so, responding to my bro pengembara's comment that jin yong's stories lack reality in which the female characters would most of the time be the ones who initiate the things.. my thot is that..
probably that has got to do with jin yong's personality.
a writer can sometimes be someone who has problem with saying it out loud.. he would write thousand lines of love messages but he would struggle to speak out that three magical words..
jin yong may well be that kind of person. someone who take great pride in not pursuing women at all cost. someone who wish that the exchanges of glances and words would suffice for the other party to know that he likes her.
the society's rule tell you that being a woman, you should always be the one who waits. you should never show how much you like a man until the man makes some obvious moves. jin yong's story is all about challenging this very idea.
and that's how you get some of the most inspiring moments in jin yong's wuxia world..
--1. tian long ba bu (demi gods semi devils)--
qiao feng's sister in law (forget her name) who was so crazily in love with qiao feng. she was a rude and cruel lady but you can't help symphatizing when she, upon witnessing qiao feng's suiciding, took out both her eyes and jumped down the cliff along with qiao feng's body. she was blinded by some poison at one time and was given those 'new eyes' by a man who was in love with him. but she loved the man not and the only reason she wanted those eyes was to be able to see qiao feng. qiao feng never showed her explicitly how he was actually quite fond of her. yet she had no hesitation in ending her life to follow qiao feng.
--2. shi diao ying xiong zhuan (legend of condor heroes)--
i can't specifically point out an event but throughout their struggles and even when guo jing wronged huang rong for his teachers' death, you can tell how much they were desperate for each other. everytime guo jing faced a problem he would either thought
'if only huang rong is here'.. or
'with huang rong besides me, nothing else really matters'
while huang rong, despite guo jing being slow and sometimes wishy-washy, would think the same..
it's as if, they couldn't be bothered whether they live or die, win or lose, as long as they are together.. in the end they fought and died protecting xiang yang from mongol's expansion
--3. shen diao xia li (return of condor heroes)--
well, i dunno why i remember this event out of many other events.. it was the first time yang guo reunited with xiao long nu since they left the tomb. if i recall correctly, it was at guo jing's residence when the golden-wheeled monk and his gank came and created a mess.. but there they were, yang guo and xiao long nu, who didn't even bother to know what was happening. they chatted and laughed as if they were all alone. they really have problem with obeying the social norm and i like that.
okay been too long a post.. a separate one for my two most favorite novels :
heavenly sword and dragon slaying saber
and
proud smiling wanderer....
