Ahead of starting The Bird King...

[lebateleur]

...I am rereading G. Willow Wilson's Alif the Unseen. It's by and large an excellent read, but then I'll encounter exchanges like the following, in which two characters discuss world literature, that seem wickedly insightful:

"There is a very simple test," said Vikram. "Is it about bored, tired people having sex?"

"Yes," said the convert, surprised.

"Then it's western."

And yet.

A story about bored, tired people having sex.

これで以上です。

Comments

[flemmings]

Well, but is it? Boeed tired men, maybe, but the women are always in a state of worked up excitement or deep anxiety, and frequently both. Which is why I dislike the novel so much.

ETA bored, not booed, though they should be, preferably with a witty poem by Sei Shonagon.

[lebateleur]

Yes, but the luminaries of Western literature whose work Wilson is pillorying here often never move beyond the "what a bunch of anxious, hysterical killjoys/ball busters/shrews" treatment of female characters. So they've that in common with Murasaki, even if their depiction arises from laziness while hers was probably based on a degree of personal experience.

And I very much agree about Sei Shonagon.