This is building up to be something special. The autobiographical content has moved more into the foreground. For example, Edward Said, who was a close friend of Kenzaburo Oe, makes an appearance.
There is also some very touching and honest content about his son, Hikari, in particular some of the limitations and failings of the character/author to take care of his son as they both decline in health.
The theater group also puts on an amazing adaptation of Natsume Soseki's Kokoro for students that involves throwing stuffed animals at the actors. I think reading Kokoro is a prerequisite before this one.
This is about an author on a quest to write a masterpiece, which revolves around mining some secrets contained in the red leather chest of his dead father.
This sounds grim and has some autobiographical context. But it is actually quite fun at this point, especially with the theater group(ies) who are trying to adapt the author's work in an authentic way (and also the work of other famous Japanese novelists).
I find the interactions between the theater group and the author hilarious because the author giving them access seems to validate his work in this weird social contract between artist and audience. They're trying to prove that they are serious and have ironed out the difficulties in adapting his work and he is feeding them material -- but probably doesn't need this amount of effort as I think he quite enjoys the attention.
Murasaki Shikibu, born into the middle ranks of the aristocracy during the Heian period (794-1185 …
Still figuring it out, lots to process...
4 stars
I somehow powered through this but will need to take a break before the second volume. I will likely read the essays in the Norton Critical edition and delve into other resources before continuing.
At some point, things expanded in scope and I had a hard time grasping the changes. There's politics and state management but we're also dealing with Genji's descendants. I have no idea what the rest of the tale has in store, even after peaking ahead.
I am not sure that the author worked entirely in a vacuum to create what many think is the world's first proper novel. However, I accept the possibility that the forms and techniques she was working with can't be neatly categorized. I suspect that the work has been adapted over time and through translation to make it more coherent to some identifiable literary standard. In the end, I doubt whether one …
I somehow powered through this but will need to take a break before the second volume. I will likely read the essays in the Norton Critical edition and delve into other resources before continuing.
At some point, things expanded in scope and I had a hard time grasping the changes. There's politics and state management but we're also dealing with Genji's descendants. I have no idea what the rest of the tale has in store, even after peaking ahead.
I am not sure that the author worked entirely in a vacuum to create what many think is the world's first proper novel. However, I accept the possibility that the forms and techniques she was working with can't be neatly categorized. I suspect that the work has been adapted over time and through translation to make it more coherent to some identifiable literary standard. In the end, I doubt whether one can view Genji as a protagonist. Instead, it may be a look at how the actions of a person who is an idealized representation of a court player, tragic flaws and all, affects the lives of those around him. Or if that isn't the case, it is a way for me to connect to the story.
@CorpusChristi420 it is kind of amazing to see you stop reading the Dick Hebdige book and pick up Hyperion instead. Let me know how Hyperion is, I plan to read it at some point.
Murasaki Shikibu, born into the middle ranks of the aristocracy during the Heian period (794-1185 …
I am nearing completion of the first volume.
Genji never stops being lecherous but he does develop deep connections with many of the women he is involved with. Some of the women have passed away, and Genji mourns them but never quite develops (so far) enough self awareness to change his behavior.
There is always a bit of calculating and plotting behind his actions, even if he ends up suffering for them. At one point, he even self-exiles from the court but eventually comes back stronger.
Fate seems to strike those around him, especially for his own actions -- and this is where the critique of his bad behavior is focused. Karma is also a thing but we may be left to contemplate the contents of Genji's past and future lives.
It is a 1000 year old novel and our ability to read it now is the result of centuries …
I am nearing completion of the first volume.
Genji never stops being lecherous but he does develop deep connections with many of the women he is involved with. Some of the women have passed away, and Genji mourns them but never quite develops (so far) enough self awareness to change his behavior.
There is always a bit of calculating and plotting behind his actions, even if he ends up suffering for them. At one point, he even self-exiles from the court but eventually comes back stronger.
Fate seems to strike those around him, especially for his own actions -- and this is where the critique of his bad behavior is focused. Karma is also a thing but we may be left to contemplate the contents of Genji's past and future lives.
It is a 1000 year old novel and our ability to read it now is the result of centuries of scholarship. The translator is very aware that there can be no authoritative translation and strongly believes that each translation adds something to our understanding and makes the work accessible to a different audience.
This is my default position regarding any story before even considering that each reader receives a story differently upon each reading. I am not interested in canonicalization as a thing. I even find it toxic in a modern context as it relates to big intellectual properties.
Even the original work was written in a language that became archaic a few generations later, so it has been in a constant process of modernization for subsequent generations. There are a lot of Tales of Genji out there. The older English translations are still considered valid, they haven't been superseded by "better" scholarship. It is a deep well.
This Norton Critical Edition includes:
Dennis Washburn's acclaimed and unabridged translation of Murasaki Shikibu's eleventh-century literary masterpiece, widely considered the …
IF the informed Westerner was asked to enumerate the outstanding features of
traditional Japan, his list might well consist of the following: in culture Nō
and Kabuki drama, Haiku poems, Ukiyoe colour prints, samisen music, and various
activities like the tea ceremony, flower arrangement, and the preparation of
miniature landscapes that are related to Zen influence; in society the
two-sworded samurai and the geisha; in ideas the Zen approach to human experience
with its stress on an intuitive understanding of the truth and sudden
enlightenment, the samurai ethic sometimes known as Bushidō, a great concern with
the conflicting demands of duty and human affection, and an extremely permissive
attitude to suicide, especially love suicides; in domestic architecture fitted
straw matting (tatami), large communal baths, tokonoma alcoves for hanging
kakemono; in food raw fish and soy sauce (tempura and sukiyaki being judiciously
excluded as Western importations). The list would of course be entirely correct.
Yet not a single one of these items existed in Murasaki’s world, and many of them
would have seemed as alien to her as they do to the modern Westerner.
This quote is originally from The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan by Ivan Morris, a book about the backdrop of the Tale of Genji. It is quoted in A Reader's Guide.
Genji himself is an irredeemable creep and I don't think the story will deliver any sort of satisfaction, justice, or redemption. Genji's plotting and scheming is interesting because it is a side effect of the serious constraints that prevent men and women of the court from associating directly. And yet people are having all kinds of illicit affairs despite these constraints. So everything is wrapped in indirection and double meanings. Most communication between men and women occurs through poetry, which is highly allusive to personal qualities, style, and other poetry.
There's a lot of necessary background information in A Reader's Guide that enriches the the Tale of Genji, making it less about Genji's sexual …
This quote is originally from The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan by Ivan Morris, a book about the backdrop of the Tale of Genji. It is quoted in A Reader's Guide.
Genji himself is an irredeemable creep and I don't think the story will deliver any sort of satisfaction, justice, or redemption. Genji's plotting and scheming is interesting because it is a side effect of the serious constraints that prevent men and women of the court from associating directly. And yet people are having all kinds of illicit affairs despite these constraints. So everything is wrapped in indirection and double meanings. Most communication between men and women occurs through poetry, which is highly allusive to personal qualities, style, and other poetry.
There's a lot of necessary background information in A Reader's Guide that enriches the the Tale of Genji, making it less about Genji's sexual conquests, and more about the idiosyncrasies of life in the Heian court, with its deep appreciation of aesthetics as the only form of personal expression.
