Students Discuss Russian Literature: A Play

SCENE: An average classroom. About twelve or so students are seated across from the teacher.

TEACHER: [Beginning the class] So, how many of you liked the today’s reading? [About half the class raises their hand] Did anyone not like it? [The other half of the class raises their hand]. OK, for those of you who didn’t like it, why don’t you tell us about it?

WOMAN 1: Well like I think it was mostly the writing style or something because like I just couldn’t really follow exactly what the author was saying you know because he didn’t seem to really go in detail into what he was talking about and it just didn’t really let me get into the book and I never really felt attached to the character of the main character because like the book itself was so short that I finished it in like one day and I never had the time to like think about what I was reading because I read it so fast and that kinda kept me from getting into it you know?

Pause as the class tries to piece together Woman 1’s long-winded, rambling response into a cohesive, critical thought.

WOMAN 2: [Breaking the silence] I didn’t even know there were Jews in Russia.

CURTAIN

[NOTE: When I facepalmed, it sounded like a gunshot. I used to be a literature major, incidentally.]

Film reviews: Two by Kitano Takeshi

Sonatine (1993). Kitano's first great film is like a Zen koan that seems to happen mostly between the lines, where what begins as a dark inversion of Yojimbo quickly becomes a meditation on emptiness and futility. His characters cannot be deconstructed because Kitano has already deconstructed them; his characters cannot be seen as whole human beings but are rather pieces of them, stripped of meaning, value, judgment, and emotion. Kitano's dark vision is offset by an equally detached sense of humor. A-.

Hana-bi (1997). Hana-bi is a spare and inscrutable work of art from a masterful filmmaker. Flashbacks flutter in and out, which together with the muted palette gives the film a hazy, dream-like quality that allows Kitano to capture multiple, seemingly contradictory moods simultaneously. Kitano delicately juxtaposes quiet, playful tenderness with jarring and disturbing violence, all depicted with a subtle minimalism that aesthetically recalls Melville, Bresson, and even Ozu. These influences blend with Kitano’s own creativity to create a singular style. A.

Shiki: Tanka 5

5: 一桶の水うちやめばほろほろと露のたま散る秋草の花

The water bucket

is empty

the drops drip

like dew

on fall flowers

Shiki: Tanka 4

4: 昔見し面影もあらずおとろへて鏡の人のほろほろと泣く

Nothing left

of the person

who used to be

in the mirror

he cries

Shiki: Tanka 3

3: うたゝ寐のうたゝ苦しき夢さめて汗ふき居れば薔薇の花散る

Wakened

from painful memories

to a tattered body

wipe away the sweat

like broken rose petals

Shiki: Tanka 2

2: 五月七日 (May 7)

はしきやし少女に似たるくれなゐのボタンの蔭にうつうつ眠る

Like a beautiful girl

red peonies

cast a shadow

over me

restless sleep

Shiki: Tanka 1

1: 金州從軍中作 (In the army at Jinzhou)

春寒み矛を枕に寐る夜半を古里の妹ぞ夢に見えつる

Spring chill

asleep with a sword by the pillow

I dream of

my little sister

at home