“Reader, I am sorry to say, a very numerous class indeed. Of this I became convinced some years ago by computing at that time, the number of those in one small class of English society (the class of men distinguished for talents, or of eminent station), who were known to me, directly or indirectly, asContinue reading “RKS British Literature: Who Are the Opium Eaters in England? (Thomas De Quincey)”
Category Archives: history
RKS Japanese Literature: Japanese Flocking Like Pigeons for Sticks of Gum Thrown by American Soldiers (Akiyuki Nosaka)
“A couple of hundred yards east down the wall of people, a cry arose that could have been a cheer or a scream. I looked over to see two American soldiers who stood a head-no, a head and shoulders-above the crowd that surrounded them. As I was about to step into to the road toContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Japanese Flocking Like Pigeons for Sticks of Gum Thrown by American Soldiers (Akiyuki Nosaka)”
RKS Japanese Literature: Pimping to American Soldiers in Post War Japan (Akiyuki Nosaka)
“I needed English for my pimping-if you can call getting one or two women a day for soldiers pimping. The girls were all pale, boney-shouldered aspiring whores who had word that they could meet America-san and get chocolate if they came here, the soldiers all sad-faced boys would stood watching what was then the swift,Continue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Pimping to American Soldiers in Post War Japan (Akiyuki Nosaka)”
RKS Japanese Literature: Hiroshima Aftermath: People Looking Like Baked Rice Crackers (Yoko Ōta)
“The number of people on the riverbed increased minute by minute, many of them now with severe burns. At first, we didn’t realize that their injuries were burns. There were no fires, so how could they have been burnt so badly? Strange, grotesque, they were more pathetic than frightening. They had all been burnt inContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Hiroshima Aftermath: People Looking Like Baked Rice Crackers (Yoko Ōta)”
RKS Japanese Literature: Hiroshima Aftermath: Face Puffed up Like a Loaf of Bread (Yoko Ōta)
“This was the first good look we had had of each other’s angry faces, but smiling was an impossibility. We couldn’t see our own faces, but looking at each other gave us an idea. My sister’s face was puffed up like a loaf of bread, and her eyes, normally large, black and uncannily clear, hadContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Hiroshima Aftermath: Face Puffed up Like a Loaf of Bread (Yoko Ōta)”
RKS Japanese Literature: Hiroshima Aftermath: Crushed by Sheer Force (Yoko Ōta)
“We could not conceive of the day’s events as being related in any way to the war. We were being crushed by a sheer force-an intense and one-sided force-that had nothing to do with the war. Neither did we as fellow Japanese encourage one another or console one another. We behaved submissively and said nothing.Continue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Hiroshima Aftermath: Crushed by Sheer Force (Yoko Ōta)”
RKS Literature: The Naked Yogi of Maabar (Marco Polo)
“When other men ask them why they go naked and are not ashamed to show their members, they reply, “We go naked because we want nothing of this world; for we came naked and unclothed into this world. As for not being ashamed to show our members, the fact is that we do not sinContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Naked Yogi of Maabar (Marco Polo)”
RKS Literature: The Less than Luxurious Hotel des Trois Moineaux in Paris (George Orwell)
“The walls were as thin as matchwood, and to hide the cracks they had been covered with layer after layer of pink paper, which had come loose and housed innumerable bugs. Near the ceiling long lines of bugs marched all day like columns of soldiers, and at night came down ravenously hungry, so that oneContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Less than Luxurious Hotel des Trois Moineaux in Paris (George Orwell)”
RKS Literature: Whites as the Devil in Maabar (Marco Polo)
“The fact is that when a child is born here they anoint him once a week with sesame oil, and this turns him a great deal darker than when he was born. For let me tell you that the blackest men here are held in highest regard and considered superior to those who are notContinue reading “RKS Literature: Whites as the Devil in Maabar (Marco Polo)”
RKS Literature: Seagulls as Air Sharks (Herman Melville)
“There’s a most doleful and most mocking funeral! The sea vultures all in pious mourning, the air-sharks all punctiliously in black or speckled. In life but few of them would have helped the whale, I ween, if peradventure he had needed it; but upon the banquet of his funeral, they most piously do bounce. OhContinue reading “RKS Literature: Seagulls as Air Sharks (Herman Melville)”
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