Welcome to the Japanese Literature Challenge 3!

The day has arrived, the day for beginning the Japanese Literature Challenge 3! I'm so excited because it is my great joy to read Japanese literature and share the experience with those of you who wish to read it as well.

This year, all you have to do is read one work of Japanese origin. It can be literature of course, but don't feel confined to that. You may choose to read poetry, biographies, short stories or even manga. If you are willing to read one such piece, you've met the challenge. If you read more, all the better.

I have set the time frame between July 30, 2009 and January 30, 2010.

I have a Review Site set up for us here, where we can leave links to the reviews on our own blogs and see what other people have read.

I have prizes! I've been collecting them for several months, and I might whet your appetite with a brief sampling of the list here:

• 
  
  a Moleskine Japanese format notebook, with two Japanese pencils and a Japanese eraser


• 
  
  a copy of Murakami's book South of the Border, West of The Sun


• 
  
  a brochure from the Art Institute of Chicago's special exhibit on Japanese screens, with a magnet and box of screen cards


• 
  
  a cell phone charm, and makie stickers made of 24 karat gold, imported from Japan


• 
  
  two copies of Yakuza Moon by Tendo


• 
  
  a copy of Eat Sleep Sit by Nanomura


• 
  
  and more surprises to come!

There are two buttons for you to choose from if you'd like to post one on your blog. The first comes from a work of art painted by Yoshitomo Naro in 1996. It's entitled "Do Not Disturb!" and I loved its childlike simplicity:

"The dog in Yoshitomo Nara’s “Do Not Disturb!” is a beguiling bookworm who has found a quiet spot to do some reading. An influential Japanese Pop artist who gained a cultish following in the 1990s, Nara is known for painting cartoonishly aggressive children influenced by Japanese comic books and American cartoons. His images, which express children’s alienation and intense independence, are featured on CD cases, ashtrays, clocks and T-shirts." (Allposters.com) If you like this button, you can grab it from the Review Site, or I'll send you the code in an email if you'd prefer.

The second choice of a button comes from Tanabata, writer of In The Spring It Is The Dawn. She took the photograph herself, as she is a lovely photographer, reader and current resident of Japan.



I asked her if she would be willing to make a button for the challenge, and she created the beautiful image above. When I asked her about it she said, "That photo was taken on the island of Miyajima, near Hiroshima.  The shrine on the island is called Itsukushima-jinja and is a World Heritage site.  The torii gate is considered one of the three great views in Japan.  Oh, and the photo was taken at sunset."

But, Tanabata was not the only contributor. I leave you with a beautiful haiku written for this challenge by the Magical Mystical Teacher:

Our journey begins,
the masters bid you welcome—
attend to their words.

Won't you join in? Leave a comment if you want to participate, linking to the post about it on your blog. I can't wait to see what you're thinking about reading!

So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore

"The more organization you bring to church life, the less life it will contain."

 

Title: So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore
Author: Jake Colsen
Publisher: Windblown Media, 2006
Number of pages: 178

The problem with church as you know it, Jake, is that it has become nothing more than mutual accommodation of self-need. Everybody needs something out of it. Some need to lead. Some need to be led. Some want to teach, others are happy to be the audience. Rather than become an authentic demonstration of God's life and love in the world, it ends up being a group of people who have to protect their turf. What you're seeing is less of God's life than people's insecurities that cling to those things they think will best serve their needs." p. 71

When Jake, the Associate Pastor of a church in California, comes face to face with John, it appears he is talking to Christ's disciple John from The New Testament. In giving him advice, John turns everything Jake thinks about the traditional church on its head.

