An update to yesterday's Japanese-related whining

[owlectomy]

Saiunkoku Monogatari, first attempt: Why are there so many people and so many names and I can't tell who is who?

Saiunkoku Monogatari, second attempt: Why did I put this book down again?... Oh, yeah. Wait, why am I reading volume 12 before volume 1, when I could probably get volume 1 somewhere?

Saiunkoku Monogatari, third attempt, after visit to Book-Off: Yay! I finished a whole chapter. And now the heroine goes to the royal palace, and... why are there so many people and so many names and I can't tell who is who?

Saiunkoku Monogatari, fourth attempt: Yay! I finished two whole chapters! [Actually, something like 110 of 220 pages.] Gawd, though, do these people have ANY body language besides knitting their eyebrows? They could make an eyebrow scarf by now.

The Tadoku (extensive reading) people would suggest that I need to be reading easier books, which is a tremendously discouraging idea. It makes me get all bristly and "I've read Soseki! I've read Mishima! I've read Tanizaki! I can read whatever I want!" Realistically, though, if I can get through 30-40 pages in a day light fantasy novels are probably okay. I just have to be more consistent about it, which... yeah. That would be nice.

Comments

/randomly wanders in

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, another person who reads the Saiunkoku novels. Yeah, these books definitely largely need to be read in order. Anyway, wow... you must be good at reading. I only wish I could read Tanizaki in the original, or Mishima. >_> I was trying to read Portrait of Shunkin, but it was incredibly difficult, even though I've read it in English before.

Anyway, if you find it confusing who is who, the Japanese wikipedia character page is extensive, but beware of spoilers. (http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BD%A9%E9%9B%B2%E5%9B%BD%E7%89%A9%E8%AA%9E%E3%81%AE%E7%99%BB%E5%A0%B4%E4%BA%BA%E7%89%A9)

I do find it frustrating how much eyebrow knitting there is as well, heh. (I translate passages from the novel for the benefit of the rest of the fandom, and I'm sick of having to translate those phrases)

Re: /randomly wanders in

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say I'm so good at reading - just persistent and stubborn and arrogant! Those are the writers I've read just to prove that I can, while not necessarily being at a level where I could get something worthwhile out of them.

Would you say it's worth continuing with Saiunkoku? I'm still on the first book, and I can't decide whether the things that I like (Kouyuu and Shuuei) outweigh the things that annoy me (the prose style). But I really want to sink my teeth into a long series of light fantasy novels, and I don't really like Twelve Kingdoms that much.

Re: /randomly wanders in

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Darn, but even to prove that you can, argues for a high level.

Yeah, even the Japanese readers complain about the prose style. XD It really is a light novel, not so much a proper fantasy novel. It helps if you think of it as a shoujo manga in book form. If you read it for the purely supernatural aspects, I don't know if it is worth continuing, but I read it for the characters and the political intrigue. (Keep in mind, I am a biased source since I have read all the books.) Since I'm so far in the series, things have gotten rather interesting, IMHO.

Oh, curious, why don't you like Twelve Kingdoms? I have never read the novels, although I liked the anime. I heard they're supposed to be well-written?

Re: /randomly wanders in

[ctrl-a.livejournal.com]

Yay, Kouyuu and Shuuei! :D

I am kind of daunted by your review of the Saiunkoku novels both here and over at tadoku. I am a huge fan of the anime, and the novels are on my list of Japanese novels to read, but they really sound kind of blah now... But I guess I read Japanese novels for the interesting story, and not so much the quality writing (to the extent I am good enough at Japanese to even recognize good writing if it smacked me in the head).

Also, I can understand your frustration with lack of variation in body language. A few months ago, I read a series of fantasy novels (in English), where the only way the characters ever reacted to anything was to "remain silent longer than propriety allowed" or something like that. I wanted to shoot myself after a while. -_-;

Anyways, good luck with your Japanese studies, whether you stick with Saiunkoku or not. :)

[writerjenn.livejournal.com]

I love the mental picture I'm getting of the "eyebrow scarf!"

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

I bet this wouldn't have bugged me two years ago, but I've spent the last couple years breaking the habit of having my characters always shrug and grin and smirk and roll their eyes, and making an effort to pay attention to less obvious gestures, and -- you get hypersensitive to writers who aren't trying that hard. Well, this was her first novel, after all...