Mermaid's Lament·magician
About This Novel
Junichiro Tanizaki's short story collection "Mermaid's Sigh: The Magician" consists of two stories: "The Mermaid's Sigh" and "The Magician". The story of "The Sigh of the Mermaid" takes place in Nanjing during the Qing Dynasty. The noble son Meng Shitao had a wealthy family, many wives and concubines, and lived an extremely luxurious life. However, he was tired of his current life and fell in love with the mermaid brought by the Westerners. For the sake of the mermaid, he decided to leave everything behind... "The Magician" tells the story of a man and woman who were originally in love, in order to prove their loyalty to each other, they went to watch the magician's performance, but were impressed by the magician's beauty and turned into a half-man and half-goat god. The two novels are Tanizaki Junichiro's early works. By vigorously describing the beauty of the senses, readers can feel Tanizaki's literary concept of beauty.
What Readers Think
Rating
Community(0)
Official(1)Scraped 20d ago
Lost in beauty·Dark core·Excellent illustrations
Mermaid's sigh In fact, it is difficult to tell whether the noble prince in the book surrenders to desire or to beauty. Perhaps in Junichiro Tanizaki's books, beauty and sensory stimulation are roughly equivalent. The noble son, who was tired and lost all the fun after enjoying all the glory and wealth in the world, was instantly aroused when he saw the foreigners and mermaids from far away Europe. He grabbed a life-saving straw and crawled at the feet of the foreigners, begging him to sell the mermaids to him. To be honest, the rhetorical presentation, writing style and artistic conception of these contents are all intoxicating, but the implicit (explicit) flattering and even flattering thoughts are indeed uncomfortable to read. Even if it borrows the historical background of the Qing Dynasty and writes it from the perspective of a rich Chinese scion, it is really offensive to Chinese readers. It can be regarded as the part that made me very disappointed in this reading. In addition to symbolizing Western European culture - the article clearly states that the mermaid is a collection of all the physical beauties of Europeans. The mermaid should also represent a certain kind of ethereal beauty that only exists in people's imagination, which is desirable and dissatisfying but can never be obtained. Because of this, all those who fell in love with her did not end well and were left in mourning until death. It can be seen that pure beauty can also be a murderous weapon, making people disillusioned and world-weary. For Junichiro Tanizaki, who is obsessed with describing "beauty", it may also be the end of melancholy that is inescapable in his works. Magician It turned out to be a story about a girlfriend who made her boyfriend face the temptation of a magician in order to prove her relationship. If there is a theme, it is probably that human nature cannot stand the test? The beauty the author is trying to present here is also an ambiguous "flower of evil" with no discernible gender or race, but with an obvious negative and decadent connotation. Perhaps there is no need to analyze the plot, just follow the flashy writing style (flashyness is also a skill here) and rise and fall in the center of beauty. In addition, the illustrations of both stories are so beautiful. It is an Art Nouveau style that I like very much. The lines are elongated, black and white are clear, and the outlines are elegant. It is indeed a perfect foil to this book. It is a book worth collecting.
Rating
Community(0)
Official(1)Scraped 20d ago
Lost in beauty·Dark core·Excellent illustrations
Mermaid's sigh In fact, it is difficult to tell whether the noble prince in the book surrenders to desire or to beauty. Perhaps in Junichiro Tanizaki's books, beauty and sensory stimulation are roughly equivalent. The noble son, who was tired and lost all the fun after enjoying all the glory and wealth in the world, was instantly aroused when he saw the foreigners and mermaids from far away Europe. He grabbed a life-saving straw and crawled at the feet of the foreigners, begging him to sell the mermaids to him. To be honest, the rhetorical presentation, writing style and artistic conception of these contents are all intoxicating, but the implicit (explicit) flattering and even flattering thoughts are indeed uncomfortable to read. Even if it borrows the historical background of the Qing Dynasty and writes it from the perspective of a rich Chinese scion, it is really offensive to Chinese readers. It can be regarded as the part that made me very disappointed in this reading. In addition to symbolizing Western European culture - the article clearly states that the mermaid is a collection of all the physical beauties of Europeans. The mermaid should also represent a certain kind of ethereal beauty that only exists in people's imagination, which is desirable and dissatisfying but can never be obtained. Because of this, all those who fell in love with her did not end well and were left in mourning until death. It can be seen that pure beauty can also be a murderous weapon, making people disillusioned and world-weary. For Junichiro Tanizaki, who is obsessed with describing "beauty", it may also be the end of melancholy that is inescapable in his works. Magician It turned out to be a story about a girlfriend who made her boyfriend face the temptation of a magician in order to prove her relationship. If there is a theme, it is probably that human nature cannot stand the test? The beauty the author is trying to present here is also an ambiguous "flower of evil" with no discernible gender or race, but with an obvious negative and decadent connotation. Perhaps there is no need to analyze the plot, just follow the flashy writing style (flashyness is also a skill here) and rise and fall in the center of beauty. In addition, the illustrations of both stories are so beautiful. It is an Art Nouveau style that I like very much. The lines are elongated, black and white are clear, and the outlines are elegant. It is indeed a perfect foil to this book. It is a book worth collecting.
