Ima Ichiko has become unstuck in time

[flemmings]

100 Ghosts vol 14. Straightforward enough- only two readings needed for most stories, three for one other. And then there's the last story. I think before she started that one she wrote the proposed action of each scene on a piece of paper. Then she tore the pieces in half, threw them up in the air, and drew them in the sequence they fell down.

That, or she's been watching too many arty films lately. Ohh my head, my poor poor head.

I think I'm going to order the wide-han version of the volumes I have in bunko. I can't make sense of bunko action and I really want to know is the reason Red Interval haunts Kagyuu the reason he indicates here or is Ima rewriting history again.

I'm also struck again, as with Susanna Clarke, at the unpleasantness of day to day youkai/ fairy life. It's a society of sociopaths. No one exists but Me and all I do is kill/ eat Them. 'The fairies are always hungry,' TH White said, and dammit I think the man was right. Animals that live to prey on others or are preyed upon by other species don't prey on themselves, which is one reason why they can have offspring and an animal society. But fairies and youkai can't even trust each other. How can they have any kind of social order at all?

Comments

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

I'll have to go re-read that last story. It didn't strike me as that convoluted ...

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Does that mean no. 14 is out in Chinese already?

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

Yes, I picked it up same time as I picked up the last batch of books I got for you. Only I can't find any of them now ... and they must be in the house somewhere.

Memories- misty watercoloured memories...

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

E-mail Stephen Hawking that you've found a confirmed black hole. It's what *I* do...

[paleaswater.livejournal.com]

14 is out already?! where?! I picked up a vol of hundres ghost while I was in China, which they have labeled the *new* hundred ghost. Is the last story the one about the grandfather & grandmother?

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

And the little kid and the guy with the beard? That's 14.

[paleaswater.livejournal.com]

It doesn't seem particular convoluted to me either. In fact in that vol it's one of the stories that I understood on the first reading, which is saying a lot. I'm hoping that this means she's going to write the grandmother's story now. I'm still confused by the first story in that vol though, and this is my third reading. >_<

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I have dark suspicions that the Chinese translator clarified a few matters. OK- how many young women were there having o-miai with their relatives wanting them to get married? There's two in the Japanese but I don't recall getting the lowdown on who the other one is. She's just mentioned so as to confuse the plot about Possessed Beauty having an omiai. Where is the young man when he reads the letter about Kagyu having another girl child? Why does Kagyu have another girl child before he's married in the main story? Just asking.

I'd have to find my copy before I could tell you about story 1 because of course I can't remember what it's about.