The Miner by Natsume Soseki

Author:Natsume Soseki [Natsume Soseki, Jay Rubin and Haruki Murakami]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781910709061
Publisher: Gallic Books
Published: 2015-09-08T04:00:00+00:00

Translator’s Afterword

In the opening paragraph of The Miner (Kōfu), Sōseki suggests what the reader is in for as his protagonist walks through a long, narrow band of pine trees: “Can’t tell if I’m making headway with only trees around.” Like the trees, which are never seen as constituting a fully comprehended forest, the events of the book are not going to “develop,” he hints: “No point walking if the trees aren’t going to do something—develop.” Abandoning any hope of forcing either the trees or the events into a preconceived developmental framework, he will play games with them, hoping for some sense of mastery—and perhaps some fun.

The protagonist’s experience turns out to be a long, often funny series of discrete thoughts and sense impressions that constitutes neither a conclusive picture of the world nor a finished portrait of himself. Life, for him, is merely “a series of constantly changing colors … images in a picture scroll” (pp. 235, 233)1 and a literary work that remains true to life (and, most importantly, true to the indeterminate nature of human personality) will never “turn into a novel” (p. 239).

A sophisticated student of Western—primarily English—literature and a lover of traditional Japanese (and Chinese) poetry and humor, Natsume Sōseki had been experimenting in fiction for three years, writing works of humor, fantasy, and melodrama, when he began serializing The Miner in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper on January 1, 1908. The Miner was his second novel as a professional writer. Sōseki had caused an uproar the previous year when he abandoned a teaching post at Tokyo Imperial University, the nation’s premier educational institution, to join the staff of the Asahi for the sole purpose of writing fiction, a genre associated with the world of the geisha and prostitute and far beneath the dignity of anyone with his own unimpeachable scholarly credentials. But “if being a newspaperman is a trade, then being a university-man is also a trade,” he had declared, plunging wholeheartedly into the creative writing that would occupy the final decade of his life.2

The plunge was perhaps a bit too exuberant in the case of the first novel he serialized in the Asahi, from June to October 1907. Everything about The Poppy (Gubijinsō) shows that Sōseki was trying too hard. The language is labored and ornate, the characters painted in intense monochromes and acting out a convoluted plot with conflicting loves and obligations, chance encounters, sly machinations, and dramatic confrontations. The novel was a hit even before it reached the newsstands, thanks in part to the success of Sōseki’s earlier works and a lingering curiosity about his highly publicized resignation from the university. One department store sold “Poppy” robes, and a jewelry firm came out with “Poppy” rings. Once the novel reached the pages of the Asahi, the enthusiasm spilled over into a warm public reception, if not universal critical acclaim.3 The shortcomings of the book were clear to Sōseki himself, again even before serialization. On June 17, 1907, he wrote to a friend that

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.