Review: The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu

Royall Tyler Translation Shown

"The Tale of Genji" is a great book for someone seeking a reading challenge.   It takes courage to dive into an 11th century Japanese text, especially one that is 1184 pages and often referred to as the world’s first novel (though many consider “Ochikubo Monogatari” as the first ever).  As with most epics, I had to change my daily life schedule to complete it.  It’s difficult to imagine what my life will now be like without spending every spare moment reading 'The Tale of Genji' to make my deadline for the book club (January 25^th).  I read 150 pages per week for 8 weeks, and that’s a pretty good clip for me these days for a work that is not a particularly easy read. 

I read the first complete English translation by Edward Seidensticker (Arthur Waley’s translation in 1960 was one chapter short of completion), completed in 1976.  The only other version that I have heard of is the one by Royall Tyler, and there were a few in our book club that read his 2001 version.  I read bits and pieces of each, and I must say that I preferred the Seindensticker one.  The Tyler translation has a concise summary of what happens by Chapter, and the relative age of both Genji and Kaoru (his rumored son) by Chapter.  It also has a character list by chapter and the Penguin edition has maps and some lovely illustrations.  My text was nothing but text, but I found the prose less modern (something I prefer when reading older works).  It was also very helpful because of the way in which Seidensticker stuck to concrete naming conventions, which I found essential in a book which contains more than 400 characters with various names and titles referenced for identification.

Here’s a note on translations from an Amazon.ca customer, which I found helpful:

“A longtime admirer of Murasaki Shikibu's exceptional work, I fell in love with Genji first through Arthur Waley's translation, which made this admittedly exotic novel accessible to non-Japanese readers. Curious to know more about the Heian period and culture, I acquired Ivan Morris's tremendously helpful and readable "The World of the Shining Prince." Then I discovered Edward Seidensticker's superb rendering of "The Tale of Genji," and have read and re-read that version with deepening understanding and enjoyment. Seidensticker, while presumably adhering closer to the language of the original (which even modern Japanese find difficult to read), gave us a translation which is perfumed by the sensuous beauty of what must have been a truly refined and special time and place (albeit a very limited one).

Now comes Royall Tyler's superb effort, which comes with myriad and very helpful details: each chapter starts with an explanation of the chapter title, how the section relates to previous chapters and the cast of characters. There are also generous appendices including a chronology of events in the novel and a glossary. Line drawings throughout the two volumes (also present in Seidensticker) provide helpful visual clues as to dress and architecture. Tyler's effort seems even closer to the original language, and thereby lies the problem.

This version unnecessarily burdens the reader with ever-changing nomenclature. Since in the original characters are known by their rank-names, and Tyler (mostly) adheres to this usage, the reader is challenged to keep up with the changes. Put the book down for a day or two and you will feel quite lost for several minutes when you restart. As an aide, the translator does provide footnotes to clue you in, but this just makes things more awkward and tedious. For example, at the start of Chapter 43, "Red Plum Blossom" in Tyler's version: "There was in those days a gentleman known as the Inspector Grand Counselor, the late Chancellor's second son, hence the younger brother of the Intendant of the Watch (1)" This same sentence in Seidensticker reads: "Kobai, the oldest surviving son of the late To no Chujo, was now Lord Inspector." How much more to the point!

To conclude, while Tyler's translation is awesome in its scholarship and abundant detail (including sources of the poetry), it is also much less readable. To my mind, the scholarship gets in the way of the story telling. I found myself longing for my Seidensticker at many turns as I went dutifully through the Tyler. Aside from providing a more continuous flow to the story, I also found that Seidensticker's translation of the many poems in the tale more comprehensible and lyrical. If you are new to this literary masterpiece, you will find the Waley translation the most accessible. If you get hooked on the work, you will probably want the other two. If you must have only one version, however, go with Seidensticker.”

That’s a lot on translators – so now on to the work itself.

*PLOT: SMALL AMOUNTS OF SPOILERS*

The Tale of Genji chronicles the life of Hikaru Genji (‘Shining Genji’), a man born to the Emperor Kiritsubo and a low ranking concubine.  His mother dies when Genji is three and we watch as Genji grows up and eventually learns about the opposite sex.  The emperor finds a woman named Fujitsubo who strongly resembles Genji’s deceased mother and Genji falls in love with her.  Because the relationship is forbidden/taboo, Genji attempts to forget of her and has a series of misplaced affairs with various women, many of whom he takes into his household.  When he finds a 10 year old girl in the mountains name Murasaki, he is infatuated with her and brings her home against her parents/guardians wishes.  Murasaki, sometimes believed to be a representation of the author, becomes Genji’s true love as she grows into a woman.  He finds that he loves her more as she gets older, until her eventual death.  Genji lives with many ups and downs due to his relationships which include infatuation, affairs, marriage and death of lovers… in addition to many offspring (although, he never really feels like he’s had enough children).   Genji dies at the end of chapter 41 (the last eight years of his life are not recorded), which is about 800 pages into the novel and the remaining 400 pages or so is all about Kaoru, who is believed to be the son of Genji and one of his wives… but is truly the son of Kashiwagi and Genji’s wife. 

