Essays on Literature

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Minae Mizumura / Personal Novel: from left to right

I've read "Shi Shosetsu (Personal novel): from left to right" (1995). The reason I read this novel now is that her new novel, "Honkaku Shosetsu", was published, but it was only available in hardcover and too expensive for me. So, I decided to rent it from the library, and bought her second novel which was available in the paperback.

I am interested in her works because her first novel "Zoku Meian (Lightness/Darkness continued???)"(1990) was a surprising accomplishment. It was a very ambitious work to complete the unfinished work of Souseki Natsume. It was very well written as if Natsume would have written that way. "Meian" is finally completed, but the problems in the novel are mostly left unsolved. This is the way life is, and it seems to be the most likely conclusion that Natsume would have given. Japanese readers, please read this. I say, this is not a parody, but this is a Literature! (But as I checked the availability in the Amazon, it is out of print now.)

So, Personal Novel from left to right.

The personal novel is the Japanese genre of the novel which a writer mainly writes about himself/herself as a novel. It is very close to the diary or memoir, but it still can be a fiction. We don't know the difference among them. I am not sure why this genre of the novel became popular in Japan. As Mizumura wrote Zoku Meian in a Natsume's writing style of Meiji era, she followed the Japanese tradition of personal novel, which was popular in Taisho and Showa era. However, her writing style is in the bilingual. She wrote this novel in Japanese/English mixture style.

Minae Mizumura and the heroine in this novel, her name is also Minae, lived in America for twenty years since 12 years old. She wrote about the cultural identity problem she faced. She loves Japanese culture and Japanese literatures very much, but she was in America. She was struggling very hard to solve the identity problem. Finally, she seemed to accept the situation as it is. As you might guess from my former diary, I am VERY sympathized with her position.

By the way, this writing is very "toward interpretation". I guess the personal novel is very toward interpretation by its nature. It is hard to read it "against interpretation."

(5/October/2002)

Minae Mizumura / Honkaku Shosetsu

I've read Honkaku Shosetsu (2002), the third novel of Minae Mizumura.

It is a novel like Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights". It is a story about a strong and strange love between a man and a woman. The story proceeds in complex time and place, from 1950s to 1990s, and in Karuizawa and Tokyo in Japan, and in New York and the West Coast in the U.S.

This was what I knew before I read the novel. Yes, that's true. But this is much more than it. This is the truly romantic novel like the title suggests, Honkaku Shosetsu, A Novel. Mizumura suggests this is a novel like the classical novel written in the 18th or 19th century. At the same time, by titling it, she is also introducing critical view about the novel. How is it possible to write the "novel" at this time, particularly in Japanese, where the tradition of novel is deeply connected with Shi Shosetsu, autobiographical novel? She thinks the "reality" of the Japanese novel depends on the "reality" of the real story which the author really experienced. If the novel is to show the alternative reality of imagination, Japanese tradition of Shi Shosetsu is against the notion of the novel. In this novel, Mizumura tries to recapture the power of the reality of the imagination.

However, the situation is more complex. Actually, this novel is about the crazy love, and it is also about the story about "the story of crazy love". The story is not told from the third person's view, but it is told by several speakers, including the author herself. The speakers seem to be all surprised and fascinated by novel-like story which they experienced. They are wondering how this was possible in the real world.

The novel starts with the author's autobiographical memory about the man called Taro. The author herself wrote the story about Taro from her point of view. This is also written as a continuation of her second novel, Shi Shosetsu (1995). One day, one Japanese man came to see her in the U.S. to tell her the story about Taro. He happened to hear that story from Fumiko, the main speaker of this novel. He was deeply moved by the story, and began to feel unreal about the reality around him. He quitted his job and went to the U.S.., and told the story to the author, Mizumura. The story tellers in this novel all seem to be released by telling their stories.

This novel stands at the edge of the reality of Shi Shosetsu and the reality of the fiction. It is the power of imagination, and healing by story telling.

I don't read novels a lot, but I think this is one of the greatest achievements of contemporary Japanese litereature.

(16/November/2002)

Pride and Prejudice / The Pleasure of Reading

As you might guess from my selection of "the records of the year", I am a little bit tired of following the musical trends of today. It looks to me most of music today is similar to some music of the past. For me it is better to hear something closer to the "originals". Likewise, I seldom read new books today. I don't have an enough time to read, so I mainly read classic books.

Recently, I read Pride and Prejudice (1813) of Jane Austen for the first time. I read it because Minae Mizumura recommends it, and because it is the "original" idea of the movies, You've Got Mail (1998) and Bridget Jones's Diary (2001). (Yes, as for movie, I sometimes see the recent, "commercial" movies... ) The influence of Pride and Prejudice on these movies were very obvious. Both movies are stories about the man with pride and the woman who misunderstands him by prejudice. There are some "quotations" from original in the movies. In You've Got Mail, Meg Ryan reads Pride and Prejudice, and recommends it to Tom Hanks. In Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Colin Firth plays the role of Mark Darcy, whose name came from the hero of Pride and Prejudice. Moreover, Colin Firth plays Mr. Darcy in BBC TV program Pride and Prejudice (1995), which I haven't seen yet,

The impression I got from the novel is that this is somehow similar to the novels of Souseki Natsume. The world of Jane Austen is limited to the everyday life, and her novel is based on the everyday conversation. With writing everyday things in a witty way, she made the basis of modern English novel. This is similar to the situation of Souseki. He also wrote novels with everyday conversations. Souseki studied English literature in England, and he praised Jane Austen. So, it might be natural. But I've never thought that he was influenced by Jane Austen or English literature, I thought that he didn't like England and he was rather influenced by Chinese literature.

