This is going to be one of the most uninformative articles ever.
Yep, I have another thing on my CV that I’m shite at. By fuck is that getting to be a rather long list!!
When I decided to do this I knew that I’d need to do a bit of research but I really couldn’t find anything. In a way, that may be a good thing as all I can do is write this using my memory and telling you why this author has stayed with me.
I would like to introduce Mr Lee Chang and his series of books. I don’t even know if he is still alive.
What I do know is that his books have a special place in my heart. The series is ‘The Year Of The Tiger’, ‘The Year Of The Snake’, (I read this one first.) ‘The Year Of The Rat’, ‘The Year Of The Dragon’, ‘The Year Of The Horse’ and ‘The Year Of The Boar.’
I think these were all written early to mid seventies. I found them in Woolworths in the discount section. Not the discount section due to the shittiness of the books, surprisingly there were a lot of romances in there. This discount section was due to the book being slightly damaged. Most of them had a very slight cut at the bottom of the pages but it was nowhere near the print.
That was where I found my first one when I was around twelve. I was hooked and I picked up the others whenever I saw them. In those days you only had the book to tell you that there were others.
…A bit like the old Status Quo albums. They had the silhouette of the previous albums on the new one.
Anyhow, to me these were my first ‘adult’ books. I’d always been a keen reader, Enid Blyton, The Hardy Boys, Ghost Story Compilations, Annuals, comics, whatever but that first ‘Victor Mace’ book opened my eyes into an adult world.
Mace was a CIA operative and he was a Kung Fu master. I often wonder if the writer was influenced by Bruce Lee (Don’t let anyone tell you that he overacted!!) or maybe it was the other way round. If so Mr Chang is not represented with the gusto that he deserves.
For years now I have been meaning to re-read these to see what my adult mind thinks of them. As a kid they were action-packed, exciting, set at a frantic pace and there was, shall we say, a few bits and pieces in this that really did tweak a pubescent kid’s interest!!
I learnt a helluva lot! Especially on page 86!!!
It has been too long for me to give you an informed synopsis but all I can say is that Mace always won the day.
I wonder about kids now-a-days and what would get them reading. (A tip of my hat to you J.K!!)
I just wonder with all the Anime type interest if Lee Chang would ever be able to bridge that reading gap. But there is a huge fucking problem and that was the time that it was written. The woke and enraged fuckers would take a hairy fit with the content, language, sexism and all those other wonderful things that we just had to FUCKING LIVE WITH in the 1970’s!!
In fact, there are even sections after section where people, dare I say it, smoke!!!
I think this might be a common theme with these postings. When we go back, we can enjoy and indulge…Not sure if some of the sensitive fuckers can appreciate what should be appreciated for inverted reasons!!!
So folks – If you want some memories of Bruce Lee, Marlboro’s and unacceptable behaviour, then check out Lee Chang’s books.
There is one thing – You won’t be bored!!
Image: goblet, quill pen and parchment – pixabay.com
literally stories 
Hugh
You are perfect at this. Scholarly writing often drains the object of it’s blood and puts it in a jar like a dead animal. Books are life and should be joyful or affecting.
Excellent work!
Leila
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Ha! I did some digging. Lee Chang was the pen for Joseph Rosenberger 1925-1993.
He wrote close to a hundred books!
Leila
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Thanks for your kind comments Leila.
I know nothing about Mr Rosenberger and had a look. The threads are quite difficult to navigate and I can’t get a sense of the guy.
…Although I did read one quote:
…writing like a bigoted, drunken reactionary.
Maybe that’s why I like him!
This brings up a brilliant argument / debate – Should we censor those who have done wrong / think wrong / are opinionated / aren’t PC – Well fuck that – The whole of literature and music would be obliterated.
And I hate how some are acceptable and some are not – How many Michael Jackson fans are out there and proud to say so? On the other-hand – How many Gary Glitter fans are out there and proud to say so?
There was only one difference between those two – One had a shit load more money!!
Regarding Mr Rosenberg – Was his writing the sign of the times or did his beliefs bleed into his stories?
Here’s the thing, no fucker knows, only the man himself.
Every story has some form of Social Commentary OF THE TIME and to me, if you have at least one brain cell, you can work that out!!
Cheers Leila – Again, I can say that comments make both consider and takes you both off on some interesting tangents.
Hugh
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Hugh
I bet Mr Rosenberger/Chang loved to write. I can’t imagine producing such an enormous amount of work without having a great feeling for it.
I believe that people have developed a shared hallucination about Jackson’s “innocence.” There’s no way that an objective look into the subject can leave anyone confused about his guilt. I didn’t like him being accused at first, but sooner or later too much of the same sort of thing kept showing up.
Leila
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I’m doing something like what Hugh is doing. I remember (but it may not have happened) my father reading the Oz books to sister and I. I got a 16 volume collection from Amazon for Christmas last year and am reading them. Should be done before next Christmas. A Christmas tradition of late 1940s / early 1950s – the Cinnamon Bear radio series. I got the episodes on cds that I should listen to before each Christmas in the future. Another possibility – the James Bond books.
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Hi Doug,
I prefer when any form of art takes us to our specific memories. That’s why I hated videos, they showed us what we were supposed to think about the song. Before that we were transported back somewhere where we heard it and what we were doing!
All the very best my fine friend.
Hugh
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Wow. Hugh, I love this piece. I love for just the same reason as Doug Hawley: you’ve transported me back to my own early reading experiences. In my case, it was in the children’s section of the local Carnegie library. I was allowed to rattle round in there while grandad borrowed a couple more Zane Gray cowboy stories. At that age, whatever it was (7? 8?) I assumed that you chose books according to the title, so I would borrow books with ‘battle,’ or ‘invasion,’ or ‘tank,’ or whatever, in the title. And one day I took home a book called ‘William the Conqueror.’ Wasn’t about war and invasions at all. It was hoot,, all about the doings of small boy called William and his gang and his dog. I loved it to bits, took it back to the library and carried on looking for books about tanks, etc. Weeks later I saw my William the Conqueror book back on the shelves, alongside a few other books called ‘Just William, ‘ ‘William the Outlaw, etc. But the name on the spines below the titles was the same in each case. LIghtbulb moment: I had discovered the concept of authorship.
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Hi Mick,
It was something special when you were a kid and felt that first immersion into a book.
I think my first two were ‘The Clue Of The Screeching Owl’ (A Hardy Boys book) and then ‘Underwater Adventure’ by Willard Price.
I wasn’t quite ready for ‘The Exorcist’!! (That took another couple of years!!)
Thanks so much for your comments!
All the very best my fine friend.
Hugh
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Marco – A walk of five days and fifty miles along the Rogue River in Southern Oregon took us past a cabin where western writer -maybe Zane Grey – spent months is solitude writing back in the day.
Struck at, but not struck by a rattlesnake on the trail.
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