What I am Reading : The Tale of Genji / Genji Monogatari !

Surely there is a mutual agreement that course readings are more often than not quite dull, so when I finally got my hands on the Tale of Genji for an Asian studies course, I was appalled by the thickness of the novel. It is a translation of a story written ten centuries ago in the eleventh century, making the language and culture unimaginable: this has been a fairly challenging read. (Because of its thickness and small text, my closest friends have heard me endlessly reference it as 'the brick' implying the book's literal resemblance to a brick and the difficulty of the literature.) Luckily, class lectures have been wonderful at supplementing media and vasts amount of background information to ensure that we have some insight into the time period of Genji. I marvel at how a novel can transcend so many centuries, and I admit that I have become very curious about aristocracy during the Heian period in Japan.

Reading from the perspective of a twenty-first century female (and born in Canada for that matter), I can assure you the treatment of women in the Tale of Genji certainly will not make it a pleasant or leisurely tale. But it is captivating nonetheless, even as a translation. It was written in 54 separate books, or installments, which is sadly not incredibly suggestive of how they are pieced together. Not to mention that the number of characters introduced is endless, there must be hundreds. The lack of record for women in general, and the fact that they are not named for themselves but by location or the men they are associated with, makes tracking the characters (not to mention the true name of our author) nearly impossible. Even the men are referred to by their rank in court, which is ever changing and rising, so an overall understanding of who is being referred to might give you a headache (props to the translators of Genji). The background information required to understand Genji and the Heian period would take so long to cover that I likely will have to sit here and write a novel of my own to explain it (and there probably are novels that do just that, now that I think about it, there are even Genji scholars who devote their careers to studying the long monogatari... but this site does a quick enough summary if anyone is interested: click). We have already spent more than a month focusing on it in class and are barely half way through the chapters.

This week we began watching Genji Monogatari: Sennen no Nazo (Tale of Genji: A Thousand Year Enigma), a film released in 2011 about the monogatari and Murasaki Shikibu (a nickname for our author with what little that we know about her) plays a role in it as well. I have discovered the discrepancy between reading the sexual violence and violation that befall women and watching it happen as censored as possible in a film. More than half the novel is left out of the film (naturally, it is a whole 54 chapters long with over a hundred characters) but I quite like this article, it captures the film really well: click. While Genji is not represented nearly the same way and they make some major plot changes, it is still really enjoyable (though not entirely accurate which is no surprise if they have to cut out so many chapters and still appeal to a twenty-first century audience). It can get a little confusing at times because we are constantly switching between Murasaki Shikibu's world and the fictional one she is creating.

At chapter twenty-six in the brick, I am still finding that understanding all of the literature rivals trying to understand Shakespeare's plays without Sparknotes haha. Thankfully the Royall Tyler translation of the text also provides a large number of foot notes to bridge the gap between the text and our modern world. I am thoroughly enjoying it and if anyone is looking for a challenge, oooh this would be the one :)



First image retrieved from: [click]
Second image retrieved from: [click]
Third image retrieved from: [click]

First Impressions : Julep Maven Subscription Service !

I posted this on Instagram around the end of April.

I received my first Julep Maven box in April 2013. I was initially drawn to their "get your first box free" promotion which I believe is ongoing, and the beautiful packaging of their polishes. But at 19.99 USD per month, it is by comparison, pricier than the ten dollar monthly fees that have been a hit since the invasion of subscription boxes. For this reason, I had skipped my boxes every month since to conserve on my super tight student budget. I forgot to skip the month of October however, so happily enough I have a box to use for this post along with the products from my first box. That being said, I do not believe that the monthly fee is unfair considering the products are full sized.

A Little About the Service. Shipping has always been quick for both of my boxes and everything in the ordering process is very straight forward. As a Maven, you begin with a style quiz (like many other subscription services) to determine which starter box suits you. They now have five different style profiles [ click. ] : (1) Modern Beauty, (2) Boho Glam, (3) Bombshell, (4) Classic with a Twist and (5) It Girl. But if you don`t like the style that the quiz has assigned you to (I was assigned to Bombshell...), you can switch your style profile (...But I already had colours like the ones in the Bombshell box so I switched to Classic with a Twist) easily. You are never fully committed to one style, you can always choose a different one for your next box. In each of (2), (3) and (4), you receive two limited edition nail polishes and a full sized beauty product. (1) will received only two full sized beauty products and (5) receives three limited edition nail polishes.

The polishes here are Molly (classic red), Maya (pearl pink) and Hoch (forest green).

The Polishes Themselves. Everything above was included in my first Julep Maven box except Hoch. Julep Maven nail polish retails for 14.00 USD each for just 8 mL of product (or 0.27 fl oz. which is barely half the amount of an OPI, China Glaze or Revlon polish), but Hoch among a selection of other polishes and beauty products, is available as an add-on to your box for 4.99 USD. The pigmentation in Molly and Maya surprised me tremendously; if you are looking for one-coater polishes, neither of these will fail to impress you. The only complaint I have is that it is a little bit frustrating to work with at first because of how full the bottles are. I have not tried Hoch yet, but I do a follow up if I discover it does not perform the same way.

The Beauty Products. In all honesty, I recognize that I own too many mascaras and eyeliners to make good use of these right now, but I will do a follow-up for these products too!

The October Classic With A Twist Julep Maven box.

My first thought when I opened this package hurriedly on my way back to the car was "canndy corn!!". Likely one of my favourite Halloween treats, I was pleased to see something for my sweet tooth in this month's Julep Maven box. I wish I had not forgotten this month, it is beautifully packaged BUT I regret to say that I already own close dupes of the polishes this time around.

The polishes here are Winona (warm gray) and Anisa (deep red).

The dupes I own are Faint of Heart (Orly) for Winona as a near exact dupe and Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ (OPI) which is a deeper version of Anisa. This box introduced some new clean packaging for the polishes too, as well as this eyeliner, sharpener and as mentioned above, CANDY CORN!

Double ended eyeliner in Brown Shimmer and Carbon Black.

And the sugar fix for the month; trick or treat!

Oh, do excuse the scratched up surface of my desk since I do all my crafting on it. I like Julep Maven, I just do not have the income for it right now, but will continue to remain subscribed despite that. I will consider this beautiful box an early birthday present for myself, the eyeliner looks promising and I am really impressed with the consistently sleek packaging :)

Check out Julep Maven here: [ click. ]
If you consider joining, here is my optional referral link: [ click. ]