The books ends before the ending of the story – when Kaoru finds that a woman he loves, Ukifune, is still alive a year after her believed suicide.  When he sends a messenger in to talk with her in the nunnery in which she’s staying, she refuses to talk to him.  So ends the work.

*END OF SMALL AMOUNTS OF SPOILERS (PLOT)*

2000 Yen Note with Murasaki Shikibu

Many readers of this book are going to be disappointed in the fact that the plot is pretty sparse given the length of the work.  There is no doubt that it could have used a strong editor, but in ancient works it’s hard to fault authors for the lack of editing.  We’re really not sure if Murasaki Shikibu wrote the entire work or there were various authors that contributed.  According to Wikipedia:
Yosano Akiko, the first author to make a modern translation of the Genji, believed that Murasaki Shikibu had only written chapters 1 to 33, and that chapters 35 to 54 were written by her daughter Daini no Sanmi. Other scholars have also doubted the authorship of chapters 42 to 54 (particularly 44, which contains rare examples of continuity mistakes).

According to Royall Tyler's introduction to his English translation of the work, recent computer analysis has turned up "statistically significant" discrepancies of style between chapters 45–54 and the rest, and also among the early chapters.

There is also a lot of discussion on when Shikibu wrote this work – which leads to contrary opinions on if the character Murasaki is based on the author herself (alluded to above).

Since this book is written to chronicle normal lifestyle events of the upper class Japanese, the reader is able to learn quite a bit about a time period that would otherwise be unknown to us (~11^th century Japan).  We’re able to learn about much about ancient Japanese culture including fine art, music, marriage customs, festivals and celebrations, communication methodologies, living arrangements, courting and poetry.

There are many two line poems in this work, involving nature/the seasons, music, love, tears (I call this one out separately because it is very prevalent), etc.  Poems, especially those between a man courting a woman, are written on various shades of coloured paper, all of which have different meanings.  Some notes are attached to plum tree, wisteria, or cherry blossom branches, etc.  The poems and the hand in which the notes are written, both tell a lot about the education and character of the writer which is essential when you cannot see the person you are pursuing (of course, all men in this society do all in their power to get a glimpse of a woman prior to courtship).  Most women live within inner chambers and are not visible to anyone other than their servants.    

Characters in the work, as mentioned above, are often alluded to by the places by which they’re from or titles that they possess.  The locations of their origin seem to stick with characters throughout the work.  However, if there are multiple main characters from the place then it sometimes gets confusing when differentiating between “the Akashi lady”, “the Akashi nun” and “the Akashi princess.”  When a character is named after a title such as the “Minister of the Right”, the character may eventually lose the title and therefore you have to remember that the next “Minister of the Right” is someone different altogether.  Also, many times princesses are referred to as the “first princess” or the “second princess” in birth order, but there may be multiple second princesses since there are multiple emperors.  In short, it’s hard to keep track of characters sometimes even with a strong translator who puts emphasis on character names.  I would not advise putting down the book for two weeks without reading it, as you’d lose some of the continuity in the story or recognition of character names.

Most of the characters I couldn’t relate to.  Genji was overdramatic and promiscuous and it was really hard to get behind him.  I did fall in love with Murasaki.  She continued to grow as a person, and while she never accepted Genji’s promiscuous ways she learned to make the best of a bad situation and was still able to love him and be a strong individual personality amidst a collectivist regime.  Kaoru was also one of the most noble characters and he always tried to live life with a strong moral integrity, despite his actions working against him in many ways.  He was one of the only characters that held firm to love so strongly that you could not consider it a passing infatuation.  He didn’t appear to be built to live without love.

‘The Tale of Genji’ was not an easy read.  The prose was very manageable, but the length of the work, the reoccurrence of many of the same plot elements over time and the lack of relatable characters made it a novel where you really had to focus and put effort into reading it.  That said, I find myself upset that the tale is over and no longer a part of my life.  I’m itching for an ending that will most likely never be known.  I’m glad I persevered through this (only one other in my book club finished), and the more I think about the novel the more I’m glad that I allowed myself to experience it.

Review: The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells

First book “review” of 2012 – it’s been a spell (reading old books makes me want to use old lingo) since I finished this one, so my memory is already getting hazy. I decided to take another trek down the old science fiction route, since it was short and very different from ‘The Tale of Genji’ which I was reading concurrently.

It seems as though the most popular novels by Herbert George (H.G.) Wells were during the beginning of his career. Of these, I have read all the popular ones (in bold).

