I was framed... er tagged

At arlan_bishop's request,

5 guilty pleasures (and it came with catagories)
Culinary: Marmite
Literary: Hong Kong girl comics, honestly I only bought them to help me with my reading!
Audiovisual: Xena: Warrior Princess
Musical: Wham! (I was so happy I got to dance to club tropicana at the V&A)
Celebrity: apparently I once told my housemates (according to Bill) that I had a crush on Liz Hurley but hated her cause she was too posh just thought she was very hot! I don't feel that way anymore. But it made a good story. The only celebrity crush I have at the moment is Cillian Murphy, (the scarecrow in batman) He was the most attractive man I've seen for years, though oddly enough I didn't think him at all cute in 28 days later! I guess batman's scarecrow is definitly a guilty pleasure.

"Journey to the North"

Journey to the North is fairly short for a Chinese novel. In fact when I first picked it up I was suspicious that it had been condensed for a Western audience, but in fact it's one of four stories in a bigger book. A folktale of the story of the god Chen Wu, the Dark Emperor, who first has to achieve enlightenment and then goes on to subdue many demons who then join his army. The version I have is translated by Gary Seaman and I would definitely recommend it. It's be far not the most literary translation, but he describes it as an "ethnohistorical analysis and annotated translation". Which means he explains a lot of the religious significance of the God through his own fieldwork and research before telling the story as well as explaining the significance of several points. I have to say I was not entirely convinced about his claims that the whole novel came down through spirit writing, but the importance of literary connections with religion is definitely something that can't be argued against. The novel is definitely much the same as Journey to the West without the fun of Monkey King. But is the same blending of Buddhism, Taoism and popular religion, demons and gods fighting each other and getting converted, that made the other so fun. A very enjoyable read.