Fazarck

Literatures are representation of real life you are correct, but you should understand that there are the morpheme "Re" in that word. It means that it doesn't have to reflect real life slightly or completely. It is to represent the many lenses you can see life through, including seeing nothing at all. Literature is flexible, and it can be for everyone or targeted at certain people, and everything depended on the story you want to tell, which is, again, can be anything, without getting into canon theory (mind you, even if we're getting to canon theory, a believe that there is an objectively "good" piece of literature (through judging the literary elements, its meanings, implication, reader response, etc), your preference is still not going to be considered "good" in that theory because it is like 1 thousand year outdated. It is the default perspective of human with some degree of education, but not actually learning literature or social studies, which is why this way of thinking is very popular amongst the conservatives as well and actually the root of modern day conservatism).

I can go on and on about actual literary studies about this, but that's not the problem of this whole thing. The problem is that you want to judge something using your glasses even though the glasses doesn't fit, that's the problem.

Again, I am going to emphazise what I had already said,

"I guess what I am trying to say is, your preference is actually "realistic", not necessarily "heavy/serious", but you put those judgement of it being "realistic" to a "dramatic" drama, which isn't ever going to match."

Only because the show removed a lot of stuff he did in the novel. He's as much as an asshole as YC's brother, and they totally deserve each other.

You are correct, but also, there is another layer to this. They grew up in a conservative community with lack of sex education. YC was young and impressionable, and although he'd like to think he's smart and knew about everything, he clearly didn't, and the nice touch in the book is, YC BELIEVED that LF is more knowledgeable about this stuff. The show, however, showed that LF only set his eyes on LF, so in retrospect, he's as much as blind about sex and how to do it as YC are as that time is both of their first time. All he knew was that, as he said, "if you like a person, you must want to do it with the person you love."

I am not making an excuse for him, but rather making a note to the people who said the story was "romanticizing rape" that it actually doesnt, What it does it making "commentaries" on how the society function, or failed to function, at least for this particular scene.

They quite literally pioneered BL tv series in film industry... The first ever BL tv series produced was from China called Like Love, and was growing rapidly until Addicted cause such a ruckus that Chinese government ban LGBT representation in media...

so yeah, BL is the very reason China ban LGBT representation.

I think the more pressing issue is the fan like you who think any thing that included rape is romanticizing rape so they must be bad. There is so much discourse in the story and to prevent others to talk about it by calling everyone who understand and read deeper into the story as "rapist sympathizer" is not only shows of ignorance but also damaging to the awareness of sexual assault itself.

From the example you're given, I think you're mistaking "realistic topic" with "heavier topic", and yes, some of the stuff you gave do actually talk about "heavy" topic, but all of them talk it in a "realistic" way.

I think you also need to understand that literature works doesn't always have to be realistic, especially in Asia where our literary history dramatize everything. It is actually the Western influence that makes more contemporary pieces to be a lot more toned down and "realistic".

I guess what I am trying to say is, your preference is actually "realistic", not necessarily "heavy/serious", but you put those judgement of it being "realistic" to a "dramatic" drama, which isn't ever going to match.

It's not like that. Chinese has an extensive literature development even during their early civilization, and they were very proud of it and never abandon it. That's why what I called "the literary pride" is really huge there, that even amateurish writing are beholden to certain standards of writing to the point that it wouldn't be considered "amateur" in other society (like the West).

And it just so happen, the pinnacle of literary writing is tragedy. It was, and is, and will always be the best genre in any literature. You will not find any person with knowledge in literature would put a romcom above a tragedy if they had to judge it objectively, and there is an objective way to assess a literary piece, which any piece of tragedy would had to pass it to be considered a "tragedy" in the first place.

That is coming in the penultimate of story I believe have a couple of inconsistencies. I suppose because it was written all the way from 2016 and 2020s, LanLin definitely had some changes in her idea of how the story would develop. The biggest problem that LanLin herself admit was she doesn't know how to end LinJing and Wenyang, which if you read the book carefully, you can actually tell she KNEW how to end their story, but chose not too because she wanted to end it with LinJing and Wenyang together.

I guess it's "what is good" vs "what you want" situation. LanLin knew that the best end for both of them is to not end up together, which is why there are so many plot points that pushing the idea they should not be together like the incest part is the biggest one, but she was trying to fight her own brain and divert from that because she wanted them to be together.

g realistis apanya, banyak kok gay yg nikah dan punya anak. Contohnya aja kiai kiai berkasus yg cabulin anak pesantren, pada punya istri dan anak juga noh semua. Itulah efek samping manusia tidak bisa mengekspresikan dirinya sendiri. Ujung ujungnya ya membohongi dan menyakiti karena luka yg mereka terima oleh masyarakat.

