For Friday: Last Akutagawa Stories, “The Story of a Head That Fell Off” and “Horse Legs”

The “Egypt” group should answer TWO of these questions, as well as members of the “China” group that haven’t answered any questions for Akutagawa yet.

Q1: How does Japanese society respond to Hanzaburō’s disappearance and his strange diaries? Consider, especially, the newspaper articles written about his “insanity” and his brief reappearance at his wife’s home.

Q2: What do you think Major Kimura means in “The story of a Head That Fell Off,” when he says, “It is important—even necessary—for us to become acutely aware of the fact that we can’t trust ourselves” (119)? Is this the true moral of the story? Or yet another unreliable narrator imposing his view on the reader?

Q3: Despite the level of satire, “Horse Legs” is also a kind of modern-day fable or fairy-tale. What might be the metaphorical significance of a normal man, in a normal job, who suddenly dies and returns to life with horse legs? How might this represent something ‘real’ in our own world—or a condition someone might actually have or feel?

Q4: When the Chinese soldier, Xiao-er, looks back on his life on the moment of death, “he recognized all too well the ugliness that had filled it” (116). What ugliness do you think he (and Akutagawa) is referring to, and how might this connect with previous stories we’ve discussed?

For Wednesday: Comprehension Exam #5

If you missed class (or just forgot), we'll have Comprehension Exam #5 over Akutagawa's stories on Wednesday. Be sure to bring your book! You'll need to quote from one or more of the stories to get full credit on the exam. 

If you missed class, I left your paper in the box on my door to pick up. Otherwise, I'll give them ones left over on Wednesday. I apologize for those students whose papers I neglected to bring to class--they're also in the box on my door. 

See you on Wednesday...

For Monday: Akutagawa, "Dr. Ogata Ryosai," "O-Gin," and "Loyalty"

The "Africa" group should answer TWO of the following. Remember that on Wednesday we'll have Comprehension Exam #5, so be sure you're reading these stories and bring your book to class!

Q1: Two of these stories are unique for their mixing of East and West, Buddhism and Christianity. What side does Akutagawa seem to be on in each one (or in different ones)? Are these anti-Western stories, or does he use the West to criticize Eastern values and ideas? How can we tell?

Q2: “Loyalty” is a very Japanese story, as it concerns the elaborate ceremonial rites of etiquette that bind the various classes of society. Even death, in these stories, has to follow the proper procedure! Based on this, why might a madman be particularly troubling to members of this society? Do you feel Shuri is doing this on purpose? Does he know what he’s doing?

Q3: Akutagawa’s narrators are one of his trademarks, particularly someone like Dr. Ogata Ryosai, who doesn’t really “get” the big picture. How do the narrators in one or more works inadvertently see ideas we might otherwise miss, or place a satirical spin on the characters or events?  

Q4: A very ‘non-Western’ attribute of each of these stories is the ending. Nothing necessarily dramatic or surprising happens at the end, and some of the stories lack what we would consider a compelling plot. Why do you think these stories are so minimalistic, more anecdotes than true stories? And why might the endings, which frustrate Western readers, actually be important to the story as a whole?

For Friday: Akutagawa, "Hell Screen" (pp.42-73)

NOTE: The "India" group should answer TWO of the following:

Q1: How does “Hell Screen” share with stories like “Rashomon” and “In a Bamboo Grove” a very cynical view of human nature? According to these stories, why is there no fundamental difference between a thief, a painter, and a lord? Why might the moral of “Rashomon,” that “All I can do is become a thief” be the moral for all of these stories?

Q2: The painter, Yoshihide, claims that he can only paint what he has personally observed with his own eyes—and nothing else. This often leads him to observe rather gruesome spectacles, such as rotting corpses and chained prisoners (and at the end of the story, something even worse). Responding to criticisms of this practice, he responds, “Other painters are such mediocrities, they cannot appreciate the beauty of ugliness” (48). Despite his depraved character, why might this be a very “non-Western” sentiment, and a valid philosophy of art itself?

Q3: “Hell Screen” contains a curious doubling: both the painter and the monkey are named Yoshihide. Even though the monkey is named after him as a joke, in the story itself, it serves a larger purpose. What role does the monkey serve in the story, and how might it help us ‘see’ the true character of the painter?

Q4: The narrator of this story has a character all his own, as he tells the story in fits and starts, and makes commentary throughout. Why do you think he is so captivated by this story, and how might his manner of telling the story color how we read and understand it?

