Reviews

Derangements of My Contemporaries: Miscellaneous Notes by Li Shangyin

persimmon_lover's review

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing fast-paced

4.5

I absolutely loved this book and think it's a great little read for anyone interested in Tang dynasty poetry, Chinese poetry in general, or experimental contemporary poetry. Basically, this consists of a bunch of "lists" under headers, with the lists exemplifying the things in the header. Like it will say "Mildly inappropriate", and then there is a list of things that are mildly appropriate, usually very vivid or specific images. A lot of them are really funny and poignant, critical of the world Li Shangyin was living in, and exciting and unexpected. The notes by the translator reveal that due to the nature of this as essentially random notes and drafts, it wasn't considered to be an example of actual poetry, but that she found poetic value in this work and wanted to give it new life in light of modern poetics, and I find that to be a pretty good viewpoint that holds up in light of the work itself. I've never read anything like it before and have been going back to read it again and again because some of the notes are so funny and enjoyable, and have an unexpectedly deep aesthetic value. A very special work I look forward to returning to as the years go by. Here is one example from the book:

Ten Prohibitions
Do not drink alcohol to intoxication
Do not scare people in hidden, dark places
Do not conspire to harm another
Do not enter a bereaved widow's home, alone
Do not open another's personal letters
Do not jokingly take another's things without their knowledge
Do not go out walking alone in dark, hidden places
Do not socialize with unreliable young men
Do not borrow a person's things for more than ten days without returning them