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sophia_sol) wrote2023-08-09 12:40 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2023-08-09 12:40 pm
The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (aka Mo Dao Zu Shi), by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
When I watched The Untamed (hereafter CQL) in 2021, my immediate thought upon finishing was that I HAD to read the book (hereafter MDZS) that it was based on. Now, more than two years later, I have finally done that.
And it's so good you guys!
And also, really very different from CQL.
I knew that already, because on top of the way that inevitably at least some things get changed in any adaptation process, I understand that the complex system of chinese censorship has standards for a wide variety of different things not being allowed to be shown on tv. And several of those things are integral to the version of the story in MDZS.
Being now familiar with the versions of the story told in both tv and book, I think the difference that's the biggest is the moral universe being presented by the themes of each story. CQL is the story of a person who always tries his best to do what's right, and is treated poorly by society because of it, but eventually is able to triumph. MDZS is the story of a person who makes some huge mistakes and then has to (gets to?) learn how to live with them.
Both are wonderful stories worth telling! And they have a lot in common. But they are not, in the end, the same story. Going forward I will definitely be paying more attention to which version is being tagged as the fandom when I open fic!
I do feel like I'm not quite up to writing a coherent review of the book right now though. I read the first two-thirds or so back in April, and then accidentally took a multi-month break from reading it, and then read through the remainder over the course of the last few weeks. So the beginning portions of the book are fuzzy in my head and easy to confuse with everything else I have read about CQL/MDZS and the fanfic of both, and it's hard to hold the shape of the entire narrative in my head.
But I do have a few more notes! Most of which are varyingly spoilery for either or both of CQL & MDZS
One is how the Jin Guangyao storyline in MDZS more closely adheres to the theme of "making choices, experiencing consequences" imo. In CQL, JGY is kicked out from the Nie sect because of killing the supervisor who treated him poorly, but in the book he leaves the Nie on good terms, and the incidents which make Nie Mingjue distrust and dislike him happen after he's already gone. JGY really could have just stuck around the Nie sect comfortably and with respect if he chose! But he wanted the things he could get from seeking his dad's approval even more. It's about what you decide to prioritize and go after.
I enjoy how MDZS goes more back and forth with the timelines, and you can see current Wei Wuxian having opinions about the past. And I love how WWX just sees his past self as super cringe, rather than like condemning himself or anything!
There are several really excellent female characters in MDZS, but they do not get a lot of page time, so I appreciate CQL's efforts to increase the presence and narrative relevance of the female characters.
The way everyone just calls the Wens Wen-dogs as a standard term is so uncomfortable to me. Dehumanizing your enemy is a classic strategy in war, for understandable reasons, and it does definitely serve to remind me regularly just how much all the main characters are in a war mindset! Which is why it's so uncomfortable lol. But that's like. a good thing. Nobody in this story is morally pure!
Speaking of not morally pure, I was fascinated to see that the distinction CQL makes between the Dafan Wen as pacifist doctors and the Qishan Wen as supporting Wen Ruohan is straight up not present in MDZS. Wens are Wens, and Wen Qing and Wen Ning are important close members of Wen Ruohan's family, and the Wen remnants include cultivators. I appreciate this too! You cannot separate people into "these ones are evil and deserve to die" and "these ones are completely blameless and have never done anything wrong ever." Love to reject a binary.
But then as well, when Wei Wuxian rescues Wen Ning and the others from the work camp, as far as I can tell from what the narrative tells us, he doesn't actually take all the prisoners, only those who are connected with Wen Ning and Wen Qing in some way - which makes it come across less as "I am taking a moral stand about the treatment of prisoners" and more "I owe a debt to the Wen siblings and must repay it."
I also appreciated the bit of context about what work specifically the Wens were being made to do at Qionqi path - remove aggrandizing stonework depictions of Wen accomplishments to replace it with similar ones but for the Jin. It's clear it's meant as, like, something humiliating for the Wens to have to do.
Lan Wangji is described in both MDZS and CQL in the post-sunshot era as someone who "goes where the chaos is" and I had always understood that previously to mean that he seeks out the biggest chaos. But MDZS makes it clear that what it means by the term is that he's willing to go deal with any situation that needs addressing even if it's small-scale and would be considered beneath him and won't enhance his reputation in the high echelons of cultivator society he was raised in. Love this for him. I wonder if this is what CQL also meant, and I just failed to read it correctly?
And then of course there are things like the absence of a second flautist, which I did already know about from fandom discussions, which is kind of emblematic of the difference between the two narratives.
(oh also. This is very personally motivated but I'm grateful CQL was not able to include more depiction of cannibalism and reanimated corpses because that would be a LOT for me to watch in the more visceral medium of television! and there are so many corpses in MDZS! I think it's very good and appropriate in the book, and I'm glad it stayed in the book.)
idk I feel like I'm spending most of this review talking about MDZS only as relates to CQL which feels a bit unfair to MDZS as the originator, like I'm not respecting it as its own thing! But it's hard for me to talk about it in any other way after having spent the last two years so much in the fandom. If I'd come to MDZS before I ever knew anything about CQL this would be reading very differently!
At some point I do want to do a closer reading of MDZS to appreciate it better for what it specifically is doing, like the way I'm currently doing a TGCF close read on mastodon. There's so much fruitful stuff to pay attention to in any work by MXTX.