• The Time Machine (1895)
• The Wonderful Visit (1895)
• The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896)
• The Wheels of Chance (1896)
• The Invisible Man (1897)
• The War of the Worlds (1898)

This may mean that I’m done with my Wells’ experience for some time, similar to my proclamation of being done reading the most popular works of Jack London. I’m thinking that from an old science fiction perspective, I’m going to delve more into Jules Verne, whom I think it a much better writer/storyteller than Wells (both are referred to as a ‘Father of Science Fiction’).

*Summary Spoilers Only*

The Island of Doctor Moreau (TIODM) was an account of an 11 month and four day habitation on an unknown island close to Hawaii by Edward Prendicks. The story begins with the sinking of the ship “Lady Vain”, and the pick-up of Prendicks aboard his schooner by another merchant ship. This ship is transporting animals (leopards, apes, etc) to the unknown island. Aboard is a strange man with a black face – who the captain rages against. He refuses to transport what he calls “the ugly devil”, feeling that something is not right about this man. Prendicks is not allowed to return to ship or continue onto the island (a man named Montgomery is very hesitant on inviting him), so he is cast out to see on his schooner. Fearful of death, eventually Montgomery concedes and Prendicks is brought to the island.

He finds out that there is a doctor who was banished from England, performing experiments on the island. In addition, there are numerous strange creatures lurking in the dark and we get the feeling that there is something very suspicious about the doctor and the inhabitants of the island.

*End of Summary Spoilers*

According to Wikipedia, this book was written in response to some controversial thoughts on vivisection in Great Britain at the time:

“When the novel was written in 1896, there was much discussion in Europe about degeneration and animal vivisection. Interest groups were formed to address the issue: the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection was formed two years after the publication of the novel."

I’m also going to quote Wikipedia in reference to themes, which it proclaims are “pain and cruelty, moral responsibility, human identity, and human interference with nature.” I could not agree more with this. There is a lot of talk by Dr. Moreau about how to get rid of pain and why it’s important in the type of work he is doing. The animals he is operating on, however, are very afraid of pain after going under the knife. Moreau attempts to convince Prendicks against cruelty in the pursuit of science.

Moral responsibility and human interference with nature are still important topics in society today, and I would argue the movements for the former probably peaked (at least in North America) during the hippy 60-70’s and movements against the latter have become stronger over time and will probably continue as we get further into the 21st century. Both topics are fairly straightforward in reference to vivisection at the hands of Dr. Moreau.

There were a few moral points which I believed were made against drinking, and in one case the drink lead to multiple deaths. Also, there was a strong slant in this work towards the teachings of Christianity – that men’s morals are kept in check by religion – something I would disagree with as a general rule.

Without giving it all away, the re-integration into society by Prendicks was the most interesting part of the novel. The experience jaded him and he had a hard time with seeing the beast in people, converting him to a recluse.

This book was an interesting read, but there was nothing in it that made you think too hard. The writing was average and while I would rather read a work of science fiction from over 100 years ago than one written within the 21st century, this was one of those books that you shouldn’t feel guilty for not having read… but a decent book if you’re looking for something light which still contains important themes.

2011 Classic Literature Year in Review

This isn't me. I'm a boy.

Twenty-eleven is nearly in the books (pun intended), so it's time for my annual Year in Review post.  This year, my goal of reading two books a month is not going to happen.  This goal was only really reached last year, but I was hoping to extend it to two years running.  Initially, I figured my failure this year had to do with my reading of some huge tombs like War and Peace and currently, The Tale of Genji... but as I glance down the list I see quite a few short ones as well... so I'm not going to use this as an excuse.  I'm not even going to use a 'busy life' as an excuse, because that has been pretty constant... but I know that a large amount of personal change and growth has been the culprit - and I am fine with this.  I would rather have books enrich my life, than be my life.

I finished 18 books so far this year, and I'm going to attempt to get through one more in the next week and a half.  I actually have 9 days off in a row (only took 2 vacation days) and so far for Christmas, I think I only have one day or so accounted for.  I may actually be able to get a fair about of reading in. 

Anyway, here is this years list:

Aeschylus. The Oresteia
Buck, Pearl S. The Good Earth
Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood
Confucius. The Analects of Confucius
His Holiness the Dalai Lama. How To See Yourself As You Really Are
Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe
Foot, David K. Boom, Bust and Echo
Gibran, Kahlil. The Prophet
Homer. The Iliad
Homer. The Odyssey
James, Henry. Washington Square
London, Jack. The Call of the Wild
London, Jack. The Sea-Wolf
London, Jack. White Fang
Steinbeck, John. Tortilla Flat
Tolstoy, Leo. War and Peace
Vonnegut, Kurt. Jailbird
Wells, H.G. The Time Machine

This list makes me smile looking back, because it reflects a few changes in my thinking this year.  It was really bothering me that some of the books we were reading for book club were not atop my list of books that I really wanted to read.  I had hoped to read Capote and Buck and James (all new authors to me), but I continually felt as if my time in this life was short and I should probably start to read some of the older works that really set the foundation of literature.  So we changed the book club strategy and now I have read a lot more of the ancient Greeks.  Throw in the finishing of a more modern epic, War and Peace, and I really felt like I was realigning my book reading priorities. 

