Nguyễn Huy Thiệp
From: Vsg <vsg-bounces@mailman11.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Hiep Duc
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2021 12:28 AM
To: Marc Gilbert <mgilbert@hpu.edu>; Hue-Tam Tai <hhtai@fas.harvard.edu>; Thaveeporn Vasavakul <Thaveeporn@kvsnetworksystem.com>
Cc: vsg@u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Nguyen Huy Thiep
The story “The General retires” was also brought to the screen (“Tướng về hưu”, film director Nguyễn Khắc Lợi)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgcJVk8rmr4
The film faithfully adapted to the storyline except the circumstances leading to the death of the retired general.
In 1997, when I were in Hanoi for a conference. A friend took me to his restaurant “Hoa Ban” and we met him there. A quiet and unassuming man, he smoke a fair bit. At that time, his short stories were criticised for too upfront “realist” in depicting the society and a whole book collecting articles of many authors with pro and con views of his short stories was published. The controversial stories of “Kiếm sắt”, “Vàng Lửa”, “Phẩm Tiết” were shocking for many and loved by many readers. “Phẩm Tiết” was considered to shatter the myth of Vietnamese hero Quang Trung and implicitly one of Ho Chi Minh. His style of iconoclastic writing, a kind of realist myths framed in the modern setting, was compared by some (including Greg Lockhart) as similar to that of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a Nobel laureate.
In literature, he represented a force of renovation in the “Đổi Mới” period in the late 1980 and early 1990s, shaking the foundation of an ideal socialist society which conservative force and orthodox ideology promoted. For this he was attacked in the official press for a while.
Hiep
Climate and atmospheric Research, NSW
Australia
From: Vsg <vsg-bounces@mailman11.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Marc Gilbert
Sent: Wednesday, 24 March 2021 5:41 PM
To: Hue-Tam Tai <hhtai@fas.harvard.edu>; Thaveeporn Vasavakul <Thaveeporn@kvsnetworksystem.com>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Nguyen Huy Thiep
Hue Tam Ho Tai wrote:
I used to assign "The General Retires" in my class on Vietnamese culture. At some point, I was told the story had been assigned to a class for immigrants at a local community college. Though none were Vietnamese, they all could relate to the feeling of being unappreciated by their younger relatives who were better assimilated to their social environment and cultural values. it was indeed, a work with universal appeal. As a historian, I loved his trilogy; it upended the conventional image of Nguyen Anh and Nguyen Hue, and it openly attacked the "cult" of the Revolution.
For all these things, I am also grateful for his works, all the more so as I encountered "The General Retires" at the right time in my career when it could give shape to much of my teaching about Vietnam and the world. It is smaller, yet more universal as a story than that of the American classic film, "The Best Years of Our Lives,"(1946), and is more sharply drawn, more politically critical, and more accessible than the film "Bao giờ cho đến tháng Mười" (When the Tenth Month Comes), 1984.
The story “Muối cúa rừng” (The Salt of the Jungle) is a parable sufficient to save the world. That it is not, lies not with him.
Marc Jason Gilbert
Hawaii Pacific University
From: Vsg <vsg-bounces@mailman11.u.washington.edu> on behalf of Hue-Tam Tai <hhtai@fas.harvard.edu>
Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2021 8:06 AM
To: Thaveeporn Vasavakul <Thaveeporn@kvsnetworksystem.com>
Cc: Vsg@u.washington.edu <Vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Nguyen Huy Thiep
Dear Thavee
Thank you for sharing this sad news.
I used to assign "The General Retires " n my class on Vietnamese culture. At some point, I was told the story had been assigned to a class for immigrants at a local community college. Though none were Vietnamese, they all could relate to the feeling of being unappreciated by their younger relatives who were better assimilated to their social environment and cultural values. it was indeed, a work with universal appeal.
As a historian, I loved his trilogy; it upended the conventional image of Nguyen Anh and Nguyen Hue, and it openly attacked the "cult" of the Revolution.
Nguyen Huy Thiep was an intrepid thinker. As a writer, he was also willing to experiment with different styles and genres.
The articles you have linked are well worth reading. I wish I had a copy of the collection of short stories. The illustrations by some top artists are wonderful.
Hue Tam Ho Tai
Harvard University emerita
From: Vsg <vsg-bounces@mailman11.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Judith A N Henchy
Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2021 12:31 PM
To: Dutton, George <dutton@humnet.ucla.edu>; Vsg@u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Nguyen Huy Thiep
George, Yes I remember that visit to UW. I believe that we had Goenawan Mohamad here at the same time for a literary forum of some sort. I also visited Thiep at his wonderful place in Hanoi. I think that he did a sketch for me, but not the portrait on a plate pictured in story Thaveeporn forwarded. I know we have all used his translated stories extensively in undergraduate teaching. This is a very sad loss.
Best
Judith
Judith Henchy, MLIS, Ph.D.
Head, Southeast Asia Section
University of Washington Libraries
Special Assistant to the Dean of Libraries for International Programs
Affiliate Faculty, Jackson School of International Studies
From: Vsg <vsg-bounces@mailman11.u.washington.edu> on behalf of "Dutton, George" <dutton@humnet.ucla.edu>
Date: Saturday, March 20, 2021 at 11:26 AM
To: "Vsg@u.washington.edu" <Vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Nguyen Huy Thiep
Dear VSG,
This is certainly sad news. I remember meeting Nguyen Huy Thiep when he came to give a talk at UW back in the late 1990s I believe. I’ve also been using his “Water Nymph” in my modern SEA Literature class for years. So much of Thiep's work is rich in its complexity, but I’ve always found “Nymph” a wonderfully concise reflection about war, about life, about hardships, about the tensions between city and countryside, the list goes on. I always point my students to its wonderfully laconic line, “Ninteen seventy-five: that was a year to remember.” loaded with understated and indeterminate ambiguity. We are fortunate that the author has left us such a rich legacy, even as we mourn his death.
George
_______________________________________________
George Dutton (Pronouns: He/Him/His)
Director, UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies
Professor and Vice-Chair, UCLA Department of Asian Languages and Cultures
290 Royce Hall
Box 951540
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1540
On Sat, Mar 20, 2021 at 12:41 PM Thaveeporn Vasavakul <Thaveeporn@kvsnetworksystem.com> wrote:
FYI - Nguyen Huy Thiep, a great Vietnamese writer of the doi moi era, dies at 72.
https://tuoitre.vn/nha-van-nguyen-huy-thiep-qua-doi-van-dan-viet-nam-long-buon-khong-ta-noi-20210320171138752.htm?fbclid=IwAR0iNs1PwDAeighVPOyo79XK0FKqEWE6VES1tNsD_AKxmT4XzEcHy5EPG_Yhttps://tuoitre.vn/nha-van-nguyen-huy-thiep-qua-doi-van-dan-viet-nam-long-buon-khong-ta-noi-20210320171138752.htm?fbclid=IwAR0iNs1PwDAeighVPOyo79XK0FKqEWE6VES1tNsD_AKxmT4XzEcHy5EPG_Y
Thaveeporn Vasavakul, Ph.D
GoSFI