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513 reviews for:
The Monkey and the Monk: An Abridgment of The Journey to the West
Wu Ch'eng-En, Anthony C. Yu
3.91 AVERAGE
513 reviews for:
The Monkey and the Monk: An Abridgment of The Journey to the West
Wu Ch'eng-En, Anthony C. Yu
3.91 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3,5
Uno dei quattro classici della letteratura cinese che avrei voluto leggere da molto tempo. Mi sono decisa soltanto ora perché sto portando avanti una sfida personale leggendo alcuni libri consigliati in [b:Curarsi con i libri: Rimedi letterari per ogni malanno|18758859|Curarsi con i libri Rimedi letterari per ogni malanno|Ella Berthoud|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1383840900s/18758859.jpg|24757268].
Lo scimmiotto è consigliato alle persone che sono restìe ai cambiamenti e preferiscono condurre una vita serena, tranquilla e sicura.
Non è che io abbia paura dei cambiamenti, però devono avvenire gradualmente, ho bisogno di tempo per prepararmici. I cambiamenti improvvisi, invece, m'innervosiscono e raramente mi lascio trascinare in cose fuori programma e non organizzate. In Curarsi con i libri le autrici si riferiscono anche ai cambiamenti interiori, ma di questi è impossibile aver paura visto che spesso siamo noi gli artefici di questi mutamenti e quindi sono cercati e voluti.
Leggendo Lo scimmiotto non è cambiamento assolutamente niente nella mia vita, ma ho comunque letto un gran bel libro che comunque avrei voluto leggere. Mi sono divertita leggendo la vita del re scimmia Sun Wukong: dalla sua nascita al caos che ha provocato in Cielo, dal suo imprigionamento durato cinquecento anni sotto la Montagna dei Cinque Elementi fino al raggiungimento dell'illuminazione. L'altro personaggio che seguiamo sin dalla nascita è Tripitaka, un monaco buddhista, che è incaricato di andare in India a recuperare le Sacre Scritture per portarle in Cina e così insegnare la retta via.
Tripitaka affronterà il suo viaggio con l'aiuto di tre discepoli, tutti bizzarri e singolari, e insieme affronteranno rocambolesche avventure dovendo superare montagne invalicabili, fiumi impetuosi e combattere contro draghi e mostri.
Il loro viaggio simboleggia anche la via della consapevolezza: da una vita materiale e dedita ai piaceri a un percorso, non sempre facile, che conduce alla realizzazione. In questo senso la storia dello scimmiotto insegna che è possibile affrontare e superare le difficoltà e ciò conduce spesso a un cambiamento positivo del quale non c'è bisogno d'avere paura.
Uno dei quattro classici della letteratura cinese che avrei voluto leggere da molto tempo. Mi sono decisa soltanto ora perché sto portando avanti una sfida personale leggendo alcuni libri consigliati in [b:Curarsi con i libri: Rimedi letterari per ogni malanno|18758859|Curarsi con i libri Rimedi letterari per ogni malanno|Ella Berthoud|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1383840900s/18758859.jpg|24757268].
Lo scimmiotto è consigliato alle persone che sono restìe ai cambiamenti e preferiscono condurre una vita serena, tranquilla e sicura.
Non è che io abbia paura dei cambiamenti, però devono avvenire gradualmente, ho bisogno di tempo per prepararmici. I cambiamenti improvvisi, invece, m'innervosiscono e raramente mi lascio trascinare in cose fuori programma e non organizzate. In Curarsi con i libri le autrici si riferiscono anche ai cambiamenti interiori, ma di questi è impossibile aver paura visto che spesso siamo noi gli artefici di questi mutamenti e quindi sono cercati e voluti.
Leggendo Lo scimmiotto non è cambiamento assolutamente niente nella mia vita, ma ho comunque letto un gran bel libro che comunque avrei voluto leggere. Mi sono divertita leggendo la vita del re scimmia Sun Wukong: dalla sua nascita al caos che ha provocato in Cielo, dal suo imprigionamento durato cinquecento anni sotto la Montagna dei Cinque Elementi fino al raggiungimento dell'illuminazione. L'altro personaggio che seguiamo sin dalla nascita è Tripitaka, un monaco buddhista, che è incaricato di andare in India a recuperare le Sacre Scritture per portarle in Cina e così insegnare la retta via.
Tripitaka affronterà il suo viaggio con l'aiuto di tre discepoli, tutti bizzarri e singolari, e insieme affronteranno rocambolesche avventure dovendo superare montagne invalicabili, fiumi impetuosi e combattere contro draghi e mostri.