There are also a couple of more spiritual books that I read in the spring after some personal things in my life, and the books really stand out above.  The works by the Dalai Lama and Khalil Gibran are there... although Confucius was read by the book club at a later date.

There are also a few books that I should have read in childhood by Jack London and H.G. Wells, that I finally got around to.  All were popular books in North America about a hundred years ago.

And finally, there are a couple of random works thrown in this year like Vonnegut and Steinbeck... the former always providing me with comic relief and the latter generally providing me with constant pleasure (though, not in this case).

Biggest Disappointment of 2011: Tortilla Flat
I'm going to say that Steinbeck disappointed me for the first time since reading 'Cannery Row', and I while I can still remember a lot of the plot... I didn't really enjoy the book.  There was meaning, but the whole experience did not resonate well with me.

Most Difficult to Read in 2011: How To See Yourself As You Really Are
I'm sure that most people in the book club will say Confucius here, but I had a difficult time with this book by the Dalai Lama because I was expecting it to be a little more simplistic and less technical.  I had to read it very slowly to get what I wanted to get out of it.  It wasn't an easy read, but I was glad to have plugged through because there were a lot of useful ideas on how to perceive yourself and the world around you.

Best Book of 2011: War and Peace
This is such an easy choice that I don't even have to consult the list. War and Peace cracked my top 5 all-time, because it just had everything in it with little to no fat at all. I never would have believed that I would have been sad when the book ended, not for the characters, but simply due to the fact that there was no more story left. A truly beautiful, haunting and enlightening read.  Honerable Mentions: The Sea-Wolf by Jack London and The Iliad by Homer.
New Authors Discovered/Explored in 2011: Aeschylus, Buck, Capote, Confucius, Defoe, Gibran, Homer, James, London, Tolstoy

Author I wish To Read More Of in 2012: Tolstoy, Gibran... and anything from Ancient Greece.

Review: The Sea-Wolf by Jack London

After reading both “A Call of the Wild” and “White Fang”, I had all but written off Jack London. To me, London was an adventure writer who wrote compelling stories with strong themes surrounding human and animal nature. However, there was little that would lead me to classify the works as major forms of classic literature, and I was admittedly surprised to see ‘A Call of the Wild’ on the top 100 of all-time Modern Library list. As I picked up “The Sea-Wolf”, I was expecting a similar tale to the previous two and I had a similar expectation of quality. I was completely wrong, and pleasantly surprised. The “Sea-Wolf” was thrilling and thought provoking, and it’s listing as one of the 100 Greatest Books Ever Written is something I could actually fathom. Of the three Jack London books, this was by far my favourite.


Right from the opening chapter, I realized that my preconceived notions about this book would be wrong. I assume that, like the previous two works, “The Sea-Wolf” would take place from the perspective of a wolf in Alaska or the Yukon during the Gold Rush. I even figured that the wolf would spend time on the sea, which would have been consistent with the other works as well. In this case, the book is named after the captain of the whaling ship “The Ghost”, named Wolf Larsen.

**MINOR SPOILERS BEGIN**

The story begins with Humphrey Van Weyden, a bookish 35 year old man, who finds himself floating in the ocean off the shore of California after the ferry he’s travelling on hits another vessel in the middle of a heavy fog. He is picked up by the crew of the Ghost, a small whaling ship, and put to work as a cabin boy - the lowest rank on the vessel. It’s here that Humphrey (often called ‘Hump’), earns his keep and as Wolf puts it – learns to stand on his own two feet. It’s been years since Hump did not live off someone else in his intellectual pursuits, and he is finally utilizing his body to put food in his own stomach.

Much of the book chronicles the lives of two men, Wolf Larsen and Humphrey Van Weyden, whose lives become inextricably linked on the Ghost. Wolf Larsen is known as a brute of a man, and all of his crew wants to kill him. His strong intellectual and superhuman physical skills make this task nearly impossible, and he is able to stay steps ahead of his crew on the boat. Punishments levied on the crew vary from minor injuries to vindictive murder, and even the introduction to the Ghost and Wolf Larsen begins with the death of the first mate.

Despite this cold lack of humanism, Wolf Larsen is also somewhat of an intellectual. He is constantly reading all subjects and meditating on life theories. And while Hump gets punished for some of his inadequacies, Wolf befriends him and the relationship provides Wolf with the closest thing he has ever had to a friend and alleviates some feelings of loneliness. Despite this, Wolf is still a very crude man and shows no remorse when killing. He believes that the fact that one really lives when they are angry or fearful of death, and he seems to actually enjoy being hated and hunted.


