Oh. Dr. Mo is so dear to me. Years ago, one of the first emails I got from him, I think, he wrote about a post he had seen here on 凌迟; 凌遲, death by slicing. It was one of the posts that just about drove me mad. I didn't know Weimin well then and didn't know how he expressed himself and so that email made a deep impression upon me because it fairly shrieked with anguish. "Where did you find those pictures!," it began something like that. Weimin's pain just crackled across cyberspace.
So, Weimin and I were emailing again this week-Ah! I sent him the link to Ian Johnson's article and I appended a forewarning, "This is not for the faint of heart." I remembered his email on 凌迟; 凌遲 and he remembered. He recalled,
I can never forget the eyes in the photo, the eyes of the victim and the eyes of the executioner. The victim's horrified eyes indicate he is about to faint like a little rat in the mouth of a snake. The executioner's eyes seem to search the victim's body in order to find the best spot to begin the slicing with a butcher's precision. His whole mind seems to be totally focused on how to do a neat job and it doesn't make a difference to him whether it is a human body or a pig. I was frozen by the sight.
So, Weimin and I were emailing again this week-Ah! I sent him the link to Ian Johnson's article and I appended a forewarning, "This is not for the faint of heart." I remembered his email on 凌迟; 凌遲 and he remembered. He recalled,
I can never forget the eyes in the photo, the eyes of the victim and the eyes of the executioner. The victim's horrified eyes indicate he is about to faint like a little rat in the mouth of a snake. The executioner's eyes seem to search the victim's body in order to find the best spot to begin the slicing with a butcher's precision. His whole mind seems to be totally focused on how to do a neat job and it doesn't make a difference to him whether it is a human body or a pig. I was frozen by the sight.
That is a POWERFUL paragraph, do you not feel it? Can you not see the photograph, just from that description? That is brilliant writing. It reminds me of Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness. It is not. That is my friend, Weimin.
