Black Dragonfly by Jean Pasley

Author:Jean Pasley [Pasley, Jean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction -- Biographical, Fiction -- Japanese Literature, Fiction -- Historical, Fiction -- Irish Literature
ISBN: 9781913891107
Publisher: Balestier Press
Published: 2021-04-14T22:00:00+00:00

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One week later the chimney was complete, a cast iron stove had been installed and glass panels had been inserted into the reinforced screens. The workmen had left the translucent paper in place, so the screens still looked the same but his study was snug. Unfortunately, no new ideas came. The book he had written in Matsue, Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan, was finished. It was a collection of essays documenting all the strange and wonderful things he had discovered there; while he believed the book would be interesting to foreign readers, he felt that he had merely touched on Japan at a superficial level. He had not delved into the inner emotional life of the people. Reticent by nature, he decided he would have to make more of an effort to engage with his colleagues, his students and people he encountered.

Reading the essays made him nostalgic for all the things he had left behind in Matsue. Sad and unable to muster the enthusiasm to polish the writing to a level that he deemed acceptable for publication, and thinking that perhaps he was being too self-critical, he sent it off as it was and then instantly regretted it.

As the months passed rumours about the impending closure of the school died down. He initiated conversations and discovered how well-informed his colleagues were about the world beyond Japan, about Western aesthetics and the occidental emotional character in general. They were educated and many of them had travelled abroad. When he talked to them about Western art or thought, they listened politely. It was clear that they knew what he was talking about, but his utmost eloquence elicited scarcely more than a few brief comments. If he had had similar exchanges with Westerners, he would have assumed their inadequate responses to be proof of mental incapacity. It would have been a mistake to make such a judgment about his colleagues. He recalled a conversation he had had with Weldon shortly after their arrival in Yokohama. They were having a beer in a small bar down at the harbour.

“They really are a race of children. I can get no sense out of any of them.”

“How can you say that, Weldon? You don’t speak Japanese and you make no effort to.”

“You don’t have to speak to them. Look around. All they’re interested in are material things, mass producing gaudy trinkets and—”

“Yes, but… Have you not visited the temples? Have you not seen their exquisite art?”

Even before he came to Japan, Hearn had been astonished by the ability of Japanese artists to reproduce with a few simple brush strokes not only the peculiarities of a creature’s shape but also the characteristics of its motion. Be it only a spider in a wind-shaken web, a dragonfly riding a sunbeam, or a pair of crabs running along a beach, the pictures were alive – intensely alive – and corresponding Western art looked dead in comparison.

“You have Japan-itis, Hearn, as do most Europeans and Americans. Anything to do with Japan sells right now.

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