The Tale of Genji

I continue to read The Tale of Genji, a few pages at a time, and am now well into the chapter “Evening Mist.” Among other threads, a highborn and married nobleman has tried to make himself agreeable to a widowed princess, leading to a scene in which she, accompanied by her gentlewomen, attempts to escape his advances, and he berates her for not letting him have his way with her. Her elderly and sickly mother lectures her on the shame of it all, and how her being pursued by this creep could become the topic of gossip.

To my way of thinking, the lady has nothing to be ashamed of: she did not lead the man on, and when he tried to seduce her, she refused him, and remained physically unsullied. By the standards of the Heian Court, however, her being the target of the man’s advances is a terrible shame to her (not that they were puritanical about sex as such; a man might have several concubines in his house, and chase yet another girl). I wanted to reach across time and space, and into the world’s first great psychological novel, to assure the lady that improper and unwelcome behavior by someone else was no blot on her character.

Still, one reason to read exotic literature is to be reminded that people in other cultures did not and do not always see things in the same way as ourselves.

The Red Queen’s Race

I got another amendment this week, and did not dispose of any, although a patent attorney hopes to speak with her client about my proposals and get back to me. In consequence, I’m now up to three amendments on my Amended docket.

I am ninety-five percent done with my oldest Regular New application, which is something of a mess (English is not the inventor’s native language). Still, I’m almost done.

A New Neighbor

Today I ran into the neighbor who lives directly across the corridor from me, and he was walking a dog, whose name, he told me, is Burberry. I commented that I hadn’t seen the dog before, but I had heard him yap. My neighbor is trying to train Burberry not to be so yappy, and I hope in due course to have a canine friend; he’s part corgi, by the way.