Jade Maiden 8.5

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[continuing chapter 8]

"Wen Gang is the name," Wen said.  "About fifty, slight of build, had a weird way of sort of looming toward you, because his eyes were a bit weak.  He read a lot, you see."

"I don't see," said the demon, "and I don't care.  I don't have time to help you.  Anyway, physical descriptions are irrelevant when you're dealing with tens of millions of souls.  Do you have any idea how many people have gone to hell since time began?  That was a rhetorical question, by the way," it added.  "Please don't feel obligated to respond."

"Believe me," said Fengzi, "we don't want to try."

Jade Maiden 8.4

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[continuing chapter 8]

"I'm still not at all sure I understand how it is we're able to do this," Wen said as they walked.  "We're not dead, but my father is—and somehow we're going to be able to rescue him?"  The landscape through which they walked was one of breathtaking beauty; Fengzi had explained to him that since the hells were created for the black-haired people—the Chinese, in other words—it was only natural that the gateway to the hells would resemble the landscape most Chinese knew.  If I get out of this alive, Wen thought, and if the Ming truly are gone, then perhaps it might be possible, some day, for me to travel to China and see this for myself.

In the distance was a bridge whose far end Wen could not see; adjacent to the near end was a massive gateway, through which smoke issued.  That, he guessed, was where hell began.

Jade Maiden 8.3

Previous    First

[continuing chapter 8]

"Unless this was an especially elaborate suicide pact, and you kept all of the details from me, I must not be dead."

Wen looked around him.  If this isn't death, he thought, it's a pretty strange part of Fusang.  Still, Yin Fengzi was beside him, and that would be hard to credit if he truly was dead.  "You did this to me, I assume."

"Of course I did, you idiot."  She looked at him, and the tears were gems in the corners of her eyes.  "You are such a... such an idiot, Wen Xia!  To run off like that, leaving us all behind, and then to get yourself captured that way and leave me behind —"

"I know I'm an idiot," he said.  "I've been telling myself little more than that ever since I saw Chin wearing that damned ridiculous silver armor.  Which was, incidentally, at least four sizes too small for him.  He needs to change tailors."

Jade Maiden 8.2

Previous    First

[continuing chapter 8]

"Though I suppose I should be flattered to be getting more than the usual hanging or whipping to death."  Wen thought a moment; no, that wasn't really flattering either.  "But Chin, you still haven't told me why you, of all people, have become an errand-boy for the magistrate who tried to kill you.  And more than once, at that."

"No, just the once," Chin said.  "The second time I was captured—after you turned me over to a demon and stole my ship and left me to the navy—I actually had a chance to talk with Governor Li.  Well, Magistrate Li, he still was then.  And he made me see that I was taking the hard way to my goal."

"Whereas his way is the easy way."

Jade Maiden 8.1

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EIGHT

Governor Li's predecessor had built a fortress and prison on an island in the middle of Jīn-sè Mèn Bay.  Or, rather, he'd started to build one and Li was apparently continuing the work.  There weren't any soldiers garrisoned there, so far as Wen could tell; the soldiers were all on the mainland, and likely the happier for it.  In fact, at the moment there weren't any workmen either; there didn't seem to be anybody on the entire island save for Wen and several very bored jailers and guards.  In a way that ought to have been flattering.

It wasn't.

Jade Maiden 7.8

Previous    First

[concluding chapter 7]

The fight was embarrassingly short.  None of Wen's new gang proved to have even the rudimentary swordsmanship Wen had possessed when Chin had first enrolled him in the Green Turbans; worse, they all knew how inept they were, and so didn't even try to defend themselves.  The only action they took was to turn tail and run back up the tunnel, leaving Wen alone in the supposed treasure-chamber with Chin and a squad of surprisingly well-armored men.  Wen tucked his light into a crack in the wall, then shifted so that the stairs were to his right and one wall of the cave was to his back, but he had no hope of winning this fight and he knew it.  Just let Lum get away, Guanyin, he prayed to the goddess of mercy, and I'll be satisfied.

