Chapter XXIII: Communication in Genji

One of the things that I've thought a lot about here in Japan is communication. Clearly, the way we talk to one another has changed over the years, and it continues to change at an enormously fast speed. Take, for instance, the way I'm communicating with you now. 20 years ago, when I first came to Japan, correspondence with people in America would take weeks, if not longer. Now, using the Internet, I can send photos (like the one I just took a minute ago, here in my Internet cafe booth . . . posted above), chat and/or video conference with people -- almost in real time.

How is this possible? Well, a big shout out has to go to the "Manga-kisa" here in Japan. Manga, as you know, are Japanese comic books, and kissaten is the word for "cafe." Today, comic book cafes have gone high tech. Everything is digital, and you simply pay by the hour (or minute, as the case may be) to go into your booth and either kick back reading magazines, or going on line like I do to create this blog.

Communication is also a big deal in Genji, particularly while Genji is exiled in the 12th through the 14th chapters. To facilitate communication between her characters in these chapters, Murasaki uses two techniques: the letter, and the dream.

The letter is very straight forward -- messages printed on scrolls that are passed via servants from one person to the other. (Again, a technique used often in Shakespeare.) The problem with these letters, of course, is who gets to read them, or who discovers them after the intended person has read them. Since many of these contain love messages, all sorts of problems happen once the letters get into the wrong hands.

Dreams are a bit different. Murasaki uses dreams to bring characters together that normally would not have had a chance to be together. For example, while Genji is in exile, his dead father visits him in a dream and instructs him to return to the palace regardless of the danger that awaits him there. In other chapters of the story, the different lovers of Genji appear in one another's dreams. In fact, one vengeful mistress actually attacks (and supposedly inflicts enough pain to kill) one of Genji's younger lovers in her sleep. (More on this later.)

YOUR TASK:

1) Write a letter as if you were Genji to someone in your life that you wish to see while you are in exhile. Feel free to use any convention of communication, old or new. For example, you may want to write your letter on a scroll, or you may want to send it via text message.