And double post

[lunabee34]

Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life by Beth Kempton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was my Christmas gift to a friend, and she passed it on to me when she was finished.

First, this book is beautiful; the cover is gorgeous, and the pages are really thick paper, almost card stock.

In the first part of the book, Kempton defines wabi sabi. She contends that while most Japanese people do not use that term, it's a concept that is implicitly, culturally understood and that involves an awareness of the passing of time, finding beauty in simplicity and imperfection, and other traits.

The second part of the book is about how to introduce wabi sabi into your life; this section contains interviews with Japanese people and stories from Kempton's life in Japan as well as worksheets and checklists for reflection.




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Fixing Patriarchy: Feminism and Mid-Victorian Male Novelists by Donald E. Hall

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is interesting. Hall looks at a variety of novels by male authors (and follows Dickens over the course of a couple decades) that feature female characters; he charts the way that male anxieties about the changing role and rights of women show up in these novels in ways that both "fix" (repair) and "fix" (keep in place) the patriarchy. Hall is also interested in the way in which male anxiety about women leads to homophobia.

I haven't read some of the texts he discusses, but his argument is cogent even where I'm not familiar with the primary text. I enjoyed the discussion of Man and Wife in particular; Hall thinks the book is one of Collins's worst (awwww, I like it) but sees it as interesting commentary on Kingsley's muscular Christianity.

Worth a read.



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Comments

[sallymn]

They both sound interesting :)

[lunabee34]

They are! :)

[chelseagirl]

One of my students did a paper on wabi sabi last semester. It sounded very much the way M and I live. When I was cleaning out my aunt's apartment we made a choice to throw out some newer things of our own to take in some of her furniture (some of which dated back to my Nana before her); M fixed some hinges that had been shoved closed with cardboard for the past 30 years and made it all worn but fully functional once more. Worn but lovely and loved by at least this one additional generation.

It's been probably twenty years since I read Man and Wife, but I always thought Collins was rather better on women than many of the other male Victorians. I have so little connection with my original field of study anymore; maybe that's why writing fiction set in the 19th c. is so important to me? Anyway, you've inspired me and I've just ordered a used copy.

[lunabee34]

Yes! In fact, Hall holds Collins up as a writer who is very much ahead of time his time in his writing about women (while also not being able to entirely escape the trappings of the patriarchal culture in which he is writing). John Stuart Mill, not surprisingly, gets the ally gold star of the book; Dickens gets some credit for improving his treatment of women over time but is still pretty anxious about teh ladies by the end of the book. LOL

I loved Man and Wife; it is totally ridiculous in places, but it's a lot of fun and not a laborious read. I also really dig Dead Secret if you haven't read that one.

[executrix]

You're a better person than I am, Gunga Din--I always read 'em first before giving 'em away.

[lunabee34]

I should start doing that. :)