You could have knocked me over with a feather…

I was just now adding the finishing touches to my Friday Oz Poem #3, to appear as if by magic just after midnight, when I thought I would check Sitemeter to see who had visited lately, and to look at my little collection of WordPress friends who appear in a list at the dashboard behind the scenes here. Sure enough, Thomas has begun his account of the Great Drive, but when I checked The Rabbit to see what he had to say, his blog had gone behind a log-in. Perhaps a result of his new professonal role? Perhaps he is just renovating*… I’ll miss his blog, even if there were moments… So will Sirdan, Aluminium, and a few others who have been reading Mr R for some time. There was some very good writing there, after all, and I have been reading him for years!

THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY MORNING

I decided to cut the Rabbit links, and the Rabbit tags, here and on the Big Archive since it would be annoying to readers if such links went nowhere. In about an hour I was able to modify the relevant posts, delete most cross-links, delete the occasional post, and do some major surgery in The Big Archive. I have also updated Who’s who accordingly but have kept a link open there, just in case. Some of the surgery on my sites was well overdue now, I think — as an act of friendship really. He’ll know what I mean… I am happy to have done it.

I sincerely hope it isn’t the last we see of The Rabbit, those of us outside his immediate circle that is. This comment on Thomas’s blog suggests he may reopen, in which case I will (if it’s OK by him) note it here. But it may also be he has decided to limit his readership to those concerned.

Take care, Rabbit.

Sino-Gallic firecrackers

 Mr Muo’s Travelling Couch (or The Complex of Judge Di) by Dai Sijie 戴思杰 (2005). Born in China, writes in French. Dai Sijie is also a film-maker.

Imagine Monkey (above from Aaron Shepard’s retelling) from The Journey to the West meets Cervantes and Rabelais via Freud and Lacan in modern China, ranging from the Cultural Revolution to Falun Gong, from Hainan Island in the south to Sichuan and Chengdu in the west, to Beijing. Imagine a sex scene punctuated by ruminations about Shanghai dumplings. Imagine bizarre scenes evocative of Grand Guignol. Imagine the damsel in distress is called “Volcano of the Old Moon”. Imagine the grotesque Judge Di who fashions art objects from the shell casings of bullets fired in executions. All are in this utterly delightful, very funny novel. The constant uncertainty whether psychoanalysis (whether Freudian of Lacanian) is or is not fortune telling is just one of many cross-cultural jokes that run through Mr Muo’s Travelling Couch. I loved it.

Definitely one of 2007’s top reads.