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A review by angethology
Hell Screen by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
5.0
I've come to realize that some of the most impactful books to me tend to be on the shorter side, and Hell Screen is definitely one of them. Comprising two stories the book masterfully interweaves the darkest side and the unthinkable of human nature, with the supernatural.
The first story, "Hell Screen," spotlights an extremely talented painter, Yoshihide who boasts to be the best painter in the country, and is at the behest of the Lord of Horikawa. He often commissions Yoshihide to make the most breathtaking paintings — ones that highlight the beauty of ugliness. This includes a large project that depicts Hell in its full fury. But the painter's arrogance and infatuation with his potential magnus opus becomes ultra disturbing and comes at a hefty price.
I particularly love dark fiction that explores the concept of beauty in contrast to ugliness, and how they synthesize well to either produce the most disturbing thing to humans, or the complete opposite. Everyone has their "ugly" side, and this story hyperbolizes that in a way that underscores the relation between the surreal and reality. The line becomes blurry, and art further allows our imagination to ascend (or descend, rather) to the point where our humanity is scarcely in tact. Akutagawa's descriptions of Yoshihide's transformation are truly horrific yet mesmerizing, and the ending culminates in a plot twist that concludes where his priorities lie as an artist and a human being.
"In a sense, the hell in his painting was the hell into which Yoshihide himself, the greatest painter in the realm, was doomed one day to fall."
The second story, "The Spider's Thread," focuses on a criminal in Hell who's been given a second chance at redemption after committing a small act of kindness. But as the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished, and his chance of escaping Hell seems to be narrowing, he suspects. It's a short but dark fable foregrounding the concept of selflessness, and ironically self-sabotaging due to one's selfishness.
"All was silent as the grave, and when a faint sound did break the stillness, it was the feeble sigh of a sinner."
Really impressed with the lovely, detailed prose that somehow doesn't meander, and I'll be reading more of Akutagawa's works.
The first story, "Hell Screen," spotlights an extremely talented painter, Yoshihide who boasts to be the best painter in the country, and is at the behest of the Lord of Horikawa. He often commissions Yoshihide to make the most breathtaking paintings — ones that highlight the beauty of ugliness. This includes a large project that depicts Hell in its full fury. But the painter's arrogance and infatuation with his potential magnus opus becomes ultra disturbing and comes at a hefty price.
I particularly love dark fiction that explores the concept of beauty in contrast to ugliness, and how they synthesize well to either produce the most disturbing thing to humans, or the complete opposite. Everyone has their "ugly" side, and this story hyperbolizes that in a way that underscores the relation between the surreal and reality. The line becomes blurry, and art further allows our imagination to ascend (or descend, rather) to the point where our humanity is scarcely in tact. Akutagawa's descriptions of Yoshihide's transformation are truly horrific yet mesmerizing, and the ending culminates in a plot twist that concludes where his priorities lie as an artist and a human being.
"In a sense, the hell in his painting was the hell into which Yoshihide himself, the greatest painter in the realm, was doomed one day to fall."
The second story, "The Spider's Thread," focuses on a criminal in Hell who's been given a second chance at redemption after committing a small act of kindness. But as the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished, and his chance of escaping Hell seems to be narrowing, he suspects. It's a short but dark fable foregrounding the concept of selflessness, and ironically self-sabotaging due to one's selfishness.
"All was silent as the grave, and when a faint sound did break the stillness, it was the feeble sigh of a sinner."
Really impressed with the lovely, detailed prose that somehow doesn't meander, and I'll be reading more of Akutagawa's works.