As I noted in a blog post a decade ago, Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote: "Writers who are truly original do not set out to fabricate new forms of expression. ... They attain their originality through extraordinary sincerity." Yukio Mishima's The Sound of Waves is an excellent example of this precept. It is a simple story of young love, told with beautiful imagery, set on a Japanese fishing island. The closed system of an island allows the author to mine his "own little postage stamp of native soil" for rich details on the fishing life, social hierarchies, and natural environment.
No comments:
Post a Comment