David Gemmell’s Druss the Legend

This past week has been a busy one, but sometime over the past week or two I picked up the second book about Druss the Legend
in David Gemmel’s the first book, and was even more impressed on reflection because that was David Gemmell’s first book. It takes on the fantasy genre in a way that is interesting, going from the point of view of a hero on the way out. I’ve read lots of fantasy novels, and enjoy the straight on group of heroes against evil approach, but also enjoy fresh looks at the genre. (Most recently George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire‘s take on Fantasy as historically influenced political novels with a dash of magic.

What really surprises me is that David Gemmell’s first book (Legend) was so good and so refreshing. The second novel in the Druss series, but not the second by publication date by a long shot, is a more traditional hero story, but still lots of fun. It is a great light reading fantasy novel that doesn’t engage any of the meta-criticism centers of the brain that Legend challenges, and also comes off as a unique story on its own. Another book on the recommended pile. I do have the second book (by publication date) in his series on the pile to read, but next up will be something science fiction (Did you notice the Sci-Fi / Fantasy alternation I’ve been doing? I don’t remember if I’ve actually done the write-ups in order, but I’ve been doing that for a while now.)

Natsumi Hikaru’s “The Doctrine of Sex”

This is another one that I’ve been slowly reading. It is a Japanese book, and a bit of a random shot in the dark for me. A few months back Iijima Ai was found dead in her apartment. She is an interesting character, and was a regular on Sunday Japon, a weekend talk show that came on in the mornings. (Also famous as one of the shows that Dave Spector shows up on frequently, but I’m not going to write about him right now. Another interesting character.) She started out as a porn star, and ended up a pretty interesting commentator – a cut above the women that are on the shows to just look pretty – who had a bit of a feminist agenda, and definitely had interesting things to say.

So when I heard that she had been found dead, I decided that I should order her book PLATONIC SEX (小学館文庫) and try to read that. At the same time, Amazon decided to recommend this other book, “The Doctrine of Sex”, to me, so I thought “why not?” and picked it up too. It came first, so I slowly worked my way through it.

I wasn’t too serious about reading the book – just a chapter here or there when I had time (short chapters, about 1.5 to 2 pages) so you aren’t going to get anything about Japanese literature analysis or pedagogical theory out of this from me. (Better hope Alex doesn’t see this entry.) It was a fun read, Hikaru had some funny stories, and filled in the background of what it is like to work in the “water business” trade in Japan. It is really pretty light-hearted, she doesn’t regret her job, and enjoyed the lifestyle while she was doing it. I did come away with an overall impression of a sadness, or rather a kind of process that jades people. One of the striking things she says is that she started to view men as belonging to one of two categories: men that should love her (and she loves) or men that should pay her. There is something about stripping people down to a sheer monetary value that is sad and depressing: over-application of capitalistic values seeping into the joy of life.

I came away from the book a bit depressed about it all, even though it really is fairly light-hearted. There are even lots of little one to four panel manga illustrating various funny things. It is an adult-oriented book though, so maybe I shouldn’t admit that I read the thing here…

One interesting thing from the book is just how much money those women make. She commented once that if she saw something for $1000 or $2000 that she wanted, she could make that just by working hard for a day or two. Wow. Even more crazy is how much money people in those jobs can spend. A really interesting documentary The Great Happiness Space (or on Amazon: The Great Happiness Space (Original Japanese Version with English Subtitles)) is about the host clubs where a lot of these women spend their money. And boy do they spend it. I’m in the wrong line of business. (Actually I don’t think I can drink enough to survive in those clubs, and I definitely don’t have the people skills to cut it.) Anyway, an interesting movie. Check it out. Also kind of depressing.

For people that might be interested in reading it in Japanese: the level of Japanese was pretty high. I read it without dictionaries, but had to use my phone a few times to look things up, and sometimes just said “screw it, I’ve got a clear enough idea about things from context”. It isn’t as tough as some of Haruki Murakami’s stuff, but it is harder than most of the manga that I translate. (Not that that is a very high bar, but…)