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Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. The Pillow Books of the Gossamer Courtesan are: A Pale Petal Falling: Flames of a Plum Blossom: In which Fiona begins the probationary period and receives a very thorough bath under the hands of two girls. But that's not The Film -- the plot is intriguing, the Art is breathtaking, and the calligraphy, ahhhhhhh, is astoundingly beautiful, especially when transcribed on human form.
The vessel and the content are one -- how sublime of author and director. Sometimes Greenaway seems to think that we can simultaneously process all five lanes of the highway that run in his head. I, for one, am willing to watch his films twice. Well, maybe not "The Falls". Greenaway offers food for my soul -- I kiss both his eyes. Explore popular and recently added TV series available to stream now with Prime Video.
The Pillow Book - Wikipedia
Start your free trial. Find showtimes, watch trailers, browse photos, track your Watchlist and rate your favorite movies and TV shows on your phone or tablet! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Full Cast and Crew. A woman with a body writing fetish seeks to find a combined lover and calligrapher. Sei Shonagon book , Peter Greenaway.
Our Favorite Trailers of the Week. Related News Film Review: The House That Never Dies: Share this Rating Title: Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. User Polls Best of Both Worlds: Learn more More Like This. The magician Prospero attempts to stop his daughter's affair with an enemy.
Drowning by Numbers From one side of the hall comes the beautiful sound of lute music. The player plucks the strings so gently that one can barely make out the notes. Sei Shonagon is such a study in contrasts. She was undeniably bitchy, an inveterate gossip and a dreadful snob.
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She spent her days in idleness, writing poetry, making snarky comments about the servants and lower classes, and flirting with the courtiers. But Sei Shonagon was also quick-witted, sensitive and fully awake to all the beauties of the world and when she writes like this I cannot help but like her. Sparrows feeding their young. To pass a place where babies are playing. To sleep in a room where some fine incense has been burnt. To notice that one's elegant Chinese mirror has become a little cloudy. To see a gentleman stop his carriage before one's gate and instruct his attendants to announce his arrival.
The ladies of the Heian court were probably allowed more freedom than most Japanese women of the time and despite their modest fans and the curtains that screened them from view there was the possibility of semi-secret liaisons, preceded and followed by a stylized exchange of poetry. And if favors were granted one hoped that all would be graced by a certain style. Frail as a string of bubbles is that ice. The ribbon too will quickly come undone. As though it were the frailest gossamer veil. A good lover will behave as elegantly at dawn as at any other time.
He drags himself out of bed with a look of dismay on his face. The lady urges him on: There are themes of love and late night meetings, but everything is coded and strictly fade-to-black and softly rustling silk. View all 12 comments. Less interesting than its closest contemporary, The Tale of Genji, this is another interesting book about the intimate life of the Japanese imperial court during the Heian period as Genji is as well.
It is full of interesting anecdotes and pillow talk thus the title , but in a less poetic style as Genji which for me remains the reference and the milestone. Jan 30, Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies rated it it was amazing Shelves: Lovely, amazing, brilliant book from a court lady with spectacular wit and humor. I really need to reread this again some day. When I have a week to spare.
I've never had to work so hard to read a book before. It's been years since I've read it, but this book took me days and days to read, mainly because of all the footnotes. And you HAVE to read the footnotes. Every entry had a footnote, and I had to constantly flip back and forth to read it in order to understand the context. View all 6 comments. Do we ever know where history is really made? Rulers ruled and used complicated strategies to fight one another. Real power was in the hands of a family of hereditary regents; the emperor's court had become nothing more than a place of intrigues and intellectual games.
But by learning to draw a sort of melancholy comfort from the contemplation of the tiniest things this small group of idlers left a mark on Japanese sensibility much deeper than the mediocre thundering of the politicians. Shonagon had a passion for lists: Memory informs most of the film. As the images flicker randomly, footage from around the world, a British, female narrator intones these ponderous reflections on the soundtrack.
