I see I’ve been hit with the 1-2-3 meme by Opposite End of China. So my nearest book is Blindness by Jose Saramago, which has some awfully long sentences, especially on page 123. As a result, sentence 6 is the last on the page and sentences 7 and 8 are actually on the next page, but here goes:
At the beginning, the very beginning, several charitable organisations were still offering volunteers to assist the blind, to make their beds, clean out their lavatories, wash their clothes, prepare their food, the minimum of care without which life soon becomes unbearable, even for those who can see. These dear people went blind immediately but at least the generosity of their gesture would go down in history. Did any of them come here, asked the old man with the black eyepatch, No, replied the doctor’s wife, no one has come, Perhaps it was a rumour, And what about the city and the traffic, asked the first blind man, remembering his own car and that of the taxi-driver who had driven him to the surgery and had helped him to dig the grave, Traffic is in a state of chaos, replied the old man with the black eyepatch, and gave details of specific cases and accidents.
See, when you write dialogue in run-on sentences, sentence 6 ends up at the end of the page. Now, my victims:
Beijing Sounds
Son of Shenzhen Zen: Hua Hin Hoo-Hah (Thai Remix)
Twelve Hours Later
Paper Republic (if they still exist?)
Blood & Treasure
I’m hoping BJSounds, 12Hours and PaperRep will bring the translated goodness.
So we’re not supposed to cheat on these memes, right? Unfortunately, the nearest book is 《野草根》 by 徐坤, the story of two sisters who are sent to the countryside in 1968. The key sentences on page 123 read: “一听说生的是女孩,来医院探望的婆婆扭头就走,连看都没看孩子一眼。夏冬临也觉得自己生了个女孩，好生没面子，断了老夏家的根，本来就对于小庄怀着恨呢，这一下更是对这母女爱搭不理的。别说让他尽责，就是能搭把手的事儿，他也是能躲就躲，能逃就逃，千好万好，到底为如自己的亲娘好。”
For context, Yu Xiaozhuang had done relatively well when she was first sent down to the countryside in middle school. But now her older sister is the successful one, married to a party secretary, while Xiaozhuang’s romance has given way to mutual animosity. Here, she’s just given birth to her first daughter. A rough translation: Upon learning out that she had given birth to a girl, her mother-in-law turned around and left the hospital without even glancing at the child. Xia Donglin, too, felt ashamed that he had fathered a girl and had broken the Xia family line; the ill-will he bore toward Yu Xiaozhuang now became a snub of both mother and daughter. He evaded his responsibilites whenever he could and hardly even gave her any help at all. But none of this could compare to how her own mother treated her.
The only versions available online are a truncated serialization on Sina and a condensed version that ran in Fiction Monthly, neither of which have this complete passage.
The closest SF book I have at hand is Run, Dajiao, Run!, a collection of short fiction by Pan Haitian. The passage in question involves cockroaches.
Awww! SF Cockroaches!?! I wish u had cheated. You should post that one on 12hrs.
I had a drink with Brendan the other day – apparently Paper Republic is not dead, but has been surviving on occasional CPR from Eric alone just lately. Cindy’s been away for a while, and Brendan’s been too busy with other stuff.
With luck, they should be recovering some momentum on there soon.
How are you liking Blindness? I read it about 6 months ago – excellent for reminding you that things could be worse.