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?
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