Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination
Jan. 22nd, 2006 06:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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darkling_talesLJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY dfordoom)
The stories in Edogawa Rampo's collection Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination are ostensibly mysteries; in fact Rampo (according to the introduction) was Japan's first writer of mysteries. Most of the stories could just as easily be described as weird fiction. Some are very weird indeed. The Human Chair, for instance. It's about a man who turns himself into a chair (with a very clever twist at the end). Many of these tales deal with obsessions of one kind or another. Often sexual obsessions, or obsessions connected in some with sex or have a sexual element. Some stories aren't crime stories at all - The Hell of Mirrors is simply about a man obsessed by mirrors, obsessed to the point of bringing about his own insanity. The most impressive story, for me, was The Traveller with the Pasted Rag Picture, a tale that that is both truly weird and rather touching.
Rampo's stories have a flavour of their own - they're definitely not just western crime fiction in a Japanese setting. He also has the ability to give his stories very satisfying twists at the end. A wonderfully odd and different short story collection.
dfordoom)The stories in Edogawa Rampo's collection Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination are ostensibly mysteries; in fact Rampo (according to the introduction) was Japan's first writer of mysteries. Most of the stories could just as easily be described as weird fiction. Some are very weird indeed. The Human Chair, for instance. It's about a man who turns himself into a chair (with a very clever twist at the end). Many of these tales deal with obsessions of one kind or another. Often sexual obsessions, or obsessions connected in some with sex or have a sexual element. Some stories aren't crime stories at all - The Hell of Mirrors is simply about a man obsessed by mirrors, obsessed to the point of bringing about his own insanity. The most impressive story, for me, was The Traveller with the Pasted Rag Picture, a tale that that is both truly weird and rather touching.
Rampo's stories have a flavour of their own - they're definitely not just western crime fiction in a Japanese setting. He also has the ability to give his stories very satisfying twists at the end. A wonderfully odd and different short story collection.