This book points out the failures of organized religion, how the very institutions that people have set up to help them, actually work against the faith they're trying to achieve. How have churches failed according to Jacobsen and Coleman? In these ways:

• they create reglious obligation


• they hold us accountable to each other instead of to God


• they cause us to trust in our own efforts more than in Him


• they have us play the "approval game" in which we do what others want so they shower us with affirmation, but 'cross them and they'll crucify your reputation, with or without the facts.' (p. 95)


• they manipulate people's shame by making them feel guilty


• they demand conformity

Out of intense frustration with the church as an institution, Jake, his wife, and other couples form a home church where they meet for a meal, praise and worship, and fellowship in one another's homes. This doesn't appear to work either, because, John says, "No church model will produce God's life in you. It works the other way around. Our life in God, shared together, expresses itself as the church. It is the overflow of his life in us. You can tinker with church principles forever and still miss out on what it means to live deeply in Father's love and know how to share it with others." (p. 123)

Ultimately, the book covers this premise a multitude of ways:

People learning to live in relationship to Father in freedom from shame is the core of body life. Find out how to share that life and you'll be the body. (p. 150)

Because an institution can never be what the church was meant to encompass, we can build it up in these ways:

• keep Jesus as its sole head and focus


• have daily encouragment among believers


• hold plural and lateral leadership


• encourage open participation


• create an environment of freedom so people can grow in Him

It makes me sad that I've so often failed in how I should behave or believe, trapped in my 'jar of clay' as I am. But these ideas help encourage me in the walk, as I'm sure they were intended to do for all of us.

Ruby Tuesday: The Bouquet in the VW

The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Society

Title: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Author: Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Publisher: The Dial Press, August 2008
Number of pages: 274
Rating: 5 out of 5

I've seen this book praised on blogs for about a year. I even bought one for Bookfool's birthday. But, every time I've picked it up to read myself, I've put it down again; I don't like books written in letter format.

When my dear friend down the street brought it over before we went to Costco to pick up a birthday cake for her husband, I thought, "Now I'll have to read it because Carol gave it to me, and I don't want to disappoint her." Believe me, I read the first few pages kicking and screaming.

But, I am here to tell you it is worthy of every accolade you have heard tell about it. Another WWII story? Yes. Written in letters? Yes. Charming, heartfelt, living and breathing characters who make you want to be their friends in real life? Yes!

I am completely charmed by the inhabitants of Guernsey: Dawsey Adams, Amelia Maugery,  Isola Pribby, Eben Ramsey, Adelaide Addison, Clovis Fossey, John Booker, Will Thisbee, and most especially Elizabeth McKenna and her daughter Kit.

Through these letters, we are shown the spirit of Elizabeth: one of great heart and compassion, one of courage and boldness. It is as much a story of Elizabeth as it is the recipient of the islanders' letters, Miss Juliet Ashton.

Their lives merge when author Juliet Ashton embarks upon a trip to Guernsey to see for herself what the Literary Society is all about; how each member speaks of a book they have read at one of their meetings, and then debates are often held for hours.

For every book lover, for every believer in the arts as well as the overall goodness of humankind, this book is for you. It's the best book I've read all summer. If only I could have met Elizabeth in real life.

I am talking to you about Elizabeth McKenna. Didn't you ever notice how everyone you interviewed sooner or later talked about Elizabeth? Lord, Juliet, who painted Booker's portrait and saved his life and danced down the street with him? Who thought up the lie about the Literary Society-and then made it happen? Guernsey wasn't her home, but she adapted to it and to the loss of freedom. How? She must have missed Ambrose and London, but she never, I gather, whined about it. She went to Ravensbruck for sheltering a slave worker. Look how and why she died.

Juliet, how did a girl, an art student who had never held a job in her life, turn herself into a nurse, working six days a week in the hospital? She did have dear friends, but in reality she had no one to call her own at first. She fell in love with an enemy officer and lost him; she had a baby alone during the  war time. It must have been fearful, despite all her good friends. You can only share responsibilities up to a point." (p. 201)

The Associate

Title: The Associate
Author: John Grisham
Published: January 27, 2009
Number of pages: 384
Rating: 4 out of 5

Normally, I'm not a follower of popular pulp fiction authors. Danielle Steele, Nora Roberts, Stephanie Meyers...I'll dabble in their work for about two seconds to see what all the fuss is about, and then I'll lay it down wondering about the appeal. I did thoroughly enjoy Grisham's initial work; A Time to Kill was a truly an exciting book, in my opinion.

