(Part 3) Best asian literary history & criticism books according to redditors

Read all her tweets and watch some of her interviews on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOS43zILE8w), she is a great historian that has been targeted by the Indian Hindu right wing for supporting the truth. She must be given a high platform to speak the truth louder and wider.

Fluent in Sanskrit and knowledgable in Persian, she is the author of Culture of Encounters: Sanskrit in the Mughal Court, Aurangzeb: The Man and The Myth and Aurangzeb: The Life and Legacy of India's Most Controversial King - Please purchase a copy to read, and share it with everyone who's interested. She MUST be invited to speak in Pakistan and the government must promote her.

This one?

https://www.amazon.com/Three-Kingdoms-Historical-Guanzhong-Luo/dp/0520282167

I strongly recommend the William Buck translations for both the Ramayana and Mahabharata. They are retellings, but they encompass much more than other translations and the job is exquisitely done. I found the Penguin edition of the Ramayana to be dull in comparison.

What's interesting is when they make books that aren't useful outside of a course, or price out the average consumer for stuff that might have mass market appeal but they'd rather gouge students with it.

A crazy example of this is the recent English translation of Clouds Above The Hill, a popular Japanese novel from decades ago.

It's a major work of literature in Japan, which you can find in any bookstore for under 1000 yen - now translated into English, at $70 per volume, times 4 volumes. Yes, this novel costs nearly $300 new.

The justification, apparently, is that it would be of interest only to college Japanese/Literature departments, so why bother pricing it for a mass audience?

I agree with triliana that you should pay for a book, like RS MacGregor's Outline of Hindi Grammar. Link to Amazon, but you can probably find it for half the price on AbeBooks or ALibris.

Rupert Snell's Teach Yourself Hindi Dictionary is absolutely indispensable for anyone who wants conversational Hindi -- MacGregor's Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary is far more useful but won't get you anywhere in beginner's Hindi, esp if you can't read Devanagari. Snell's dictionary begins with a very brief introduction to Hindi grammar, which is not comprehensive but is better than no grammar at all.

Speaking of Snell...he is the director of the Hindi-Urdu Flagship at UT-Austin. NO ONE trying to learn Hindi should be without the resources they put online.

As I said, McGregor's Outline of Hindi Grammar is best, but HUF has PDF links for several excellent older textbooks, completely and legally for free.

Lengthy word dump comment part 1:

/u/Rinarin and /u/Princess_Tutu - Hello!

I’ve been sitting on quite a bit of material with the intention to write something up for a good while. I then wrote it up and got nervous about posting it. So as soon as I hit enter, this will be me.



The literature refs of Bungou could easily be seen in a ‘turtles all the way down’ manner with symbolism and connections you could choose to read into at every layer. The references are present in everything from chapter titles, to a character’s physical design (Chuuya’s hat, Ranpo’s Sherlock outfit), to character motivations, personality, ideology, and interactions with other characters. Even minor, single episode side characters can sometimes be traced back to a real component of literature (referring mainly to some Edogawa stuff here). The characters designs often throw off an anachronistic vibe when set against the modern world. This intentionally reflects the 19th and 20th centuries dress reminiscent of the writers' times.

I’ve stuck to just the Port Mafia Akutagawa here for this comment since others have already written up some summaries on the others: parts 1, 2, and 3. I included generic Content through episode 11 and some spoiler tagged mentions for episodes 11 and 12. You can read this ep 12 discussion comment for some good insight on that one (that guy/gal is also way more eloquent than me, lol). I left out some tie-ins that I felt gave away a bit too much for the second cour.

For clarity, A!Character and R!Character refer to the anime and real life versions, respectively. Most of my reference material came from this mammoth book by Donald Keene. It weighs a lot. I carried it and other Japanese lit books across a giant parking lot in 100F+ weather. This is how much I am a nerd. /cry

Ryunosuke Akutagawa – Rashomon

Themes/Works

Akutagawa’s early works were generally rewrites of numerous multi-cultural tales placed in a historical setting. He preferred to keep his personal life out of his writing and remain detached from the subject. Stylistically, he often deliberately tricked or misled readers, blending illusion and reality, truth and fiction. A famous example is “In a Grove”, where a conflicting series of testimonies are given for the ‘same’ course of events. Akutagawa was particularly critical and doubtful of human virtues and society on the whole. A!Aku’s abilitiy is derived from his other famous short story, “Rashomon” (not to be confused with the movie which is actually based on In a Grove…go figure). Like a lot of artists, Akutagawa didn’t strike fame for his work until after his death.

His personal life was something of a hot mess. His mother went insane shortly after birth, and he long felt a sense of neglect and abandonment by her. He also came to immensely fear that the same fate would befall him. It totally did. His later years were distinguished by plummeting physical and mental health, including hallucinations, intense nervousness and anxiety, and a regular sense of impending doom. In the end, he committed suicide.

