a sensibility that is critical, appraising, modern. It's intentions are complex. There's political and religious satire in the mix, also a measure of (What I think is) zen spirituality. The narrative is swift, engaging and funny. Our hero, Monkey, is an anarchic spirit who wants to be a buddha- and who gains merit by undertaking a classic quest- as chief disciple of a soppy priest who burst into tears at every set-back- and performing good deeds on the way. The good deeds involve outwitting and beating up on a fearsome collection of sorcerers, monsters and ogres. He's a divine trickster, a mischievous superhero, a mystically cool Bugs Bunny. He's aided by his fellow disciples, the Falstaffian Pigsy- who likes his grub- and the enigmatic river-spirit Sandy.
The translation I've been reading is Arthur Waley's. It's not perhaps the most accurate. It's certainly not complete. The original is very, very long and- one episode of monster-thwarting being much like another- I'm not sure I'd have the patience to stick with it all the way. Back in the 16th century they had long winter nights to get though unaided and the longer a story could be strung out the better; we, however, have television. Waley was a literary amateur who hung with Ezra Pound and partied with the Bloomsberries and all but invented Chinese poetry for the West- in brief, a complete and utter dude. It seems not unlikely that much of the smoothness and dry humour of his version originates with him.
Here are Monkey and his friends as envisaged by Jamie Hewlett for the little promotional film the BBC commissioned for the Beijing Olympics. It's fab- the music is by Damon Albarn, of Blur and Gorillaz- and it's what got me itching to read the book. Watching it again, now I know the characters better, it brings tears of pure sentiment to my eyes. Dear, Monkey!
And like these three very roughly contemporary European books it takes traditional material- from romance, fairy-tale, legend- and passes it through a sensibility that is critical, appraising, modern. It's intentions are complex. There's political and religious satire in the mix, also a measure of (What I think is) zen spirituality. The narrative is swift, engaging and funny. Our hero, Monkey, is an anarchic spirit who wants to be a buddha- and who gains merit by undertaking a classic quest- as chief disciple of a soppy priest who burst into tears at every set-back- and performing good deeds on the way. The good deeds involve outwitting and beating up on a fearsome collection of sorcerers, monsters and ogres. He's a divine trickster, a mischievous superhero, a mystically cool Bugs Bunny. He's aided by his fellow disciples, the Falstaffian Pigsy- who likes his grub- and the enigmatic river-spirit Sandy.
The translation I've been reading is Arthur Waley's. It's not perhaps the most accurate. It's certainly not complete. The original is very, very long and- one episode of monster-thwarting being much like another- I'm not sure I'd have the patience to stick with it all the way. Back in the 16th century they had long winter nights to get though unaided and the longer a story could be strung out the better; we, however, have television. Waley was a literary amateur who hung with Ezra Pound and partied with the Bloomsberries and all but invented Chinese poetry for the West- in brief, a complete and utter dude. It seems not unlikely that much of the smoothness and dry humour of his version originates with him.
Here are Monkey and his friends as envisaged by Jamie Hewlett for the little promotional film the BBC commissioned for the Beijing Olympics. It's fab- the music is by Damon Albarn, of Blur and Gorillaz- and it's what got me itching to read the book. Watching it again, now I know the characters better, it brings tears of pure sentiment to my eyes. Dear, Monkey!
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no subject
Date: 2008-10-12 12:08 pm (UTC)If you can find copies of those Chinese books, illustrated with beautifully complex unshaded line drawings, by all means have a look at them.
EDIT: It's online! http://www.archive.org/details/wngmnky
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Date: 2008-10-12 01:27 pm (UTC)The White Bone Demon is one of the episodes Waley cuts.
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Date: 2008-10-12 04:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-12 05:08 pm (UTC)It's the only episode I remember from a children's book of the Journey to the West that was in my elementary school library, or possibly it was a children's book all on its own. I had forgotten until now that Monkey was one of the tricksters I grew up on (in many ways, thanks to Laurence Yep); Loki and Coyote were more the ones who stuck.
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Date: 2008-10-12 07:38 pm (UTC)Monkey is an interesting figure- not only a trickster but also a great warrior and magician.
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Date: 2008-10-12 01:12 pm (UTC)Waley is simply amazing. His translation of the Laozi - The Way and It's Power - remains one of the best, not only for the text itself, but for his profoundly insightful essays placing the original within its proper cultural, philosophical, literary, and historical contexts. Writen in 1934 and updated in 1958, I am, if anything, impressed just that much more each time I read it. Some insights that he found obvious decades ago are only now gaining traction among the "professionals".
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Date: 2008-10-12 01:31 pm (UTC)I should explore his oeuvre further.
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Date: 2008-10-13 02:46 pm (UTC)I think this is what made his insights into the Laozi so refreshing. Waley wasn't an expert, at least not in the accademic sense. He didn't necessarily have an ax to grind or a particular point of view to be defended against all comers. Reading his essays, I got the impression that he was something of a well-informed outsider, electing to base his discussion more on the texts before him than on what he'd heard others say about them.
A fresh approach is especially welcome when discussing the evolution of Chinese thought. Too often, the history of Chinese philosophy is based more on cultural tradition than established fact.
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Date: 2008-10-13 07:22 pm (UTC)I'll have to seek out the Laozi. I also want to read his- very influential- translations of Chinese poems.
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Date: 2008-10-12 02:07 pm (UTC)I admire Waley, too, and thought of him often when I was working away for hours on end. But these days, I wouldn't read his translations--I've read too many of the originals.
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Date: 2008-10-12 03:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-12 05:19 pm (UTC)I love the animation and I made a post about it. Thanks for linking!
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Date: 2008-10-12 07:32 pm (UTC)I'm glad you liked the animation. Great, isn't it?
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Date: 2008-10-12 08:48 pm (UTC)Ooh ooh and it could be presented online, and be non-linear. There could be a two minute version like this, and then you could crack down deeper and deeper into it to your heart's content.
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Date: 2008-10-13 10:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-12 09:01 pm (UTC)I need to reread Monkey; been too long.
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Date: 2008-10-13 10:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-12 10:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-13 10:11 am (UTC)