I almost didn't bother to get this 1972 Penguin, since I have these plays in other translations and in much more recent books. But to be a completistI almost didn't bother to get this 1972 Penguin, since I have these plays in other translations and in much more recent books. But to be a completist in English translations I did, and I see why Penguin keeps it in print. Liu Jung-en was a poet and novelist, and writes a valuable introduction to zaju in general and each of the plays. He makes a strong argument that the Mongol century in China, in spite of its chaos or because, allowed an escape from conservative culture and a flood of creativity, 'a new intellectual freedom which found expression in popular drama.' He draws in political and cultural context to the plays so sensitively, they come alive from his interpretation. He also translates, and when the introduction itself is written gorgeously you can't go wrong....more
4.5 I don't know whether you'll find another novel like this. Maybe. But it is probably pretty unique.
Written by a scholar, this fictionalises the auth4.5 I don't know whether you'll find another novel like this. Maybe. But it is probably pretty unique.
Written by a scholar, this fictionalises the author's research found in Islam and Homosexuality, Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality, 850 - 1780 A.D., Female Homosexuality in the Middle East: Histories and Representations. I thought it would be a quick and pleasant way to get a smattering of those books, and indeed it was. I'd like an afterword to tell us who was historical, since several I knew and others I suspected to be historical figures. It perhaps isn't the easiest book for those with no Arabic whatsoever, but the assumed knowledge isn't too much of a hurdle. We soon learn what tharifat means and other slang for other sexualities. Lesbian women called themselves 'wits' or 'witty women', and gathered in cemeteries, and in certain cities.
Samar Habib's knowledge is profound, and like me you might well read this half for knowledge. The story can be slowed down, but I'd say that only happens in the first half; in the second half the plot took off and romped along with the adventures of 'five tharifat from Baghdad'. The great thing being, yes there were five, and others they meet: this is not a story about an isolated woman or two struggling in a man's world, but about groups and communities of women, with a cast of women who have different religions and attitudes towards religion, different stations in life and a range of moral codes -- and conflict between themselves.
And who are strong. We talk so much about 'strong women' in historical fiction, or elsewhere, but it's not often I feel a true independence of being such in the two women of this title. In that, I am reminded of Shan Sa's Empress, where I was also struck by the thought, 'I just don't read about women of this strength... how has she achieved the writing of this?' They are not kick-ass. They are real women, genuinely independent of men, written with a conviction I still find rare.
The writing can be a bit experimental and I like that. It tries things.
= never-finished. I love these translations: most of them by Chou Ping and Tony Barnstone (poet, who first came to Chinese poetry to better learn how= never-finished. I love these translations: most of them by Chou Ping and Tony Barnstone (poet, who first came to Chinese poetry to better learn how to write English poems) in a team; with other translations where they thought them unbeatable. The accompaniment -- explanation of translation strategies, introductions -- is also very fine, with a poetry-first approach. They choose outside the canon or the usual suspects where they have enthusiasms, and pay particular attention to women, whose work has a much lesser survival rate (does not mean a lesser output). ...more
By far my most personal Forster. I felt written about. I was in terror through the second half of the story at what he was doing. But he was doing preBy far my most personal Forster. I felt written about. I was in terror through the second half of the story at what he was doing. But he was doing pretty truly, and he came through at the end with optimism not punishment.
This is amazing writing about women. To have a women’s friendship told so well and be the motor of the plot – in the first half, and one might argue in the whole.
I hovered between the sisters in what I thought about events and whose philosophy to live by at a given moment. They are not two types like the Sense and Sensibility sisters, but are nicely contrasted and close/conflicting.
Then, Mrs Wilcox (the first). Miss Avery.
Sisterhood wins in this one. There’s a moment of women’s rebellion and comradeship as exciting as Thelma and Louise, although in an English garden against stuffy gentlemen. It has the escapist clause of Maurice, arguably more rationally stated (hey, I don’t need rationality. But Forster does).
This is so much about ‘the sexes’; and written in 1910. It’s a wonder it is so recognisable. At the price of being cruel to its men, except for one. Unless you can stomach Mr Wilcox better than I can – I’m with sister Helen, not sister Meg, there.
It talks of Imperialists a lot, in at least a faintly critical spirit; there is a running argument about the English Imperialist. Meanwhile, I don’t quite know what Forster understood by ‘cosmopolitan’ at this point in time, but it isn’t good.
His style is strange. This time I liked it, complete with philosophising and foreshadowing; I thought he almost never put a foot wrong, although his moves are his own. It has a slight non-realist symbolism of structure, which I enjoy (the disapproving call this too much coincidence).
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