Jade Maiden 7.7

Previous    First

[continuing chapter 7]

It wasn't really cold.  His brain assured Wen of that.  But the rest of him wasn't convinced.  Somehow the damp air of early morning got inside you, penetrated to the core of your bones.  The fog wasn't helping, either.  Jīn-sè Mèn may have called itself the Gate of Gold, but no gold ever chilled this badly.

"I'm pretty sure this is the right hill," he said to Lum as they climbed the road, still muddy with last night's rain.  "But I won't know for sure until I see the mansion.  In this fog I can't even be sure we're still in Fusang."

Jade Maiden 7.6

Previous    First

[continuing chapter 7]

"It was the Dragon Emerald Eye," Lum said, sipping the tea Wen had given him.  "I thought you were dead, or that I'd somehow failed to recite the spell properly.  It's a relief to know that you'd been hiding yourself.  As soon as you put the Eye back on, though, I saw in a dream where you were, and my dreams have been leading me to you ever since."

"You're no magician."

"No, but the Lady Fengzi is more than a scholar."  Lum grinned.  "She's the one who came up with the spell."

"I'm never going to be allowed to forget that, am I?" Wen asked.  "But at least it means she's thinking about me."

Some Familiar Faces

A tip o' the crash helmet to friend Do-Ming, who pointed me to the following image:

Two of these gents are characters in Dixie's Land or its related short
fiction. The third guy pre-dates all of the stories (but not the timeline)
Image by James Berridge, used without permission; I hope he doesn't mind

The artist in question, James Berridge, has restored and coloured a single portrait shot of every US president who served after the invention of the photographic process but before the development of colour photography. (That's all but the first five and the most recent fourteen, by my estimate.)

There are certainly legitimate objections that could be made to the process of updating old photos in this fashion, but when it's done well it seems to me it can be done while paying real attention to telling details (one that stands out is Coolidge's red hair and freckles, something I not known about before reading Berridge's post on PetaPixel). And in turn this can make it much easier for at least some of us to relate to these gentlemen as individuals and humans with something in common with all of us.

I thought I'd mention it here because of the connection with Dixie's Land. And, really, because since first seeing Jackson's They Shall Not Grow Old, I have been a little bit fascinated with the whole process of restoration/colourization.

Jade Maiden 7.5

Previous    First

[continuing chapter 7]

It took two full days for Wen to harangue the new men into some sort of order, and to obtain sufficient intelligence about Chin's mansion to make a burglary feasible.  The only way to make the robbery lucrative enough, he decided, was to assign a number of men to be nothing more than pack animals.  He had no idea of what the Meiyou treasure was going to be, other than the assumption that there were more silver scales from a set of ceremonial armor, so he had to plan for the possibility that some of what he'd find would be heavy or awkward or both.

What he didn't bother to tell the gang was that he proposed to keep the most valuable items for himself.  These weren't the men of the Jade Maiden, with whom he had a bond of sorts; they were the kind of men who would volunteer to rob someone if you asked them in a bar.  Oh, and if you were notorious.

Jade Maiden 7.4

Previous    First

[continuing chapter 7]

Chin's new mansion really was the most gods-awful thing in creation. It wasn't so much the design—the house was built to the same plan as most of the houses in Jīn-sè Mèn—as it was the sheer size and gaudy coloring of it.  I'm no scholar, thought Wen as he examined the house from farther down the hill, but I certainly know what I don't like, and this is it.

Wen spent the day after his arrival in Jīn-sè Mèn watching Chin's house from various locations nearby.  Of Chin himself there was no sign, but that wasn't much of a surprise.  Even in a place as wild and near-lawless as Jīn-sè Mèn there were imperial soldiers and a city watch, and Chin was still a rebel with a price on his head.  And sooner or later someone in authority was going to figure out that you dealt with Chin not by bringing him before a magistrate but by chopping off his head the instant you caught him not paying attention.