But, his last few, namely The Innocent Man and The Appeal, were atrocious. I couldn't even finish The Innocent Man, The Appeal was anything but appealing, and I didn't bother with Bleachers, or the pizza one at all.

So, I just picked up this latest book of his while meandering through the library two nights ago, and I was pleasantly surprised that I could not put it down. Is it still somewhat formulaic? Of course. But, it resonates of Grisham's  skill so brilliantly demonstrated in his initial works.

A young Yale graduate is debating about which path his law degree should take him: to the prestigious, fancy law firms of Manhattan with a starting salary of $200,000, or to the people who really need him where he'll be paid $25,000 a year? The choice is made for him when a thug with a false name blackmails him into accepting a job at Scully & Pershing so that he can spy on, and steal documents for, an enormous trial involving the Pentagon.

That is an interesting enough premise, but what also completely captured my attention was the life of a lawyer which Grisham portrays. How fascinating it is to look at the lives of these young men and women, who get up at five and are quitting early when they leave the office at 7:00 p.m. They live by documents and billing hours, impressions and status. I marvel at the superficiality of it all, and how unlike standing up for justice any of it really seems to be.

This was an interesting work. Not mesmerizing as in twenty books ago, but still far superior to the last five.

The Late, Lamented Molly Marx

Title: The Late, Lamented Molly Marx
Author: Sally Koslow
Publisher: Random House, May 2009
Number of pages: 303
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

How interesting it would be to look down on your family and friends after you had died, and be able to not only see them, but hear what they are thinking. Especially, if you weren't telling exactly how you had died.

Such is the case with Molly Marx. Blond, petite, mother of a toddler, wife of a surgeon who specializes in refining noses, or butts, she was found in the thicket one day by a jogger in Manhattan. How she came to be there, and who her family and friends truly are, is the subject of this well written novel.

We are able to view through Molly's eyes, while she looks down from Duration, what people she loves are doing and thinking. At the same time, we flash back to episodes when she was still alive and interacting with them. We come to know Barry, her self-assured, philandering husband; Kitty, her superficial, materialistic mother-in-law; Lucy, her not as feminine sister; and lovely Annabel, her beautiful and treasured three year old daughter.

Who is the culprit, we wonder, the cause of her demise? Could it be her husband? Or, is it Luke from whom she has taken guilty solace? Or, perhaps it is one of the women in Molly's life with her own agenda. We aren't sure until the end of the novel, when Molly makes peace from above with those below.

I enjoyed this book for its artful look into a woman's heart, the intricacies of marriage and friendships, the love we carry for our parents and children. I was drawn into the mystery, unable to guess how Molly had died. I breathed a sigh of relief at the closure of it all: Molly, lamented and loved. At least by most.

Ruby Tuesday

Get Behind Me

I've driven through the Alps of Switzerland.

I've driven on the autobahns of Germany.

I've driven along the Cote d'Azur in France.

I've driven by the casinos of Monaco.

You would think that the Kennedy Expressway, or the Eisenhower, in Chicago would be No Big Deal. And, for years they weren't.

But, last summer, while driving home from Wilmette, Illinois, I suddenly had a panic attack getting on the 290 going south. For no reason that I could think of. Sure, the traffic was intense, but it always is in Chicago. Sure, I hate getting lost more than I hate any sensation in the world, but I knew where I was going. Why this sudden surge of fear, this mind-numbing, heart-accelerating, hand-sweating state of being?

Because I didn't know why, because it was so intense, I've been afraid to drive on the highways ever since. I've found every back road or every quiet lane available, and believe me, in Chicago there aren't many of those.

