Post by caiyi on Jul 23, 2014 1:13:13 GMT
Copied from my dreamwidth blog, so, I can continue my comments here. Welcome to discuss.
'Red Snow, Black Frost' (絳雪玄霜) was written in 1963 by Wo Long Sheng (臥龍生). Although this is not one of the most popular books by WLS, it is, I believe, one of WLS's favourite. There was an instance where a publisher wanted to publish a compilation of wuxia novels by several wuxia authors. WLS was one of them. The publisher asked WLS which novel he wanted to be included in the compilation and WLS chose JXXS.
The title of the novel is made up of the name of 2 characters in the novel i.e.
Red Snow - Mei Jiang Xue
Black Frost - Chen Xuan Shuang
The chinese title is 'Jiang Xue Xuan Shuang'.
The main reason I read this novel is I want to compare it to the ATV series, 'The Snow Is Red' (雪花神劍). I hope the novel gives a better portrayal of Chen Xuan Shuang (陳玄霜). 'The Snow is Red' is so heavily bias towards Mei Jiang Xue (梅絳雪) that this character is made to be perfect (intelligent, good-hearted, self-sacrificing etc) while CXS just know how to whine and get jealous. Even the English title of the series was named after Mei Jiang Xue. Since the novel is called 'Jiang Xue Xuan Shuang', I hope the novel will have a better treatment of Chen Xuan Shuang.
I've read up to chapter 2 of JXXS. The story started out with Fang Zhao Nan (方兆南). No first and second generation like in the series. So far, 3 girls have been introduced. 2 are still nameless. I suspect they are Mei Jiang Xue and Chen Xuan Shuang. The 3rd is Zhou Hui Ying (周惠英), Fang Zhao Nan's sect sister. The story starts out with a murder case, so, it gets suspenseful right from the start.
So far, Fang Zhao Nan seems smarter in the novel than in the adaptation and more jianghu savvy. One thing I find interest when comparing this to 'Mythical Crane' (新仙鶴神針) is that the main guy in 'Mythical Crane', Ma Jun Wu (馬君武), never got any flak for his 'politeness' (inside he was fuming, but, outwardly, all polite and smiling and nice talk). But, when Fang Shao Nan tried to apply this politeness, he got chided by the eccentric elderly for being fake and a sweet talker. Same method, different treatment.
Wo Long Sheng (臥龍生) still has the same weakness he showed in 'Mythical Crane'. He didn't explain some of the happenings. In this novel, I wonder why FZN could guess ZHY is with the eccentric guy. There were no explanation of how he come up with this conclusion. But, overall, I still feel it's better constructed than 'Mythical Crane'.
'Red Snow, Black Frost' (絳雪玄霜) was written in 1963 by Wo Long Sheng (臥龍生). Although this is not one of the most popular books by WLS, it is, I believe, one of WLS's favourite. There was an instance where a publisher wanted to publish a compilation of wuxia novels by several wuxia authors. WLS was one of them. The publisher asked WLS which novel he wanted to be included in the compilation and WLS chose JXXS.
The title of the novel is made up of the name of 2 characters in the novel i.e.
Red Snow - Mei Jiang Xue
Black Frost - Chen Xuan Shuang
The chinese title is 'Jiang Xue Xuan Shuang'.
The main reason I read this novel is I want to compare it to the ATV series, 'The Snow Is Red' (雪花神劍). I hope the novel gives a better portrayal of Chen Xuan Shuang (陳玄霜). 'The Snow is Red' is so heavily bias towards Mei Jiang Xue (梅絳雪) that this character is made to be perfect (intelligent, good-hearted, self-sacrificing etc) while CXS just know how to whine and get jealous. Even the English title of the series was named after Mei Jiang Xue. Since the novel is called 'Jiang Xue Xuan Shuang', I hope the novel will have a better treatment of Chen Xuan Shuang.
I've read up to chapter 2 of JXXS. The story started out with Fang Zhao Nan (方兆南). No first and second generation like in the series. So far, 3 girls have been introduced. 2 are still nameless. I suspect they are Mei Jiang Xue and Chen Xuan Shuang. The 3rd is Zhou Hui Ying (周惠英), Fang Zhao Nan's sect sister. The story starts out with a murder case, so, it gets suspenseful right from the start.
So far, Fang Zhao Nan seems smarter in the novel than in the adaptation and more jianghu savvy. One thing I find interest when comparing this to 'Mythical Crane' (新仙鶴神針) is that the main guy in 'Mythical Crane', Ma Jun Wu (馬君武), never got any flak for his 'politeness' (inside he was fuming, but, outwardly, all polite and smiling and nice talk). But, when Fang Shao Nan tried to apply this politeness, he got chided by the eccentric elderly for being fake and a sweet talker. Same method, different treatment.
Wo Long Sheng (臥龍生) still has the same weakness he showed in 'Mythical Crane'. He didn't explain some of the happenings. In this novel, I wonder why FZN could guess ZHY is with the eccentric guy. There were no explanation of how he come up with this conclusion. But, overall, I still feel it's better constructed than 'Mythical Crane'.