Re: Soseki

["Anne M. Marble" <amarble@abs.net>]

From: Allan MacLeod <allan.macleod@usask.ca>

>     First, my thnaks to Anne Marble for her information about Ex
> Libris.

You're welcome! :-> I was glad to see the list myself. It "inspired"
me to read "Lord of the Rings" again. Not that I needed an excuse.
I've been following some threads on it in a newsgroup, and I realized
it's been a long time since I read it. I'll probably enjoy it even
more now.

> But I have a quetion for our Japanese members.  Who is Natsumi
Soseki?
> I gather he is an early twentieth century novelist, educated in
Britain,
> and that he is on the 1000 yen note.  But why would Gould be
attracted
> to him?  Is he regarded as a spiritual writer?

I'm not a Japanese member, but I remember something about Soseki's
"The Three-Cornered World" from earlier discussions. <Alliteration
alert!>Glenn Gould gushed about this book -- it was his favorite, or
one of them. The main character is an artist. The book is about the
way artists perceive the world differently, plus there is much
discussion of the importance of (drum roll please) nature, and
probably some solitude thrown in there as well. The Japanese title is
"Kusa Makura," which means "The Grass Pillow."

Here's an old f-minor message that excerpts it:
http://www.tug.org/mail-archives/f_minor/msg00978.html