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staci_taylor's review
2.0
Supposedly, the Tale of Heike is the most notorious of stories in Ancient Japan... for me, it was a long read with dreary, confusing, and tedious Japanese names!! I enjoyed the Tale of Genji way more, even if its not as famous. This was written by one of the first female writers to take over literacy in a male world, but it definitely feels like a man wrote it -- props to her. I loved the intruding poems that randomly appeared... thought those were very beautiful and demonstrated the Buddhist morals that influenced the awesome Heian period.
at1130's review
3.0
Whenever I go into reading a work of ancient literature, I just assume I'll hate it.
I always forget that ancient literature almost ALWAYS reads like the wildest soap opera that ABC regrets never airing. The Young and the Restless who?
Genji was the original soft fuckboy. Yeah he cries and dances and writes poetry and shit but like he also sleeps with everyone and their mother and also his own stepmother. He causes a carriage battle between rich girls. Ladies, ladies, come the fuck on, you're all so much better than this idiot pedophile anyway, he's not worth ruining your pretty carriage and getting literally possessed. Now that I think about it this is basically Gossip Girl but set in premodern Japan and insane. What a way to birth unto the world the concept of The Novel.
(Why did I have to write my paper on the portrayal of nature in premodern Japanese lit? Guaranteed that paper would have been a masterpiece if it could have been about Genji being the OG soft fuckboy. If I ever go into postgraduate studies of literature I'm 100% writing my thesis about the evolution of the fuckboy in literature omg)
(I only read Genji bc my eyes would glaze over and crack into little bitty pieces and fall out and I would die if I did all the reading that's assigned to me every week but I'm marking the whole damn thing as finished anyway bc I'll be damned if the trillion years I spent reading Genji doesn't count for something towards my challenge!!)
I always forget that ancient literature almost ALWAYS reads like the wildest soap opera that ABC regrets never airing. The Young and the Restless who?
Genji was the original soft fuckboy. Yeah he cries and dances and writes poetry and shit but like he also sleeps with everyone and their mother and also his own stepmother. He causes a carriage battle between rich girls. Ladies, ladies, come the fuck on, you're all so much better than this idiot pedophile anyway, he's not worth ruining your pretty carriage and getting literally possessed. Now that I think about it this is basically Gossip Girl but set in premodern Japan and insane. What a way to birth unto the world the concept of The Novel.
(Why did I have to write my paper on the portrayal of nature in premodern Japanese lit? Guaranteed that paper would have been a masterpiece if it could have been about Genji being the OG soft fuckboy. If I ever go into postgraduate studies of literature I'm 100% writing my thesis about the evolution of the fuckboy in literature omg)
(I only read Genji bc my eyes would glaze over and crack into little bitty pieces and fall out and I would die if I did all the reading that's assigned to me every week but I'm marking the whole damn thing as finished anyway bc I'll be damned if the trillion years I spent reading Genji doesn't count for something towards my challenge!!)
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