08-10-2019, 08:01 PM | #16 |
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I expected the sexism, especially given how slow Japanese society has been to adapt to more equality for women. I worked for >10 years for a Japanese managed company (NUMMI -- New United Motors Manufacturing Inc, the GM/Toyota joint venture), and even though women worked at all levels of the plant, there were never any as part of the Toyota management. Exactly none. And none of the engineers or trainers or anyone else that Toyota sent over were women. So I can hardly be surprised by the attitudes in this book. Which doesn't mean I enjoyed that aspect.
However, I could probably have gotten around the sexism if I had actually found it particularly funny. Oh, there were some funny scenes. But too few, and too much of the same old shtick. I admit, I abandoned at about 35%. |
08-11-2019, 06:18 PM | #17 |
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Well, I finished the book. Tedious is the best word to describe it. I would have liked more of the cat insights and less of the human dialogue. I missed the cat's interactions with other animals in the latter half of the book. The discussion amongst the scholars just went on too long at times which took away from the insight of the passages and what could have been funnier. By continuing to the end, it did complete some of the threads of the stories - like the burglar is caught and we find out if Coldmoon marries Opula Goldfield. And, the scholars even laugh at themselves for dragging a story on longer than necessary!
I don't regret learning about this author. Clearly he is important and considered one of the greatest authors in Japanese literature. His portrait was on the Japanese 1000 yen note for 20 years. That's a long time! Haruki Murakami has said Sōseki is his favorite author. Since this month's topic was about debuts, I also wanted to learn more about the author and his works. I thought this article in the Times Literary Supplement is a good overview. https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/p...-umami-soseki/ |
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08-11-2019, 06:27 PM | #18 | |
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According to Wikipedia's entry on I Am a Cat, the novel has been adapted into multiple formats, underscoring its popularity in Japanese society. I imagine that they could have been more entertaining than the novel.
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08-11-2019, 07:31 PM | #19 |
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Karma to you, Bookworm_Girl for finishing the book! And thanks for the TLS article which I shall read with interest. It certainly seems to be an important work in Japanese artistic circles. No doubt we missed a lot of references to Japanese attitudes, beliefs etc, but I do agree with you that it was tedious to read.
Ah well, we have to expect some misses amongst the hits! |
08-12-2019, 03:22 AM | #20 |
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The author's other good book is Botchan. I heard it being discussed in an anime from last year.
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08-15-2019, 01:54 PM | #21 |
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I threw in the towel early on, too, but I can’t entirely blame the book. I have the attention span of a 3-year-old these days. One of my 2 book groups meets tomorrow to discuss a book I apparently recommended (“The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind”) — and I still haven’t read it! So I watched the movie instead. I know; bad form. I don’t suppose “I Am a Cat: The Movie” would’ve been much of a blockbuster?
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08-15-2019, 06:44 PM | #22 | |
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08-22-2019, 01:21 AM | #23 |
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I guess I should chime in here.
I think I laid out my reasoning for nominating this book in that thread and I still think it was a good nomination. I think for me the main downfall is not understanding how much knowledge of Japanese culture, especially turn of the 20th century knowledge, that would be needed for this. Without that knowledge this turns into an incomprehensible story without much plot. I was not able to finish it but I did enjoy what I finished. That said, and I don't know how much of this is translator and how much is the author, I really did enjoy the prose itself. There were some excellent turns of phrases and the imagery was very good. I highlighted a bunch of passages but don't have my Kindle available right now to glean from. Overall, the cat's perspective was about right. His attitude at least in the first section seemed to catch the essence of "cat". The passage about the "dreams" of suicide then the professor's story about getting sick right before his wife's concert was ... disconcerting. I really wish I could understand what the author was trying to say here. I think this passage was the part that lost me for good in this book. I rarely see translators change names like they did in this book. Obviously their names were picked for their meaning but it was still off putting to me to see them translated like that. Was that the case for anyone else? |
08-22-2019, 07:06 AM | #24 |
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To me the names (Coldmoon, Sneaze, Goldfield, etc) were all just part of the weirdness of the whole book. I was only surprised that their houses seemed to be what we think of as traditional Japanese houses.
so I agree Dazrin - the names were definitely off putting. |
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