≡ Read Free A Dark Night Passing Naoya Shiga Edward McClellan 9784770006912 Books

A Dark Night Passing Naoya Shiga Edward McClellan 9784770006912 Books

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A Dark Night Passing Naoya Shiga Edward McClellan 9784770006912 Books

Not as a novel, but as a mature insight into the female mind of a certain level of development, is "A Dark Night's Passing" relevant and, in its way, glorious. This selfish, myopic, arch-bourgeoise narrative is unfeeling toward all of its characters save the narrator, for whom the minutiae of the idle rich are cosmic burdens. As in Jane Austen's work, the misery of the poor is invisible, and the tragedy of the middle classes appears only when useful to, briefly, lend the narrator an air of benevolence--e.g., the narrator speaks directly to a craftsman, thereby lending him social standing for a half-page. The novel's story arc reaches its apex when the narrator believes she has finally won a great battle against her husband by giving him a minor social slight; in essence, by her sixties, she believes she has achieved meaning in her life because she finally got the last word in an argument.

Western media pushed this work as a proof of the existence of feminism in non-western cultures, but now that a few years have gone by, conceptions of class struggle should have made this book deplorable even to those who would've otherwise loved the childish emotional contest of the mentally-crippled narratrix. Ironically, the novel may be most enjoyable to men, who will see that Shiga accidentally portrayed her antagonist--the narrator's husband Yukitomo--as the silent protagonist, who ably managed society and his cruel, shallow wife throughout a difficult lifetime, while beset by legions of idling selfish idiots who did not understand the luxury which his constant sacrifices afforded them. Yukitomo is represented as a villain for trying to protect Japan from the influence of westernized agents provocateurs, or "liberals." This text, accordingly, won widespread attention in the West after the nuclear attacks on, and invasion of, Japan, when western interests were keen to forcibly deconstruct Japanese society into nihilist consumerism. Now, though, historical perspective can better reveal, even to the most currently-liberal inhabitants of Terra, the noxious colonialist mindset which pervades Shiga's work. (This essay will eventually continue; try an internet search of "High Arka Shiga.")


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A Dark Night Passing Naoya Shiga Edward McClellan 9784770006912 Books Reviews

Shiga Naoya is one of Japan's most revered writers, despite writing very little from 1937 until his death in 1971. This book, "A Dark Night's Passing", is his only full-length novel, and he wrote other than this a few classic short stories. The novel was translated by Edwin McClellan and reads very fluently. Shiga is revered as a master stylist who was "the god of autobiographical fiction", as Shiga is known in Japan. This novel is divided into four parts, and took the novelist over sixteen years to complete. Shiga only finished it in 1937. The novel is an account of Tokit' Kensaku, a young aspiring writer who had been living an undisciplined life and who tries to achieve his ambition while trying to find a new opening for himself. He faces a dark past (a skeleton in his family's closet) whilst all the time trying to compose something of note to prove his worth. Well may the reader ask why Shiga wrote only one novel in his entire lifespan. Perhaps it is the demand of a style with vast clarity and non-pretension. This novel is good enough to merit a "must-read" status.
Not as a novel, but as a mature insight into the female mind of a certain level of development, is "A Dark Night's Passing" relevant and, in its way, glorious. This selfish, myopic, arch-bourgeoise narrative is unfeeling toward all of its characters save the narrator, for whom the minutiae of the idle rich are cosmic burdens. As in Jane Austen's work, the misery of the poor is invisible, and the tragedy of the middle classes appears only when useful to, briefly, lend the narrator an air of benevolence--e.g., the narrator speaks directly to a craftsman, thereby lending him social standing for a half-page. The novel's story arc reaches its apex when the narrator believes she has finally won a great battle against her husband by giving him a minor social slight; in essence, by her sixties, she believes she has achieved meaning in her life because she finally got the last word in an argument.

Western media pushed this work as a proof of the existence of feminism in non-western cultures, but now that a few years have gone by, conceptions of class struggle should have made this book deplorable even to those who would've otherwise loved the childish emotional contest of the mentally-crippled narratrix. Ironically, the novel may be most enjoyable to men, who will see that Shiga accidentally portrayed her antagonist--the narrator's husband Yukitomo--as the silent protagonist, who ably managed society and his cruel, shallow wife throughout a difficult lifetime, while beset by legions of idling selfish idiots who did not understand the luxury which his constant sacrifices afforded them. Yukitomo is represented as a villain for trying to protect Japan from the influence of westernized agents provocateurs, or "liberals." This text, accordingly, won widespread attention in the West after the nuclear attacks on, and invasion of, Japan, when western interests were keen to forcibly deconstruct Japanese society into nihilist consumerism. Now, though, historical perspective can better reveal, even to the most currently-liberal inhabitants of Terra, the noxious colonialist mindset which pervades Shiga's work. (This essay will eventually continue; try an internet search of "High Arka Shiga.")