A Most Interesting Man

Posted on February 19, 2023 by JC

Simon Leys: Navigator between Worlds by Philippe Paquet (translated by Julie Rose), La Trobe University Press, September 18th, 2017

The name of Simon Leys has appeared a couple of times on this blog. The first quoting portions of his fascinating essay on Don Quixote and the second time in reviewing his translation of the Analects of Confucius last month. Since finishing his essay anthology titled The Halls of Uselessness, his only novel The Death of Napoleon and a number of other pieces of writing, I’ve only become more interested in the man behind the pen. His real name being Pierre Ryckmans, a Belgian sinologist and writer — though you could easily add many more titles than these initial two. 

I was first introduced to Leys before he died in 2014 by John Derbyshire, one of the few living writers on politics and society who I have followed for a long time (since mid-2008). Leys and Derbyshire share many similarities. They both spent some time in China including Hong Kong and Taiwan and both have Chinese spouses with whom they had children. They are (or were) both successful writers on eclectic topics. Leys writing on China, literature, art, language and the sea. Derbyshire a political commentator who has also written two novels as well as two non-fiction books on mathematics (both the latter, I have yet to read). Derbyshire was pleased to discover that Leys had enjoyed his novel Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream about a Chinese family that had emigrated to the United States. The novel incorporates the protagonists painful experiences during Mao’s Cultural Revolution after encountering an old flame from the old country. Although I have high respect for both, I think Derbyshire would readily agree that Leys edges him out in personal accomplishments though the latter would be very reluctant to accept such praise.

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The New Age of Discovery

Posted on February 12, 2023 by JC

I don’t like Star Trek but I know enough about it to remember the tagline, “Space: The Final Frontier.” These words began each episode of the original series (as far as I know) and at the optimistic time the series was born into; anyone could be forgiven for believing the truth of such a statement. This optimistic belief about human progress is still generally held; that all the secrets of the Earth had been discovered and only in worlds beyond the black void surrounding it is there anything left to discover. All the religions of the world are therefore no longer relevant at best and a hinderance to scientific progress at worst. The former view was one I remember comedian Bill Hicks stating and the latter characterised the “new atheists” that had brief but significant influence in the years after the collapse of a couple of prominent buildings in New York. The view that “science” is the answer for the problems of the world and that the only mysteries left to discover lie beyond earth has been the dominant view for most of my life but this has perceptibly began to crumble in recent years. 

I’ve dwelt on this subject in a number of ways over the years but here I will offer more optimism than cynicism because the world we live in is actually a lot more exciting than anything found in Star Trek and it is only going to get more so.

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Fantastic Phil’s Time Adventure

Posted on February 5, 2023 by JC

Groundhog Day had its theatrical release in the United States thirty years ago as I write. It stars Bill Murray, Andy MacDowell and was directed by Harold Ramis. It was the last time Ramis and Murray worked together on a film after many collaborations and also marked a change in career direction for both. Although in my review of Lost in Translation I suggested that Wes Anderson’s Rushmore marked the dramatic turn for Murray’s career, it can also be seen within this film. Upon re-watching it recently, it is certainly something of a hybrid and although filmed and released in the early 1990s, it could still almost pass as one from the late 1980s. It was a commercial and critical hit upon release but has since endured and remained a popular film and I consider it the best film both Murray and Ramis have ever done. Considering both began their film careers with crass comedies like Caddyshack and Stripes — this perhaps isn’t so impressive in hindsight.

The film has been endlessly discussed and studied since and as with Blade Runner, I don’t expect to be very original in what follows. It has also been influential in what is known as the time-loop genre and I’ve previously discussed Edge of Tomorrow which has a similar premise though it is a sci-fi/action film.

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Entering at the Margins of Classic Chinese Literature

Posted on January 31, 2023 by JC

The Water Margin (Shuihu Zhuan) is one of what are known as the ‘Four Great Novels of China’ and was originally written by Shi Naian during the Ming Dynasty and published in 1368 AD. Though there is scholarly dispute on dates and authorship, I will go with what is generally accepted as I do not know better and probably never will. It is set during the Song Dynasty in the 1120s and concerns the historical Song Jiang, the leader of the 108 bandits of Liangshan Marsh. It is one of the most famous of the Chinese Classics and is well-known in China, Japan and I assume Korea and other surrounding Asian nations. 

It was first translated into English in the 1930s and the edition above (which I read) was translated by J.H. Jackson in 1937. The first translator was Pearl S. Buck in 1933 who changed the title to All Men Are Brothers but the Jackson’s version is considered superior. Complicating this is that the work has been edited in Chinese since it was first written and both these translations are based on the shorter 70 chapter version by Jin Shintang in the 1640s. The original is 120 chapters and has since been translated to English though it doesn’t seem to be as widely available. While the edition is mostly the Jackson translation, the editor Edwin Lowe has made a number of changes which included restoring violence and vulgarity found in the original Chinese that Jackson opted not to include. These re-inclusions are infrequent and relatively mild in comparison to many modern novels today. After reading it through, I wouldn’t say their inclusion adds anything to the text other than making the translation more accurate. It is likely Jackson was a Christian missionary so it is unsurprising he decided to smooth these rough edges out.