Anyway please rec me fic that is particularly good at being based in MDZS canon! I want to spend more time exploring it!
And it's so good you guys!
And also, really very different from CQL.
I knew that already, because on top of the way that inevitably at least some things get changed in any adaptation process, I understand that the complex system of chinese censorship has standards for a wide variety of different things not being allowed to be shown on tv. And several of those things are integral to the version of the story in MDZS.
Being now familiar with the versions of the story told in both tv and book, I think the difference that's the biggest is the moral universe being presented by the themes of each story. CQL is the story of a person who always tries his best to do what's right, and is treated poorly by society because of it, but eventually is able to triumph. MDZS is the story of a person who makes some huge mistakes and then has to (gets to?) learn how to live with them.
Both are wonderful stories worth telling! And they have a lot in common. But they are not, in the end, the same story. Going forward I will definitely be paying more attention to which version is being tagged as the fandom when I open fic!
I do feel like I'm not quite up to writing a coherent review of the book right now though. I read the first two-thirds or so back in April, and then accidentally took a multi-month break from reading it, and then read through the remainder over the course of the last few weeks. So the beginning portions of the book are fuzzy in my head and easy to confuse with everything else I have read about CQL/MDZS and the fanfic of both, and it's hard to hold the shape of the entire narrative in my head.
But I do have a few more notes! Most of which are varyingly spoilery for either or both of CQL & MDZS
One is how the Jin Guangyao storyline in MDZS more closely adheres to the theme of "making choices, experiencing consequences" imo. In CQL, JGY is kicked out from the Nie sect because of killing the supervisor who treated him poorly, but in the book he leaves the Nie on good terms, and the incidents which make Nie Mingjue distrust and dislike him happen after he's already gone. JGY really could have just stuck around the Nie sect comfortably and with respect if he chose! But he wanted the things he could get from seeking his dad's approval even more. It's about what you decide to prioritize and go after.
I enjoy how MDZS goes more back and forth with the timelines, and you can see current Wei Wuxian having opinions about the past. And I love how WWX just sees his past self as super cringe, rather than like condemning himself or anything!
There are several really excellent female characters in MDZS, but they do not get a lot of page time, so I appreciate CQL's efforts to increase the presence and narrative relevance of the female characters.
The way everyone just calls the Wens Wen-dogs as a standard term is so uncomfortable to me. Dehumanizing your enemy is a classic strategy in war, for understandable reasons, and it does definitely serve to remind me regularly just how much all the main characters are in a war mindset! Which is why it's so uncomfortable lol. But that's like. a good thing. Nobody in this story is morally pure!
Speaking of not morally pure, I was fascinated to see that the distinction CQL makes between the Dafan Wen as pacifist doctors and the Qishan Wen as supporting Wen Ruohan is straight up not present in MDZS. Wens are Wens, and Wen Qing and Wen Ning are important close members of Wen Ruohan's family, and the Wen remnants include cultivators. I appreciate this too! You cannot separate people into "these ones are evil and deserve to die" and "these ones are completely blameless and have never done anything wrong ever." Love to reject a binary.
But then as well, when Wei Wuxian rescues Wen Ning and the others from the work camp, as far as I can tell from what the narrative tells us, he doesn't actually take all the prisoners, only those who are connected with Wen Ning and Wen Qing in some way - which makes it come across less as "I am taking a moral stand about the treatment of prisoners" and more "I owe a debt to the Wen siblings and must repay it."
I also appreciated the bit of context about what work specifically the Wens were being made to do at Qionqi path - remove aggrandizing stonework depictions of Wen accomplishments to replace it with similar ones but for the Jin. It's clear it's meant as, like, something humiliating for the Wens to have to do.
Lan Wangji is described in both MDZS and CQL in the post-sunshot era as someone who "goes where the chaos is" and I had always understood that previously to mean that he seeks out the biggest chaos. But MDZS makes it clear that what it means by the term is that he's willing to go deal with any situation that needs addressing even if it's small-scale and would be considered beneath him and won't enhance his reputation in the high echelons of cultivator society he was raised in. Love this for him. I wonder if this is what CQL also meant, and I just failed to read it correctly?
And then of course there are things like the absence of a second flautist, which I did already know about from fandom discussions, which is kind of emblematic of the difference between the two narratives.
(oh also. This is very personally motivated but I'm grateful CQL was not able to include more depiction of cannibalism and reanimated corpses because that would be a LOT for me to watch in the more visceral medium of television! and there are so many corpses in MDZS! I think it's very good and appropriate in the book, and I'm glad it stayed in the book.)
idk I feel like I'm spending most of this review talking about MDZS only as relates to CQL which feels a bit unfair to MDZS as the originator, like I'm not respecting it as its own thing! But it's hard for me to talk about it in any other way after having spent the last two years so much in the fandom. If I'd come to MDZS before I ever knew anything about CQL this would be reading very differently!
At some point I do want to do a closer reading of MDZS to appreciate it better for what it specifically is doing, like the way I'm currently doing a TGCF close read on mastodon. There's so much fruitful stuff to pay attention to in any work by MXTX.
Anyway please rec me fic that is particularly good at being based in MDZS canon! I want to spend more time exploring it!
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