Surprised...

[liralen]

I was very surprised to find Judge Dee taking justice pretty much into his own hands, once he was convinced of the guilt of a guy he would never, for political reasons, be able to get in court. Wow. Not even a shred of the Western "you have to trust the system and use it even if you know it's not going to work" kind of thing one sees in all the police dramas.

He just tricks the bad guy into a room with an angry bear and says, "It's in a higher court than mine. I'll let Heaven judge you."

This is in The Haunted Monastery, and wow... I really enjoyed it. There's something very different about the stories, and a lot of it is the whole set of assumptions, from his three wives to his constables and the whole basis and crux of his authority. It's pretty intriguing.

I also got to watch two of the three Mushi Shi disks that amberley sent, and they're utterly gorgeous, lush, intriguing, and while all the bit players look nearly identical, each of the stories, themselves, are wonderful and so different and haunting in many ways. I'm looking forward to the last one quite happily.

I've also gotten to watch a few more episodes of Bleach and now understand why they want to go to Soul Society. *grin* It's going to be interesting.

Comments

[rephetibel.livejournal.com]

I remember a story where Judge Dee accepts a bribe and then goes ahead and gets the bad guy anyway. He felt that it was perfectly okay to accept the bribe as long as he didn't allow it to influence his actions.

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

is that from the first batch or the second batch? Van Gulik says in the first stories he stuck as close as he could to traditional form, no opinion, strict retelling, no personal views and so on; when he came back to the character for the second set of books he wanted to write much more freely and I don't know if he modernised or westernised or interpreted what was already intrinsic. I enjoy both sets though - and if you don't know Laura Joh Rowland you might like her books too.

[incandescens]

Ohh yes. I remember that one. I love Judge Dee. Read it while young, still reread it now. (My mother had it on her bookshelf.)

And yes, that is why they are going to Soul Society. Isn't it nice that they have such a reliable, totally trustworthy, utterly truthful local shopkeeper?