Hi! First of all,let me say that I really like your insightful mdzs meta. In the old version of mdzs,it shows that lwj and wwx are so clever. Lwj figures it out that su she is the gravedigger before they reach luanzang gang. wwx alone deduces what happened to mxy,that the scandal that got him expelled was a trap set up by jgy,wwx realization about nhs role in all that happened,his machinations,is said much more clearly. In the rev version MXTX left to readers to make their own speculations.
Hi there! First of all, thank you, I’m glad you appreciate it 🥰!
That is so interesting to hear about the original version: I’ve only ever gotten snippets of it from people mentioning specific deviations between the original and the revised version. It’s quite fascinating in terms of MXTX’s creative process. The tendency when editing a text is often to simplify it, or to add explanations and conclusive answers to make it more intelligible or digestible to your audience. Yet, MXTX seems to have done the opposite: to have decided to leave more elements hanging in the subtext, to force readers to engage more deeply with the work, as if by seeing the work as a whole, she had had the clarity to decide what could be simply hinted at or shown, and what truly needed to be told: how the sum of its parts allowed her to divest her storytelling of some of these parts.
Now I wish I had access to the original, even if just in the original chinese. You’re a lucky one!
