Type: fiction
Status: I recommend
Authors: Ryunosuke Akutagawa G. H. Healey Geoffrey Bownas
Tags: fantasy japan satire society mythical_creatures
Description: First-person narrative by an inmate in a mental institution -- telling of how he went hikingFirst-person narrative by an inmate in a mental institution -- telling of how he went hiking on a mountain, the mist rolled in, and then he spied a kappa -- a mythical creature in Japanese folklore -- looking at him. He gives chase and ends up falling down a hole to a world where many things are the reverse of his society (written in the late 1920s). [Could be compared to Alice in Wonderland in many respects...] [Also reminds me of Gogol's Diary of a Madman] [Now going to read Murakami's book Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World which also features kappa creatures...]...
2007-12-27
