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Book Reviews: Dark Mirror, Duane; Geisha, A Life, Iwasaki; Henry VI Part 3, Shakespeare
Title: Dark Mirror (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Author: Diane Duane
Published: Pocket Books, 1993
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 340
Total Page Count: 248,595
Text Number: 794
Read Because: mentioned here, used paperback purchased from the Book Bin
Review: At the edge of the galaxy, the Enterprise is pulled into the mirror universe by its predatory counterpart. This is my first time reading a spin-off novel for any franchise, which can't help but color my experience; seeing a franchise adapted to text is as interesting as the story itself. A novel allows for significantly more interiority and infodumping. Of the latter there's plenty, not delivered with exceptional grace but building a more thorough view of the mirror universe, particularly its history; it feels somewhat reductionist, but given context perhaps it has to be, and it does satisfy the itch for more information. The interiority is welcome, and is most robust in Picard but especially Troi, whose double is the best developed and most compelling; this is where the concept graduates from the broad fear of one's own worst tendencies and develops into a conflicted admiration/jealousy/fear of the selves one might have been—especially interesting in a character so association with emotions as is Troi. I wish this pushed further, but it's a strong attempt.
Novel length also allows for subplots, and they're well-intended (especially the non-humanoid alien) but rarely compliment the larger narrative. The best minor addition is the downtime, the anxious waiting, the technical difficulties which would kill the pacing of an episode but here make the setting feel enjoyably realistic. It helps that I didn't have high expectations and that the sheer novelty is a selling point, because the quality here is just so-so—but the experience is engaging and gratifying; I'm surprised by how much I liked this.
Title: Geisha, A Life
Author: Mineko Iwasaki
Translator: Rande Brown
Published: Atria Books, 2002
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 320
Total Page Count: 248,915
Text Number: 795
Read Because: see Tumblr post linked below, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The autobiography of Mineko Iwasaki, the most famous geisha in Japan until her sudden retirement at the height of her career. This is written partially in response to Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha (although it never says so directly); as such, it's made accessible to a foreign audience and does much to explain the controversy surrounding Memoirs, particularly the liberties that book takes with Iwasaki's life story, as well as the way it elides geisha and prostitution. This is also a memoir in its own right. Iwasaki relies heavily on anecdotes; her memory is precise, her language evocative, her personality changeable and occasionally smug. She simultaneously loves and criticizes the hierarchical social structure, restrictiveness, skill, artistry, and effort that contribute to a geisha's craft, particularly as interacts with gender and as it has failed to change with the times; her experience and opinions are fervent and complex. This throughline isn't as solid as it could be—in particular, it wants for a stronger conclusion, perhaps an argument about what she believes the future of geisha should look like. But it's a compelling effort, and especially valuable in a world where Memoirs of a Geisha is such a problematic and popular text.
(I wrote a relatively popular, v. shitty review of Memoirs of a Geisha back in the day that will! never! die!, but had still never read this important response to it (despite having provided it as recommended reading), so I finally corrected the issue. I wrote about that trash fire, and some more immediate and emotional reactions to Geisha, A Life, here on my Tumblr, crossposted below.)
