(no subject)

[flemmings]

Aarghity week. The provinces of my body revolted, with the result that my shoulders ache and I'm two kilos lighter than I was on Thursday. However, the up news is that the late-Meiji weird tales novel I ordered, with illos by Ima Ichiko, has a manga story by her at the beginning. This is nice. Though when I ordered it, I think I was hoping for something more Hatsu Akiko-ish-- misty rains, damp Japanese-style houses, dank western-style houses, pale and phthistic Meiji literati. OTOH the novel's setting is 1900 when I believe the uneasinesses of earlier Meiji, that Hatsu sensei illustrates so well in her Rainy Willow series, had been replaced by the burgeoning self-confidence that led to the Russo-Japanese war. The literary types who surround the hapless sub-editor protagonist certainly seem burgeonly self-confident enough. But I should read the stories themselves and see what the actual author has to say.

(Should note that all the phthistic Meiji literati I can think of, except for Higuchi Ichiyo, died after 1900. Should also note that this collection is something like the fourth in the series.)