"Snow Country" Part 1

Yesterday, the reading of the first half of Kawabata's "Snow Country" was due for class.  The whole plot of the first half included a man who was staying at the hot springs in the "snow country" of Japan and he had an encounter with a geisha.  When he was here the last time, he interacted with the same geisha but he left the next morning and thought he would never see her again.  This time, he met with her again and now that she was older he got to know her a little better.  The relationship between the pair is very strange and the geisha is very fickle with the man.  The one day they're friendly and getting along the next she tells him that she never wants to see him again and that she's going home.  They go back and forth in this way for what seems like the entire first half of the work.  I do not know how Kawabata expected the reader to react to the constant back and forth banter of the two characters, but for me it just turned very boring very quickly. The geisha came off as annoying with her constant mood swings and drunken tendencies.  Upon completion of part one, the man and the geisha have slept together (finally!) and then he leaves in the morning. The geisha sees him off at the train station.

Magical Realism

Yesterday we were assigned the second half of Rulfo's "Pedro Paramo".  This story had an overpowering element of magical realism and for that reason it was one that was really difficult for me to enjoy.  For me, the plot was too all over the place bouncing around from one time to another.  The layout of the piece made it more difficult for me to follow and therefore it was in no way enjoyable.  I had to make a strong effort to completely follow where the action was happening and who was alive and who was dead and who was doing what with whom.   I understand why this is a piece that is a "world classic".  The way it shows the distinction between class and commodification with the way the upper class has free reign over everything and everyone is an essential idea with these non-Western works that we have read for class, but it is not an idea that I would be interested to pursue further in my free time.  All in all, this is not the type of literature that I would choose to read ever.

Finalizing "Things Fall Apart"

After finishing all of "Things Fall Apart" I have fortunately found that I hate it much less than I had upon reading it in high school .  When I read it first in high school, I was not willing to believe that the people of Umofia were actually civilized people.  My teacher had insisted that they are not barbaric and that they are full of culture and even have organized government, but I just was not feeling it.  I hated everything about Okonkwo, he killed his son and drank wine from a human skull.  Nothing about his character was appealing to me and I could in no way relate to the story.  As I said previously, I was dreading reading this story for a second time.  This time, after having more education in literature and just general education, I discovered that this story was much more tolerable.  I would not go as far as to say I loved or even liked the novel, but I definitely understood it more and better recognized the point.  Unlike my experience in high school, I realized that the villagers in this novel were in fact civilized and had complex structures of developed peoples. The traditions and customs were proof enough of that the people were not barbaric and with the trial processes and the systems of government, these were actually a very developed people.  I think I had such a problem caring about it in high school because Achebe was very realistic about it, which I now recognize as the most powerful aspect of the piece.  Achebe took an approach that was very believable and there were no fantastic or extraordinary elements.  He did not paint the villagers as saints, he showed them as they truly would have existed. That on its own makes the novel more effective in portraying the commodification of the Western missionaries over the villagers of Nigeria. 

Reading "The Second Coming" then out of nowhere "...things fall apart..."

I love when literature connects to other literature. So clever.

Achebe

Yesterday for class we had to read the first half of Achebe's "Things Fall Apart".  I first encountered this story when I was a sophomore in high school and to be honest I hated everything about it.  When I saw this title on the syllabus I was tempted to drop the class then and there (not really).  I did not have any interest in reading this again.  This time around though I discovered that I did not hate it.  We have only read the first half at this point, but it is all coming back to me and for some reason it does not seem nearly as awful as it was in tenth grade. I almost look forward to reading the second half.