12 years ago when I was by any reasonable metric a Small, Foolish Young Adult (as opposed to now, where I am Same, But Somewhat Older), while I was in a potent and undoubtedly mildly racist weeaboo phase, I read Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha and wrote a review that went something like "given how stylized and sexualized this is, and given what little I know about Japanese culture, I suspect this may be a misrepresentation and maybe also racist?" except I said it with a lot of redundancy, equivocation, and words
I posted this on the internet; it was a Mistake
lo these many years later, it's one of the most popular things I've posted online and I get comments and notifications about it all the time :(
they are of three varieties: 1) thank you, I agree; 2) source please; 2b) no really, I don't have access to search engines, could someone please google the book and/or film for me and tell me why it's controversial and where I can find more info/what I should read instead; 3) it's fiction, duh, it can't be racist, it's just a story
I am the worst possible advocate for the "Memoirs is racist, you guys" argument, most obviously because I'm ... not Japanese...; also because literally 5mins with Google answers this question; answers specifically with:
which makes Iwasaki a far better advocate because this was literally her life and she made a direct response
but I hadn't read Geisha, A Life—my "huh this seems racist" came from being vaguely familiar w/ Japanese culture/American impressions of Japanese cultural history in particular, and with having done like five minutes of googling about geisha in general; I repeat: this was not my question to field, I was just a casual reader drawing an obvious conclusion, why have so many people asked me for reading lists ahhhhhhhsdfsaj
so I finally read Geisha, A Life
and I don't think it's the only possible response; I don't know that an autobiography can be judged for its objectivity, and there's obvious personal motivations, particularly to respond to Memoirs & the related controversy (although Golden and the book are never mentioned). but Iwasaki has a complex view of the cultural and social issues surrounding geisha—criticizing the way it disenfranchises its performers and the problems with a gendered and exceptionally demanding service industry; mourning the loss of culture, history, and aesthetics but also putting much of the blame for that on the way that the community's insular, hierarchical structure restricts information and education. it's not a novel, and doesn't serve an identical function of exploring this engaging setting via a crafted drama—but 1) Memoirs isn't v. well written y'all and 2) Iwasaki is so invested in the history, the culture, the images, the voice; her memory is evocative and precise, and profoundly tied to the effort and beauty of geisha and their art. also 3) there's so many direct parallels between events in Memoirs and Iwasaki's life that it's obvious why she had such a strong personal reaction to the novel
it's far from a perfect book—the pacing of anecdotes can be smug and staccato; she doesn't discuss the sexual connotations of mizuage as directly as perhaps necessary (insofar as the book is a response to Memoirs); one wishes for a stronger closing argument—the final chapters are a non-geisha-related whirlwind and want for a stronger closing statement of how Iwasaki believes the industry should be modernized to preserve it and benefit its workers
but really what makes me sad, is:
I will keep getting comments about Memoirs, these commenters could answer their own damn questions asdlfjsadsaj, "it's fiction" is literally never an excuse for anything! but especially racism! why is that even in question!, and:
Geisha, A Life has received a fraction of the exposure and attention of Memoirs of a Geisha—the barest fraction, about 3%, because that sensualized drama from a white male author is the first and last impression for a vast majority of the audience, and the people who read my shitty review and go "huh, is it racist? is it icky ‘n gross?" are probably actually learning something
#I hate all my old reviews; I could probably update it—edit it down to a paragraph & plug Iwasaki's book & give a citation or two #but then I start to feel responsible for all my old & popular negative reviews and I just do not have the spoons to better 20-year-old-me #but this is the one that haunts me because nothing I saw should have been controversial
Title: Henry VI Part 3
Author: William Shakespeare
Published: 1595
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 100
Total Page Count: 249,015
Text Number: 796
Read Because: co-read with my mother
Review: The link this makes between personal, selfish, revenge-driven motives and the futility and pain of a civil war creates a solid, well-rounded thematic center which is echoed in the best scenes, including Rutland's murder, the King with the father/son murders, and Richard's fantastic speeches. I wonder if I would have enjoyed this so much if I weren't familiar with & looking forward to Richard III, because he was absolutely my favorite thing about this play, but he's a great character regardless. The momentum, language, and thematic consistency in this play reminds me of the better, later Shakespeare plays with which I'm more familiar; a solidly enjoyable experience.
