Kawabata's "House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories"
ch...@watson.ibm.com
best known work is a novel, _Snow Country_, that I haven't read. I
picked up "House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories" in my
favorite good-literature store. The three stories it contains are
powerful and disturbing pictures of alienation of various kinds; from
the Other, from the self, from life.
The first and longest story, House of the Sleeping Beauties, reminds
me of Jerzy Kosinski's "Steps". A tiny world without love or
self-knowledge is drawn in compact, lucid prose. And here and there
we find a gem, lost in the wilderness. This, for instance:
He closed his eyes, probably in nothing more than the sadness
of an old man touching the hands of a sleeping young girl.
He heard the first drops of night rain falling on the
quiet sea.
is marvelous. But also deeply disturbing: this is not a grandfather
and his granddaughter, this is an old man who has paid to spend a
night (chaste but lecherous) in bed with a young woman drugged into
insensibility. We see from this man's viewpoint (the story is in
the third person, but the viewpoint is strongly first), as he spends
a number of nights in this house, and his strange truncated relationships
with the sleeping women bring up memories and ideas from his unlovely
past.
The second story, "One Arm", is another tale, odd and surreal, of a
partial and truncated relationship. A young woman removes her right
arm, and gives it to the first-person narrator to keep for the night.
We follow him as he takes it home, speaks to it, caresses it, and
even replaces his own right arm with it. Again, a strange and
partial relationship with a young woman brings up memories and
detached inchoate emotions. Unlike "House of the Sleeping
Beauties", "One Arm" is short and almost punchy, but they are
definitely set in the same spiritual landscape.
Both "House of the Sleeping Beauties" and "One Arm" use young women
as figures of what one can be alientated from. They are romantic in
some of the medieval sense; women are a mysterious Other Country, and
in dealing with the mystery of that country, male protagonists figure
themselves. In the last story, "Of Birds and Beasts", people are
almost entirely absent. The only human characters besides the
protagonist (like "House", "Of Birds and Beasts" is a third-person
story with a first-person viewpoint) is a maid (who is almost unseen,
although crucial), and an ex-lover who is now a dancer. Detachment
from the other humans in his life is assumed, part of the background.
The body of the story is in the alienation between the man and the
birds and animals that he keeps and cares for, and ultimately
between the man and life, the man and himself. There is in the
man's keeping and tending the animals a certain longing for life,
but he comes nowhere near acknowledging that longing, or touching
that life, and the various outcomes are bleak (one would not want
to be an animal owned by this man). Or the story can be read at
another level, as actually about the relationship between the
man and his ex-lover, but seen through the lens of the animals,
because it cannot be touched directly. I'm not good at those
deep readings, though... *8)
This is not light stuff, and not escapist in the sense of escape
to an easier world. But if you are attracted by the idea of escape
into a difficult landscape, clearly drawn and spare, but disturbingly
real, you may enjoy these stories.
%A Kabawata, Yasunari
%B House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories
%T House of the Sleeping Beauties
%T One Arm
%T Of Birds and Beasts
%I Kodansha International
%C New York
%D 1980 (copyright 1969)
%G 0-87011-426-3
%P 149 pp.
- -- -
David M. Chess /
High Integrity Computing Lab / rustle
IBM Watson Research /
Jeffrey A. Del Col
In a previous article, jj...@galen.med.Virginia.EDU (John James Sesody) says:
>I thought Kawabata's most famous work was "The Master of Go"?
>"Snow Country", by the way, is a remarkable book.
>His descriptions are so, hmmm, delicately elegant...does that
>work? What is doubly wonderful, though, is that EVERYTHING
>Kawabata describes is perceived as delicate - even death and
>rape. It's going to sound rather trite, but his writing seems
>like the work of an accomplished Japanese calligrapher: just
>the right brush strokes, with just the right emphasis in the
>intended areas...it's really quite beautiful.
>
His BEAUTY AND SADNESS captures that combination of sex, death and
aestheticism better than any other of his works, IMHO.
J. Del Col
--
Jeff Del Col * "Sleeplessness is like metaphysics.
A-B College * Be there."