Then I thought to myself, "Self, are you going to live in fear the rest of your life?" My self thought that probably would be the most comfortable, and so it hasn't ventured out into the fast lane yet...

Yesterday I drove to the Garden Party my sister in law prepared for us. I plugged in the Tom-Tom (thank you, God, for those devices) and confidently pushed NO when it asked if I wanted to use tollways. So, I'm driving merrily along when the nice British voice says, "In 400 yards, turn right." Like, onto 355 North.

Hello! I debated my options. I can go straight, and completely ignore the Tom-Tom, which was my first inclination. Or, I could trust the Lord first, Tom second, and put fear behind me.

Which is what I did. And it is with great relief that I have safely gone where I have feared to tread, releasing the spirit of fear behind me while hoping that it gets run over by other Chicago drivers speeding by.

Friday Fill Ins

1. Pasta, butter and fresh lemon juice make a quick and easy dinner.

2. The Late Lamented Molly Marx is the book I'm reading right now and it is fabulous!

3. July brings back memories of struggling to find a good spot to watch the fireworks.

4. The lack of immediate turnaround in our economy was obvious.

5. They say if you tell your dreams you have no shame.

6. When I want to have an apt reply to a rude comment I need time to think it over.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to reading, tomorrow my plans include a Garden Party and Sunday, I want to be over this awful, awful cold!

Two Old Women

Title: Two Old WomenAuthor: Velma Wallis
Publisher: Harper Perennial, 1993
Number of pages: 136
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

While the writing in this little book is nothing extraordinary, the story is. Two elderly women have been abandoned by their tribe during a terrible winter famine in Alaska. At first, they wonder how they will survive given their limited physical capabilities and wounded emotions. However, they bravely struggle through each day gathering just enough wood, and just enough rabbit, to make it back to the original camp their people had left. Through sheer determination, the women discover that they are not as feeble as The People had assumed. Not only do they survive, they must create caches for the abundance of dried fish and meat they have caught.

When the tribe returns disheartened, hungry and tired, they are astonished to find these two women living so well. It is agreed that they will never be abandoned again, and most importantly, the women have gained respect not only from their families but from the hunters.

In a culture such as ours today, which I find places very little value on the elderly, I am encouraged to read the story of such strength and wisdom. I think it's important to realize how we can benefit one another, and how valuable each person is regardless of age.

As he spoke, Daagoo realized that in these two women, whom he once thought of as helpless and weak, he had rediscovered the inner strength that had deserted him the winter before. Now, somehow, he knew that he never would believe himself to be old and weak again. Never!

Tuesday Teaser: Yakuza Moon

I am pulling this week's Teaser Tuesday sentences from the book Yakuza Moon by Shoko Tendo. First, here's a quote to give you a little background about it:

"Much has been written about Japan's gangsters--their full-body tattoos, boozing, womanizing, strict honor codes and occasional explosions of violence. Very little has been heard from their lovers, daughters or wives. Tendo has been all three." Bloomberg

Here is my Tuesday Teaser:

Around the same time I finally graduated from elementary school, my older sister Maki began to cut school and became a yanki, one of those wild kids who bleach their hair and race around in illegal hot rods or on motorcycles without mufflers. She dressed in flashy clothes and looked way older than a middle school student. Of course, I thought she was totally cool. But this hero-worship was about to turn my life upside down." (p. 29)

Two copies of Yakuza Moon will be given away during the Japanese Literature Challenge 3 which begins July 30th. I'd love you to join in!

 (Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading.)

Candide

Title: Candide
Author: Voltaire
Published: 1759
Number of pages: 87
Rating: 4 out of 5

The last time I read Candide was in French. We were required to read it, and analyze it, in French for my French V class in High School. (It's no wonder that when I arrived in France several years later I was able to easily converse with the French policeman from whom I asked directions. He was unable to discern my citizenship as American which was a great compliment to me at the time.)

