Wednesday, July 27, 2005

fumiko enchi - "masks" (book)

"Which is only a poetic way of saying you're in love. These days it's the style for women to be glamorous, but I think ultimately a man's love for a woman is based on a kind of instinctive yearning for smallness and fragilitity; the feeling manifests itself in a hundred ways. And that's why you prefer to see Yasuko as a child. As a matter of fact, she's a far stronger person than you give her credit for." (13-14)

"To his mind there were four kinds of beautiful skin. The first he likened to porcelain: finely grained and flawless in sheen, but marked by a hardness and chill. The second he compared to snow: duller and more coarsely grained, with a deep whiteness and an inner warmth and softness that belied its cold surface. Next was what he called the textile look, what others called silken; this was the complextion most prized by Japanese women, yet it had no virtue in Mikame's eyes beyound a flat, smooth prettiness. To be supremely beautiful, he thought, a woman's skin had to glow with the internal life-force of spring's ealiest buds unfolding naturally in the sun." (15)

"Although she treated him with every sign of the warmest affection when they were alone, once they parted she never made the slightest attempt to seek him out. Her attitude was not that on an innocent and moral woman, but, indeed, that of an experienced whore -- one who had mastered every skill." (91)

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