Author: Diane Duane
Published: Pocket Books, 1993
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 340
Total Page Count: 248,595
Text Number: 794
Read Because: mentioned here, used paperback purchased from the Book Bin
Review: At the edge of the galaxy, the Enterprise is pulled into the mirror universe by its predatory counterpart. This is my first time reading a spin-off novel for any franchise, which can't help but color my experience; seeing a franchise adapted to text is as interesting as the story itself. A novel allows for significantly more interiority and infodumping. Of the latter there's plenty, not delivered with exceptional grace but building a more thorough view of the mirror universe, particularly its history; it feels somewhat reductionist, but given context perhaps it has to be, and it does satisfy the itch for more information. The interiority is welcome, and is most robust in Picard but especially Troi, whose double is the best developed and most compelling; this is where the concept graduates from the broad fear of one's own worst tendencies and develops into a conflicted admiration/jealousy/fear of the selves one might have been—especially interesting in a character so association with emotions as is Troi. I wish this pushed further, but it's a strong attempt.
Novel length also allows for subplots, and they're well-intended (especially the non-humanoid alien) but rarely compliment the larger narrative. The best minor addition is the downtime, the anxious waiting, the technical difficulties which would kill the pacing of an episode but here make the setting feel enjoyably realistic. It helps that I didn't have high expectations and that the sheer novelty is a selling point, because the quality here is just so-so—but the experience is engaging and gratifying; I'm surprised by how much I liked this.
Title: Geisha, A Life
Author: Mineko Iwasaki
Translator: Rande Brown
Published: Atria Books, 2002
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 320
Total Page Count: 248,915
Text Number: 795
Read Because: see Tumblr post linked below, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The autobiography of Mineko Iwasaki, the most famous geisha in Japan until her sudden retirement at the height of her career. This is written partially in response to Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha (although it never says so directly); as such, it's made accessible to a foreign audience and does much to explain the controversy surrounding Memoirs, particularly the liberties that book takes with Iwasaki's life story, as well as the way it elides geisha and prostitution. This is also a memoir in its own right. Iwasaki relies heavily on anecdotes; her memory is precise, her language evocative, her personality changeable and occasionally smug. She simultaneously loves and criticizes the hierarchical social structure, restrictiveness, skill, artistry, and effort that contribute to a geisha's craft, particularly as interacts with gender and as it has failed to change with the times; her experience and opinions are fervent and complex. This throughline isn't as solid as it could be—in particular, it wants for a stronger conclusion, perhaps an argument about what she believes the future of geisha should look like. But it's a compelling effort, and especially valuable in a world where Memoirs of a Geisha is such a problematic and popular text.
(I wrote a relatively popular, v. shitty review of Memoirs of a Geisha back in the day that will! never! die!, but had still never read this important response to it (despite having provided it as recommended reading), so I finally corrected the issue. I wrote about that trash fire, and some more immediate and emotional reactions to Geisha, A Life, here on my Tumblr, crossposted below.)
12 years ago when I was by any reasonable metric a Small, Foolish Young Adult (as opposed to now, where I am Same, But Somewhat Older), while I was in a potent and undoubtedly mildly racist weeaboo phase, I read Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha and wrote a review that went something like "given how stylized and sexualized this is, and given what little I know about Japanese culture, I suspect this may be a misrepresentation and maybe also racist?" except I said it with a lot of redundancy, equivocation, and words
I posted this on the internet; it was a Mistake
lo these many years later, it's one of the most popular things I've posted online and I get comments and notifications about it all the time :(
they are of three varieties: 1) thank you, I agree; 2) source please; 2b) no really, I don't have access to search engines, could someone please google the book and/or film for me and tell me why it's controversial and where I can find more info/what I should read instead; 3) it's fiction, duh, it can't be racist, it's just a story
I am the worst possible advocate for the "Memoirs is racist, you guys" argument, most obviously because I'm ... not Japanese...; also because literally 5mins with Google answers this question; answers specifically with:
After the Japanese edition of the novel was published, Arthur Golden was sued for breach of contract and defamation of character by Mineko Iwasaki, a retired geisha he had interviewed for background information while writing the novel. The plaintiff asserted that Golden had agreed to protect her anonymity if she told him about her life as a geisha, due to the traditional code of silence about their clients. However, Golden listed Iwasaki as a source in his acknowledgments for the novel, causing her to face a serious backlash, to the point of death threats. In his defense, Arthur Golden countered that he had tapes of his conversations with Iwasaki. Eventually, in 2003, Golden's publisher settled with Iwasaki out of court for an undisclosed sum of money.
