Thursday, April 7, 2011

Latest book read; "The Tale of Genji"

This blog will mostly be about books I've read, or am reading, or sometimes hope to read. The latest book I've finished is a new translation of Lady Murasaki's "The Tale of Genji." It's sometimes known as the world's oldest novel, or at least the world's oldest Japanese novel. It's set in 10th century Heian Japan, at the imperial court. And,yes, the royal family of Japan goes back not just a thousand years, but two thousand. It's the oldest royal family still reigning in the world. What particularly struck me about the characters in the novel, in both the old Modern Library translation I first read, & the newer one, is how literate they are. The title character, who is the son of the reigning emperor, but not crown prince, is constantly exchanging poems & notes with his various inamorati, at the drop of a fan. And fans also figure largely in the story. The difficulty with writing about the other characters is that most of them don't have names as we think of them in this day & age. The Lady of the Orange Blossoms, or the Lady of the Wisteria Court, who are two of the many loves of the hero, are known by these sobriquets only. The reader does find out, finally, the name of Genji's (which means the Shining One) one true love, which is Fujitsubo. The hero's first wife is, probably, the Lady Aoi, tho' this isn't certain,as the reader is warned in a foonote. And,to complicate matter still further, Genji's probable second wife is named Murasaki, the name of the author of the novel. Also, Genji isn't Prince Genji, as his father, the emperor, deliberately assigns him a commoner's rank. It has to do with the hero's mother's rank & her family connections, which are not as powerful as the Empress, the mother of the crown prince. Oh, did I mention that Genji is the actual father of the second crown prince, who succeeds Genji's half-brother as emperor? A geneaological chart would be a useful appendix to this novel. The settings & descriptions are a large part of the charm of this historical novel.  It's difficult to say much about characterization (as Isaac Asimov noted in his essay "The Little Tin God of Characterization") becuase trying to judge the accuracy of character depiction at such a distance in time & space isn't easy. But, as Ernest Bramah remarked in "The Golden Hours of Kai Lung" from the mouth of his title character, "all the persons in the novel are of noble birth and an air of utmost refinement hangs over the whole story." I would not be surprised if Bramah hadn't read "The Tale of Genji," even tho' his novels are set in medieval China.  For this American reader in the 21st century, this charming tale is almost a fantasy. I had read Frank Herbert's "Dune" just before "The Tale of Genji." Heian Japan realy existed, tho' Arrakis & the galactic empire it belongs do not, or will not for thousands of year in the future, but the two novels are alike in their appeal to me. I only wish the Lady Murasaki had provided a more definite ending to her novel, but since the charm and delight of the novel lies in its haziness and misty outlines, perhaps that's too much to ask. I don't know if any later writer has tried to provide a sequel or sequels to this classic novel, but it would be rather like the hundreds of sequels to Jane Austen's classic novels...not up to the original.
Signing off
Gwin Lee Cox

3 comments:

  1. Thank you, I enjoyed reading about the oldest novel in the world. Your comparison with Dune makes it sound even better :o)

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  2. Great comments on "The Tale." Now all you need to do is make a second life avatar, and come in to lecture to my World Lit class this summer on this work. We read it in the class, and it is always a hit. Laviece

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  3. Gwin, I enjoyed your critique of "Tales of the Genji." But is your comment about the lack of a more definite ending showing your "ronri-teki." One of the things I take comfort in when reading is that I get a definite resolution of issues in the book that I never get in real life. Even the non-fiction histories and biographies that I read contain definite conclusions that I think were probably either not present in real life or not quite so neat and definite. Here in the Occidental world we place great emphasis on definitive conclusions to the narratives of our lives, often to the detriment of the realities of the situation. So to the extent that (a) "Tale of the Genji" is a 1,000 years old and (b) is not a product of the Occidental thinking with its linear timeline and with an end of time, is there any way that you could not been disappointed by how the novel ended? You are as much a part of your cultural hertitage as the author of "Tale of the Genji" was of hers. That the ending was unsatisfactory to you is conclusive proof to me that you understood the story.

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