Eventually, a woman (Maud) is picked up from a small ship in the middle of a storm. Both Wolf and Hump start to fall in love with her, and it’s at this point that Humphrey truly begins to see the necessity of leaving the ship and taking Maud to safety.  Maud is not a fragile woman, and much credit is given to her effect on Humphrey, and his final transformation into a man.

**END OF MINOR SPOILERS**

I won’t get into the rest of the plot, but I will say that I thought the book would end without Larsen and I was very upset at this. In fact, the very minute when we lost sight of him I started to lose interest in the work. The character was so unique and so interesting that you just wanted to see what would happen next, or hear through his lips the way he was perceiving the world. It’s through him that London explores the nature of man and the animal in man, and it’s through him that Humphrey learns what it is like to be a man – something that he previously thought was through the sole pursuit of knowledge.

Some of the themes discussed include the theory of immorality, the concept of living and man’s reactions to the world as a product of either internal/external factors or the spirit/soul. The dialogue made this work very special, not unlike in a strong Hemingway novel (though very different in form). It is really difficult to talk of the dialogue and do it justice, but I have wrote down a few of the quotations that made strong impressions on me. Perhaps they will convince you to pick up this book and judge its merits for yourself.


QUOTATIONS:

“We want to live and move, though we have no reason to, because it happens that it is the nature of life to live and move, to want to live and move. If it were not for this, life would be dead. It is because of this life that is in you that you dream of your immortality. The life that is in you is alive and wants to go on being alive for ever.” Ch5

“The earth is as full of brutality as the sea is full of motion. And some men are made sick by the one, and some by the other.” Ch6

“Why, if there is anything in supply and demand, life is the cheapest thing in the world. There is only so much water, so much earth, so much air; but the life that is demanding to be born is limitless. Nature is a spendthrift. Look at the fish and their millions of eggs. For that matter, look at you and me. In our loins are the possibilities of millions of lives. Could we but find time and opportunity and utilize the last bit and every bit of the unborn life that is in us, we could become the fathers of nations and populate continents. Life? Bah! It has no value. Of cheap things it is the cheapest. Everywhere it goes begging. Nature spills it out with a lavish hand. Where there is room for one life, she sows a thousand lives, and its life eats life till the strongest and most piggish life is left.” Ch6

“Of course life is valueless, except to itself. And I can tell you that my life is pretty valuable just now—to myself. It is beyond price, which you will acknowledge is a terrific overrating, but which I cannot help, for it is the life that is in me that makes the rating.” Ch7

“No man makes opportunity. All the great men ever did was to know it when it came to them. The Corsican knew. I have dreamed as greatly as the Corsican. I should have known the opportunity, but it never came. The thorns sprung up and choked me.” Ch10

“And he has never philosophized on life,” I added.

[cont]“No,” Wolf Larsen answered, with an indescribable air of sadness. “And he is all the happier for leaving life alone. He is too busy living it to think about it. My mistake was in ever opening the books.” Ch10

“He had opened up for me the world of the real, of which I had known practically nothing and from which I had always shrunk. I had learned to look more closely at life as it was lived, to recognize that there were such things as facts in the world, to emerge from the realm of mind and idea and to place certain values on the concrete and objective phases of existence.” Ch17

“And after all, delight is the wage for living. Without delight, living is a worthless act. To labour at living and be unpaid is worse than to be dead. He who delights the most lives the most, and your dreams and unrealities are less disturbing to you and more gratifying than are my facts to me.”

[cont] “I often doubt, I often doubt, the worthwhileness of reason. Dreams must be more substantial and satisfying. Emotional delight is more filling and lasting than intellectual delight; and, besides, you pay for your moments of intellectual delight by having the blues. Emotional delight is followed by no more than jaded senses which speedily recuperate. I envy you, I envy you.” Ch24

“The love of man and woman, I had always held, was a sublimated something related to spirit, a spiritual bond that linked and drew their souls together. The bonds of the flesh had little part in my cosmos of love. But I was learning the sweet lesson for myself that the soul transmuted itself, expressed itself, through the flesh; that the sight and sense and touch of the loved one’s hair was as much breath and voice and essence of the spirit as the light that shone from the eyes and the thoughts that fell from the lips.”

[cont] “it is better and finer to love than to be loved, if it makes something in life so worth while that one is not loath to die for it. I forget my own life in the love of another life; and yet, such is the paradox, I never wanted so much to live as right now when I place the least value upon my own life.” Ch27

Book Beginnings | The Sea-Wolf

It's been quite some time that I have posted a book beginning, mainly because I have been busy.  I'm thoroughly enjoying reading this work so I thought I would revisit the beginning of the book.  It all starts out like this...

"I scarcely know where to begin, though I sometimes facetiously place the cause of it all to Charley Furuseth’s credit."