Jade Maiden 7.3

Previous    First

[continuing chapter 7]

Jīn-sè Mèn was a frontier town, and it had a frontier town's sense of impermanence to it.  The buildings, even the bridges over the rivers and creeks, all seemed to be made of sticks and paper.  A good storm, Wen thought, will blow this place apart.  And probably does.

He stumbled as he stepped onto the bridge spanning a narrow canal.  It wasn't just the fog, though gods knew that was thick enough; the real problem was that he was still having trouble adjusting to being one-eyed.  It was a shame the Dragon Emerald Eye was so distinctive, because there was no way to wear it and not immediately be identified as Wen Xia, pirate of the Great Eastern Sea.  It was, he had discovered on his journey north, possible to be too good at developing a fearsome reputation.

Jade Maiden 7.2

Previous    First

[continuing chapter 7]

"I'm sorry, Wen.  I'd like to be able to help you, but she told me in no uncertain terms that she doesn't want to see you."  Scholar Wu looked nearly as drawn and tired as he had while plagued with grandfathers.

"She didn't really mean it."

"She told me she'd turn me into a mouse if I let you anywhere near the garden," Wu said.  "I don't know for certain that she can actually do this, but I'm not prepared to risk finding out.  Are you?"

Jade Maiden 7.1

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SEVEN

"Hells."  Wen bumped into a table, cursed again and damned Pocapetl for keeping his wine-shop so dim.  "Hells!  All of them!"

"Look on the bright side," One-Eyed Lum said.  "At least you know where he is."  He paused.  "You do know that, don't you?"

Jade Maiden 6.10

Previous    First

[concluding chapter 6]

"What made you think of it?"  Wu hadn't stopped smiling since Pocapetl had moved the jars into the very back of the storage room.

"Sheer desperation, I'm ashamed to say.  I only thought of it because I'd been forced to abandon the things I normally depend on.  It's funny, Wu: I was angry that my grandfathers simply expected to run my life because that was the traditional thing to do."  He picked up his cup.  "And then I resorted to the same sort of traditional thinking in trying to deal with my problem.  Even though I always prided myself on not being like everyone else."

He poured for Wu.  "Your hell-spell is what always gets used when ancestors become unruly, Wu—is that not correct?"

Jade Maiden 6.9

Previous    First

[continuing chapter 6]

"This," said Wen, raising his cup to Wu and Pocapetl, "is my equivalent of Wu's poem.  It drives my grandfathers away, but only for a brief period."

"Don't forget to mention the dry mouth and pounding headache the next day," said Pocapetl.  "Does Wu's poem do that as well?"

"Sarcasm is a civilized rhetorical device," Wen said.  "You barbarians aren't supposed to be acquainted with it.  So your question is simply in bad taste."

"Then I'll ask another.  Why didn't Scholar Wu's poem work?"

"Oh, it works," Wen said.

Jade Maiden 6.8

Previous    First

[continuing chapter 6]

"You must really despise them," Wu said.  "Have they been that ill-behaved toward you?"

"Everyone asks me that," Wen said.  "Invariably the people who ask are people who do not, in fact, have their ancestors interrupting their business, their swimming, their drinking, their eating and even their—well, their courtship—with demands to burn incense and toss bits of pork at a bloody altar!"

"No need to be testy," Wu said.  "I was just curious."

"Perhaps you don't understand the problem," Wen said.  "But in my, ah, line of work it can be extremely dangerous to suddenly find oneself accountable to dozens of cranky old men, all of whom will invariably choose a vitally important moment to complain about the fact that you haven't stuck a hot poker into some poor turtle lately."

Jade Maiden 6.7

Previous    First

[continuing chapter 6]

"Good afternoon, Wen," said Wu.  The scholar had learned his lesson, apparently: as he greeted Wen he handed a glass of chilled fruit juice that also tasted a little of mescal.  Interesting idea, thought Wen as he sipped the drink.  "What brings you here today?  I trust lady Yin Fengzi is well?"