For Wednesday: Akutagawa, Stories (pp.4-41)

For Wednesday, read "Rashomon," "In a Bamboo Grove," "The Nose," "Dragon: The Old Potter's Tale," and "Spider Thread"  

The Japan group should answer TWO of the following:

Q1: Many of these stories are about the nature of truth, and how—as in the story, “In a Bamboo Grove”—the truth can change slightly or dramatically depending upon who is telling the story. How does this connect to many ideas in The Book of Chuang Tzu? Why might it agree about the nature of truth and the difference between true and false, as well as bad and good?

Q2: These stories are also concerned with outward appearances, with characters sporting large noses, red noses, ugly pimples, and cracked feet. Why do you think Akutagawa focuses in on these details, and has characters so obsessed with surface features—their own or others’?

Q3: In “Dragon: The Old Potter’s Tale,” the main character, E’in, makes up a lie about a dragon who will emerge from a pond on the third day of the third month. Eventually, as everyone starts to believe in this lie, he reflects, “at first, it was more a feeling that he could not be certain it would not” (35). What does he mean by this, and why is this different than believing that it would occur?

Q4: Even though these stories have the timeless atmosphere of fairy tales, why could they not take place anywhere else but in medieval Japan? What makes these stories—or the events/situations—of these stories uniquely Japanese or Non-Western? Discuss at least one story that illustrates this.

Handout and Reminder: Paper #1 due Monday by 5pm

INTEGRATING QUOTATIONS INTO YOUR PAPER

“They say they are happy, but I am not happy and I am not unhappy either. Ultimately, do they have happiness or not? I regard actionless action as worthy of being called happiness, though the ordinary people regard it as a burden. It is said: Perfect happiness is not happiness, perfect glory is not glory” (150).

I.      INTRODUCE QUOTES

In The Book of Chuang Tzu, the author writes…

In an important passage in The Book of Chuang Tzu

The most interesting moment in The Book of Chuang Tzu occurs when…

II.  CITE PAGE NUMBER AND/OR AUTHOR

(150) OR (Palmer 220) –the editor of the book

NOT (The Book), OR (Chuang Tzu), OR (the author)

III.           RESPOND TO THE QUOTE

In The Book of Chuang Tzu, the author writes, “They say they are happy, but I am not happy and I am not unhappy either. Ultimately, do they have happiness or not? I regard actionless action as worthy of being called happiness, though the ordinary people regard it as a burden. It is said: Perfect happiness is not happiness, perfect glory is not glory” (150). This is important because… OR Another way to understand this is…

IV.            WORKS CITED PAGE

The Book of Chuang Tzu. Trnsl. Palmer, Breuilly. New York:

Penguin Books, 1996.

“The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor.” The Tale of Sinuhe and Other

        Ancient Egyptian Poems. Trnsl. Parkinson. New York: Oxford

        University Press, 2009.

For Wednesday: The Book of Chuang Tzu, Chapters 17, 18 & 19

NOTE: The “China” group should answer these questions for Wednesday. Note that the “Japan” group should also answer these questions if they haven’t already, since that group will not have their own day to cover The Book of Chuang Tzu.

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: Why does Chapter 17 use the allegory of The Lord of the Yellow River confronting Jo of the North Ocean? What is a ‘river’ unable to understand about an ‘ocean,’ and how does this relate to our own limitations in grasping truth (or Tao) in real life?

Q2: What do you make of this passage, also from Chapter 17: “The one-legged creature is envious of the millipede; the millipede is envious of the snake; the snake is envious of the wind; the wind is envious of the eye; the eye is envious of the heart” (143). What is the nature of their envy, and how does this relate to the nature of the Tao?

Q3: Why is only “actionless action...worthy of being called happiness”? And why is it the only way to “judge both right and wrong?” (150). What might actionless action be—and how do you do it? Also, how would it make you happy and able to distinguish between right and wrong (which the book earlier said isn’t worth distinguishing?).

Q4: In Chapter 19, the author claims that “The feet can be forgotten when you walk in comfortable shoes. The waist can be forgotten when your belt fits comfortably. Knowledge can forget yes and no, if the heart journeys contentedly.” (163). How might this relate to becoming good at a job or a profession? Why might you argue that a good employee in whatever profession must “forget yes and no”?