What looked funny was the commentary of the translator. While he emphasizes the modernity of Pride and Prejudice, he also mentions about pre-modernity of it; the novel is basically the happy-end story, it might lack the inner depth. He continues to write that it is not the fault of Jane Austen. It was early 19th century; the story ends up with happy marriage was usual, and the story starts with marriage was the later discovery etc... Ah, this person is also looking for the "meaning".

I think I couldn't have enjoyed her novel if I read this when I was younger. I also would have searched for the inner meaning and deeper insight. Now, I am reading it just for reading pleasure. Yes, I have to read another Austen, Emma, now! (And I have to read Pride and Prejudice in original English version... The best part of this novel seems to exist in writing style, not in the story. Ah... but it is a long novel. )

( 22/December/2002)

Sasameyuki and Jane Austen

I read Sasameyuki (The Makioka Sisters, 1947) of Junichiro Tanizaki. For my surprise, it reminds me of Pride and Prejudice (1813) of Jane Austen. There are many similarities between two novels:

1. They are stories of the sisters which end with the happy marriage.

Pride and Prejudice is the story of five sisters. Sasameyuki is the story of four sisters. Both are the stories of the families that are relatively wealthy, but daughters cannot maintain their standard of living unless they get married with wealthy men. Both stories end in happy wedding of the heroines. The youngest sisters in both stories are troublemakers. They get married in scandalous ways. And men of sense settle things out of court. Yes, even though they are stories of sisters, their world is controlled invisibly by generous men. Don't complain that this is the men's world after all. It was the world as it was. And the world is really well written in the view of women.

2. They are both written during the wartime.

Pride and Prejudice was written during the time of Napoleon war in Europe, which was the World War in the early 19th century. Sasameyuki was written during the time of the World War 2. And it is astonishing that the wars did not leave almost anything on these novels! In Sasameyuki, the war outside of Japan is sometimes told in the novels, but people don't think that Japan starts the war soon. The story ends in 1941, just before the Japan-America war started. So, we have to imagine what will happen to the people in the novel. But it is rather a weak point of the novel. The novel basically describe the story about marriage and pre-war ordinary life of Japanese people. Pride and Prejudice is more thorough. There is almost no reflection of the war in the story. (Troops sometimes move their places. This may be because of the war in the Europe. But in the novel, the military people seem to be just playing with girls.) What strength they have to ignore the war outside and write such peaceful stories! This is the real strength of the real writers.

3. They are both written in a humorous and behavioristic-psychological way.

I think this is the most important similarity of two novels. I think Pride and Prejudice was written in an anti-romantic perspective. Jane Austen was not sympathetic to the people who fell in love too deep and forgot their considerations to the others. She mentioned about the mind inside, but her way of describing it was somehow behavioristic. People in her novels behave automatically based on their habit and common knowledge of the time. They sometime don't think by themselves. This makes her novel a comedy. Even though her way of observing people are accurate, she is not critical. She loved those ordinary people because everyone has some small defects. She wrote about them with humor. And this type of attitude is also seen in Sasameyuki of Tanizaki.

It is very surprising to find these similarities in two novels because the characteristics of two writers are very different. Did Tanizaki write Sasameyuki under the influence of Jane Austen? It doesn't seem to be likely. But I have to think that way. (I don't know anyone has ever pointed out similarities between two novels. Please let me know if there is such a study.) When reading Tanizaki's other novels, I find more aesthetic and sensual world. Reading Tanizaki is full of pleasure. But this pleasure is not simple; it is a pleasure of tracing the complex pleats of text. Sasameyuki includes these features of Tanizaki, but it is basically a very pleasant reading pleasure very close to Jane Austen.

One more interesting thing about Sasameyuki is that approach to Japanese culture is not very complex. When reading Tanizaki's novel or essay on Japan, I have to recognize cynical, almost malicious, inner meanings. For example, In Praise of Shadows (1934) explains the beauty of Japanese culture. He argued that it laid in shadows. But the way he discussed makes me doubt if he really thought that way. He seems to be attracted by the beauty of shadows , but he also seems to hate it. His attitude toward Japanese culture was a kind of exoticism. Exoticism towards deformity. On the other hand, there is little ambivalence towards Japanese culture in Sasameyuki. There is still an exoticism toward Kansai culture, but his way of writing is positive. It may sometimes includes some irony, but it stays in humor, does not go to malice.

Sasameyuki is sometimes regarded the most important work of Tanizaki. Maybe, it is understandable for foreign readers because it has a world literature characteristics like Pride and Prejudice. But it seems to me that it is a little different from his typical novels. I have to re-read other Tanizaki's novel to find similarity with Sasameyuki and Jane Austen.

(16/November/2003)

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