What this line says to me is that I'm in for a doozy of a tale, something that I may not even be able to believe or at the very least, something that the narrator can scarcely believe.  It also tells me that it all probably starts with a man named Charley... and despite the fact that he is referred to in the book, I don't remember who he is.  (My assumption is that he's the reason the main character is on a steamer at the start of the book, or perhaps he's the captain of that steamer).

I think this is an effective opening - simplistic and fairly indicative of old school adventure novels.  What do you think?

Review: White Fang by Jack London

My first introduction to the Jack London classic, ‘White Fang’, was watching the film in my basement living room as a wee young lad. I think it was right around the time movies were coming out on VHS, because it’s possible I converted my previous copy from the old Betamax machine (this transfer occurred at a one to one watching/recording ratio by the way). As children, my brother and I loved the movie – adventure, animals, nature and the superb acting of Ethan Hawke.


As I continue my reminiscing mode I’ve been in for the past couple of months, I’m finding some solace in these young adult classics. The writing of Jack London improves slightly in the telling of this tale in comparison to ‘The Call of the Wild’, but the story has a more commercial feel to it which tends me to feel more strongly about the previous work. Also, when you compare this novel to some of the classics I have been reading, it’s obvious to me that the writing of Jack London is several levels below some of the great writers I have been used to. That said, you have to look at this work as an adventure book with some solid morality lessons for children and some glimmer of deeper meaning for adults.

**SPOILERS BEGIN HERE**

The book, similar to ‘The Call of the Wild’, is through the eyes of wolves. In this case, the book starts out through the eyes of a half wolf-half dog wild animal that takes the lives of a sledding team in the north again during the Gold Rush in the Yukon beginning in the summer of 1898. The wolves are so hungry, that they also take the lives of a human. Eventually, the ‘She-wolf’ mates with another (One Eye) and has a pup named White Fang… the only survivor from a litter of four.

White Fang begins to learn about the world around him and is eventually caught by Indians (along with his mother Kiche), whom he lives with for a number of years and acquires his namesake. It’s here that the author refers to men as Gods and the introduction to this topic is thus, “o his mind this was power unusual, power inconceivable and beyond the natural, power that was godlike.” Then Jack London goes as far as stating that dogs feel as though men are Gods when he states “in fashion distantly resembling the way men look upon the gods they create, so looked White Fang upon the man-animals before him. They were superior creatures, of a verity, gods.” The concept of men being Gods in relation to dogs is definitely a product of the time, but I also think it’s a white American man’s mentality of the time. Of course, I don’t have any other customs to compare it to other than the Inuit, and it has always seemed to me that dogs and men are on a more equal playing field. Either way, the way it’s presented makes me feel a little uneasy because it’s contrary to my own beliefs: “and so it came that White Fang learned that the right to punish was something the gods reserved for themselves and denied to the lesser creatures under them.”

Now, back to the plot. The Indian captor named Grey Beaver, eventually follows the white man into town in an effort to sell his wares. This, of course, is where the American self indulgence of the time comes through: “It was at Fort Yukon that White Fang saw his first white men. As compared with the Indians he had known, they were to him another race of beings, a race of superior gods. “ Doesn’t that make you feel a little sick? I like to believe that we’ve come great lengths in humanity since those days, but I’m not completely sure (in regards to the ‘Indians’ or otherwise). Back to the plot, again. Grey Beaver becomes very wealthy, making a 1000% profit and succumbs to alcoholism (another present by the white man). In poverty due to his addiction, he eventually sells White Fang for booze to Beauty Smith.

It is here that White Fang is abused and begins his dog fighting career… which is ‘successful’ up until he meets his first bull-dog (really, a pit-bull) and is saved from the clutches of death by a connected member in the community and his servant, Scott and Matt, the former of which becomes White Fang’s new master. They debate shooting him after he kills one of their dogs and attacks both men, but eventually Scott trains White Fang by showing him love – something White Fang has never seen. Then White Fang falls in love himself (I feel this is kind of hokey, but perhaps it’s just me). When Scott leaves White Fang doesn’t eat and approaches death, and then Scott reluctantly takes him to California where the dog eventually fits in, saves the family from a wrongly accused murderer escaped from prison and knocks up another dog and becomes a father. All very Disney without the Old Yeller heartache.

**END OF SPOILERS**

White Fang is portrayed as a sympathetic character. Because of his half dog-wolf breeding, he doesn’t fit in with other dogs and is constantly fighting with them. He finds man and obeys, but then he constantly fights against torture and torment until he finally finds someone who loves him. He has the ability to adapt very well to his changing surroundings, but his wolf instincts (as well as his past history) never allow him to fully trust any man other than Scott.

I suppose how you interpret the outcome of this book has a lot to do with the reader’s mindset. An optimist would say that White Fang finally finds love despite all the atrocities. The pessimist may say that with all the evil that man is capable of, perhaps it only makes sense to look out for yourself and confide in a small sample of people that you can trust.