Iwasaki later went on to write an autobiography, which shows a very different picture of twentieth-century geisha life than the one shown in Golden's novel. The book was published as Geisha, a Life in the U.S. and Geisha of Gion in the U.K.
—Wikipedia! the source is just Wikipedia!
which makes Iwasaki a far better advocate because this was literally her life and she made a direct response
but I hadn't read Geisha, A Life—my "huh this seems racist" came from being vaguely familiar w/ Japanese culture/American impressions of Japanese cultural history in particular, and with having done like five minutes of googling about geisha in general; I repeat: this was not my question to field, I was just a casual reader drawing an obvious conclusion, why have so many people asked me for reading lists ahhhhhhhsdfsaj
so I finally read Geisha, A Life
and I don't think it's the only possible response; I don't know that an autobiography can be judged for its objectivity, and there's obvious personal motivations, particularly to respond to Memoirs & the related controversy (although Golden and the book are never mentioned). but Iwasaki has a complex view of the cultural and social issues surrounding geisha—criticizing the way it disenfranchises its performers and the problems with a gendered and exceptionally demanding service industry; mourning the loss of culture, history, and aesthetics but also putting much of the blame for that on the way that the community's insular, hierarchical structure restricts information and education. it's not a novel, and doesn't serve an identical function of exploring this engaging setting via a crafted drama—but 1) Memoirs isn't v. well written y'all and 2) Iwasaki is so invested in the history, the culture, the images, the voice; her memory is evocative and precise, and profoundly tied to the effort and beauty of geisha and their art. also 3) there's so many direct parallels between events in Memoirs and Iwasaki's life that it's obvious why she had such a strong personal reaction to the novel
it's far from a perfect book—the pacing of anecdotes can be smug and staccato; she doesn't discuss the sexual connotations of mizuage as directly as perhaps necessary (insofar as the book is a response to Memoirs); one wishes for a stronger closing argument—the final chapters are a non-geisha-related whirlwind and want for a stronger closing statement of how Iwasaki believes the industry should be modernized to preserve it and benefit its workers
but really what makes me sad, is:
I will keep getting comments about Memoirs, these commenters could answer their own damn questions asdlfjsadsaj, "it's fiction" is literally never an excuse for anything! but especially racism! why is that even in question!, and:
Geisha, A Life has received a fraction of the exposure and attention of Memoirs of a Geisha—the barest fraction, about 3%, because that sensualized drama from a white male author is the first and last impression for a vast majority of the audience, and the people who read my shitty review and go "huh, is it racist? is it icky ‘n gross?" are probably actually learning something
#I hate all my old reviews; I could probably update it—edit it down to a paragraph & plug Iwasaki's book & give a citation or two #but then I start to feel responsible for all my old & popular negative reviews and I just do not have the spoons to better 20-year-old-me #but this is the one that haunts me because nothing I saw should have been controversial
Title: Henry VI Part 3
Author: William Shakespeare
Published: 1595
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 100
Total Page Count: 249,015
Text Number: 796
Read Because: co-read with my mother
Review: The link this makes between personal, selfish, revenge-driven motives and the futility and pain of a civil war creates a solid, well-rounded thematic center which is echoed in the best scenes, including Rutland's murder, the King with the father/son murders, and Richard's fantastic speeches. I wonder if I would have enjoyed this so much if I weren't familiar with & looking forward to Richard III, because he was absolutely my favorite thing about this play, but he's a great character regardless. The momentum, language, and thematic consistency in this play reminds me of the better, later Shakespeare plays with which I'm more familiar; a solidly enjoyable experience.
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