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/lit/ - Literature

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5689241 No.5689241 [Reply] [Original]

Is Japanese literature generally liked around here?

>> No.5689244

unfortunately yes

>> No.5689271

>>5689244
*naturally

>> No.5689542

Where would be a good place to start with Japanese literature? Should I learn Japanese or just read a translation? Never read anything Japanese before.

>> No.5689547

>>5689542
the sticky. whatever you want

>> No.5689550

>>5689542
The Makioka Sisters

>> No.5689555
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5689555

>>5689542
Here's our chart.

I always recommend Akutagawa's Rashomon and Other Stories paired with Mishima's Patriotism for modern Japanese lit.

>>5689241
I like it very much; it used to be more liked here. There's a few of us who study it in university. I just ordered about a dozen secondary works to hold me out for the next month.

>> No.5689650
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5689650

>>5689542

>> No.5690086

I like Haruki Basedakami

>> No.5690167

>>5689241

Is that David Foster Wallace?

>> No.5690367

>>5689542
No you dont have to learn a language to read a fucking book

>> No.5690638

>>5689241
Of course our favorite is The Infinite Jest of Haruhi Suzumiya

>> No.5690679

Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Kenzaburo Oe, Kobo Abe, yes Haruki Murakami too. I love the way Japanese translates into English, how subtle and succinct it come out.

>> No.5690693

>>5689555
Do you have other charts like that but for other countries?

>> No.5691380

>>5690693
I wamt this as well

>> No.5691382

>>5689542
Start with the Greeks.

>> No.5691491
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5691491

>>5690693

A bunch on the wiki.

On topic though: Natsume is comfy as shit. If you haven't yet, I fully recommend taking a nice warm bath and working through a book of his.

>> No.5693147

>>5689241
Mishima alone makes it worth it.

>> No.5693154
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5693154

read this a week ago and it was damn good

>> No.5693165
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5693165

>>5691491
>comfy is a buzzword for good

>> No.5693170

>>5693165
>buzzword
no you autist
comfy is a word to describe something as easy, agreeable, or pleasant

>> No.5693180

>>5693165

comfy just signifies an aesthetic dimension of comfort

I swear any time you 4chan nerds don't understand a word you just say it's a buzzword

>> No.5693394

What type of nuances are common in Japanese literature? Are there any classifiable similarities in Japanese works?

>> No.5693424

>>5693394
Yeah, being total shit.

>> No.5693440

>>5693394
In classic literature, lots of honor and loyalty

In more modern stuff like in Soseki's or Akutagawa's stuff it's often about the confusion caused by the end of the Meiji era and the rise of Western influence

A general glum moodiness in many Japanese books

A Kafkaesque "un-interpretability" like in much Abe's work, echoed in Haruki Murakami's work

In many contemporary novels, violence for the "shock" value as with Ryu Murakami or whoever wrote "Snake and Earrings"

>> No.5693455

>>5693394
I posted this on another chan the other day, but you ask about the same question - what "themes" are common.

During the Meiji period there was a lot of mimicry and Realism (Flaubert was big); Taisho was a big point for radical works and those experimental (from genre fiction to Surrealism), post-war tends toward bleak and existential, then pomo like the rest of the world. Though that's one side, and ignores whole swathes.

Pre-modern and before saw just as huge a variety of "themes"… Edo had everything from fanfiction to confessional to parody, and mostly concerned the "floating world" and historical reference. I don't know terribly much about the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, but most of the major collections of folklore, the records of battles and figures, and the entirety of Japanese theater saw development (as did the personal essay). Heian was the big start of their literature; you could be general and say the themes centered on such aspects of nature, impermanence, courtly life and religion. Lots of travel diaries, poetry was rampant.

The general gist of it is concern with the transitory, nature and those things aesthetically sound, isolation and alienation.

>> No.5693470

>>5693440
>>5693455
Thank you!

>> No.5693544
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5693544

I recently finished "American Stories" by Nagai Kafu and it's been my favorite of any Japanese author by far. I've ordered two of his other novels and a second copy of the aforementioned. Of all the threads I've seen about Japanese lit, not once have I come across the name.

>>5689650
Is there a readable translation of this book? The one I got from the Japanese lit zip was indigestible.

>> No.5693556

>>5693544
He's included in the chart; another /lit/izen and I read American Stories a few years ago. What chapters did you most like?

I don't think there's been another English translation of Snow Country besides Seidensticker's. I haven't heard any plans of other people making another either; he's been the English voice of Kawabata forever.