The book is a nice easy read full of adventure, and probably a good one to read to children just entering elementary school or a nice read they can start out with on their own in about middle school. For me, I tried to focus more on the story and it was a relaxing book without too much literary intensity.

Review: The Analects of Confucius

The Analects of Confucius is a collection of quotations from Confucius and his disciples, from the course of Confucius' life in ancient China from 551BC and 479BC.  The name 'Confucius' is actually a Latin translation from K'ung Ch'iu, later named K'ung Fu-tzu (K'ung the Master).

Confucious was a book-keeper in early life and later a philosopher and politician.  As a politician of the State of Lu, he served as a Justice Minister under the Duke of Lu.  The neighbouring state of Qi thought Lu was becoming too powerful (some think this is evidence that Confucius' principles were working), so they sent 100 good horses and 80 beautiful dancing girls to the Duke of Lu.  Here is where it gets hazy for me.  After reading the introduction of my translation (translator: Lionel Giles), my impression was that the dancing girls caused Confucius to lose himself to indiscretion, though Wikipedia states that this was only prevalent with the Duke of Lu.  One account states that Confucius left from shame and another states he left because of the indiscretions of the Duke.  Perhaps I missed something here, so will be interesting to see what the book club thinks.

Confucius beliefs were deeply rooted in the social good (concept of virtue), referred to as 'jen'.  He tried to live his life by a code and impart this code on all who wished to learn, and during his wandering years after leaving the government in Lu, are where most of the sayings from this book arise from. 

The thing that interests me about ancient Chinese texts (the only other I have read is 'The Art of War' by Sun Tzu), is that the language is very structured and almost comes across as mathematical.  Despite this, it generally has a fluidity to it, though I must assume that much of this is lost in translation.  The translator I read, Lionel Giles, seemed very upset with a prior translation by James Legge, a devout Christian whom he believed committed a disservice to Confucius by translating based on his own Christian bias.  The notes in my translation are very negative towards Legge's translation - often freely criticizing the work for giving Westerners an incorrect opinion of Confucius and doing irreparable harm to his legacy.

When reading this work, I find it's more important to try to absorb as much of the quotes as possible and string them together like a popcorn garland on a Christmas tree.  You start to understand themes which translate into central views of Confucius.  Off the top of my head, he was very focused in leading a virtuous life - with the only way of doing so by self improvement and intrinsic focus.  By strengthening personal virtues, you would be able to help your fellow man if you lead a lifestyle congruent to your beliefs.  Many of the passages in this work talk about other figures in ancient Chinese society and discuss their characteristics and the way they handle things.  If Confucius did not know a figure well, he would state that he could not tell if someone was virtuous or not based on a select sample of events.  However, those that he loved and those that he hated, were angelicized or demonized according to Confucius' thoughts towards them (based on their personal actions).  Since there are many references, it becomes difficult to follow them with any sense of continuity - though strong translations have explanations in the footnotes in regards to the person being alluded to and the history of the situation being mentioned.

Confucius could also be very sarcastic.  I remember one person telling him he would never be famous, and he responded by saying that he would take up 'charioteering' to elicit fame.  It was enjoyable to me to see this side of Confucius, and I hope the other translations out there were able to pronounce this quality and do it justice.

Confucius hated ceremony for ceremony's sake.  He thought it was wasteful to perform certain funeral rights for the dead, because resources would be better utilized on the living.  He seemed content to either adhere or go against the norms, based on his own personal viewpoints on what he considered logical.  He was a strong believer in a three year mourning period for filial relations, probably stemming from his own mourning period following the death of his mother at age 23. 

The other thing that struck me as a key message was the importance, while acknowledging the difficulty, of practicing what you preach.  This theme is intertwined with the concept of virtue and self-improvement and was central to the teachings of Confucius.

The Analects of Confucius is one of those works that should be read slowly, so passages can be digested properly.  I found that if I tried to read more than 20 pages during a sit down, I would do the book a disservice.  It was tough to get through the work quickly, and I found myself re-reading many passages to dissect their meaning.  In some cases, even the translator was unsure of what Confucius was saying and in a few cases, some quotations were thought not to be attributed to either Confucius or his disciples. 

All in all, I was glad to read this book - though in truth, I have been very afraid of this review.  The book's sayings were loosely tied together in chapters, but truth be told, had very little flow.  This is indicative in my notes above as well, I think... but such is the reality given the way these quotations were probably recorded throughout history.  I'm glad they made it in some form, and am thankful for what I felt was a solid translation by Giles.

"Thought is the foundation of intelligence."

Review: The Call of the Wild by Jack London

I have been on a kick recently that involves reading some works that I should have probably read in my youth. Since I’ve been delving a lot into Ancient Greece and China, this kick has provided me with some lighter reading which I can still count towards my classics list.