She served as a gentlewoman in the court of Empress Fujiwara Teishi of the famous Fujiwara clan, the dominant clan of the Heian period roughly from to In the context of Japanese history, the Heian period was a time devoid of war, and blessed with the idle calm of peace. Heian period literature is a notoriously complicated cultural phenomenon for the western reader. This is because, unlike the sweeping, convoluted narrative of a piece such as The Tale of Genji , The Pillow Book is more intimate, full of ephemeral fragments of courtly life in Heian Japan. For lack of a better comparison, the tiny, cathartic pleasures in life mentioned in the film Amelie resemble Sei's list of "things that look enjoyable", or "things that create the presence of deep emotion".
In other words, one doesn't necessarily require a full background knowledge of Japanese culture to be capable of relating to Sei's aesthetic predilection, albeit the sub-narratives that weave in and out of The Pillow Book are more esoteric, and mainly entail historical gossip as well as stories about poetry competitions.
She thought herself so clever and littered her writings with Chinese characters; but if you examined them closely, they left a great deal to be desired. Those who think of themselves as being superior to everyone else in this way will inevitably suffer and come to a bad end, and people who have become so precious that they go out of their way to try and be sensitive in the most unpromising situations, trying to capture every moment of interest, however slight, are bound to look ridiculous and superficial.
How can the future turn out well for them?
The Pillow Book
First off, Sei was a class snob; she repeatedly criticizes the attire of the poverty stricken, as well as their manners. She clearly had a pretty short temper, and little patience for the idiosyncrasies of those around her.
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And a majority of the positive lists that she mentions mainly have more to do with the beauty of nature, or the complexity of poetry, rather than musings on how wonderful people are in general. It's difficult to imagine that this wasn't simply part and parcel of the sensibility of her age. Heian courtly life was so idle and lackadaisical to the point where petty back-stabbing and spreading vitriolic gossip must have seemed like popular pastimes.
The Pillow Book is most effectively enjoyed in fragments; a good book to pick up at random. There really isn't much of a unifying story, and it seems that the most erudite scholar still runs into difficulty in the matter of coming up with a chronology in relation to the layout of the book. Herein lies its charm though: View all 9 comments. See the full review at http: Meredith McKinney, an expert in Japanese literature and translator of this edition, Sei Shonagon might have been born around and the last known reference to her was in While specific details about Sei Shonagon and her book are difficult to confirm, it is believed she completed the book around It is the oldest book on my classics list.
There are several editions of the book; it has been copied and recopied multiple times. I read the Penguin Classics edition which includes an informative introduction written by Meredith McKinney and is full of notes throughout. Well-researched and thorough, it also includes appendices such as a glossary as well as explanations of colors and clothes, social statuses, and more. The Pillow Book is akin to a diary; Sei Shonagon mostly tells us stories of her daily life, gossips about her peers, comments on fashion and the seasons.
It provides a perspective on imperial culture in all its luxury, privilege, and poetry and is considered a masterpiece of Japanese literature. According to Sei Shonagon, the book was supposed to have been kept private but started to circulate among the court members when it was discovered after she accidentally left it out on a mat one day around I have never read a book quite like this before.
While I enjoyed it for its unique content and perspective, it lacks the cohesion I was used to as it jumps around throughout time periods, thoughts, and miscellany. At times, Sei Shonagon uses the pages to list examples of seemingly arbitrary topics of her choice, sometimes as ordinary as naming peaks, plants, or bodies of water but at other times are more thoughtful.
Those who are interested in learning about this era of Japanese history or life would find this book compelling.
I would also recommend this book to poetry lovers, as poetry was an integral part of court society during this period. Communication between friends, colleagues, and lovers often took place via notes sent by messenger and these notes were often written in poetry, so one needed to be able to read, interpret, and create poems full of flirtation and puns for attention and glory.
People and Where They Appear Appendix 3: Glossary of General Terms Appendix 5: Court Ranks, Titles and Bureaucracy Appendix 6: Clothes and Colour Glossary Notes. May 25, pearl rated it it was amazing Shelves: Incredible, witty, beautiful prose. Shonagon Sei was a sarcastic and insightful woman who was unafraid to air out her own prejudices staples among her lists of hated things: Many call this the earliest "blog" in history, but it's much more than that.