A (USA) public domain audiobook reading of “Rashomon” in Japanese is available here

There are at least two official English translations: 1 – 2

Tie-ins

A!Aku’s personality is heavily drawn from the real, who was described as something of an aloof but precocious individual with a cynical sense of humor. A!Aku’s chronic cough, preoccupation with death and fate, and his persona that flirts with the edge of sanity certainly seem to mirror the R!Aku’s life as well. I suspect his looks too given this description of a photograph, “gaunt face, hollow eyes…and an expression of despair”.

A!Akutagawa’s driving need for recognition from Dazai and his resentment of Atsushi for getting that recognition is also reflective of the real. R!Aku greatly admired the writer Soseki Natsume, and after working up some courage, adorably became a disciple of Soseki’s and regularly attended meetings. Unfortunately, R!Aku had shit friends that regularly criticized his works, outright telling him to give up writing. In one of his few autobiographical based pieces, “A Life Spent at Frivolous Writing”, one of the characters gets fed up with being compared to his publisher’s other writers and declares that ‘[he] and I are not the same kind of man’. So both real and anime Akutagawa were pretty sensitive to comparisons with their peers.

[Bungou Ep 12](/s "Real Aku's early writing was heavily influenced by Mori Ougai, so it's incredibly fitting that A!Ougai is the Mafia's and Akutagawa's boss. One critic even described Ougai as having created Akutagawa.") He was also criticized as having a ‘lack of originality’, which is pretty lol given some of the comments that A!Aku doesn’t seem all that smart in contriving plans. Real Aku didn’t much care for plot details anyway.

R!Akutagawa’s writing philosophies also opposed those of Naturalism, for which Kunikida Doppo is considered to be an inventor of (in the Japanese tradition). So yeah, no surprise their anime selves don’t like each other. R!Aku and R!Tanizaki also had an authors’ argument over the importance of plot, wherein Aku thought that how the story was written, its overall poetic structure, was more important than plot details. Their anime selves have already started bitching at each other.

Regarding “Rashomon” and A!Akutagawa’s ability, the basic story plot is that a man finds himself debating whether to starve to death or become a thief. (This should sound familiar to a different character.) In the end, the man steals the clothes off a woman to survive. She, herself, had been in the middle of stealing off some dead bodies to survive. I don’t know how clear the anime made it to other people (I can be dense), but the coat Akutagawa is wearing is the actual source of his ability. So there’s a lot to be said here for how Atsushi ended up wimping out of his thievery and choosing the path where the weak have a right to live, while Akutagawa ‘took the coat’ and sees little regard for those weaker than him in his path to survival.

Edit: I guess if you see this in your inbox you might not see that I replied to myself with the rest, so:

more Mafia, last and best

Fiction


The Picador Book of Modern Indian Literature

Non - Fiction

The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity by Amartya Sen

V. S. Naipaul - India Trilogy.

India In Slow Motion by Mark Tully

The Very Best of the Common Man - R.K. Laxman

> The perfect primer for Japanese mythology is the oldest book extant in Japan's history: the Kojiki.

Any opinion on the Heldt version? I hate it when they use literal English translations of names, but it's a hell of a lot cheaper and has an ebook version.

https://www.amazon.com/Kojiki-Account-Ancient-Translations-Classics/dp/0231163894/ref=pd_sim_14_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=X6DH1QPXT19GRQPPQPYG

I looked up the entire passage you're citing in Goldman's translation (quoted below for your reference), and it supports your interpretation that Rama and Sita were 13 and 6 respectively at the time of marriage. Goldman's translation has an impeccable reputation and it's based on the critical edition.

However, I should warn you that there is no such thing as an "authoritative" or "definitive" Ramayana text. The Ramayana is a living tradition with a long history wherein many cultures and traditions have their own versions of the Ramayana which differ significantly from Valmiki's version. I recommend this book if you'd like to learn more about the Ramayana tradition. While I trust that Goldman is a faithful and accurate translator of the Valmiki critical edition, I would caution against the belief that Valmiki is the ultimate authority on the Ramayana.




