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Jun. 15th, 2009 12:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsSei Shonagon was a Japanese Court lady of the Heian era; not much is known about her except that she served the Empress Sadako, Lady Murakami (of Tale of Genji fame) was bitchy about her in a footnote, and she wrote a famous Pillow Book of musings, diary-ish entries, and lists that has survived in various different organizations and translations to the current day.
The Pillow Book is cool because of what it reveals about the culture of the time, but honestly, it's also just really entertaining to read! Shonagon was moderately well known around court as a talented poet from a literary family, and she spends a reasonable amount of time being suitably poetic about the weather and the moonlight - which is lovely, don't get me wrong - but she is totally not afraid to let loose. Her famous lists include Hateful Things ("a certain gentleman whom one does not want to see visits one at home or in the Palace, and one pretends to be asleep. But a maid comes to tell one and shakes one awake, with an expression on her face that says, "What a sleepyhead!" Very hateful."), Embarrassing Things, and Annoying Things, which are all just about as fun as they sound. Other highlights: the part where she complains about how awkward it is when your lover comes to visit you when you're staying at someone else's house (especially awkward when one is staying with one's in-laws!); the time when she and a bunch of other ladies go on a special trip to hear a bird sing and forget to write poems about it, much to everyone's embarrassment; the time when an ex-boyfriend comes to visit her after she blew him off the night before, and she keeps thinking about how the scene would be incredibly romantic if only she was not having a bad hair day. I feel you, Sei Shonagon!
I also love the bit where she's talking about the super-secret code that she and a friend have to gossip about people's love affairs - it's essentially baseball code, except instead of baseball it's centered on a bunch of very subtle and witty metaphors around the game of go - and some other dude finds out about it and comes to visit her, all, "HEY SEI SHONAGON, I CAN PLAY GO PRETTY GOOD, WANT TO FIND OUT HOW?" *wink wink nudge nudge* and Sei Shonagon is just like "Oh honey. First of all, no. Second of all, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG."
Despite the boys coming and going, however, it is pretty clear that Sei Shonagon's most important relationship was with her teenaged Empress. There are a lot of poem-exchanges between the two of them that essentially boil down to "I LIKE YOU. DO YOU LIKE ME? YES/NO CHECK ONE." The footnotes are very helpful here in pointing out the political turmoil that she edges around. They are also helpful in calling attention to the parts where these exchanges of poems of undying love were really quite normal for Heian ladies, no seriously, you should not take it as implying anything LESBIAN! Which, I mean, I am sure that it was quite normal for Heian ladies! All I am saying is, if you want to ship gorgeous, intelligent, politically endangered young Empress/slightly older, famously witty, famously romantically experienced Court lady-in-waiting who is devoted to her but also POSSIBLY has connections with a rival faction, it is a free country and you should therefore feel free to do so. In my opinion. :D
The Pillow Book is cool because of what it reveals about the culture of the time, but honestly, it's also just really entertaining to read! Shonagon was moderately well known around court as a talented poet from a literary family, and she spends a reasonable amount of time being suitably poetic about the weather and the moonlight - which is lovely, don't get me wrong - but she is totally not afraid to let loose. Her famous lists include Hateful Things ("a certain gentleman whom one does not want to see visits one at home or in the Palace, and one pretends to be asleep. But a maid comes to tell one and shakes one awake, with an expression on her face that says, "What a sleepyhead!" Very hateful."), Embarrassing Things, and Annoying Things, which are all just about as fun as they sound. Other highlights: the part where she complains about how awkward it is when your lover comes to visit you when you're staying at someone else's house (especially awkward when one is staying with one's in-laws!); the time when she and a bunch of other ladies go on a special trip to hear a bird sing and forget to write poems about it, much to everyone's embarrassment; the time when an ex-boyfriend comes to visit her after she blew him off the night before, and she keeps thinking about how the scene would be incredibly romantic if only she was not having a bad hair day. I feel you, Sei Shonagon!
I also love the bit where she's talking about the super-secret code that she and a friend have to gossip about people's love affairs - it's essentially baseball code, except instead of baseball it's centered on a bunch of very subtle and witty metaphors around the game of go - and some other dude finds out about it and comes to visit her, all, "HEY SEI SHONAGON, I CAN PLAY GO PRETTY GOOD, WANT TO FIND OUT HOW?" *wink wink nudge nudge* and Sei Shonagon is just like "Oh honey. First of all, no. Second of all, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG."
Despite the boys coming and going, however, it is pretty clear that Sei Shonagon's most important relationship was with her teenaged Empress. There are a lot of poem-exchanges between the two of them that essentially boil down to "I LIKE YOU. DO YOU LIKE ME? YES/NO CHECK ONE." The footnotes are very helpful here in pointing out the political turmoil that she edges around. They are also helpful in calling attention to the parts where these exchanges of poems of undying love were really quite normal for Heian ladies, no seriously, you should not take it as implying anything LESBIAN! Which, I mean, I am sure that it was quite normal for Heian ladies! All I am saying is, if you want to ship gorgeous, intelligent, politically endangered young Empress/slightly older, famously witty, famously romantically experienced Court lady-in-waiting who is devoted to her but also POSSIBLY has connections with a rival faction, it is a free country and you should therefore feel free to do so. In my opinion. :D
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no subject
Date: 2009-06-15 04:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-15 04:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-15 06:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-15 06:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-15 08:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-15 08:27 pm (UTC)*Well, long as you were not a commoner. Sei Shonagon was alas kind of a snob.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-16 01:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-16 02:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-15 11:01 pm (UTC)*SHINY EYES!
(yep, that's the depth of my input this morning. BUT I WANT.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-16 02:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-16 10:44 pm (UTC)Also?
this text is so up your alley that I'm pretty sure it's going to set up house there.
That is the best way to describe something ever
no subject
Date: 2009-06-16 12:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-16 02:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-26 04:40 pm (UTC)*puts on List*
no subject
Date: 2009-06-26 04:54 pm (UTC)