Hi friends!

I am done with today’s seminar and managed to get a decent bit of reading in! So let’s dive into it.

First, I finished another chapter of The Tale of Genji, and what a doozy it was. This is the chapter entitled Aoi and it contains: the climax of Genji’s affair with the lady Rokujo, the birth of Genji’s son by Aoi and her death, and Genji consummating his relationship with Murasaki.

The first thing I noticed about this is the exquisite way that Murasaki (the author) writes emotions. While I cannot understand a lot of the ways Heian society works (mostly their treatment of women), Murasaki’s depiction of the jealousy of Lady Rokujo and the grief of Lady Aoi’s parents at her passing, and Murasaki’s disgust at Genji after he first sleeps with her (her having seen him as a guardian figure) resonate because they are essentially the same emotions that exist today. I have to admit, Murasaki’s negative reaction to the consummation of her relationship with Genji surprised me because I mainly remember her as the one that Genji managed to groom into the perfect wife.

And of course, the impossible standards Genji places of women are especially clear in this chapter (which kind of echoes the discussion of women in Chapter 2). Genji basically warms up to his wife when she’s so weak from her pregnancy that she’s near death because she’s finally approachable (personally, I don’t blame Aoi from being reserved in the face of Genji’s many affairs). He seems unable to understand Rokujo’s jealousy and her ‘neediness’, and it seems like it’s practically impossible to continually keep Genji’s attention. Too clingy and he recoils, too aloof and he pouts.

By the way, another thing that surprised me – I remember reading that Lady Rokujo was older than Genji and always had the image of her as someone in her late thirties, but I found out in this chapter that she’s only 29 years old (to Genji’s 22 years)! Everyone is so young.

Apart from Genji, I have also managed to finish Forgotten English and learnt about a few more words. I also managed to finish The Book of Lost Things, which completely lived up to the hype the younger-me set for myself. I hope I’m not overhyping the book, but I’ve already written a longer review for it, so I hope to publish that soon.