Tuesday, September 13, 2005

 

Review: Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Writing Style-6.9
Originality-7.0
Plot-6.9
Literary Merit(whatever that means)-6.5
Overall-6.8

This is a nice, easy read about a fascinating culture.

Apparently the author (who’s from Chattanooga, by the way) has some degrees in Japanese art and history from Harvard, or something like that, and spent ten years doing research for this novel. His primary source, a real life geisha, has since denounced this book and written her own. Of course, by my way of thinking, just because a primary source denounces something doesn’t automatically debunk it. I mean this person has something at stake in the issue so they might have a strong bias away from the truth to cover their own ass so to speak. Sort of like Darwin denouncing evolution on his deathbed.

As for the fictional story, it’s quite nice and keeps the plot flowing. There’s not really a central, conventional love story which might be your first instinct to expect.

There’s really not any value judgments made towards the culture either. I like one part where the main character rebuts western dismay that geisha exist by saying that western women are geisha as well they are just not as upfront and honest about it.

The story is chronological starting with the main character as a very little girl, approximately age 5. It tells the story of how she becomes a geisha and her transformation from resisting it to embracing it. Then when she’s older she has several “love” interests vying for her attention and services. Finally, she becomes a very famous popular geisha.

The best part of the book is revealing this geisha world though, not really the story. It’s kind of a weird concept. It explains that geisha are not prostitutes and explains the differences, though, like most things in life, there are many shades of gray here. It goes through how geisha are trained, how they earn money, how they live, how they entertain, etc.

Basically, a geisha’s job is to entertain men at parties. They are trained to dance, sing, play stringed instruments and drums, and serve tea (there is a lot more to formal tea ceremony than just making tea and pouring it). They are adept at telling stories and making small talk in social situations and flirting. Pretty much they are just pretty things that entertain the men and make them feel good. I won’t give too much away because I think a big pull for reading the book is the curiosity at what a geisha is and does.

I’m looking forward to the movie coming out this winter with those two women who are in every Asian movie that makes it big in America, Ziyi Zhang and Michelle Yeoh.

Comments:
i read this book a long long time ago. but i recall my impression was similar to my reaction to 'the quiet american' (the movie). yes, it was fascinating and kind of pretty - so maybe merits reading on that basis. but it was also really annoying. i remember the main character being this really passive beautiful asian lady who happens to be really good at making men happy and waits around for some old guy who wasn't an asshole to her when she's a child. i might be recalling it incorrectly, but i think i was pretty disgusted at the way Golden reinforced asian/female stereotypes. the love story was so hokey too. an old rich man is nice to a poor but beautiful girl and she automatically falls in love with him and waits for him to notice her and destiny to take hold of her life. that said, i agree that the description of the geisha culture was cool although its comparison to western treatment of women was a little hazy to me. was Golden defending the use of Geisha's on the basis of it happening in western society by a different name? or was he criticizing western society? maybe he was just making a neutral observation, if that is possible.
 
I totally agree with a lot of what you are saying except that The Quiet American is a brilliant film. I probably should have brought out the book's shortcomings better in my review which you do a good job of here. The "love story" hardly seems worth mentioning since it wasn't much of one.

Also, I don't know how you could write a book about Geisha(s) (what's the plural of geisha?) and not reinforce asian female stereotypes. I mean if the point of the geisha is to be passive and please men?

And, I don't think Golden is making a value judgment or justifying geisha by comparing it to western relationships. I just think that it's an interesting comparison. An argument could be made that subtle, passive oppression is just as bad as overt oppression. But this point is probably secondary to the main character, Sayuri's, assertion that westerners have mistresses and their wives sometimes allow it in order to keep their home and money and that relationships have implicit agreements about what the man expects and what women get in return in the way of financial stability. These agreements are just not formally declared. This applied more so in our parents and grandparents generations than now, which is when Memoirs of a Geisha takes place (1930s-1950s).

p.s. - meesh, meesh evie
 
I could have sworn I read that that was true in a Scientific American article about 3 years ago. It was a cover story about how to rebut creationists.

I could have misread it, but I'm curious now. What is your source about it being false?
 
Does ornitholoco know the low down on this?
 
Yeah, I guess there's really no way to know. I think the point that the Scientific American article was making is that if creationists use this argument that debating if its true or not is moot. The real point to make is that even if Darwin did do this that it doesn't make natural selection wrong it just makes Darwin a chickenshit. Which is also the metaphor that I was going for with regards to the geisha source.
 
i don't think it really adds/detracts from the story at all whether or not it is fiction/nonfiction. i didn't get the impression that golden's main goal was documentation. more like putting an entertaining book out that would sell alot of copies and maybe get a movie deal. is the 'real life geisha' pissed because golden is getting rich off her story?
 
The part about adding or detracting to the book whether its fiction or nonfiction brought out a good discussion between A-killa Lawdog and myself the other day. A-killa was arguing that you can't and shouldn't write a book as pure journalism, that there has to be a value-judgement involved. She argued that not making a value-judgment in itself is a value-judgment or perhaps doing a disservice to the reader if you don't make a value-judgement. I agreed to a point but I also see the value in a novelist, historian, documentarian striving as much as humanly possible to tell a story as truthfully as possible and not insert their own beliefs.

I see pros and cons on both sides. I love the historian Howard Zinn. I value his opinion and I appreciate the fact that he is upfront about his leftist bias in writing history. But, by writing this way he opens himself up to a lot of criticism. Same thing with Michael Moore. Fahrenheit 9/11 was wildly popular among liberals but it didn't really affect the election because Moore just became a left wing caricature.

What was my point? Ah, Geisha... I do think that Golden was documenting geisha culture. He's got degrees in Japanese art and history and reportedly spent 10 years doing research for this book. A-killa, though she hasn't read it, thinks that it should be a scathing commentary on how evil the existence of geisha is. I agree that there would be value in such a book, but a journalistic approach is sometimes more powerful. And really, when it gets right down to it, do we need to be told that selling a 14 year old's virginity to the highest bidder is a bad thing?
 
hmm. interesting. there are so many things in history and present culture that one would think are obviously atrocious but were (and are) ignored or actively defended or conveniently re-named. artists have always played key roles in changing values. whether or not that precedent obligates every serious author/artist to make a value judgement is a good question. i know that golden has done a ton of research and is very knowledgeable, but i don't think that automatically means his primary intent was to purely document history. i had the impression it was to publish a bestseller. i agree with you that there was a noticable lack of value judgements - i think when i read it i was more sympathetic to the a-killa camp. it seemed like the omission was kind of condoning or romanticizing it (which goes back to my first post's gripes about the book). but i can see your point that it should be obvious that the basis of the culture is degrading. maybe making a point of that in the book would have come across pretty trite.
 
Should books be like being in military school i.e. being lectured / tutored / someone shoving an opinion down your throat? Doesn't it takes away from the pure enjoyment of reading, discovering and reving your own imagination, thoughts, values, reactions to it etc.? The author is presenting a story weaving his understanding of the time, the thought. Is it his responsibility to present the time and situations as accurately as possible - yes he owes it to every reader that buys an unpirated $5.40 copy. Is it his responsibility to weave a story that will appeal to most and hope to have a bestseller on hand - yes he owes it to himself, his publisher, his mother, whoever else. Is it his responsibility to weave a story that makes a moral statement relevant to the 21st century - absolutely not.
 
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