Il loro viaggio simboleggia anche la via della consapevolezza: da una vita materiale e dedita ai piaceri a un percorso, non sempre facile, che conduce alla realizzazione. In questo senso la storia dello scimmiotto insegna che è possibile affrontare e superare le difficoltà e ciò conduce spesso a un cambiamento positivo del quale non c'è bisogno d'avere paura.
Absolute banger.
So fun.
Monkey King is a great character! He’s mischievous and hilarious. He just wants to hang with his homies at flower fruit mountain and be immortal.
Highly recommend this classic!
So fun.
Monkey King is a great character! He’s mischievous and hilarious. He just wants to hang with his homies at flower fruit mountain and be immortal.
Highly recommend this classic!
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Fantastic translation of an epic satirical legend. Very readable, with great pacing, unique characters, and an epic quest for enlightenment and redemption.
An ancient classic worth a read.
An ancient classic worth a read.
Recommended. I loved reading thru this book. Loved the translation by Julia Lovell. If you liked say the Blue Fairy Book or Grimm Fairy tales, this will be right up your alley. Thousands of years of Chinese Readers are not wrong: Monkey is the best!
Planning on lending this to several friends before re-reading it again :)
Planning on lending this to several friends before re-reading it again :)
Een oud Chinees epos over een boeddhistische pelgrimstocht, maar vooral ook een voor lezende grappige schelmenroman.
Approachable translation for what wound up being a really fun story. If you're looking for a straight up fantasy novel, this isn't the book for you, but it works well as an old school mythic adventure story. And it also inspires a lot of art from people of Chinese descent, so there's an added bonus in contextualizing some of that.
An endlessly amusing book that is basically a collection of stories about who the Monkey is and what happened to him and his companions when escorting a blessed but cowardly Buddhist monk across China to India. It took me a while to click with it, but when I did, oh boy how I did. For that reason, my favourite part is easily after the journey starts proper.
The translation has a sly linguistic sense of humour to it and I was often profoundly amused by moments of incongruent descriptions and reactions. I like dry and subtle humour and it’s often that the greatest laugh comes from some little thing that doesn't quite fit one's expectations, like Monkey telling the monk upon meeting bandits that these nice men have come to give them all their money and weapons, flabbergasting the poor simple monk.
I found the book to be the most amusing when Monkey had some constraints on his abilities, and I suspect that is part of the reason why it took me some time to click with it because for the first part Monkey seems pretty much unbeatable and god-like (he doesn’t call himself equal to heaven for no reason) and hence there was little tension to any of his conflicts. I think rereading the book would allow it to be more pleasurable from the start as now I understand the rules that govern Monkey and his world better and don't see him as the infallible conqueror anymore.
The novel's relationship with women is somewhat iffy. Now, that is expected of many books, especially those that count their age in centuries, and Monkey King definitely isn’t a book I would call sexist. Some of the funniest moments in the book can be considered sly criticisms of patriarchy and gender inequality, with our heroes forced to suffer such usually more female maladies as sexual objectification, bride-snatching, forced marriage and pregnancy (the approaching childbirth especially they find more painful than anything any demon has done to them throughout the book). And our pilgrims are watched over by one of the most impressive characters in the book, a goddess whose powers eclipse that of Monkey himself.
At the same time abuse of women is more easily tolerated than the abuse of men. The male fiends that block their way are rarely killed, instead often revealed to have absconded their lowly positions in heaven to enjoy some power on earth as a demon, and they’re easily welcomed back to the flock to make good on their sins, while female fiends are often mercilessly dispatched. The female demon who forced one of the gang to marry her is brutally killed while the novel doesn’t bat an eye when upon meeting one of the main characters it’s revealed he has kept a woman imprisoned for a year as his forced wife.
But even there you can see an obvious hypocrisy dominating the society presented in Monkey King that the novel is very much aware of - the people bow down to gods and pray to them for help, but the gods care very little about them indeed, raining down horrific punishments for slightest misdeeds (with worst sing being a lack of respect towards the gods) and treating the cruelty their servants create with light amusement. Even Buddha himself reveals himself to be, once reached, a rather dislikeable character, wise but arrogant, surprisingly materialistic and a bit of a dick really. To the novel’s Chinese audience it probably isn’t very nice to hear Buddha viciously mocking them.
So it’s a breath of fresh air to see the anarchic Monkey enter this world of self-important, careless, selfish creatures and turn it on its head. In a way, the ending is almost dystopian where Monkey has finally been brought to heel by the gods and taught how to be a good bureaucrat. Monkey’s saving grace though is his enduring trickster personality and the kindness he shows to the abused, especially towards the end of his journey of enlightenment.