I'd look for that paper, to help me in my discussion of Candide for this Wednesday's book club meeting, but I doubt I'd be able to read it now. So much of my ability is lost;  this time, I've had to read it in English.

It's probably a lot clearer now that I'm in my forties and reading it in my native tongue. What can a 17 year old girl know of the sarcasm with which Voltaire writes? Like Roald Dahl's dismissal of politicians and educators, in his sometimes not so subtle children's books, Voltaire mocks the establishment (to my great delight).

First on his list are the educators. Candide's teacher is Pangloss.

Pangloss was professor of metaphysico-theologico-cosmolo-nigology. He proved admirably that there is no effect without a cause, and that, in this best of all possible worlds, the Baron's castle was the most magnificent of castles..."It is demonstrable," said he, "that things cannot be otherwise than as they are; for all being created for an end, all is necessarily for the best end." (p.1,2)

He sounds just like a professor or two that I had in my undergraduate years.

Next, comes beauty. Candide falls in love with the Baron's daughter, Cunegonde, he pines the entire novel.  "Cunegonde was seventeen years of age, fresh-coloured, comely, plump and desirable." Until the end of the novel, when Candide finally claims her as his own, and she is ugly.

The tender, loving Candide, seeing his beautiful Cunegonde embrowned, with blood-shot eyes, withered neck, wrinkled cheeks, and rough, red arms recoiled three paces, seized with horror, and then advanced out of good manners. She embraced Candide and her brother; they embraced the old woman, and Candide ransomed them both." (p. 82).

Candide is too noble of character to abandon what he has set out to do, but at the end of the novel he is greatly disillusioned. He has lost the optimistic attitude which he accepted from Pangloss's instruction that all is for the best. It is on the course of his journey, expelled from the Baron's castle to obtaining a small farm of his own, that Voltaire shows us how ridiculous the world (and most of its learned men) truly are.

Here, for example, is one of the episodes which mock religion:

"Can there be two religions?" said he (an old man in El Dorado). "We have, I believe, the religion of all the world: we worship God night and morning."

"Do you worship but one God?" said Cacambo, who still acted as interpreter in representing Candide's doubts.

"Surely," said the old man, "There are not two, nor three, nor four. I must confess the people from your side of the world ask very extraordinary questions."

Candide was not yet tired of interrogating  the good old man; he wanted to know in what manner they prayed to God in El Dorado.

"We do not pray to Him," said the worthy sage; "we have nothing to ask of Him; He has given us all we need, and we return Him thanks without ceasing."

Candide having a curiosity to see the priests asked where they were. The good old man smiled.

"My friend," said he, "we are all priests. The King and the heads of families sing solemn canticles of thanksgiving every morning, accompanied by five or six thousand musicians."

"What! have you no monks who teach, who dispute, who govern, who cabal, and who burn people that are not of their opinion?" (p. 44)

Such is the delightful sarcasm the reader finds on nearly every page. At the end of the book, Candide has a farm, and he determines that the best purpose of his life is to cultivate it. Much like the wise man who wrote this saying in the Old Testament:

"There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God." Ecclesiastes 2:24

An apt conclusion, I think, even from a worn traveller who has finally discovered wisdom on his path.

Rushing Through No More

The sun is lower in the sky now when I get up.

Sparklers and flags have been put away, and all the swimming suits are half price as if Summer is over. Before you know it, we'll have pumpkins being shoved down our throats, because Halloween is almost here, isn't it?

I feel rushed through life, sometimes. "Hurry up and get to the next thing, before this thing is properly enjoyed" is the sort of feeling I have to guard against. Finish this book because there are a stack of others waiting for you. Get up and ride your bike because soon you'll be in school again, and it won't be an option to cycle through the Arboretum.

It's easy to rush away one's life preparing for the future, thinking about the past, not enjoying today. It's something I have to be on guard against, because today is a gift. It's all I hold for certain.

