The Tale of Genji
by Murasaki Shikibu · first published 2000
8% recommend92% neutral
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
Related books
2009–2020When the Lion Feeds
Wilbur Smith
Recommended by 2 · mentioned by 22 recommend · 2 mention2 recommend · 22 recommend
2018–2024The pillow book
Sei Shōnagon
Recommended by 1 · mentioned by 51 recommend · 5 mention1 recommend · 51 recommend
2008–2024Grendel
John Gardner
Recommended by 8 · mentioned by 98 recommend · 9 mention8 recommend · 98 recommend
2009–2026The Martian Chronicles
Ray Bradbury
Recommended by 27 · mentioned by 4527 recommend · 45 mention27 recommend · 4527 recommend
2008–2026White Noise
Don DeLillo, Mosche Hana'ami
Recommended by 13 · mentioned by 2413 recommend · 24 mention13 recommend · 2413 recommend
2008–2025Einstein's dreams
Alan P. Lightman
Recommended by 15 · mentioned by 2215 recommend · 22 mention15 recommend · 2215 recommend
2009–2026The Neverending Story
Michael Ende
Recommended by 10 · mentioned by 2210 recommend · 22 mention10 recommend · 2210 recommend
2009–2026All the Pretty Horses
Cormac McCarthy
Recommended by 24 · mentioned by 3424 recommend · 34 mention24 recommend · 3424 recommend
Tale of Genji Brave New World
on “Ask HN: Please name two of your most favorite books.” ↗Anna Karenia is still on my list, but here's what I did for Jane Austen and the Tale of Genji: Just read one chapter a night. My old AP Lit teacher gave me that advice, said you need to treat these books like a soap opera, because they're written with the same idea in mind.
on “8-Part Film Adaptation of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina Is Free Online” ↗> the oldest extant novel The Tale of Genji is now generally considered to hold that title. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Genji http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/11480.aspx
on “R.I.P. Ray Bradbury, Author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles ” ↗If you get into classic Japanese literature then have some fun and start at the beginning with Murasaki Shikibu's Tale of Genji written about a thousand years ago. From around 1905 after the Russo-Japanese war when Japan was starting to feel good about itself you have Natsume Sōseki's I am a Cat. As Yet I have No Name but it all…
on “Haruki Murakami Introduces the Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories” ↗While what you say about opportunities may be true, The Tale of Genji was written by a Japanese woman. It's often considered the first novel.
on “The Oldest Cookbook in Korean” ↗I hope that this thread doesn't get derailed into nit-picking. The Tale of Genji was written in the eleventh century. The Golden Ass is a prose work which Apuleius wrote in the second century. Different authorities will have different definitions of the word "novel," so let's just…
on “R.I.P. Ray Bradbury, Author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles ” ↗…argument so I'll just dismiss you" gambit. It's a bit overplayed though. I really have to take exception at your suggestion that I haven't read enough things written by women, because I have: from The Tale of Genji to Feminist Interpretations of Saint Augustine
on “An open letter on feminism in tech” ↗…weights between the synapses in my brain. I don't retain an exact copy but I recall the gist of the book and some facts (imperfectly) I have the ability to generalize this information (I can read The Tale of Genji and retell a story based on it that is set on a Mars Colony in 4712AD) and it can improve my linguistic abilities in general.
on “OpenAI's justification for why training data is fair use, not infringement [pdf]” ↗Not millenia. The oldest novel that we still read is The Tale of Genji, written in 1010, followed by Romance of the Three Kingdoms, followed by Don Quixote. That's three still-relevant novels from 1010 to 1605. There are assuredly dozens to hundreds of novels written in…
on “Nancy Pearl’s Rule of 50 for dropping a bad book” ↗Why is it that context is insufficient for written Japanese, but sufficient for spoken Japanese, especially given the terseness of spoken Japanese? How is it that many Japanese books (such as The Tale of Genji) were originally written using phonetic writing systems? Is modern Japanese so different?
on “Why Japan didn’t create the iPod” ↗I picked Dune/Song of Ice and Fire because they're thematically similar. In terms of bloat, excluding the Tale of Genji or the Story of the Stone, I can hardly think of anything in the 1800s that pushes into the 1M+ word mark in order to tell a complete story. I mean, people used to joke about War & Peace being long and…
on “Just Read the Book Already” ↗Interesting context to note: Lady Murasaki is the author of the Tale of Genji, which is widely regarded as the first novel ever written and one of the oldest extant pieces of Japanese cultural artifact to be considered a masterpiece.
on “The Diary of Murasaki Shikibu (1007-1010)” ↗> The characters in TBP are cardboard cutouts Try to read this as Chinese literature and not apply Western standards. TBP is not about individual people but civilizations. Similarly, if you read Tale of Genji expecting a plot, you will be disappointed. But that doesn't mean it will be forgotten in 10 years.
on “Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?” ↗…many reforms that's it's almost a completely different language. Also take into account that the Take of Genji was the first written novel and you'll see why modern speakers would not be able to read Tale of Genji in it's original format.
on “Why Japan didn’t create the iPod” ↗…Western societies, and one should be careful to leave out assumptions that come from mirroring our home culture. One other example is that in Japan, the arguably most formative work of literature is 'Tale of Genji' (~1000 AD!), written by a woman. This work has a Dante's Inferno like status in Japan, in that it was both formative to both Japanese language and culture. The closest you could compare it to in English…
on “The Japanese Art of Grieving a Miscarriage” ↗