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OKLAHOMA wrote:AT LAST! An intelligent post about something other than the "horrors" of being a GAIJIN in JAPAN.
It still amazes me that most of the major translators and interpreters of Japanese culture are Hershey Highwaymen. Seidensticker (never heard of hum, huh?) brags in his memoirs about bringing homeless bums up to his apartment, feeding them, plying them with liquor and then butt-fucking the shit out of them. Pun intended.
But seriously folks, I never cared for Soseki. Too descriptive. No narrative drive. Two-dimensional characters. No verve or moxie.
BO-SENSEI wrote: ... nearly controlled all of the Pacific...
CrankyBastard wrote:Are you one of those really fucked-up gaijin that say crap like, "Of course, to appreciate the Tale of Genji or more correctly, Genji monogatari, such literature is best read in the original"?
BO-SENSEI wrote:I am not much of a reader and thus did really focus on how he was as a writer, I ...
Kind of off topic, but I am not letting what a learned in college go to waste. Also, have you ever read Akutagawa or Mishima?
OKLAHOMA wrote: [Mishima] was, um... rather peculiar in some ways.
OKLAHOMA wrote:Yep. lots. I work in Tokyo and enjoy Mishima's descriptions of the physical urban landscape, rather than the sordid trysting joints that he seems to have been fond of. Heh. Heh. He also goes into a lot of post-EDO history in his TETRALOGY.(notice the all-CAPS, denoting emphasis).
Mishima's widow refuses to allow the publication of some of his correspondence because it would prove that, he was, um... rather peculiar in some ways.
lmingwei wrote:This thread seems to have very little to do with literature, but I thought I'd add my own two cents for the hell of it.
1. Yasunari Kawabata is my favorite Japanese writer. A Thousand Cranes, which is about a guy who's father's ex-mistresses try to seduce him with their daughters, is my personal favorite. But he's got a bunch of other good ones, such as The Lake, which is about a somewhat pitiful stalker. Don't read the Master of Go unless you REALLY like Go.
2. Kenzaburo Oe is great too. I recommend Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids or the Silent Cry.
3. Soseki is awesome, I don't know what you people are thinking. Kokoro is great: the first half of the book is from the perspective a guy who worships his "master" even though he has a dark secret. Then in the second part of the book we learn that the dark secret is that the master is in fact a neurotic woody-allen-esque dork. What's not to love?
4. Tanizaki: Film noir-esque plots with scheming lesbians. Hilarious stuff.
5. Ryu Murakami: His later works can be a tad gross, but 69 is great. It's like Bukowski in Japan.
Mike Oxlong wrote:Since we gettin' all serious and shit...I liked this book immensely.
But for you, I'd recommend this one (ask Bo if you need a synopsis):
Behan wrote:I only read them in English, but Saikaku's stories are funny. In the The Great Mirror of Male Love he makes fun of the lengths (no pun intended) that homosexuals would get to get off.
;)"Yeah, I've been always awkward toward women and have spent pathetic life so far but I could graduate from being a cherry boy by using geisha's pussy at last! Yeah!! And off course I have an account in Fuckedgaijin.com. Yeah!!!"
OKLAHOMA wrote:You forgot YUKI GUNI, the book that got Kawabata his Noble prize, translated by everyone's favourite sodomite, Edward Seidensticker.
Oe is very philosophical. Most Japanese can't stand him. Too hard to read.
Soseki is for kids and people who wouldn't otherwise read.
Tanizaki: bourgeois punk.
Both Murakamis are trendoid dopes. They will be forgotten in a few decades.
Cyka UchuuJin wrote:i'd like to give you a prize for being a total tool.
it's 'noBEL', not 'Noble'. someone who claims to be so literate should know that.
'dance dance dance' was brilliant. captures the sentiment of this generation perfectly. murakami will be remembered as a genius of his time. for many decades to come.
sillygirl wrote:Cyka - I love you! (in a non-lesbo way)
Cyka UchuuJin wrote:i love you too. and it just *might* BE in a lesbo way.
and now that we've given the FG boys something to salivate over, i better shut up before omae has to split the thread again.
sillygirl wrote:Actually I lied....I like it when you dress up as a J school girl....
(enough to keep 'em busy for a bit?)
Cyka UchuuJin wrote:but but but, that skirt is sooooo short! i'll only wear it if you be headmistress this time.
Midwinter wrote:This is the single best thing to come out of this thread. Mods, you might as well lock it down now, it's not going to get any better unless there's alcohol involved.
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