Japanese Literature discussion

I suppose I knew I was in for it when “the husband” mentions (January 7th, 3rd entry) that he’s reading Faulkner’s Sanctuary. Both books seem to make an obvious appeal to what the censor’s used to call “prurient interest.” Both books made it to the screen (clearly because of the prurient interest) and both books were far from the author’s best. But Faulkner’s book was written as a relatively young man (early 30s) and Tanizaki wrote this as an old man (1956, less than a decade before his own death). So, is this an old man (the author) reflecting on sex in an unrealistic way (like Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land) or is he (clearly, the husband rather than Tanizaki) reacting to a lifetime of sexual repression?

I remember being informed (as an adult) by my mother, that my grandfather (died in 1952) had never seen my grandmother (1889-1965) nude. I also seem to recall Wallace Stegner making a similar observation in his Angle of Repose (1972, great book, but not as good as the actual letters it was drawn from). Maybe the reaction to a lifetime of quasi-Victorian sexual repression is a realistic motivation. But as an engineer, I find the references to 1950s technology interesting. I don’t quite understand the role of fluorescent lighting (the only thing I know is that it’s more efficient than incandescent light) but I remember when Polaroid Land cameras became popular (about the time I was a cub scout) and everyone knew what they were for (even the cub scouts).

The husband wasn’t as brutal as Popeye (Sanctuary) but, really, he was raping his wife. Ikuko’s diary entries make this unrealistically playful and I really don’t buy Ikuko’s voice as feminine, at least until after the husband dies.

Since I was reading Murakami’s Norwegian Wood at the same time, I found Tanizaki’s perception of voyeurism (compared with Naoko midnight reveal to Toru) interesting. It’s not really an issue of informed consent (Naoko is a little “crackers,” even if Toru doesn’t appreciate it). It’s a question of intent.

Kinshu

I’ve started reading Kinshu: Autumn Brocade (Teru Miyamoto) and am struck by how much more effectively he handles the split narrative. Normally, epistolary novels seem overly forced, but this one is coming off well (I’m about half-way through).

Kinshu was an interesting book, but does karma (its social acceptance in a cause/effect paradigm) tend to marginalize Kiyotaka (who had cerebral palsy)? When Aki wants to make Kiyotaka "normal" does she want him to accept karma, or does she want karma to go away?

Kinshu and The Key

Perhaps there is a common theme in these two books. The principal male characters (Tanizaki’s Husband, and Miyamoto’s Yasuaki) seems to think that sex is, to varying degrees, degrading to the woman; and that it is something she submits to (something she should submit to) due to her inferior position within the social hierarchy (maybe a kind of sexual 会釈, something like 19th Century Britons tipping their hats—even when they don’t have one—to a social superior).

Ikuko allows herself to get drunk enough to pass out (repeatedly) with a pretty clear idea of what her husband (and Kimura) are doing. Junior High School-Yukako is about to go off in the boat—presumably to have sex with an older man—so that he’ll stop pestering her. Hoshijima doesn’t seem to have any trouble convincing a much younger (and clearly respectable) woman to go to a hotel with him; and neither does Aki’s new husband’s student seem to shrink from a sexual relationship with her former professor. The two exceptions are Tanizaki’s Toshiko and Miyamoto’s Aki—both of whom have an elevated position in the hierarchy because of their fathers’ prominence (and neither of whom seem to have a promising sex-life). In a way, the attitude of the main male characters seems reminiscent of the attitude taken toward 慰安婦 (“comfort women”) many of whom were raped and beaten for not showing adequate deference to their inferior position in the hierarchy.