[lit-ideas] Re: Geisha (Was: Sapir/Whorf Hypothesis)
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 22 Aug 2004 23:44:24 EDT
In a message dated 8/22/2004 10:43:12 PM Eastern Standard Time,
mccreery@xxxxxxx writes:
like other practitioners of traditional Japanese arts
are shrinking in number as the market for their services collapses into
an esoteric niche.
---
Thanks to J. McCreery for his commentary (and on the 'social' context of
'geisha'). Fascinating subject, and how the Westerners see it (cf. the musical
comedy "The Geisha").
On this subject (geisha), I wonder if anyone here read "Memoirs of a Geisha"
(If not, recall Geary, "I never read a book before reviewing it"). Below the
editorial review from amazon.com, plus a few customer ones. I don't usually
read novels and would wait for the film version (any plans in Japan?).
Cheers,
JL
----
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, by Arthur Golden.
According to Arthur Golden's absorbing first novel, the word "geisha" does
not mean "prostitute," as Westerners ignorantly assume -- it means "artisan"
or "artist." To capture the geisha experience in the art of fiction, Golden
trained as long and hard as any geisha who must master the arts of music,
dance, clever conversation, crafty battle with rival beauties, and cunning
seduction of wealthy patrons. After earning degrees in Japanese art and
history from
Harvard and Columbia--and an M.A. in English--he met a man in Tokyo who was
the illegitimate offspring of a renowned businessman and a geisha. This
meeting inspired Golden to spend 10 years researching every detail of geisha
culture, chiefly relying on the geisha Mineko Iwasaki, who spent years
charming
the very rich and famous. The result is a novel with the broad social canvas
(and love of coincidence) of _Charles Dickens_
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/Author=Charles%20Dickens/002-6770060-1806440)
and _Jane Austen_
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/Author=Jane%20Austen/002-6770060-1806440) 's
intense
attention to the nuances of erotic maneuvering. Readers experience the
entire life of a geisha, from her origins as an orphaned fishing-village girl
in
1929 to her triumphant auction of her mizuage (virginity) for a record price
as a teenager to her reminiscent old age as the distinguished mistress of the
powerful patron of her dreams. We discover that a geisha is more analogous to
a Western "trophy wife" than to a prostitute--and, as in Austen, flat-out
prostitution and early death is a woman's alternative to the repressive,
arcane
system of courtship. In simple, elegant prose, Golden puts us right in the
tearoom with the geisha; we are there as she gracefully fights for her life in
a social situation where careers are made or destroyed by a witticism, a
too-revealing (or not revealing enough) glimpse of flesh under the kimono, or
a
vicious rumor spread by a rival "as cruel as a spider." Golden's web is
finely woven, but his book has a serious flaw: the geisha's true romance rings
hollow--the love of her life is a symbol, not a character. Her villainous
geisha
nemesis is sharply drawn, but she would be more so if we got a deeper peek
into the cause of her motiveless malignity--the plight all geisha share.
Still, Golden has won the triple crown of fiction: he has created a plausible
female protagonist in a vivid, now-vanished world, and he gloriously captures
Japanese culture by expressing his thoughts in authentic Eastern metaphors.
From Library Journal
"I wasn't born and raised to be a Kyoto geisha....I'm a fisherman's daughter
from a little town called Yoroido on the Sea of Japan." How nine-year-old
Chiyo, sold with her sister into slavery by their father after their mother's
death, becomes Sayuri, the beautiful geisha accomplished in the art of
entertaining men, is the focus of this fascinating first novel.
Book Description
A literary sensation and runaway bestseller, this brilliant debut novel
tells with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism the true confessions
of
one of Japan's most celebrated geisha. Speaking to us with the wisdom of age
and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells
the story of her life as a geisha. It begins in a poor fishing village in
1929, when, as a nine-year-old girl with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken
from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. We witness her
transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and
music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup, and hair; pouring sake to reveal just
a
touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and
the money that goes with it.
In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount;
where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are
trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as
illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction--at once romantic,
erotic,
suspenseful--and completely unforgettable.
----
As a Japanese woman in US, I have been asked about geisha forso many times.
Everytime I try to explain geisha is not prostitute. Ihave read this book, and
now heard that this will be a big motion picture by Spielberg, I feel so
powerless. How could I convince people if what Sayuri and other geisha do in
this story is just like those of prostitute? Yes, they went to school and
learned many arts, but that just make these geisha looks like the prostitute
with
art degree. The author failed to show readers how these skilles and knowledge
were utilized in their life. The author did a nice try to tackle with this
sensitive subject, but PLEASE, fellow readers, read more books about Japan,
look for other infomation in any means. Try some Japanese literature by
Japanese
author. This book is a real fiction, and you can't possibly see a true
picture from only one fictional story.And this is not well-written even as a
fiction.
---
With more than a thousand reader reviews already written about this
remarkable novel, I'm sure there's nothing much more that I can add to it. But
I'd
still like to comment that this has got to be one of the best works of fiction
that I have ever read. Being a Westerner, the author is highly commended for
seeking out painstaking details on one aspect of Japanese culture that is
sadly often misunderstood, and injecting so much life into his characters that
you feel for each one of them tremendously.
Although I was never one of those people who thought of geishas as
"prostitutes" nor mere paid escorts, this book still managed to teach me a lot
of
things about their lives that I never knew before.
While reading this book, it was quite hard to believe that it wasn't actually
written by a real-life former geisha herself. I had to keep flipping to the
author's acknowledgements at the end of the book to keep reminding myself of
that fact!
If you're in the mood for a novel that would take you on a breathtaking ride
to another place and time, try this one
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