Blindness by Jose Saramago

Title: Blindness
Author: Jose Saramago
Published: 1998
Number of pages: 326
Rating: 5 out of 5

There are no names of characters here. Only "the girl with the dark sunglasses," or "the doctor", or "the boy with the squint."

There are no quotation marks delineating conversations here. Only a random, stream-of-consciousness kind of dialogue as one voice interacts with another.

What there is is blindness. Unexpected blindness which comes upon its victims in the form of a milky white sea instead of total blackness.

While driving home one day, a man sits in his car at the intersection unable to proceed because he has lost his sight. A stranger helps this man to his apartment, and then goes back to steal his car. The stranger becomes blind. The eye doctor from whom the man seeks medical assistance becomes blind. The patients who were waiting in the doctor's office when the man is called become blind. Blindness seems to rub off from one to another as easily as the hair from a cat when it rubs against you.

How does one function when one has suddenly lost sight? How do those around react when an ailment is suspected of being contagious? It's rather a survival of the fittest here, except for the doctor's wife, who inexplicably is not without her sight. Yet she has willingly accompanied her husband with the other blind people into the wards of the empty asylum where they are interned.

A sort of order begins in the wards. People organize themselves so that the distribution of food which they are given, never enough to go around, is at least given equally. But, how are they to manage cleanliness? Believing that they are unseen, not knowing that the doctor's wife still has her sight, some defecate on the floor; soon filth prevails. Worse, a kind of mafia has set itself up demanding payment for the food which the government promised would be provided.

The soldiers guarding the place are paranoid that the blindness will spread to them, and when the inmates come for assistance they are instantly shot. This book, more than a treatise on being blind, is a treatise on civilization. It is fantastic.

It Isn't Nothing

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is nothing.

I'm used to living under the illusion that I can control things (like my classroom), or protect people (like my child), or prevent things (like an accident on the highway by my defensive driving).

But, the older I get the more I realize that I can control nothing. That essentially, my plans or ideas are nothing more significant than a dandelion seed scattered about on a breath of wind. What happens is so often beyond anything I have the power to do anything about.

I'm sending my son on a plane from O'Hare today. He's traveled plenty: to Greece, to Slovakia, to domestic places like Florida and Texas. But, he's always traveled with me. Or, someone who's watching over him like his grandparents. Today, he must do it himself. It's good for him. It's good for me to let him go.

Around Easter our pastor gave a sermon on Jesus' last words, "Into Thy Hands I commit my spirit." I'll never forget his point: do the right thing. Trust God for everything else.

That's all I have the power to do.

Eyes Like Stars

Title: Eyes Like Stars
Author: Lisa Mantchev
Publisher: Feiwell and Friends, New York
Number of pages: 352

Today is the day this book comes out in publication. Yes, today, July 7, 2009. So, here is a preview for you, courtesy of The Children's Book Blog Tours.

With Hamlet and Ophelia, as well as the fairies Peaseblossom, Moth, Cobweb and Mustardseed, we inhabit the Theater where Bertie was taken in when she was a child. Reminiscent in many ways to me of both The Thief Lord, and Inkheart, I found myself wanting to enjoy this book.

I like magical elements. I enjoy the rebelliousness in teenagers who aren't mine. Bertie dying her hair blue, destroying parts of the set, speaking in a defiant way, made me smile. I also enjoyed how she set about trying to prove her worth as an integral part of the theater in the role of Director.

But, I was confused during much of the book. What's this book The Complete Works of The Stage which holds every one hostage? Pages are ripped out, and every one's life is on hold, which makes me wonder what the author was saying about fate; are our lives truly scripted beyond our control? I like to think that our freedom of choice, or our own free will, gives us more empowerment than that.

