MCLC: Link on Mo Yan (3)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: perry link <eplink at Princeton.EDU>
Subject: Link on Mo Yan (3)
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Dear Costas and MCLC readers:

On point one: It was common in the 1980s for Chinese writers, emerging
from Mao and "walking toward the world," to say they were inspired by
this or that foreign writer even though they barely knew of them and
certainly had not read enough to be influenced.  This is how I
understand Mo Yan's "inspiration" from Marquez, and Mo Yan actually
makes the point for me in his Nobel speech where he says "I had not read
[Faulkner or Marquez] extensively."  When I wrote my essay I already
knew that Mo Yan claimed an influence from Marquez, and probably should
have written "has not read much of."  But I stand by my judgment that
"these are similarities, not influences." I think the roots of Mo Yan's
"hallucinatory realism" (as the Nobel committee called it) are probably
in the lively exaggerations and imaginings of Shandong storytelling
tradition.  His blood and fighting reminds me of Shuihuzhuan; his Nobel
speech also mentions Liaozhai.  To me these are much more credible roots
of his imagination than Marquez.

On point two: I don't mean to be unfriendly, Costas, but you go at
length without knowing enough. Liu Xiaobo has a lot of concern, and a
lot to say, about people at the bottom.  You need to read more than
Charter 08.  In Liu's book "No Enemies, No Hatred," published last year
by Harvard, there are essays about farmers, child-slaves, petitioners,
common netizens, prostitutes, and people the regime calls "riffraff."
And that book is only a sampling.  Read more.

Best,  Perry