Transported to another dimension….

When you read a good book, it’s like you are living in two different worlds. You live in the world that surrounds you in your everyday life, and you live in the one in your head, whether you have that book in your hands or daydreaming about it.

I just finished reading Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden.

I enjoyed reading this book, but it wasn’t anywhere near a favorite. I found it to be too long for the story. It is very patient and thoughtful, and I love the detail, but I didn’t feel there was enough story to hold it together. Sayuri was right in that her person had a lot of water, because she truly flowed through life, never really taking any steps to better herself, for herself. And although this was a sign of the times, and a cultural thing, it really frustrated me. The only time she would ever take decisive action was when she wanted to hurt someone. Like Nobu, I too was dissapointed in Sayuri. She seemed to me to be a very plain girl whose most remarkable feature – that of her eyes – was pretty much her saving grace. I expected more cleverness out of her, but I saw none. In the end, I felt a little cheated because I wanted her to be a great woman, but she didn’t seem to me to be one.

And can I just say, how odd it is to me that having a mistress that you spend most of your time with is perfectly acceptable? One of the wives even sent a tip to the geisha through another one when she spent the night with her husband after a party they had. What seems to me to be an even stranger thing is how friendship is a more sacred bond than marriage seemed to be. Or just, perhaps a different sort of sacred. It’s just a completely different sort of life and to say that I know it after reading one book by a man that didn’t live through it would be silly. But it still makes one think.

I am still glad that I read the book, and look forward to discussing it with the book club later this month. I can’t believe we let it die last year. This month’s looks like it will be pretty big though.

9 Responses to "Transported to another dimension…."

mauvaise_etoile says:

January 12, 2006 at 10:28 pm

I’ve been wanting to re-read this as its been a few years since I read it. I honestly don’t remember much of it 🙁 I remember really enjoying it at the time…but that’s about it lol I agree though about how utterly different that culture is.
1. anitza says:
  
  January 12, 2006 at 11:56 pm
  
  If you haven’t seen the movie and want to, I suggest seeing it before you pick up the book again. I have found that you will enjoy the movie much more that way. I wish I was in your position right now. I wouldn’t be so hesitant about seeing the movie that I really want to see. lol
  1. mauvaise_etoile says:
    
    January 13, 2006 at 3:33 am
    
    Heeh. Good advice! Merci 😀
gonewithoutjam says:

January 12, 2006 at 10:48 pm

I really enjoyed it, it just grabbed me and pulled me in. I remember feeling really incensed when Mrs Fidget (great name) ‘examined’ Sayuri and her sister, and that’s when I knew I had found a really great story. I could hardly put the book down from there on in.
AJ
1. anitza says:
  
  January 12, 2006 at 11:53 pm
  
  Oh I know! That was awful! Just like that, without any explanations or anything! How humiliating….
  
  I guess it is difficult for me to explain how I enjoyed this book. I mean, I did enjoy it, and completely immersed myself in it whenever I could. But at the end of the day, I felt dissapointed. Still though, a book that makes me feel something is a book worth reading.
skylanth says:

January 12, 2006 at 11:29 pm

I read the book while in Australia, and enjoyed it. What thing that totally took me by surprise was that it was not only not an autobiography, but was written by some white guy. Wow! I felt betrayed then, but impressed, now.
1. anitza says:
  
  January 12, 2006 at 11:51 pm
  
  I totally understand what you mean about the author. Fortunately, I knew before hand, since the edition that I got had an intro and extra info that was probably not in the others (I’m not sure). But he pulled it off!
venusmeridian says:

