Discussion - Week Two - Beauty and Sadness - Page 103 - 206

[Jim]

This discussion covers Page 103 – 206
Conclusions/Book as a whole

[Whitney]

Did anyone else read this, I would love to see a discussion.

I thought the structure was amazing, every chapter deepened and changed the story and the way we see the characters' motivations. Except maybe for Oki - can we put him a cell next to Humbert Humbert, reserved for execrable characters inhabiting books with beautiful prose?

The visuals evoked by the prose were amazing, I could picture each scene as if it were occurring in a film, (maybe Kenji Mizoguchi, for other fans of Japanese cinema). Also loved the descriptions of the landscapes, and then the descriptions of the landscapes as done in the works of art by Otoko and Keiko and how they revealed the inner states of the artists.

What did people make of Keiko's motivations? Was she being completely honest when she said that she was acting only out of revenge? If so, was that still true at the end?

I had hopes that "playing dolphin" isn't as nauseating in the original Japanese, but from Keiko's response I'm guessing it is.

[Zadignose]

I wish I could discuss it, but I'm ill-equipped. I read the majority of it but abandoned it. There was some kind of disconnect between me and the author so that I couldn't be brought aboard with whatever it was that interested the writer in writing this story. I really ought to take up the book again someday, but there are times when I have zero patience.