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Meme time!
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mscongeniality:
* Grab the nearest book.
* Open the book to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.
"Aoi could hear that she folded and unfolded the gray-paper notes, reciting the poems to herself in the dark."
The Exile Way by Ann Woodward, which I got today via paperbackswap.com and haven't started yet. Mystery set in Heian Japan. :)
The second-closest book is also interesting:
"When a girl is hired to a restaurant she first comes from her house to the guild office, and then goes to the restaurant escorted by a man of the office; the man is called hakoya, and carries the samisen of girls."
The girl in question is a geisha, and the book is The Nightside of Japan by T. Fujimoto, published....oh, a long time ago. There's a sticker covering a previous call number on the flyleaf that has a date of 1915, and it's a second edition so I'm not sure when the original was published. It's fascinating in that it's a Japanese native explaining Japan - or at least certain aspects of Japan - to foreigners, and it's in pretty much his own words: the English is at times a little off, and the publishers have a note in the front saying that they'd considered having it edited, but "on consideration decided that revision would have destroyed much of its quaint charm and oriental atmosphere." While that is a bit* patronizing, I don't mind the result at all, because it means that we have the author's own words, instead of someone else's interpretation of those words.
It's about more than just geisha, too: it's about all sorts of nightlife in Japanese cities at the turn of the century, from bath-houses to fireworks, to markets and card parties.
--
* For values of "a bit" that mean "extremely."
mscongeniality:* Grab the nearest book.
* Open the book to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.
"Aoi could hear that she folded and unfolded the gray-paper notes, reciting the poems to herself in the dark."
The Exile Way by Ann Woodward, which I got today via paperbackswap.com and haven't started yet. Mystery set in Heian Japan. :)
The second-closest book is also interesting:
"When a girl is hired to a restaurant she first comes from her house to the guild office, and then goes to the restaurant escorted by a man of the office; the man is called hakoya, and carries the samisen of girls."
The girl in question is a geisha, and the book is The Nightside of Japan by T. Fujimoto, published....oh, a long time ago. There's a sticker covering a previous call number on the flyleaf that has a date of 1915, and it's a second edition so I'm not sure when the original was published. It's fascinating in that it's a Japanese native explaining Japan - or at least certain aspects of Japan - to foreigners, and it's in pretty much his own words: the English is at times a little off, and the publishers have a note in the front saying that they'd considered having it edited, but "on consideration decided that revision would have destroyed much of its quaint charm and oriental atmosphere." While that is a bit* patronizing, I don't mind the result at all, because it means that we have the author's own words, instead of someone else's interpretation of those words.
It's about more than just geisha, too: it's about all sorts of nightlife in Japanese cities at the turn of the century, from bath-houses to fireworks, to markets and card parties.
--
* For values of "a bit" that mean "extremely."
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Let no one say I do not follow directions to the letter!
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... yes I may have been more inclined to post this sentence because the closest book is something rather highbrow. Maybe.
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Robert E. Howard's Lord of Samarkand, and other adventure tales of the Old Orient: "A notable concourse of chiefs, for these times of truce," he murmured, half to himself.
Al Franken's The Truth (with jokes): Major speakers at the 2004 Republican National convention used conflation words* 17,800 percent more frequently than they mentioned Osama Bin Laden.
*: Conflation words are words used to conflate 9/11 with Iraq: Saddam Hussein, Iraq, terrorism, terrorists, terror, and/or 9/11. Bin Laden was mentioned once during a major speech by George Pataki, and once during a minor speech by Dennis Hastert.
Casshern
You have to watch the Japanese move "Casshern" -- it is full of the crack! Starts out a perfectly reasonable mad scientist Frankenstein movie and then a mechanical lightning bolt from space injects it with the crack.
Crack I say.
That, and there are visual and story elements from, I dunno, a hundred other movies, many of which I even recognize.
Crack!
Crack crack crack.
Anyway, I watched our pulsing penis sword movie, you know, the one with the guy dragging a coffin and the little kid who ate everything? So now you have to watch this and we will be even.
Yup.