Can someone recommend me japanese literature...

holy shit

source

...

Book of the Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi is pretty interesting.

Instead of being autistic about it, you can ask your gf's dad. He'll think that your interested, and you might get some good suggestions. Who's the girl btw

Yeah I guess this is a good idea
Her name is Ai Nagazawa btw

I'm not finding these udders anywhere. Help an user out.

Kokoro is supposed to be a classic.

she's an AV Idol

This. It should be stuff that looks like you didn't look up japanese lit explicitly for this.

Tale of Genji, maybe.

thank you, user

It's OK, even tho it's mostly combat techniques

This. (Despite my love Mishima)
Tanizaki is worth knowing as well. That being said, you shouldn't try and put on airs because it will probably fall flat. Just be forthright that all you know of Japan is from Gunfam.

Just be yourself. Talk about Ai Nagazawa.

kek

you'll sound like an idiot you fucking autist, just act like a normal human being

Mention that British jap that just won the Nobel. Talk about how great all the jap pitchers are doing in the MLB post season (Yu Darvish, Masahiro Tanaka - has the 5th largest contract of all time in MLB), japs love baseball.

Or, better yet, admit you know little about their culture but are interested in learning more and just be yourself.

t. Boyfriend of a Japanese girl

>t. Boyfriend of a Japanese girl
pic or did not happen

downvoted

My boy.

I have spent some time in Japan. Been there a few times. Read a few of their books.

The only *really* interesting shit is a story by Tanizaki, 'Naomi' or 'A Fool's Love' depending on translation, also an essay he wrote on aesthetics called 'In Praise of Shadows,' which is a 45 minute read and altogether one of my favorite pieces on aesthetics.

The only thing Mishima wrote that I find at all tasteful is 'Patriotism,' everything else is crypto-homo trash and weird cuckery fetishes and it's just gross.

Kawabata is their pre-eminent modernist. I enjoyed his Palm-of-the-Hand stories. 'Rainy Station' is one of the nicest. There is a good book you can buy probably on Amazon that has all his short stories and they're translated pretty well.

Other big names you'll encounter that everybody has read in school include Soseki who is almost like their Dickens or Twain. He wrote 'I am a Cat,' which you've probably heard before. That's the first novel that was written in Japan in a dialect that everybody could understand.

Other famous names you'll hear in their canon include Saikaku, Jippensha Ikku, Akutagawa (who has a big prize named after him for literature), Edogawa Rampo (wrote a lot of really nice mysteries like 'The Human Chair'), Osamu Dazai (depressing literature mostly, like Mishima, his opus is 'No Longer Human,' good read), Kobo Abe, Kenzaburo Oe, and the two Murakamis.

In poetry you have Basho as the *must*-read. Robert Aitken, the founder of the first real zen sangha in the US, translated a lot of his works wonderfully. I recommend 'A Zen Wave' for specifically Basho and 'The River of Heaven' for the works of Basho AND Buson, Issa, and Shiki. I feel Aitken translated with the original authorial intent in mind because he actually has lived many of the scenes described in the haiku himself, which is important for capturing the feeling and intent in any literature. You have numerous other poets but what I wrote is good enough to start. Relating to Buddhism, the writings of the monk Kenko are very poignant and hilarious sometimes. Great aphorisms, great perspective of medieval Japan without all that ridiculous pompous crap you usually find.

But forget about all of that. You need to read things you actually like. Don't namedrop stuff trying to get somebody to be impressed by you because if they have any knowledge of the subject they'll see through your act and think worse of you because of it. I don't know your girlfriend's father obviously but this is just some man-to-man advice.

Hope this helps. Also I'm curious about your story with her. I only ever encountered two Japs in Japan that spoke competent English so I assume you live in California or Washington or some shit.

Behemoth!

Oh by the way don't even bother with the Tales of the Heike or the Tale of Genji or any of that unless you're actually serious. They have no literary value, only historical, or if you're interested in the utter nonsense that is state Shinto and the cult of the emperor which at this point is becoming a footnote in history outside of Japan.

I was thinking about reading them, I've seen some folks saying that these are actually the first novel. Would you agree?

No, they are not the first novels. The first proper 'novel' was perhaps the Epic of Gilgamesh, although there were codified stories before that but I believe they are lost or incomplete.

Please understand this about the Japanese: a lot of their culture is made up nonsense from the Meiji era because they felt they were lesser to America, France and Britain. They dredged up the Nihonshoki and Genji Monogatari and so forth from the obscure annals of history and then presented that as their definitive 'great work' when *no one* had ever heard of these things before. I may be mixing up my history but I believe these stories were first written down only to prove to the Chinese that they aren't uncultured barbarians.

They are worth reading only for knowing the history of the foundation of the Yamato family cult. They are very important to the foundation of Shinto, as well. Otherwise, no literary value. They aren't an Odyssey, Illiad, Aeniad, or even a Gone with the Wind or Don Quixote.

Ahh shit my mind is all over the place. OP, I forgot to mention that perhaps even more important than any of the writers I have mentioned before is Lafcadio Hearn AKA Koizumi Yakamo. Interesting guy, interesting experiences, quite a good writer. He lived in that halcyon time of 1890-1910s in Japan in the far countryside in Matsue. He wrote about the daily lives of people and the things he saw and all that. He also translated a lot of ghost stories and other tales, also some poetry, into English. Into Japanese he translated a lot of his writings about New Orleans. That is why New Orleans and jazz music is so popular in Japan today. He is necessary reading for people in school there. I value him because, again, his perspective is rare and he could look at things through 'new eyes' and appreciate the differences between what he saw in Japan and what he knew back in Europe and America, even the smallest minutiae that would have otherwise been lost.

thanks for the detailed response, I very seldom find this here.
One thing I habe to point out though, Gilgamesh was an Epic poem not a novel.

read a recent novel six four by hideo yokoyama. great twist. its lengthy though but it helps you by having the MC recap every few chapters so you dont forget any details. i hate to say it, but its very kafkaesque

You're very welcome. Replace Gilgamesh with 'The Golden Ass,' then. Although I am unclear about the differences between a verse novel and an epic poem.

I should have said modern novel. Many theorist - Foucault, Harold Bloom, Kundera - claim that Quijote is the first novel, but I have seen people saying that those Chinese books that came before Quijote were the first modern novels.

what book is sandwiched between her breasts

instagram.com/shibukaho/?hl=en

Well if you're coming here with this question, you really don't know shit about their culture now, do ya?