The Novel: An Alternative History: 1600-1800 by Steven Moore

Author:Steven Moore [Moore, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Literary Criticism, Nonfiction, History
ISBN: 9781623567408
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Published: 2013-08-28T23:00:00+00:00

behind the misty clouds

They headed toward some village lights

and safely made their way.

[

The scene shifts and we are with Yonehachi in her new Fukagawa quarters, surrounded by three or four singers.

]

Yone:

Umeji-san, I really am quite sure I want to do it that way.

Ume:

No one will make a fuss—go ahead and do it! [

Masaji is seated nearby plucking her eyebrows.

]

Masa:

Who cares! They always cry sour grapes when that happens.

Yone:

Well, I feel like following your advice and telling him off.

Ume:

Feeling like doing it isn’t enough, honey—I remember that much! Masa-san, do you remember how it was with Kō-san?

Masa:

Exactly! You were fit to be tied. The Ōtsu-ya’s mama certainly stood you well then. [

In this interval, Yonehachi finishes tying her obi, and holds out a teacup.

]

Yone:

Ume-san . . . pour a little here, would you? [

Umeji, reaching beside the hibachi picks up an earthenware bottle.

]

Ume:

This?

Yone:

You’re a quick one, aren’t you?! The one over there, dear.

Ume:

Oh, that! [

Taking out the heated bottle of saké next to it, she fills her teabowl to the brim. Yonehachi tosses it off in one gulp and strikes her breast. She gasps two or three times and clicks her teeth together.

]

Yone:

I’m off, dears.

Others:

We’re all behind you – really tell him off! [

Yonehachi, smiling brightly, departs.

]

103

Note the realistic dialogue and actions, and especially the absence of referents—the unidentified “him” is Tobei—which sometime makes the novel hard to follow, especially at the openings of chapters, but that’s deliberate. In one of his many authorial addresses to the reader, Shunsui warns: “Since the author’s method is to leave for later what ought to be explained at first, there will be places that are difficult of comprehension, and the reader is urged to pay close attention along the way” (21). Perversely, this appears four chapters before the end, way too late for the inattentive reader. But on other occasions the author is more than willing to assist the reader, to make his motives clear, or even to interrupt the story to record his experiences while writing, as in this sequence:

Drawing Ochō close by her side, [Konoito] is suddenly convulsed with weeping. Although crocodile tears are common among this breed of women, Konoito’s sincere affliction here reflects her gentle perfection.

. . . The author, at the time of this writing—late one night during the month when chrysanthemums bloom—can hear the first call of the wild geese on their southward migration. . . .

To such a gentle Courtesan

I must send a message with

the wild geese to her pillow-side.

But meanwhile, Ochō too, at Konoito’s ever so gentle words is struck down with weeping. Wailing, her body quivering, she looks up. (3)

Elsewhere, he’ll record the poems friends left with him after visiting, or follow a spicy scene with a bogus disclaimer:

The author takes this opportunity to interject; this work is aimed solely at the exposition of the Sentiment of Yonehachi, Ochō and the others. It is not intended to satirize the Quarter. I have never been well-acquainted with the Temples of Entertainment, and consequently can only give the briefest sketch of its life.

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