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A review by mafiabadgers
The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
First read 07-08/2023, reread 07/2023
If Ursula Le Guin's interest in psychoanalysis had been a little less Jungian, and she'd co-written Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? with Philip Dick, and they were both incredibly LGBT, I wonder, might it have looked a little like The Membranes? A few aspects are certainly dated (the preponderance of laserdiscs, for one), but thematically it remains rich even after almost thirty years; the sense of isolation and the difficulties, both emotionally and ethically, of technologically-mediated interaction feel all the more acute in a post-COVID world. A few scenes raised ideas that were new for me and caught me by surprise, and the old ones were well worth revisiting. The membrane imagery recurs frequently—this is not a book that feels the need to explore its ideas lightly. Subtlety is for cowards anyway; if you've got it, flaunt it.
It takes a few chapters to really hit its stride, but after thirty or forty pages it's a heady infusion. The prose is stilted in a way I've noticed in other translated Taiwanese fiction, but I get the impression Heinrich is leaning into it here, making it more pronounced than in Last Letters from Montmartre. It doesn't get in the way. When I first read it, I was dazzled by Heinrich's essay at the end—more translations should be willing to give the translator room to offer additional insight. Upon revisiting, the vibrant image he painted of post-martial law Taiwan was far and away the best part, with the analysis rather underwhelming.
As best I can make out, aside from three short stories, this novella makes up the entirety of Chi's English-translated work. Ouch.
'A Stranger's ID', trans. Fran Martin
'A Faun's Afternoon', trans. Dave Haysom
'Umbilicus', trans. Susan Wilf
If Ursula Le Guin's interest in psychoanalysis had been a little less Jungian, and she'd co-written Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? with Philip Dick, and they were both incredibly LGBT, I wonder, might it have looked a little like The Membranes? A few aspects are certainly dated (the preponderance of laserdiscs, for one), but thematically it remains rich even after almost thirty years; the sense of isolation and the difficulties, both emotionally and ethically, of technologically-mediated interaction feel all the more acute in a post-COVID world. A few scenes raised ideas that were new for me and caught me by surprise, and the old ones were well worth revisiting. The membrane imagery recurs frequently—this is not a book that feels the need to explore its ideas lightly. Subtlety is for cowards anyway; if you've got it, flaunt it.
It takes a few chapters to really hit its stride, but after thirty or forty pages it's a heady infusion. The prose is stilted in a way I've noticed in other translated Taiwanese fiction, but I get the impression Heinrich is leaning into it here, making it more pronounced than in Last Letters from Montmartre. It doesn't get in the way. When I first read it, I was dazzled by Heinrich's essay at the end—more translations should be willing to give the translator room to offer additional insight. Upon revisiting, the vibrant image he painted of post-martial law Taiwan was far and away the best part, with the analysis rather underwhelming.
As best I can make out, aside from three short stories, this novella makes up the entirety of Chi's English-translated work. Ouch.
'A Stranger's ID', trans. Fran Martin
'A Faun's Afternoon', trans. Dave Haysom
'Umbilicus', trans. Susan Wilf