"She is well," Wen said.  "But I am plagued by grandfathers.  Too many of them.  Pocapetl told me that besides doing up letters and documents for people, you have other skills that can help me.  Such as, you know of, or can create, spells that will help me—ah, persuade my ancestors to leave me alone."

Jade Maiden 6.6

Previous    First

[continuing chapter 6]

"And eventually they did shut up.  And they disappeared, too."  Wen rubbed his temples.  "Of course, everything else disappeared as well."

"You cannot spend the rest of your life blind drunk," said Fengzi, looking down on him.  "Alright, you could.  But it would be a very brief rest of your life."  She shaded her forehead so she could look him in the (bloodshot, he assumed) eye.  "Why don't you just perform the rituals?  It's not really so much to ask."

Jade Maiden 6.5

Previous    First

[continuing chapter 6]

Pocapetl called his place an inn, but in Wen's experience the only people who ever slept there were those who were too drunk to make their way to better accommodations, such as the street outside.  Pocapetl's place was a drink-shop and that's all it was.  That was enough for Wen today, though.

"A jar," he told Pocapetl as he groped his way to a table in an especially gloomy corner of the shop.  "A big jar."

"I can see why," said Pocapetl.  "Those are a lot of spirit mouths to fill."

"Wait—you can see them?"

Yeh, the Book was Better, Then

Read a review (in The Economist, if I recall correctly) of Roddy Doyle's latest novel, Love, and was immediately reminded of The Commitments, a movie I'd reviewed enthusiastically back in the day (and was enthusiastic enough about, in fact, that I bought the soundtrack album almost immediately*). But I hadn't seen the movie in decades... and I'd never read the source novel at all.

Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Memphis
Image from Wikimedia Commons

Well, even during a pandemic quasi-lockdown this was an oversight the Toronto Public Library could easily remedy. So I put holds on both novel and DVD and, since fortune brought them to me on the same day, I first read the novel and then re-watched the movie.

Sort of glad I did them in that order, too. It had been long enough that I had mostly forgotten the details of the movie (save for how impressed I'd been with the performance of musician Robert Arkins in the role of band manager Jimmy Rabbitte); this meant I could read the one and revisit the other without much in the way of pre-judging. And I'd have a better grounding in the story by which to judge how well (or not) it had been adapted to film, keeping in mind that Doyle was one of the screenwriters for the latter.

Jade Maiden 6.4

Previous    First

[continuing chapter 6]

The day was hot and there was little wind.  Floating on his back, Wen felt the sun crisping his belly as if it was so much pork skin. Turning over, he caught a glimpse of the Jade Maiden; the ship lay on her side, supported by the sandbar that had formed the pool in which he floated.  A couple of the Maiden's crew worked on her hull, and some were in the pool, but most dozed in the shade of the coconut trees that fringed the beach.  The sail had been patched, and even stitched together this way the English design was still far more efficient than the bamboo or quilted-matting sails every other ship in Fusang appeared to use.  Rest is good, he told himself. I'll figure out how to steal the Meiyou treasure from Chin Gwai after we've restored our spirits.

Someone smacked him on the back of the head and he inhaled warm, salty water.  Sputtering, he tried to shift so that he was upright in the water, but hands pressed down on his head and shoulders, and his angry shout emerged as impotent bubbles.

Jade Maiden 6.3

Previous    First

[continuing chapter 6]

"The crew aren't too happy."  Yin Fengzi didn't look at him; instead she gazed ahead, to the coast and the waves crashing onto rocks just a couple of li ahead.  "I'm not too happy either," she added.

"Don't worry," Wen said.  "It was just bad luck that Chin turned up when he did.  If we hadn't been so distracted by him, we'd have noticed whatever magic they were using on the Meiyou in time.  But look on the bright side, Fengzi: the tear in the sail is clean and will be easy to fix, and if Chin got to the treasure first, well, Chin's ship is a lot smaller than the Meiyou.  When we catch up to him, we won't have any trouble beating him.  Well, not so much trouble, anyway."

"I think you're missing the point," Fengzi said.  "It's not missing out on the treasure that they're upset about."