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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
Tanizaki's 'essay' (which I would argue is more an opinion piece than an essay) has some beautiful meditative points, though it just didnt quite reach the depths I was expecting. I hold Japanese culture close to my heart, so I was expecting to feel a little more connected to In Praise of Shadows.
I quite enjoyed his descriptions of such topics as: simplistic, authentic Japanese food, outdoor, mediative toilets, dim, candlelit dining and shadows as an important aspect of beauty. Though I did get a little bored of his 'everything new should be replaced with the old' repetitions, and the analysis of women's appearance, skin tone and objectification.
I was tossing and turning between 2 and 3 stars, but as it was written so long ago, by a man who was in his later years and lived a completely different life to me, I gave him a little more credit.
I quite enjoyed his descriptions of such topics as: simplistic, authentic Japanese food, outdoor, mediative toilets, dim, candlelit dining and shadows as an important aspect of beauty. Though I did get a little bored of his 'everything new should be replaced with the old' repetitions, and the analysis of women's appearance, skin tone and objectification.
I was tossing and turning between 2 and 3 stars, but as it was written so long ago, by a man who was in his later years and lived a completely different life to me, I gave him a little more credit.
I'm really not at all sure what made me pick this up. It's a book about Japanese aesthetics from the early twentieth century. The world its describing was vanishing even as he wrote it, so it's doubly alien now, and hard to imagine a world of deliberate darkness and dimness where green lipstick, black teeth and shaved eyebrows was the beauty standard for women. It's simultaneously soothing and mind-expanding.
very of its time culturally and verbally but puts forward a brilliant philosophy about the aesthetics of light and dark, great book to read whilst travelling through shadowy Japan !
funny
reflective
fast-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Me gustó esta lectura porque es una obra profunda y reflexiva sobre la estética de las sombras, como este influye en la arquitectura, artes y hasta la vida cotidiana japonesa. Es el segundo libro que leo de este autor y la verdad que me gusta como se expresa todo.
reflective
slow-paced
Going to take my next shit in the dark in honour of Tanizaki's aesthetic manifesto