Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

Chris, I had a lengthy reply for you but it's been lost to an errant keystroke. No matter; it occurs to me it's better to take this up with Dan privately. All I'd like to say is that my intent here is not to dissuade anyone from buying EO books but rather ensure those buyers don't come away disappointed. I don't think time is any excuse here.

Your idea of having the publisher ship multiple books is an interesting one I'd not considered. I see some possible problems with it -- not the least of which is counting on the publisher to not sell books out from your "hold" while waiting for everything to arrive -- but it's theoretically an interesting idea to consider.

Oh, and I'd like to add that £50 may not be a lot to you, but to some of us it still is.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

I was thinking of putting these links somewhere on the site, but was unsure of the appropriate place, anyway, a rare article on one of my absolute favourite authors (not weird in any superntural sense), who died fifty years ago this very day:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-b...0090426x1.html

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-b...0090426x2.html

I started translating a novel of his, which, alas, I am far from finishing, but, if anyone wants to read what I have translated so far, please feel free to message me through this site.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

There is a story by Kafu, in "The Oxford Japanese Short Stories", 1997. "The peony garden", on page 45. I don't remember exactly if I liked this short story or not. Probably not, since I collect Japanese short stories as well, in fact stories written by authors from literary forgotten countries like Japan, China, Russia, or the old Soviet Republics.

There is another book by Kafu, "Kafu, The Scribbler", copy which I don't own but some of his biography and writings could be checked online here

Kafu the Scribbler: The Life and ... - Google Book Search

May I ask Mr Crisp why it is that you like Japanese literature? This question is always on the tip of my tongue, to know if a writer reads only what he writes, or has a broader conception of the world and reads good literature in general.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

'The Peony Garden' is not one of Kafu's best. I would have chosen for that anthology - a very good anthology, by the way - 'Coming Down With a Cold', which is included in the book to which you have linked.

The material by Kafu translated into English is slowly increasing (France is far ahead of the English-speaking world here, by the way). Unfortunately some of those translations are very slipshod in quality. Kafu is an absolute master of Japanese prose. His sentences are long, and perfectly balanced from the point of view of rhythm and poetry. This is never duplicated, though sometimes hinted at, in the translations I have read. I hope that, if I ever finish my own translation, it will be closer to his sublime lyricism than previous translations, though I have chosen one of his least lyrical novels. Anyway, despite poor translation, I would recommend Mitsuko Iriye's translation of Amerika Monogatari. She has translated the title as American Stories; I would have translated it as Tales of America. Please judge for yourself which has a better ring. I hope some day also to translate Yume no Onna (The Woman of the Dream).

It is hard for me to explain why I like Japanese literature. I can give answers, but they never seem quite satisfying to me. I usually say something like, Japanese literature is much more concerned with beauty than most Western literature. Western literature tends to be more concerned with 'social problems'. Writers such as Kafu, Mishima, Tanizaki and so on, may seem very different in many ways, but what they had in common was a kind of quest for otherworldly beauty in extreme situations or environments.

Western literature can seem like sermonising, or like sordid journalism in comparison.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

I apologize for going off the original topic, but I have a question that pertains to where this thread has wandered (perhaps these could be moved to a new thread on Japanese Literature?). Anyway, has anyone read the works of Haruki Murakami? I keep reading reviews where he is called, "The Kafka of Japan". Its this an accurate assessment?

By the way, Quentin; I really enjoyed your Japanese literature piece in Wormwood #8, "Higuchi Ichiyo: The Brief Flight of a Literary Shooting Star".

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

Some of these Japanese stories I read, if not all, have no beginning and no end, and even some of them no plot. If you ask me which ones I'll have to go back years of reading. It's like narrating something that happens to someone without giving any details about what happened before or after. It is a completely different way of writing than that we have in Western literature. By any chance, allow me to ask, have you ever try to read literature from Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania? Once I had a long conversation with a used bookstore owner that sold me two books of stories from Estonia and I could say that by the way he spoke these countries have wonderful stories to tell as well. I ended up buying more and more. I'm glad to know that I am not a rara avis here.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

I heard of Murakami, by reading a story in "New Japanese Voices", published by Atlantic Monthly Press, 1991. With the exception of Banana Yoshimoto, the other writers on the book did not write anything before or after. I cannot find anything by them, while one can find books with bad stories, by American writers, for example, being on the fifth printing. Too bad.

Buy "The Elephant Vanishes and other Stories", a very good book.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

At the risk of being picky, I actually said £25 (which seems to be the 'norm' for small press titles).

But it's definitely worth trying to haggle a discount with any small press publisher. For example, if you bought ten £25 books for £150 from the same publisher (say, by two or three different writers), you could quickly recoup £100 by selling five of them for £20 on Ebay, undercutting the official list price, and then you'd still have five which you'd only paid £50 for to either to keep or hold on to until they go out of print and the values rise.

The key thing is to choose your titles wisely and to avoid the duffers at all costs. For example, laudable though the intention was to produce a 'collected' edition of Robert Auickman's work was, the resulting volume is utterly ghastly: poor quality paper & printing, tiny font size, dozens of typos and errors, etc etc. Like me, many collectors quickly got shot of their copies and returned to original texts - even ex library copies without dw - whereas in contrast, the reprints of Christopher Blayre's 'The Cheetah Girl' and Stenbock's 'Studies Of Death' are superb items and will absolutely definitely hold their higher value.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

Thanks for that description. This makes me want to delve into Japanese literature immediately. Unfortunately I will have to rely on translations.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

Perhaps, but I'm not one for gambling on the whims of the average book consumer. I'd rather buy my single volumes to read and leave the rest for others. For example, I was tempted to buy a few copies of the "special" edition of TEATRO GROTTESCO in order to sell to future Ligotti collectors, but it occurred to me that every copy I had that sat in a box waiting to be sold was one less copy in the world a Ligotti-aficionado was being deprived of. There seemed no reason for it to me. After all, didn't I want more people to read his work?

But were there a publisher like Ex Occidente who produces a good number of books I'd like to read, then it does make sense to order those volumes at once, or at least ask they be shipped together, in order to ensure a box is used and damage minimised.

On the topic of EO, true to my word I've discussed this issue with its proprietor and he agrees that it is an issue in need of resolving. He is working on his end to do so, so I have nothing but positive things left to say about Ex Occidente and the company's output. I shan't say more about the shipping any longer.