Despite being Canadian, I don’t generally read a lot of Canadian fiction. There just doesn’t seem to be many classics in this area with the exception of some more modern works, like ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Atwood. That said, I have always wanted to read ‘The Call of the Wild’ by Jack London. I knew very little about the work prior to reading the short novel; I was under the assumption that it was about a wolf and set in the middle of the Gold Rush (the latter being the only true assumption).

In 1897, Jack London at the age of 21 joined the Klondike Gold Rush. I was struck by how cheerful everything seemed in ‘The Call of the Wild’, but later learned that London developed scurvy, lost his front four teeth and had constant pain in his hips and legs. I suppose this serves as a reminder that mom is always right about eating green vegetables.

Anyhow, this work was the third published novel by Jack London in 1903, and one of his best known in addition to ‘White Fang’, which was written three years later. ‘The Call of the Wild’ is split into seven chapters and chronicles the life of a dog named ‘Buck’ beginning in the Yukon, Canada in the fall of 1897.

**SPOILERS AFTER THIS PART**
Buck is a charismatic mutt, part Saint Bernard and part Scottish Sheppard, who starts his life off as the pet of a wealthy lawyer before being stolen and transported via ship to the Gold Rush where he is sold to Perrault, a courier for the postal service of the Canadian government. He sees something in Buck that he finds special and teaches him how to be part of a sled team (a dog musher).

Buck does not get along with the lead dog, Spitz, and the two constantly battle until one day Buck kills him. According to the author, this is a learned response from an episode seen aboard the ‘Narwal’, the ship which took Buck to the Gold Rush [see some of my criticism of London’s writing later on in the review]. Buck becomes the lead dog after the death of Spitz, and the team of dogs works more efficiently than ever before and the dogs are driven to exhaustion by the constant trips given to Perrault by the postal service. After the dogs are used up, they’re sold as part of a secondary market – to a man, his wife and her brother – who know nothing about dog sledding.

The dogs continue to suffer and some die in their ‘care’ due to pulling too much weight, lack of rest, lack of food, etc. When Buck refuses to go any more he is beaten until nearly death, and then saved by a man named John Thornton, who is infuriated with the owners. Despite John’s warnings, the group continues to traverse the thinning lake ice in the spring, and the rest of the surviving dogs and the three owners fall through and perish.

Buck finally learns what it’s like to love a human being after having endured so much abuse. There is a series of episodes after Buck heals where he saves John in a bar fight and from drowning in river rapids. Buck also makes John a great deal of money on a wager when he is able to pull a 1000lb sleigh by himself.

Then we get into the reason why this story is called ‘The Call of the Wild’. John and a few friends set-up camp in an unexplored area of Alaska (or the Yukon?), and Buck gets antsy about sitting in one place while the group continues to mine gold in the camp. He runs away periodically to the calling of the wilderness, and hunts his own food and has a great time – like a child in a sandbox. He comes back to camp after a long excursion with hunting a large bull moose, to find a catastrophe at camp before eventually making his way back to the wilderness to join a pack of wolves.

**END OF SPOILERS**

One problem I have with this work (alluded to above) is that Buck is given many human qualities, as if the author really understands what the dog is thinking and feeling at all times. I suppose this could be interpreted as realistic, but I found many instances where I just felt like it was too much of a stretch. I have no doubt that Jack London knew dogs like this much better than I do, but I had the sense that he would make presumptions that were probably not true to further the story. It reminded me a lot of Mark Haddon’s take on an autistic child in ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’.

The writing style was very fluid and simple, though I did find some parts laughable in their simplicity and general ignorance. For instance, in chapter seven, London calls man ‘the noblest game of all.’ First of all, I don’t know which definition of nobility that London was thinking of, but my guess is that it was “an exalted moral or mental character” and I found this laughable since humans as a general species were so horribly immoral in their treatment towards Buck. Also, the whole concept of a Gold Rush is based on sheer greed and not a morality quest or love of nature.

I enjoyed the book and probably would as a child too. Themes presented included morality, instinct, adventure, necessity, love, death, preparedness, greed and teamwork. If you’re wondering as a parent whether to allow your child to read something like this, like all things, it’s a matter of personal choice. The one caution is that there is a fair amount of violence and death.

Since I enjoyed this work, I think I’ll try another by Jack London – most likely ‘White Fang’. Have you read either one? What did you think?

QUOTES:
“With the aurora borealis flaming coldly overhead, or the stars leaping in the frost dance, and the land numb and frozen under its pall of snow, this song of the huskies might have been the defiance of life, only it was pitched in minor key, with long-drawn wailings and half-sobs, and was more the pleading of life, the articulate travail of existence.’ (CH 3)

“John Thornton was dead. The last tie was broken. Man and the claims of man no longer bound him.” (CH 7)