Terror

by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, Shelley Marshall (Translator)

What are the odds? The train isn't going to crash. I'm not going to die. An imagined terror is often far worse than reality. In this story, one man must face his terror of a simple train ride.

11 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 17, 2016

About the author

Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (谷崎 潤一郎) was a Japanese author, and one of the major writers of modern Japanese literature, perhaps the most popular Japanese novelist after Natsume Sōseki.

Some of his works present a rather shocking world of sexuality and destructive erotic obsessions; others, less sensational, subtly portray the dynamics of family life in the context of the rapid changes in 20th-century Japanese society.

Frequently his stories are narrated in the context of a search for cultural identity in which constructions of "the West" and "Japanese tradition" are juxtaposed. The results are complex, ironic, demure, and provocative.

Reviews

[Louie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

I genuinely love how silly this story is. I'm like, so obsessed. It's a very short story that shows a man that has a fear towards trains or pretty much almost every transportations that exist during that time. As the story progresses, you can the feel a bit dreaded by it since the main character is still stuck inside the station and getting all drunk and is absolute doing nothing to get to Osaka. But by the end, his friend finally came and they, together, finally went to Osaka for that examination. It's like a very funny story, really.

Also, I love the random Dostoevsky mention in the story when he was feeling so dreadful and suicidal, lmao.

[Tim Pendry · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very short early story of Tanizaki from 1913 that you might think is a horror story from the title but it is not. It is a quasi-comical take of extreme anxiety in a young man and not much more than that.

[FranD · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the translation by Howard Hibbett. (Currently reading the entire anthology). I fear I might be the main character hehe

[Sung-Gi Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

「旦那、俥はいかゞでございます。」 「ナニいゝんだ。己は人を待ち合せて、大阪へ行くんだから。」 こんな事を云って、車夫を追拂いながら矢張りいつまでも腰を掛けて居た。「大阪へ行くんだから。」と答えたのが、自分には何だか、「もう直死ぬんだから。」と云うように響いた。“If any one should ask you, say I've gone to America!”こう叫んで、言下に右の蟀谷へピストルをあてゝ自殺をした『罪と罰』の中の Svidrigailoff のように、「私は大阪へ行くんだから。」と云って、忽ち眼を舞わして此の場へ悶絶したら、あの車夫はどんなに吃驚するだろう。