You're saying that as if you're not attacking the author personally because you can't pull any arguments off lol

I didn't remember that scene at all, and I just re read the novel . Maybe I missed it or it's from the extras, idk. And this novel can't be 20 years old can it? I mean, I can't be that old, right? T^T

Oh, I must've miss that in the show. Maybe to live closer to Lu Feng?

Yeah, too many bad memory, and YC always lived in poverty too even with LF, and in the sequel, LF actually lived together with YC in poverty lol

YC didn't buy LF house, he owns an apartement because of his health, (I don't remember if it was his previous house before LF abducted him or LF bought him a new one), he could no longer do the accounting/paid for it, I don't remember, but he relied the financial stuff on LF, while still looking for his own money. Unlike in the show, YC never moved back to LF's house again too many bad memory.

Girl, you think you're pretty slick, but one look at your history and everyone knew you're here only to spread negativity on BL films. Go back watching your heteroslop and leave this space alone.

Yc is definitely less focused in the drama, I mean, it make sense, Gao Tai Yu, the previous actor for LF in ARTTL, is the producer so I think he focused the pov of the series more on LF which is not touched that much in the book and movie.

Also, YC did not take any money from LF like at all. I think he even paid the rent of his bookstore and apartment to LF. because like you said, they are definitely in a more lukewarm situation. I think the drama definitely should've shown how YC thought how bad his decision of going back to LF is and his obsessive love for LF as well.

And despite being critical of the changes they had made in the show, I will say that the show really done well in utilizing the strength of films. There are a lot of things that can't be done in the book without disrupting the flow of the plot/reading, imagery you said were amongst them, and the show did stellarly. The highlight on LF's face as he saw YC playing around with chocolate in his mouth, that's such a chef's kiss. And it's not like they aren't aware of the impact of things they changed as well, like they appropriately made YC called his brother asking for advice because their relationship not as bad as in the book. Also, another fun thing to add, about the ending with the fortune teller, YC actually said in the sequel that he liked someone superstisious/superstitious gift, it never came up in ARTTL, but I love that they make a nod for it in the show.

For the sequel, you can look for it in Novelupdates, it's called Pandora's Box. Technically, it is a sequel to Lanlin's other novel, Nowhere to be Found. I will say Nowhere to be Found is worse than ARTTL because it's probably much earlier than ARTTL and in fact, as I look the book over and its content, I feel like this is actually the prototype to ARTTL because they have similar plots and plot progression without the techniques in writings that ARTTL had. Pandora's box is also in paralel with Lanlin's other novel, Love Late, the story about Ke Luo. Anyway, I think to read Pandora's box you definitely had to read Nowhere to be Found and ARTTL, but, whereas the other two book are hard read, Pandora's Box actually not that hard. Lanlin is trying a new technique here where usually you have the ebb and flow where happy moments followed by sad moments right next to each other, in PB, everything is happy with the foreboding feelings that the happines will crumble the moment someone opened the "Pandora's Box".

Zhuo Lan did meet someone else, I believe, in the show. Technically the book too, but that not ended up well, but Zhuo Lan did have a kid who loves her very much so, I guess there is that.

As for why YC went back, it is a lot more complicated. Even in the book, the reasoning, beyond YC loves LF very much, is very implicit, you have to see his mannerism, his snarky remarks, and what actually had happened in the setting to really understand that, all of which is pretty hard to portray in a screen without making it an exposition.

of course you don't realize. People who screamed "do you think rape is underrated?" are the people who are the most ignorant, committed more toxicity and damaged the awareness for the topic, yet still refused to educate themselves. If you don't realize that, that's your problem, it's not my responsibility to educate you or your ignorance. You're old enough to be on the internet, you're old enough to learn to fix your unawareness, ignorance, toxicity, and harmful rethoric towards issues like SA and its victims.

I think it's also needed to be noted one of the line they removed in the show is when YC said he hated LF, but he continued in his heart that there was a stronger feeling than hate. I WISH they included that, but it make sense they didnt because, again, they tone down what LF did, so it didn't make sense for YC to hate LF that much, or the intensity of the hate that YC felt wasn't going to be as strong as the book.

As for responsibitly, because I have read the sequel Pandora's box, I can tell that LF is "taking responsibility" in a sense that he is "changed".
as for the mother, it makes sense he didn't talk to his mother if you know the cultural aspect of Chinese conservative family. It wouldn't have make any different, his mother would still force him to marry a woman, etc. It is a lost case.

I think feeling like that is definitely valid, again, that's what dillema supposed to feel like, nothing is right. You're damned if you choose one side, and damned if you choose the other. You are supposed to feel conflicted by the end, and not left with a white and black conclusion.

Zhuo Lan didn't know YC didn't love her is the thing. She proposed to him, and he accepted. He shouldn't have accepted if he didn't love her.

you clearly don't think or have any shame either, well, the latter come with the territory of the former.