January 13, 2006 at 4:29 am

Well, it’s a very japanese book. Japanese in cuture and life and traditions, and I’m not sure how much you’ve studied it. However, I’ve always been a weird child and studied it a lot when I was little, and took a fantastic class when I was in college.
As for the wife/concubine thing, The marriages were arranged, and usually more for offspring/money arrangements than anything. Money at that time in their culture was considered dirty, and a “woman’s responsibility”. So, women tended to focus on that and their household, much like “mother” in the book (although she had no husband, obviously). Since pretty much every wealthy man was expected to have a mistress, a lot of times the wife would even set up the mistress, and give her the money, tips, and even negotiate with her, like a businees deal. Even though al the men were expected to have mistresses, they were expected to take care of them financially. In fact, when my parents lived in japan, the little town they lived in had more little 6 people bars than buildings in the town, because what many wives negotiated with the mistresses was that to sustain them for life, they would be given a small bar that they could run and live above. However if one of the people from these times looked at us, they would be just as aappalled at us; our men have mistresses, but don’t take care of them; just leave. It’s just a whole different mind set from western culture.
As for the story, and her not being so active in her own life is very very characteristic of daoism (an ancient chinese philosophy/religion which started in China, and carried to Japan). It is very focused on especially two things: the flow of life and balance of nature. As for her water, it is very reflective on the flow of life. The I ching especially talks about the flow of life, how it is like a river, and we flow through it. Mostly it’s a life philosophy kind of like “If god closes one door, he opens a window” you are flowing through the river of life, and to avoid the rocks you kind of have to go with the water, but still look ahead to see ahead of you, so it’s not totally passive. I mean, if she hadn’t climbed to the roof, or hadn’t, um, done the “thing” at the end, the story never would have ended up that way. And if there is too much resistance to the water, people tend to crash on the rocks (take hatsumomo for example). And of course, Sayuri herself says at the beginning that she is not the remarkable one, but rather her story, and just how things happened and worked out. And I kind of hate it anyway, when people say that, and they were just being fake “humble”… Mameha I think is a bit more butt kicking in sayuri (and in a much more subtle cleverer way)
The thing with Nobu at the end, well sucks. But like I said, In Japan at the time, they had a profound belief in balance, good with bad; black with white. I think something pretty bad had to happen to balance out the happy ending. Unfortunately it had to fall on the combination of the betrayal by Pumpkin, the act she did towards the end, and of course poor Nobu.

It was written by a man, and by a man who didn’t live through it, but he seems to me to be pretty darm good for being a white man. I’m sure he had to do quite a bit of research though…
sprootles says:

January 13, 2006 at 4:22 pm

Now I’m Intrigued…

I’ve had this book in my home for four years and haven’t read it yet. However, I might have to read it now.

One thing about the mistress stuff. And, before I say this I TOTALLY realize I’m an ignornatn westerner and have no idea of ancient civilization…but…

If the wife would have had her OWN lover (misterer? lol) What would have been the repercussions?

Okay, I’ll give an example…and I realize this is from a CHINESE film.

“Raise The Red Lantern” is a movie I loved. It is the story of a Chinese female university student who becomes the 5th(?) wife of a chinese man. She and the other wives live in this fortress looking home, but each have their own ‘houses’. They compete with each other for the sexual favor of their husband, and whatever wife he chooses to spend the night with the red lantern is placed before her house.

Anyway, one of the wives takes her OWN lover…a doctor…and one of the other wives rats her out to her husband, who has the offending wife forcefully grabbed and taken to a small building at the top fo the estate (where the main character has been told to stay away from) and the offending wife is HANGED by these men for being unfaithful to her husband. The new wife has sneaked after this scene and sneaks up to the building and peaks in and sees the offending wife hanging there…and she goes crazy.

The wives were also not allowed to leave the premises of the estate.

It’s a very good movie, but it does leave one aching for they grow to love the main character.

Yes, yes, it’s not the same culture as Japan, but having seen it and reading the comments above about the mistresses…it just made me wonder what Japanese custom would dictate should happen if the shoe was on the other bound foot.

All in all, I’m now intrigued enough to pick up “Geisha” and read it! WOOT! Also, about it being written by a man…and feeling slightly betrayed when one finds out it was written by a man…I felt the SAME WAY when I found out the sequel to Gone With The Wind, “SCARLETT”, was written by a man! You could have knocked me over with a feather!

Sorry for the long post.

Comments are closed.