#the blurb at the back compares this book to fatal attraction while the introduction compares it to les liaisons dangereuses | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

terpia · 10 months

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I'm reading Quicksand by Junichiro Tanizaki and god, it's such an interesting reading experience. I don't know what the censorship laws were like in Japan in the 1920s and how they/the culture of the time shaped the portrayal of certain topics in the novel, but reading a book from the 1920s that openly talks about sex, abortion and sexuality (and in my translation at least, straight up uses words like lesbian, homosexual, heterosexual, etc.) is such a novel experience.

Also, and I feel it's worth mentioning, every single character in this novel is fucking insane.

#personal #don't want to mislead anyone into thinking this is a progressive book #even though the story in the novel is being told by a woman in love with another woman the book itself was written by a man #and that definitely comes through #not necessarily in a voyeuristic way as no sex is depicted on page (even though the reader is left in no doubt that sex is taking place)#it's more so in the misogyny of the in-text author the story is being told to and in the depiction of its main female character #who falls into a lot of stereotypes of women as deceptive emotional and flighty #(this is not to say though that other characters are depicted as much better)#with all this in mind i'm really enjoying reading this book #it's about a married lady who falls in love with another lady who is simultaneously having an affair with her and a man #(not in a polycule type of way. the man and the married lady are jealous of each other and barely accepting of this arrangement)#the blurb at the back compares this book to fatal attraction while the introduction compares it to les liaisons dangereuses #and both these comparisons feel apt (the second one a bit more so than the first one though)#the book is a thriller full of mindgames and betrayals where you're never fully sure what's real what's lies or what'll happen next #i'm only halfway through the book (and it is a very short book)#but based on what i've read so far #if you think you'd be into a vaguely trashy queer thriller with a very questionable romance at the centre #or if anything i said about the book so far caught your interest #i'd deffo recomnend it!#quicksand #(the original japanese title is manji i believe)#tanizaki junichirou

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