This is a translated and abridged version of Journey to the West, one of the 4 great novels of China, originally published in the 16th century after centuries of being passed on verbally. It starts with the story of the Monkey King and his rise and then fall from grace through pride and how he then becomes a disciple of the holy monk who was chosen to go to India to fetch the writings of Buddha which results in his redemption. The monk has other disciples as well who are also on their own redemption arcs but Monkey does seem to be the focus (as he would have it).
My son wanted to read this as part of his world literature studies this year and I wasn't about to tell him no. I really enjoy reading literature from around the world now (not always the case but I'm continuing to branch out) and this was definitely a fun read with a lot of depth and lots going on in many different levels. Interestingly, as we read it, I realized that I had had a children's book detailing one of the stories when I was little and remembered it. I don't know what ever happened to that book but I'm glad that my parents had it for me.
The original Journey to the West is 100 chapters in total. This version is about half as long but everything I read said that the stories that were cut out were fun but weren't really necessary to the overall story arcs and this was a good translation and compromise. Of note, I looked everywhere I could think and asked many people to help me find an actual curriculum for it. I feel that this is a serious issue in that we don't study the great works of other cultures much and yet, shared stories and seeing the common threads that weave through stories of all cultures is how we can bring people together.
Page count: 324p/3,622p ytd/314,527p lifetime
No comments:
Post a Comment