30 November 2005

Talk & Lit

It may sound obvious, but I decided now would be a great time to learn about Japanese literature, and I mean more modern stuff than Basho. So I checked out a few women writers at the library (English translations of course). All this is generalization, because I've only read 2 books so far. But even though there is a 20-year difference in their publication dates, each book had a similar tone: dark and mysterious, with the main characters feeling trapped and melancholy from some force you can't quite pin down. At the same time, though, the characters are fully aware of all the beauty in life and love. Each author said things that immediately made me think, "I want to write that down and remember it forever." (I have read "Kitchen" and "Betty-San.")

One quote in particular I really wanted to share. A Japanese woman and her husband moved to Australia, and the way she describes the language barrier is EXACTLY the way I feel:

"How strange it was to hear words emerge in a language not that of her thoughts...[but] at the same time she made surprising discovery: that for most day-to-day purposes she really didn't need language, for her lack of English posed few difficulties. How oddly insubstantial words turned out to be! The remarks exchanged regularly over tea or cocktails weren't words, she concluded, but a succession of polite noises. When she lived in Tokyo, her everyday conversations had had just as little weight, and yet it wasn't until she'd encountered them in a different language that she noticed how slight -- and monotonous -- they could be." ~ "Betty-San," Michiko Yamamoto

I didn't feel this in France because, well, I could speak in that country.

And then an (American) friend shared this Japanese proverb with me: "Words are the root of all evil." Really, I think fear is the root of all evil. But unless you're trying to create something (literature), usually words just spew out and make a big mess. Despite how much I like to write, and blab on this blog, I'm starting to think that actions are much more elegant. Maybe that's why I wanted to join Maxwell. You didn't have to make small-talk at the parties, you just danced.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Money, so they say, is the root of all evil today.

Mimi said...

I think vainity is the root of all evil.