Comments | reading_genji: Genji the cipher (through C.9)

jonquil in reading_genji

Genji the cipher (through C.9)

Jan 07, 2006 11:40

I have been skipping ahead in the book (shame!), and I've been trying to think why I find Genji himself so hard to get a grip on. Murasaki and Aoi and his poor dead wife are all clear in my head; Genji remains a mystery ( Read more... )

tr:tyler, ref:society, book general, ch09

Comments 4

issen4 January 8 2006, 00:28:30 UTC

I think part of his dismay is that she doesn't hide the results of her reaction to him--it spoils the script that he has internalized: it isn't poetic, it isn't graceful, and it certainly isn't the grand scene of a successful seduction he had in mind.

rachelmanija January 8 2006, 00:31:19 UTC

I have been wondering if Genji's lack of introspection is part of what makes him the perfect Heian gentleman (moved to tears by a sunset, but runs all over everyone in his life), or if it's because the author is so impressed by him that naturally he never thinks he's doing anything wrong, because anything he does must be OK.

That being said, he was developing a nice little guilty conscience over cheating on Murasaki in the last chapter I read.

rachelmanija January 10 2006, 13:23:14 UTC

I think I'd have a hard time believing that the author's really that impressed with him. Especially in the later chapters, she seems to undercut him like mad ( ... )

kate_nepveu January 8 2006, 16:06:48 UTC

Yes--until very recently in my reading, Genji thinks he ought to have whatever he wants (even, or especially, if he isn't supposed to have it), and the idea that he shouldn't or other people might have different opinions is really out of his conception.

He does seem, as Rachel points out, to be a bit guilty over cheating on Murasaki, but I don't know whether that's actually going to go anywhere. Murasaki's distress gets dropped like it never happened, after all.