Okay, so the plan is that my college roommate and I have decided to read one chapter of The Tale of Genji a week for a whole year, which should get us through the thing if we double up on a few weeks. (There are 54 chapters.)
We were both students at Oberlin College in the 90s and both took classes in Japanese literature, but we never actually got around to reading the whole book. But after our trip to Japan this fall, we were all inspired and decided to do it.
For posterity, I will reproduce here the text of my original email suggesting this project:
OK, after reading the Liza Dalby kimono book I am all fired up. I suggest we read the unabridged fucking Genji. Yes I am crazy. But what if we read, like, one chapter a week? Then we'd be done in like a year, right?
In the interest of comparing translations, I'm going to read the Tyler version, and she will read the Seidensticker.
I'm going to try to post something on here for at least each chapter, and hopefully as a result I will come to some sort of greater understanding of life and possibly also fall in love so that I can write one of those Gen-X finding-yourself books that gets made into a movie starring Kate Winslet.
Or alternatively I might get bored and abandon the whole project after 3 weeks. STAY TUNED.
I hope the two of you make it past week three. Selfishly, as a non-student of Japanese Literature, I would rather read it vicariously through you.
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