Why I love you guys
All the individual posts have made me happy; I've been thinking about why.
Basically, I'm getting the best of two worlds: educated readers who feel no need to be responsible.
That is, all of you are making an effort to meet the text on its own terms: some of you read Japanese, others are hitting the reference works, others studied the book in school. However, because this is not a formal context, you don't feel obliged to evaluate the book on its own terms. "Genji, you're a SKANK!" sums it up nicely. You ladies are happy to discuss what the book was intended to mean and how it was intended to be read, but you don't feel obliged to suppress your reactions as modern Western readers.
Also, you're damned funny.
Basically, I'm getting the best of two worlds: educated readers who feel no need to be responsible.
That is, all of you are making an effort to meet the text on its own terms: some of you read Japanese, others are hitting the reference works, others studied the book in school. However, because this is not a formal context, you don't feel obliged to evaluate the book on its own terms. "Genji, you're a SKANK!" sums it up nicely. You ladies are happy to discuss what the book was intended to mean and how it was intended to be read, but you don't feel obliged to suppress your reactions as modern Western readers.
Also, you're damned funny.