As I mentioned in my post on the Analects last month, I received this and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms for Christmas and rapidly read through this in the first three weeks of January. What follows will be a mixture of thoughts on the book which I really enjoyed as can be inferred from the pace with which I read it.

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A Picture of Petty Tyranny

Posted on January 22, 2023 by JC

Office Space is a 1999 film directed by Mike Judge and loosely based on his Milton animated shorts. I previously reviewed Idiocracy and intended to come back and cover this at some stage which I am now doing. Though I love the film, the first time I saw it I didn’t really enjoy it. In hindsight I think that is because I had no frame of reference as I’d never been in full-time work and the work I did do was not in an office environment. As said, it was only on re-watching the film a few years ago — many years after my first viewing — that I really “got it”.

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A Short Guide to Modern Love

Posted on January 15, 2023 by JC

I unfortunately need to state that I do not approve of any of what follows and though I’ve endeavored to write with a neutral tone — it is somewhat (and probably inevitably) acerbic. This is also related to something I previously wrote on marriage and is intended to demonstrate that social morality is now completely incoherent simply by stating plainly how relationships now function.

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The Games of 2022

Posted on January 7, 2023 by JC

This is the third time I am doing this after last year and the year before. The difference this year is I played very few new games and all the ones I did were on Nintendo Switch. Though looking over what was released elsewhere, I really can’t seen anything I missed out on. There was Elden Ring I suppose but I played Dark Souls and while I appreciate why people enjoy these games, they don’t really appeal to me. There are a couple of other games that I would like to have played which are Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge — which I’m sure I will get to at some stage. I was aware of both but didn’t go out of my way to pick them up. I also considered Splatoon 3 but ultimately didn’t get it as I don’t spend much time on multiplayer games these days. I spent very little money this year on games and as a result, got around to playing a few I already had and I have included the two most notable at the end.

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A Brief Analysis of the Analects

Posted on December 31, 2022 by JC

The Analects of Confucius translated by Simon Leys
Norton, April 2nd, 1997

Something definitely missing from my endless list of reading material is Chinese literature. This is something I’ve somewhat remedied recently by reading The Analects of Confucius but I also just received The Water Margin and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms for Christmas; the former of which will be the first book I take up in the new year. My translation of the Analects is by Belgian sinologist Simon Leys who called Australia home for the second half of his life. Coincidently I was reading his essay collection, The Hall of Uselessness this time last year and quoted from his essay on Don Quixote in a post on the same work in November.

A quick note for pedants: what follows is not strictly speaking even a “brief” analysis but I like alliteration and I’m not changing the title.

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Commentary on Western and Japanese Role-Playing Games

Posted on December 18, 2022 by JC

Western and Japanese RPGs are clearly distinct but share the same origins. The pioneering titles were the Ultima and Wizardry games which saw many sequels and many more imitators but both series have long been dormant.  These titles were influenced by Dungeons & Dragons and other board games and fantasy works. The former was heavily influenced by Tolkien’s Middle Earth, Jack Vance’s Dying Earth, Fritz Leiber’s Lankhmar stories among a number of other works. The Japanese took influence from these games which led to Dragon Quest and then Final Fantasy which are the two most well-known with the former preceding the latter. These two series arrived in the late 1980s  and a clear difference between Western and Japanese games then emerged though generally speaking they derived from the same source.

In this post I will hereafter use the initialisms “WRPG” and “JRPG” to distinguish them. The latter is well recognised but the former is not and Western Role-Playing Games are usually distinguished as “Western RPG” or “CRPG” (C for Computer). I am not attempting to set any new or consistent standard here — it is just easier for the purposes of this post. I am also aware that there are earlier titles and could go into more depth but the four series I’ve mentioned are definitely the titles that popularised the genre in both East and West. That so-and-so made this one game in 1977 on some university mainframe that three people played isn’t really relevant here. I should also state that a lot of this knowledge came later for me as I was too young to have played most of these games at the time. I’ve never played Dungeons & Dragons and have only more recently become familiar with some of the other influential fantasy works. I’ve not played any Ultima or Wizardry games as of writing and only played later titles in the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series.

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2017: The Best Console Launch Year Ever

Posted on December 11, 2022 by JC

In the history of video game consoles, very few launched with the best games or even games that would come to define the console within the first year of release. There are a number of notable exceptions to the latter though such as Super Mario World on Super Nintendo, Super Mario 64 on Nintendo 64, Sonic Adventure on the Sega Dreamcast and Halo on the original Xbox. These particular games certainly came to define their respective consoles but few would argue that the launch year was also the best year for game releases overall. 

In the case of the Nintendo Switch which is now nearing the sixth year since its release, this could well be argued as it had both an impressive launch library and a an amazing first year of releases. This will be a brief discussion of how and why this happened but it should be clear that I am not saying that there were no good games in the years that followed. I am simply pointing out that not one year following saw a similar combination of quality and quantity though I am sure there are plenty who would argue to the contrary.

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