Redpill me on jap literature

>>9350622
No

>>9350622
Check the wiki, the catalog, and the archive before asking for advice or recommendations, and please refrain from starting new threads for questions that can be answered by a search engine.

The Japanese language is perfect for poetry and worthless for prose. Don't bother reading anything in translation.

>>9350622
big anime tits

Jap lit is a pretty cool guy. Eh, sparse and poetic and doesn't afraid of anything, except Oe.

The prose sometimes turns out atrociously.
But their themes are interesting.
Which makes me put up with the prose.
But fuck Haruki Murakami.

File: myclub.jpg (147KB, 900x575px) Image search: [Google]

147KB, 900x575px

>>9350622
It's literally all trash

File: d0153518_7435836.jpg (384KB, 1024x768px) Image search: [Google]

384KB, 1024x768px

>>9350622
Regarding 20th century Japanese literature, most of what's popular on this board is thematically similar to a lot of Western modernist literature. Heavy focus on conception of the "self" almost entirely due to the influence of a liberal Western individualism which previously was irrelevant in Japanese thought. This monistic self (individual as separate from other individuals) logically leads to themes like alienation, external/internal dichotomies which is stuff you see pretty often in Western modernist literature. The big difference is (obviously) the nationality and (a bit less obviously) the style. Consider the watakushi-shosetsu and zuihitsu as Japanese literary genres for examples of this stylistic departure from Western literature - you're not gonna find here much of the formalist experimentation you expect out of Western modernists like Joyce or Woolf.

If you want to read stuff that's not as popular on this board, try Kawabata. I think he's distinct from the sort of writing I described.

>>9351028
Kawabata is immensely popular, he's one of the most often recommended Japanese writers in the west and /lit/

>>9351054
Of course, I mean comparatively. People only make threads about Mishima or Dazai on here.

>>9350622
>Redpill me on jap literature
I don't know what you mean by this but check out The Woman in the Dunes or the short stories of Akutagawa. I Am a Cat by Soseki is really comfy and funny as well.

>>9351028
I have two of his books collecting dust on my shelf. I should read them.

>>9350622
ナルファンタジ (Ulysses-san) by Jamuramasi Joycikami
--This is slice-of-life like you’ve never read it before. Joyceikami takes you on a journey through the ancient feudal Japanese city of Dublin, alongside our hero, Leopold Bloomijiro, a samurai whose waifu is going to cheat on him with another samurai. But what makes it really spectacular is how Joyceikami plays with the form: One chapter for example is done like an anime script, another is a history of manga. Crazy stuff, but very dense with a lot of references to Japanese culture.
バットマン (Gravitosha’s Rainbaru) by Thomoshio Pynchoniru
--Now this is a crazy one. If you like Metal Gear Solid, you’ll like Thomoshio (it was a huge inspiration for his novels). Pynchonuro’s my fav writer for sure because my fav thing in books is goofs, gags, jokes and rambunctious behavior, and his books are full to the brim of it. Every novel is like one of those novelty snake cans, you open the book & POP you get a face fulla snakes and you fall back cackling. The mad mind, the crack genius, to do it! and then you think hmmm whats he gonna do next, this trickster, and you pick the book back up and BZZZZZZZZZZ you get a shock and Hahahahahah you've been pranked again by the old pynchmeister, that card. "Did that Pynchonuro?" he says, laughing yukyukyukyuk. Watch him as he shoves a pair of plastic buck teeth right up into his mouth and displays em for you- left, right, center- "you like dese? Do i look handsome???" Pulls out a mirror. "Ah!" Hand to naughty mouth. And you're on your ass again laughing as he snaps his suspenders, exits stage right, and appears again hauling a huge golden gong.
切腹 (Infiniku Jestu) by Daviyuki Fosteru Wallasui
--What a book!!! Truly Japan’s finest work of fiction. It’s big enough to knock out an adult male (they actually tested it during the second world war, look it up), and its truly a spiritual book. Daviyuki truly understands the way of the tao and of the flowing river. The only thing that comes close to the sublime calm of reading Wallasui for me, is the pleasure of finishing my favorite anime video game, Kensuki’s Kingdom, when the hero, Buki-san, is reunited with his waifu, Kuki, after rescuing her from the ninja’s rock garden (karesansui as the Japanese say).
Now if you’ll excuse me OP, the sky is dimming, and I anticipate that tonight will be a good night!! I have torrented several thousand hours of tentacle geisha fapumentaries (a concept the west has yet to capitalize on and ruin!!!!) and would like also to listen to the new album by my favorite Japanese experimental rock outifit, Unit 731!!! Sayonara friend (or in japanese, tamagotchi!)!

whats the point if you cant read it in the original

File: IMG_0054.jpg (185KB, 865x1301px) Image search: [Google]

185KB, 865x1301px

I like Japanese poetry. It's very simplistic and pretty

>>9351197
>has the original poem in romanized form
What book is this?
I need this

>>9353058
What's the point if you don't know (classical) Japanese? Reading pretty-sounding syllables?

>>9353082
Exactly.
It feels nice to say it out loud.

>>9353174
Fair enough, I definetly think so too. And I guess you don't need to understand them to enjoy their sound.

>>9350654
>worth prose exist
kys

>>9353082
>>9353178
>>9353174
I definitely recommend you fellows to take a pre-modern Japanese literature class if you can. I did and it was great because it explained the grammatical intricacies and connotations in the untranslated work, which led me to appreciate waka and haiku a lot more than I did before. The Kokinshu is really fucking good.

>>9353174
>Americans trying to pronounce Japanese

"Haroo noh noo-nee, sue me Ray tsoome nee two"


Just don't.

>>9353215
>everyone is American

>>9353212
Did two years ago, it's a mandatory part of my course. But as far as Heian period goes, I prefer prose.

>>9353215
Luckily I'm not American.

Do not want to make another thread, so I will ask it here. Which literature would you recommend to a foreigner with desire to dive into you culture? Which book fully represents the beauty of English language?

>>9353295
Depends what culture in which you are interested. For American English, I would recommend Steinbeck, either East of Eden or Cannery Row. On the poetry side, Walt Whitman and Robert Frost.
If you want the source of a lot of English literature, culture, and idioms read the King James Version Bible and a few Shakespeare plays.

>>9353299
I'll take it. Thanks.

>>9353215

>Ni-how-ma *bows* Domo Aa-ra-gato-desu-sempai

Easy as shit. If you post on 4chan you're already halfway to being fluent in Japanese.

>>9350654

How can one comment be so wrong

>>9350622
Japanese literature will probably just make you want to kill yourself even more. Depressing, yet beautiful works written mostly by authors that ended up killing themselves. The Japanese have never been a happy people, and it shows.

kawabata

File: image.jpg (2MB, 4032x3024px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 4032x3024px

>>9353058
One hundred Poems From The Japanese by Kenneth Rexroth

>>9351165
this is beautiful

>>9354635
Sounds like Russia

>>9350627
Longer

I enjoy Soseki the most

Garbage

>>9350622
Kenzaburo Oe and Yukio Mishima.

File: hokusai_manga_2.jpg (944KB, 1200x915px) Image search: [Google]

944KB, 1200x915px

>>9350622
>jap literature
nothing to read
just watch

>>9350622
Light novels