It's a vivid, if not remarkable look into Heian court life through the eyes of a strong Japanese woman, a true individual o Incredible, witty, beautiful prose. It's a vivid, if not remarkable look into Heian court life through the eyes of a strong Japanese woman, a true individual of that time. My favorite sections were when Sei discusses the Royal Family, specifically the young Empress, whom Sei waited upon. Different from the other passages, which vary between bitingly sarcastic portrayals of her peers to descriptions of beautiful landscapes, the entries about the Empress are colored with much more gentle and affectionate emotions.
It is friendship, adoration, and poetic lyricism all in one. A favorite passage from the book: Then you will know how many times My heart is beating out its love for you. Jan 04, J. In summer, the night -- moonlit nights, of course, but also at the dark of the moon, it's beautiful when fireflies are dancing everywhere in a mazy flight. And it's delightful too to see just one or two fly through the darkness, glowing softly.
Rain falling on a summer night is also lovely. As the light creeps over the hills, their outlines are dyed a faint red and wisps or purplish cloud trail over them. In summer the nights.
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Poor priests, they're not the unfeeling lumps of wood that people take them for. They're despised for eating that dreadful monastic food, and their sleeping arrangements are no better. A young priest must naturally be full of curiosity, and how could he resist the forbidden urge to peep into a room, especially if there's a woman in there? But this is criticized as disgraceful too. No doubt it is an auspicious thing to do; but unfortunately most people are convinced that a priest is as important as a piece of wood, and they treat him accordingly.
The Pillow Books of the Gossamer Courtesan, Vol. 1
A priest lives poorly on meagre food, and cannot even sleep without being criticized. While he is young, it is only natural that he should be curious about all sorts of things, and, if there are women about, he will probably peep in their direction though, to be sure, with a look of aversion on his face What is wrong about that? Yet people immediately find fault with him for even so small a lapse.
Of course, we've long known this book's fame due to the formidable lady writer's witty observations, sense of humor, ancient traditions, etc. In a word, there are innumerable scholars and Japanophiles who have since written and studied on this unique book as one of the great literary works of Japan. Thus, in my humble review I'd like to raise a point related to my observation first made after reading "Aubrey's Brief Lives" Penguin, [ https: Surprisingly, I didn't expect to find another mentioned in this ancient work cited as follows: You'd think that when some fine lady who's surrounded by a bevy of gentlewomen plans to send a message to someone of particular distinction, she should safely assume that none of her ladies would write it in some dreadful chicken scrawl.
This suggests at least two points: In brief, reading this book is worth spending our time since we can learn how they lived, behaved and interacted in the court around a thousand years ago in Japan. As such, I think, we simply can't help but admire the nostalgic glimpses brilliantly penned by one of the highly-educated courtesans, a smart Japanese court lady named Sei Shonagon.
View all 16 comments. Aug 13, Akemi G. Sei Shonagon is brilliant. She was a lady-in-waiting for Empress Teishi, the first empress of Emperor Ichijo. Ichijo loved her dearly, but when Teishi's father died prematurely due to infectious disease, his younger brother, Fujiwara no Michinaga, rose to power, and Michinaga pushed his daughter, Shoshi, as Ichijo's additional empress. Teishi stayed in His Majesty's palace the emperor could have multiple wives and consorts anyway , but was distressed.
Sei Shonagon tried to comfort Her Highness with her wit, which eventually resulted in this delightful collection of essays. Teishi, by the way, died shortly after Shoshi came You can sense Sei Shonagon's frustration in her sharp sense of humor. But then, this book is not about politics. It's about the joy of life. With all the unreasonable things happening in life, the world is beautiful, and there are moments when we can truly celebrate it.
Sei Shonagon values "okashi" delightful, enchanting, interesting as opposed to "aware" in The Tale of Genji written by her contemporary Murasaki Shikibu. If you thought Genji was too watery with all the tears and morning dews, you might like this book better. Another major difference between the two is, of course, Genji is a giant novel whereas Pillow is a collection of short essays. Reading The Pillow Book is like reading your friend's FB updates--a friend who is witty, who is not afraid to say what she has to say, and who is fundamentally a good person.
Re the English translation I read this in the original Japanese.