Philippi, WV *
* ----Charles Simic----
John James Sesody
John Wojdylo
# I'm not good at those deep readings, though... *8)
I thought your account was very good, as deep as one can get before it
becomes a wank.
# Yasunari Kawabata won the Nobel prize for literature in 1968. His
# best known work is a novel, _Snow Country_, that I haven't read. I
# picked up "House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories" in my
# favorite good-literature store. The three stories it contains are
# powerful and disturbing pictures of alienation of various kinds; from
# the Other, from the self, from life.
[...]
# This, for instance:
# He closed his eyes, probably in nothing more than the sadness
# of an old man touching the hands of a sleeping young girl.
# He heard the first drops of night rain falling on the
# quiet sea.
# is marvelous. But also deeply disturbing: this is not a grandfather
# and his granddaughter, this is an old man who has paid to spend a
# night (chaste but lecherous) in bed with a young woman drugged into
# insensibility. We see from this man's viewpoint (the story is in
# the third person, but the viewpoint is strongly first), as he spends
# a number of nights in this house, and his strange truncated relationships
# with the sleeping women bring up memories and ideas from his unlovely
# past.
# The second story, "One Arm", is another tale, odd and surreal, of a
# partial and truncated relationship. A young woman removes her right
# arm, and gives it to the first-person narrator to keep for the night.
# We follow him as he takes it home, speaks to it, caresses it, and
# even replaces his own right arm with it. Again, a strange and
# partial relationship with a young woman brings up memories and
# detached inchoate emotions.
[...]
# Both "House of the Sleeping Beauties" and "One Arm" use young women
# as figures of what one can be alientated from.
I would not focus on "women" as being something to be alienated from.
The focus is the necessity of form to "protect feelings". (See "Snow
Country".) Though one longs for "true feeling" -- a connection of
substance -- with one's lover, form keeps the feelings distant, consequently
acts of intimacy seem sterile.
In "Snow Country", the woman tells the male protagonist of the necessity
of form; he suffers for it because he wants depth. He is the blind man,
focussed on his own spirit, a spirit which sees others in his own image
rather than as separate individuals.
# They are romantic in
# some of the medieval sense; women are a mysterious Other Country, and
# in dealing with the mystery of that country, male protagonists figure
# themselves. In the last story, "Of Birds and Beasts", people are
# almost entirely absent. The only human characters besides the
# protagonist (like "House", "Of Birds and Beasts" is a third-person
# story with a first-person viewpoint) is a maid (who is almost unseen,
# although crucial), and an ex-lover who is now a dancer. Detachment
# from the other humans in his life is assumed, part of the background.
# The body of the story is in the alienation between the man and the
# birds and animals that he keeps and cares for,
Form is willed; will separates man from nature.
# and ultimately
# between the man and life, the man and himself. There is in the
# man's keeping and tending the animals a certain longing for life,
# but he comes nowhere near acknowledging that longing, or touching
# that life, ...
Participating in the world requires giving up the focus on the spirit.
Touching life, he loses his sense of beauty, and so "dies".
To the geisha who knows the ways of the world, touching beauty means death,
as she must then "feel" and allow form to collapse.
Emotion without form, however, soon spells the end of the relationship
-- the end of love. Emotions cannot exist without restraint.
# .... and the various outcomes are bleak (one would not want
# to be an animal owned by this man). Or the story can be read at
# another level, as actually about the relationship between the
# man and his ex-lover, but seen through the lens of the animals,
Forget this line, it's nonsense.
# because it cannot be touched directly. I'm not good at those
# deep readings, though... *8)
# This is not light stuff, and not escapist in the sense of escape
# to an easier world. But if you are attracted by the idea of escape
# into a difficult landscape, clearly drawn and spare, but disturbingly
# real, you may enjoy these stories.
Kawabata is one of the best.
# %A Kabawata, Yasunari
# %B House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories
# %T House of the Sleeping Beauties
# %T One Arm
# %T Of Birds and Beasts
# %I Kodansha International
# %C New York
# %D 1980 (copyright 1969)
# %G 0-87011-426-3
# %P 149 pp.
# - -- -
# David M. Chess /
# High Integrity Computing Lab / rustle
# IBM Watson Research /
john wojdylo
perth
western australia