Tales of the Otori by Lian Hearn

[scarletlib]

Just finished the first 4 books in this series. I don't often cry at the end of a story especially when you already know the fate of the character. But I did cry. This is a beautifully written set of novels about Feudal Japan. If you haven't read it I can highly recommend them.

[ThatPoetGuy]

1. I wasn't a fan.

Granted I only read the first book, but I found its Japan-that-never-was mildly offensive. Hearn (I forget her real name) chose to put no energy into understanding Japanese culture or Japanese history, and instead used lyrical prose to reaffirm Western stereotypes of a Japan full of ninjas and samurai. Except she doesn't call them ninjas and samurai, because that would demand cultural specificity, and it would bar her from inventing a blur of cultural projections like The Tribe.

Japanese culture has so much depth and lore that have been left untouched in fantasy novels: where are the Shinto exorcisms, the fox-worshiping shrines to Inari, the massive assortment of freaky yokai and the nudgings of the kami? Could Hearn have drawn inspiration from the Heike and the Gikeiki, as Tolkien drew inspiration from Germanic myths? Each of these brings with it a cultural specificity, because there are reasons that some people chose to worship foxes, and those reasons are real and human and part of the human experience, and part of people in a certain time and a certain place and a certain culture.

In my opinion, presenting a mist-shrouded, lyricized, Orientalized Japan made for a less interesting story and a small disservice to the world.

I do have to say, at times her prose was simply breathtaking, and though the emotions felt more like Italian opera than Genji or Mishima or Noh dramas, the emotions were pure and engaging.

[PanoramaIsland]

2. You can read Yukio Mishima without gagging yourself with a spoon,

and yet you're sensitive enough about literary messaging to detect reprehensible orientalism in Lian Hearn? That's some impressive readerly discipline. Right on.

The baked-in nutbaggity hypernationalism of Mishima makes my blood boil.

To be fair to Lian Hearn - and I must say I really love Tales of the Otori - it's not just orientalist Westerners who paint historical Japan as a misty/mystical stereotype bursting with ninja and samurai. Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima do a pretty good job of that, too, and are quite popular in Japan for it. That being said, adhering to the Lone Wolf and Cubbian stereotypes does restrict one from a substantial amount of underused mythological and classical material, as you say. I've always liked Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo for its treatment of a wide scope of Japanese history, myth and legend. He combines an obvious burning love for the material with a masterful grasp on the storytelling mechanics of comics (and an economy and purpose of line rivaling Leiji Matsumoto and Osamu Tezuka), and his output is both imminently appropriate for a YA audience and totally enjoyable for a grown-up comics artist such as myself.

But here you've come in with Genji Monogatari, and I'm turning the conversation towards historical fiction comics. Shame on me for even mentioning such trash! :D

[ThatPoetGuy]

3. PanoramaIsland, you are awesome.

Not all of Mishima contains his moonbatty themes; his _Five Modern Noh Plays_, for instance, are pretty free of the nationalist memes (aside from a monologue about modern hospital care). As a political thinker, Mishima leaves A LOT to be desired, but throughout his stories he shows a kind of Sophocles-ish ability to create tragic conflict. I've always thought it would be great if some fantasy or comics writer were to base a villain on Mishima: I imagine a steampunk wannabe-samurai, whose body dysmorphic disorder and gender preference issues drive him to try to replace his body with a cyborg body, all the while projecting his body issues onto a nationalistic vision of a risen Japan.

I have to run right now, but welcome to DU! I'm looking forward to interacting with you more deeply. Might reply to some of the other issues you raised here when time permits.

[PanoramaIsland]

4. Why thank you! You're pretty nifty yourself.

I'm flattered.
I'll have to try my hand at his Five Modern Noh Plays. Thank you for that recommendation.

I love your Mishima-as-villain idea! Such a story would be best rendered by someone like Maruo Suehiro or Usamaru Furuya, but as they both seem to have their plates full creating ridiculously awesome comics to stab at the heart of modern Japan already, I might have to play with it a bit myself (unless you mind). I'm engaged in single-page formal exercises featuring German Expressionist silent film imagery right now.