Comments | katekat1010: i have achieved book! one of two! it is only 3:20 pm!

katekat1010

i have achieved book! one of two! it is only 3:20 pm!

May 05, 2012 15:20

So, in my quest to get back on the reading horse and prepare for comps, I get to read two books a day and then remind myself of some of the other theory. Finished one. Here is the write up (You'll note this is the second Abe Kobo book because classics!prof had read it, not the book I prefer of Abe's).

And, to pimp it, I made a graphic.

( Read more... )

japanese literature, countdown to comps, japanese sci fi

Comments 3

samanthahirr May 6 2012, 03:27:08 UTC

My brain is REELING from this entry. Thank you for presenting the detailed analysis, because I couldn't fathom the intent behind the piece coming at it with zero cultural reference points. Even now, I'm still staring at the themes, thinking...whut?

As for the mirror imagery, I'll take a wild stab in the dark that it's to connect with HERSELF as a person. Perhaps to be able to connect with others, you must first know who YOU are. Best guess.

Keep reading, you're going to be SO ready for comps, I know it!

katekat1010 May 7 2012, 20:04:24 UTC

LOLZ, i'm glad i could help! there are actually passages on labor and laboring bodies in the text so the analysis isn't too culturally coded but more a product of the things I didn't summarize with plot summary, but still, yeah, it's a toughy. I mean, the thing is that Abe is writing this in the postwar when the entire country has been decimated (and was told to labor in the war for ideological reasons that never got "results") and so I think there is something about that too that could be said, but I also just kept thinking about Marxism and alienation of labor.

And huh, interesting idea! Especially because she is the one who wants to look in, not him. He looks at a fragment of mirror at one point and can't recognize himself. *ponders* thanks lady!

and oh, i hope you're right! Today was history of sexuality, which is *much* harder to get through.

samanthahirr May 7 2012, 20:37:07 UTC

I've read Foucault's work on the Panopticon, Discipline & Punish, which is fabulous reading if you're looking for support for your paper on the condemning eyes of society acting as social Darwinism in Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure. For such a targeted purpose, Foucault can be DELIGHTFULLY SATISFYING. (So many quotable passages, which one to choose?)

I don't know about reading straight through, though. YOU ARE A STRONG WOMAN!