Genji, you skank!
I bought the Royall Tyler edition so that I could join in with the cool kids. It's a very helpful edition; not only does it have footnotes, it has sidebar vignettes from Heian woodcuts illustrating sidelocks, blinds, and such.
I got to the crucial Murasaki chapter. Have I got this right? Genji finds his best friend's lover, a lover for whom Genji knows To No Chujo is searching unsuccessfully. He seduces said lover. When she dies unexpectedly, Genji kidnaps her child, his best friend's long-sought daughter, in order to marry her himself.
GYS! Or, in other words, isn't it interesting that Genji's own sexual needs are seen as taking precedence over the obligations of friendship. In general, Heian Japan sexual mores have their own double standard: a lady cannot consent, therefore a gentleman must force her, and judges her character by the vigor of her resistance. How tricky it must have been, assuming one were interested, to resist enough to remain interesting but not so much as to become annoying. In any case, in a Victorian novel Genji would be deeply ashamed of putting his own interests ahead of his friend's; indeed, in the right sort of novel, he might nobly renounce the child's company because his friendship came first.
[c.2 "The Broom Tree"]
In other news, I am reminded again that I would never fit into Heian society because of, among other things, my habit of eating garlic, and not even for medicinal reasons. I wonder if there was any delicate and mannerly way for a lady to warn a gentleman she'd eaten garlic, or if the Aide of Ceremonial was just making an excuse?
I got to the crucial Murasaki chapter. Have I got this right? Genji finds his best friend's lover, a lover for whom Genji knows To No Chujo is searching unsuccessfully. He seduces said lover. When she dies unexpectedly, Genji kidnaps her child, his best friend's long-sought daughter, in order to marry her himself.
GYS! Or, in other words, isn't it interesting that Genji's own sexual needs are seen as taking precedence over the obligations of friendship. In general, Heian Japan sexual mores have their own double standard: a lady cannot consent, therefore a gentleman must force her, and judges her character by the vigor of her resistance. How tricky it must have been, assuming one were interested, to resist enough to remain interesting but not so much as to become annoying. In any case, in a Victorian novel Genji would be deeply ashamed of putting his own interests ahead of his friend's; indeed, in the right sort of novel, he might nobly renounce the child's company because his friendship came first.
[c.2 "The Broom Tree"]
In other news, I am reminded again that I would never fit into Heian society because of, among other things, my habit of eating garlic, and not even for medicinal reasons. I wonder if there was any delicate and mannerly way for a lady to warn a gentleman she'd eaten garlic, or if the Aide of Ceremonial was just making an excuse?