Putting a grade on such a book feels like a fool’s errand - whatever anybody personally thinks of it, there is no denying its historical and cultural importance. And for a while I thought my grade would be more out of respect for that history than my personal feelings, even considering around page 60 if I’m actually enjoying it or reading it only due to my interest in the Chinese Master novels. But when I turned the last page and said good-bye to this gang of dumbasses, I felt a profound sadness leaving them. I felt I could have gone on for many more adventures with them, and while I know the actual book is much longer, I think part of that magic was also the sublime translation (or reworking) by Julia Lovell. I’m not sure I’d enjoy another translation quite as much. But as it is, I find it easy to add this version of the book amongst my favourites, for its humour, its satire, its fantastic imagination, and the great adventure. I can imagine taking this journey again one day; perhaps in exactly fourteen years.
The translation has a sly linguistic sense of humour to it and I was often profoundly amused by moments of incongruent descriptions and reactions. I like dry and subtle humour and it’s often that the greatest laugh comes from some little thing that doesn't quite fit one's expectations, like Monkey telling the monk upon meeting bandits that these nice men have come to give them all their money and weapons, flabbergasting the poor simple monk.
I found the book to be the most amusing when Monkey had some constraints on his abilities, and I suspect that is part of the reason why it took me some time to click with it because for the first part Monkey seems pretty much unbeatable and god-like (he doesn’t call himself equal to heaven for no reason) and hence there was little tension to any of his conflicts. I think rereading the book would allow it to be more pleasurable from the start as now I understand the rules that govern Monkey and his world better and don't see him as the infallible conqueror anymore.
The novel's relationship with women is somewhat iffy. Now, that is expected of many books, especially those that count their age in centuries, and Monkey King definitely isn’t a book I would call sexist. Some of the funniest moments in the book can be considered sly criticisms of patriarchy and gender inequality, with our heroes forced to suffer such usually more female maladies as sexual objectification, bride-snatching, forced marriage and pregnancy (the approaching childbirth especially they find more painful than anything any demon has done to them throughout the book). And our pilgrims are watched over by one of the most impressive characters in the book, a goddess whose powers eclipse that of Monkey himself.
At the same time abuse of women is more easily tolerated than the abuse of men. The male fiends that block their way are rarely killed, instead often revealed to have absconded their lowly positions in heaven to enjoy some power on earth as a demon, and they’re easily welcomed back to the flock to make good on their sins, while female fiends are often mercilessly dispatched. The female demon who forced one of the gang to marry her is brutally killed while the novel doesn’t bat an eye when upon meeting one of the main characters it’s revealed he has kept a woman imprisoned for a year as his forced wife.
But even there you can see an obvious hypocrisy dominating the society presented in Monkey King that the novel is very much aware of - the people bow down to gods and pray to them for help, but the gods care very little about them indeed, raining down horrific punishments for slightest misdeeds (with worst sing being a lack of respect towards the gods) and treating the cruelty their servants create with light amusement. Even Buddha himself reveals himself to be, once reached, a rather dislikeable character, wise but arrogant, surprisingly materialistic and a bit of a dick really. To the novel’s Chinese audience it probably isn’t very nice to hear Buddha viciously mocking them.
So it’s a breath of fresh air to see the anarchic Monkey enter this world of self-important, careless, selfish creatures and turn it on its head. In a way, the ending is almost dystopian where Monkey has finally been brought to heel by the gods and taught how to be a good bureaucrat. Monkey’s saving grace though is his enduring trickster personality and the kindness he shows to the abused, especially towards the end of his journey of enlightenment.
Putting a grade on such a book feels like a fool’s errand - whatever anybody personally thinks of it, there is no denying its historical and cultural importance. And for a while I thought my grade would be more out of respect for that history than my personal feelings, even considering around page 60 if I’m actually enjoying it or reading it only due to my interest in the Chinese Master novels. But when I turned the last page and said good-bye to this gang of dumbasses, I felt a profound sadness leaving them. I felt I could have gone on for many more adventures with them, and while I know the actual book is much longer, I think part of that magic was also the sublime translation (or reworking) by Julia Lovell. I’m not sure I’d enjoy another translation quite as much. But as it is, I find it easy to add this version of the book amongst my favourites, for its humour, its satire, its fantastic imagination, and the great adventure. I can imagine taking this journey again one day; perhaps in exactly fourteen years.