In many places, I found the story trite as well as meandering. The plot did not have a concise, tight feel to it; instead, I struggled to understand a tsunami suddenly taking over the stage, or the random appearance of characters from The Little Mermaid, or how, exactly, Bertie was going to direct Hamlet set in Egypt. It was never clearly determined what became of this plan.

For those who love to lose themselves in a story of imagination, especially in a theatrical setting, this would be the book for you. As for me, the only part which really struck a chord with me was this line:

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.

Indeed.

Find other stops along the tour here:
The 160 Acre Woods, A Christian Worldview of Fiction, A Patchwork of Books, Abby the Librarian, All About Children’s Books, And Another Book Read, Becky’s Book Reviews, Fireside Musings, The Friendly Book Nook, Homeschool Book Buzz, Homespun Light, Hyperbole, KidzBookBuzz.com, Never Jam Today, Reading is My Superpower, Through a Child’s Eyes

Princess Di and This July

Who gets a cold in July? It's ridiculous! I've suffered a cold from Martin Luther King, Jr. Day until Easter, but I never thought I'd be down and out for the Fourth as well. What I'm calling a 'cold' might as well be termed mono for the lethargy I feel.



However, it's giving me a lot of time to read. I'm completely absorbed in The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown. Did I tell you I went to her wedding? Well, not actually in person. But, all of my friends and I dressed up in our fancy dresses and jewels that July 29th in 1981, and sat before the BBC as if we were really in St. Paul's Cathedral. I'm only six months older than Diana was, and her life has enthralled me.

Tina Brown's book is better than any biography I've read on Diana because it gives the background in intimate detail of every event you saw and every photograph you remember viewing. She writes in a wonderfully piercing way, which borders on the sarcastic, and cuts right to the core of what went on behind the public's purview.

In September, Charles and Diana were spotted for the first time on an official engagement at the annual Braemar Gathering and Highland Games, a relief to Diana, because even watching the whirling sporrans of Highland Dancing and Tossing the Caber was better than mooching around Craigowan waiting for Charles to return with a dead fish. When the national anthem struck up, the Prince whispered to her, "They're playing our song." Diana started to giggle, causing the Prince to forget the discipline of a lifetime and silently crack up, too. It could have been a delightful moment of new marital complicity, but the filthy look the Queen sent across froze them both." p. 213

It's great to get an inside picture of a woman I've both admired and pitied. It's good to know that even a princess gets colds, feels ill, or fails to meet both external and internal expectations. Just like other women her age.

Beyond Golden Clouds

The Art Institute of Chicago is having a special exhibit of Japanese screens from June 26 until September 27, 2009.

We went to see them, today, my mother and I. Unfortunately, I was unable to take photographs of them (the staff frowned severely on me and my camera), but I will post a few of my favorites here:



The screen on the wall of this home was on display today. It's called Dragon Knows Dragon, and I found it on Architectural Digest  above this caption: "With his clients’ collection of Asian art in mind, California-based designer Ron Mann refurbished a modern penthouse in London overlooking the Thames. In the main living area is Dragon Knows Dragon, a four-panel lacquered screen by Shiryu Morita."

But, the really cool part about Dragon Knows Dragon is the translation which the Art Institute wrote next to the screen: a phrase meaning "to recognize greatness is greatness." I'd like to think that's true...

Another of my favorite screens is called Mountain Lake Screen Tachi by Okura Jiro. It was made from trees in the woods of Virginia, and it looks like this:



Of course, this is again photographed outside of the museum where the artist had completed his work. But, I loved what the caption said by its display: "It is the artist's intention that over time, bits of the gold leaf will fall from the screens and the wood will return to its natural state. His acceptance of the gradual transformation of his art can be taken as a metaphor for the ever changing condition of nature stressed in Buddhism."

I loved looking at these screens today from the first one which was painted in 1969 to some that were over 500 years old done in pen and ink. I bought a few things from this collection for prizes during the Japanese Literature Challenge 3, so be on the lookout for them to reappear sometime soon...