Fugue in January

Author: Ling Yun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: The Fugue of Narcissus Month is a collection of short stories recently published by Ling Yun in various literary magazines. The narrative strategies are relatively consistent, often extracting fragments and snippets of life—whether through nostalgia, autobiography, a female perspective, a male perspective, whimsical charm, philosophical insights, life wisdom, fairy tales, imitation of ancient styles, fantastical journeys, or melancholic depth.
Two Days: A young couple stays in a friend's house for two days. In a familiar city, an unfamiliar environment makes everything seem slightly surreal. The passionate and uninhibited love of the couple opposite them stirs their own simple desires. Finally, they leave with various hopes and fantasies for the future, though they have already discovered that the opposite building is just empty.
A Killing Summer: A love story between a teacher and an unidentified girl, set in the summer when silkworms begin to spin their cocoons. A child, invisible under an umbrella, wanders between them. The beginning and end of love are as fleeting as the entire summer.
Talking to Himself: At night, a woman walks through the neon lights of the city, but her thoughts drift to a sunny afternoon. She wears black stockings and holds the hand of a stranger, while a little girl in a white tank top plays ball and asks her grandmother for candy. When the grandmother dies, colorful candies scatter across the ground, and the woman, adorned in makeup, cries in the dark.
Telling Him: On a bus, a woman tells a story to a stranger. The man wants to know her, to find out which street she lives on, but the woman keeps talking about the story of elopement she saw in her village as a child. When the bus arrives at the stop, the woman realizes the man is getting off. He doesn’t understand her meaning.
The Man in the Mirror: A girl falls in love with the man she sees in the mirror. The man in the mirror can only stay in the mirror, so she gives up her job, gives up her friends, and completely isolates herself. Until her death, people discover her body—it’s a man’s body. During her days of isolation, she undergoes all sorts of changes. She only loved the reflection in the mirror.
Dancing at Night: Two murders occur on the same night in the same city, all within the memory or imagination of the same woman. Three little boys kill a cat, and three men go to kill a man. All dangers lurk in the shadows, just as all unspoken love disappears into the sunlight.
YY’s Journey into Narnia: One morning, YY discovers her husband is missing. She tries to find clues about him in her memories and decides to reverse the days. Today becomes yesterday, tomorrow becomes the day before yesterday… By the time summer is almost over, her husband returns. It’s all like a long dream, a dream that lasts the entire summer.
The Memory of a Tree: Though few believe in reincarnation in this life, the cycle of memory never fades. A little boy develops an inexplicable affection for the old woman despised by everyone in the village, as if they had been family for years. But outside of memory, when the old woman dies, the boy has just begun to smile.
Tuyao: A fabricated travel diary. The second time he visits Tuyao, it’s just a wall. The third time, Tuyao disappears. Everything changes, and all we cherish is memory. So we can only complete a diary of Tuyao with memory. The fourth time he visits Tuyao, he walks through a fragrant path…