JTTW Chapter 24 Thoughts
Chapter 24 for the @journeythroughjourneytothewest Reading Group!
Ah, the beginning of the Arc the movie Monkey King Reborn is based on! It will be very delightful to spot the similarities for myself!
But first we have to finish the previous trial. I really don’t like how the emphasise is kind of put on women as being tempters. Especially when the exemplary lady is explicitly stated to be sixteen, that is a child!
Still not a fan how they put so much ridicule on Zhu Bajie as well when they equally pressured him into the whole situation.
Hm Sun Wukong schooling his Shifu. We love the communal grandpa dispersing his knowledge.
And here are the two sillies! I’ll take it in immortal years they’re closer to being old tweens or young teens. That’s the feeling I get from them at least.
Ah, teaching the kids that uhm, actually just make friends with people if they’re nice, religion should not be of any importance there. There are some really good lessons to be taken away from this novel.
One could say they are… Home Alone.
I wonder if the sight of the Daoist Abbey makes Sun Wukong melancholic with thoughts of his first Shifu.
Clear Breeze, I most certainly prefer the J. F. Jenner and movie’s translation and technically also the German translation of Pure Wind, and Bright Moon are notably nicer in the novel than the adaptation. They only get rude when they actually have been wronged. Just looking at their movie counterparts, these aren’t the same kids.
Plants you say? Now don’t mind if I look them up! Spoilers this turned out a bit of a difficult ordeal so take all of this with a grain of salt.
For accuracy, spinach yes and celery yes.
Mare’s tail… maybe? My search came up with Beta vulgaris aka Chard/Swiss Chard instead, though both plants fall under the term vulgaris in their scientific name and are plausible options as they are both native to Western Asia. Since it is a vegetable garden for people however I might be inclined to personally go with Chard, in part also because I have eaten that vegetable before and it is not only quite tasty but also nutritional.
Funfact in German Chard is called Mangold, definitely sounds like a plant an immortal would eat. But again that’s just personal bias, in reality it could still be either.
Back to the list, I have no clue where beet comes from in this line, but ginger yes.
Seaweed no. It seems to actually be moss of some kind and I looked up as to possibly why it’s in this garden. Indeed certain types of moss are used for medicinal or culinary purposes in some cultures. But don’t go out and just eat moss you find in your garden! A lot of mosses are toxic and no good for eating, so be careful!
Bamboo shoot yes and melon yes. Squash, more like gourd, but technically yes. Watercress no, my research came up with wild rice instead, but watercress is still native to Asia as well.
Now for this next line I would like to remark that there is some potential difference in the Chinese Original. Chive technically yes the Google Translate said just onion though, garlic yes, coriander yes, leek and scallion technically yes though if the characters for those two are put together the translator says they translate to chives instead.
The second paragraph I will not touch as that one is more complex.
The local Tudi really tends to be the living loremaster, in a way that makes a lot of sense in world too, something I can always appreciate.
Heh, Sun Wukong doing a little trickshot with the mallet. Not that it worked, but he tried.
Sha Wujing being the good little brother getting roped into shenanigans by his older brothers. The feeling of found family is strong with this one.
At the end I would like to shill the movie a bit as I really like that one and it does make for quite a good companion piece for this Arc. It also has one of the best Sha Wujing designs in my opinion.
