summercomfort

Tingyan was surprised to see Mr. Li approach the front desk for the third time that night. He seemed even more tired, heavy bags under his eyes. "Miss, can I have some tea, please?"

"Um... most certainly." Tingyan nervously poured him a cup and he took a seat in the deserted restaurant area, cupping his hands around the cup, as if drawing from it the strength and energy to stay awake. Tingyan stood by, wondering why he hadn't disappeared yet. Maybe he had second thoughts and was here to ensure her silence? Tingyan pondered possible exits to the room. Maybe she could duck under the front desk and hide there?

"I... I'm sorry about earlier." Mr. Li did not look up from his tea cup, so it took Tingyan a moment to mentally confirm that it was him talking.

"Oh! Um..." Tingyan didn't expect Mr. Li to apologize, but she wasn't sure what to say. Was she supposed to forgive him for threatening her life? Would he be angry if she didn't?

Mr. Li seemed not to notice her lack of response. "I didn't want to be like the others. I grew up learning that fighting was the best way to defend what was 'right'. We were taught to be heroes." Mr. Li sounded bitter, a completely different person from earlier that night. Tingyan sat down opposite him: he was not here to kill, but rather to talk. "But then three years ago I realized it wasn't true, and so I stopped and tried very hard to do something else. Something else that would actually help normal people." He looked up at her and smiled weakly. "And yet, an hour ago... I suppose it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks."

"It's all right, Mr. Li." Mr. Li was no longer behaving like she expected martial people to behave. Maybe this martial world was more complicated than she thought. It's still strange to think that where she saw needless destruction and death, they saw themselves defending the righteous. But maybe it's equally hard to see it the other way around, and what seems obvious to her is unfathomable to Mr. Li. "You did help 'normal people'. After all, no one died or is even seriously wounded. Plus, you cleaned everything up! The hole in the wall isn't even that much bigger. I usually find much worse in the mornings."

Mr. Li looked a bit cheerier. "So this is what the Sages meant by 'peace and prosperity'? Fewer walls to mend and fewer people dead?"

Tingyan laughed. It *would* take a martial person to put it in such terms. "If only other martial folks cared more about the well-being of us normal folks like you did, Mr. Li. Then there'd be far less clean up and dead people for me to deal with."

Tingyan made a face at the thought of the dead bodies that she sometimes found in the Far Courtyard, but Mr. Li didn't seem to notice. Instead, he was murmuring to himself, "Care more about the well-being of the normal folks..." Then he looked straight at her, some decision made in his mind. He took two books from the folds of his robe. "Here."

Tingyan looked at the worn books. One had a blue cover that said "Daily Motion and Exercise". The other had a yellow cover that said "36 Fundamental Maneuvers." She frowned. Why was Mr. Li giving these to her? Her world was about making tea and fixing courtyards, not about fighting. Was there a way she could discretely return them? "Sir, I ... "

"The blue book will make you stronger so that repairing walls will seem easier. As for the yellow one... it might be of some use in case you find yourself in another threatening situation." Remembering the field of needles and Mr. Li with Go stones, Tingyan nodded. Mr. Li continued, "If you have no need for them, then burn them. I will have no need for them anymore." She tucked the books in her robes and thanked him.

Mr. Li smiled. "No, thank you, maid." Then, barely suppressed a yawn, he looked down at his empty teacup and commented, "I might be in need of some tea..."

Tingyan went into the kitchen to heat up more water for tea, but when she returned, Mr. Li was gone.

Boy, a lot to fix -- characterization, plot incongruences, etc etc. Add words, remove words. And of course, fix the tenses. Grar tenses. I'm glad I'm done with this, though. And! Unlike the last 3 times I started telling a martial arts story, this one didn't involve a cross-dressing girl eating noodles in a noodle shop. Nope! No cross-dressing! It did involve angsty boy, though. Silly angsty boy, life ain't that bad.

1 week down. Next: comics?? Some treatise comparing martial arts and superheros?

Well, today I slept all day, so tomorrow I'll have to actually do school work.

~Xia out.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I like the idea of someone who uses their fantastical martial arts for day-to-day stuff like fixing walls, raising new buildings, fast travel, animal husbandry, etc.

yrs--
--Ben

Indeed! I remember as a kid I saw a random movie where these kids learned martial arts by cooking for their grandpa. But yeah, this whole thing has been a clunky rant about the more stupid/insular parts of martial arts stories. When I read them, I always wonder, "what about the normal people?"

I recall there was some of that in "Kung-Fu Hustle", which is very enjoyable anyway.

Kung Fu Hustle also had many layers of in-jokes. But yeah, that stuff in the beginning was classic martial arts "hidden dragon, crouching tiger" stuff.

Solution to your tense problem: write in Chinese!

Haha. Then I'd have a whole host of other problems.... Plus there's enough bad martial arts stories already in Chinese!

BTW, Tingyan is 赵庭燕 and Li Tan is 李潭. For the curious.

And I'm having a hard time talking about 武林人士

Yeah, I noticed that.

A big chunk of this is that you're playing with tropes that are assumed in a Chinese reader, but most native English speakers (having only had the most distant contact with the genre) don't get it, so they also don't get how you're playing with them. That makes the explanations awkward.

武林人士 is a concept that, in Chinese, everyone knows. It's like, I dunno, Hero of Destiny in English. You could write a short story where there's a Hero of Destiny and you'd not have to explain yourself to an English audience -- they get it.

yrs--
--Ben

Yeah. Jono was having trouble.

Jono: "snicker snicker learning martial arts from a book..."
Me: "COSMIC RAYS!! RADIOACTIVE SPIDER!"
Jono: "What, that makes total sense."

Jono: "What do you mean, 'martial types'."
Me: "You know, the people who Fight and have Drama. I'm commenting about how their world view is completely detached and insular."
Jono: "So this is like an Astro City story"

... I'm guessing that Astro City wouldn't make much sense if you don't know what they're referencing. But I can't be like, "c.f. 笑傲江湖"

Anyway, final quote from last night:
Me: "Honey, what's that saying that's like 'you can't teach an old horse new tunes'....?"
Jono: ::stare:: "It's 'you can't teach an old dog new tricks.' That involves neither horses nor tunes."
Me: "Oh yeah, thanks. ...."
Jono: "Teaching tunes to old horses is a bum's game. ;P"
Me: "Fine, it's the fat lady who sings the tunes and you teach the horse to drink. Or fish. Or something. And old horses know the way home."

Indeed. In the US one can just say "this guy was bitten by a radioactive zebra" and it makes total sense.

THIS IS DUMB. But it's an assumption, and so you can play with it.

I think if you want to write 江湖 stories in English you have to just start from scratch. You have to show us this whole world as if it were new, because it is, for us.

I also don't think a speaker of Chinese should start the "your aphorisms don't make any sense" game.

Zebraman sounds like a sidekick to Axecop. :D

>> I think if you want to write 江湖 stories in English you have to just start from scratch. You have to show us this whole world as if it were new, because it is, for us.

Alas! You may be right. :(

I wasn't saying "your aphorism don't make sense," just that "doi... I'm hokey and mess up American stuff."

Day 7

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