> Sarga 45
>
> 1. When Ravana came in the guise of a mendicant to carry off
> Vaidehi, he had first put some questions to her. Of her own accord
> she now began to tell her story.
> 2. For Sita had thought a moment: "He is a brahman and my
> guest. If I do not reply he will curse me." She then spoke these
> words:
> 3. "I am the daughter of Janaka, the great king of Mithila. My
> name is Sita, may it please the best of twice-born, and I am the
> wife of Rama.
> 4. "For twelve years I lived in the house of Raghava, enjoying such
> pleasures as mortals enjoy. I had all I could desire.
> 5. "Then, in the thirteenth year, the king in concert with his kingly
> counselors approved the royal consecration of my husband.
> 6. "But just as the preparations for Raghava's consecration were
> under way, a mother-in-law of mine named Kaikeyi asked her husband
> for a boon.
> 7. "You see, Kaikeyi had already married my father-in-law for a consideration. So she had two things she now could ask of her husband,
> the best of kings and a man who always kept his word: One
> was the consecration of Bharata, the other, my husband's banishment.
> 8. " 'From this day forth I will not eat, or drink, or sleep, I will put
> an end to my life if Rama is consecrated.'
> 9. "Such were Kaikeyfs words, and though my father-in-law, who
> had always shown her respect, begged her with offers of commensurate
> riches, she would not do what he begged of her.
> 10. ab-874*. "Rama, my mighty husband, was then twenty-five
> years old, and I had just passed my eighteenth birthday.
> 10. cd-ef. "His name is renowned throughout the world, his eyes
> are large, his arms strong. He is virtuous, honest, truthful, and
> devoted to the welfare of all people.

This guy didn't even bother to acknowledge the book where he took his stuff from. He even copied the title.

https://www.amazon.com/When-God-Customer-Courtesan-Ksetrayya/dp/0520080696?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

<Blind faith is un-Buddhist.

I don't disagree, but I'm an academic. The understanding of Buddhism I have is academic and my arguments are based in issues of history as I understand it.

<I quote scholars and you quote yourself, as if you are an authority. State your name and your credentials then.


This tells me that my arguments alone are insufficient to identify me as an authority to you- really I wouldn't claim to be on this topic. As I said, I study mostly American Buddhism today- no I will not provide my name because I like to preserve some anonymity on the internet. I have a M.A and am doing PhD coursework. The problem that you are having is that you are not taking an academic view of the discussion.

>Your faith is greater than your wisdom

This is an ad-hominem fallacy at its best. I'm not Buddhist at all. I have no faith because I study the topic. I respect the tradition but I certainly don't worship in it. This is a discussion about historical understanding- something that you have garnered from questionable scholars. Here is a brief reading list of real scholars you can take and read to see what actual authorities in the field are saying.

Don Lopez: Elaborations on Emptiness
Don Lopez: The Heart Sutra Explained this is a series of translated commentaries on the Heart Sutra. Though it uses the long version, which is problematic.

J.L Austin: How to Do Things With Words This will tell you a lot about the linguistic empiricists and how words function in religious settings.

If you want to read the theory that I do you might also read
Alfred North Whitehead: Process and Reality
Also:Whithead's Symbolism: It's meaning and Effect
And
Bruce Lincoln's Authority

For Buddhist histories that are not popularist:

Peter N. Gregory: Tsung-Mi and the Sinification of Buddhism

Gimello's Paths to Liberation
or his Studies in Ch'an and Hua-yen

For modern philosophical takes on Buddhism Nancy Frankenberry's Religion and Radical Empiricism though to understand her you need a wider knowledge base than you probably have. Here, let me suggest something for you to read first:

James: The Varieties of Religious Experience
James: The Will to Believe
James: Pragmatism
Rorty: Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature
Rorty: Consequences of Pragmatism

This one is particularly important for you:
Rorty: Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth

You want to know about the origins of Buddhism? How about Vajrayana?
Snellgrove: Indo-Tibetan Buddhism
Pollock (a great book): The Language of the Gods in the World of Men
For a modern take: Wedemeyer: Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism

Davidson: Indian Esoteric Buddhism
Bhattacharyya: An Introduction to Buddhist Esoterism These last few present conflicting views on the nature of Tantrism, particularly the last one that might fit your "fundamentalist" category.

TO understand American Buddhism better:
Merton: Zen and the Birds of Appetite
Eck: A New Religious America
Tweed (this is one of my favorite books ever) The American Encounter with Buddhism 1844-1912
Neusner (ed) World Religions in America
on individuals: Sterling: Zen Pioneer
Hotz: Holding the Lotus to the Rock Sokei-an was a traditionalist and a near mirror of Thich Nhat Hanh, yet his teachings never took off.
Since you Love Thich Nhat Hanh: Fragrant Palm Leaves: Journals 1962-1966 and the companion to that, Merton's journals
Another of Hanh's Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire This is before he was popular and so is much more interesting than some of his later works.

Also Mcmahan: The Making of Buddhist Modernism

Yampolsky

Huangbo:
1
2

Linji: 1 (this is the copy that I have, after discussing it here it sounded better) 2

Bankei: 1 2

etc.

Edit: My university professor translated the xinxinming (based off of lok to's translation) and chunks of the platform sutra (original work i believe), and i've got a copy of that. he suggests for further reading on the platform sutra to read 1 2 3 (as well as zen doctrine of no mind! ha!)

August apparently, but he's been out and about doing talks.