Mori Ogai Gan

Ogai and the Problem of Fiction.
Gan and Its Antecedents Author(s): Stephen Snyder Source: Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 49, No. 3 (Autumn, 1994), pp. 353-373 Published by: Sophia University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2385454 . Accessed: 22/11/2013 03:44
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Ogai and the Problemof Fiction

Gan and Its Antecedents
STEPHEN SNYDER In thefirst yearof theTaishoperiod, justas
.
the serializationof Gan .
pleted, Okitsu was published.Thereafter, there appeared a steady stream of studies of historical andnothing figures, else;all trace of works with dealing anyaspectof thepresent had beeneliminated.1
. was being com-
in thehistory noteworthy, moments of modern Japanese literature: Mori of original in fiction withcontemporary Ogai's AA,fi rejection settings no Isho ^ narrative. OkitsuYagoemon favorof historical of a newphasein Ogai's career, marked thebeginning Gan Jf theendof an in a vacuum: ofOgai's long itis thesummation old. ButGan was notcreated of fiction. An examination of theprocess career as a writer leading up to the of Gan and study of thestructure of Ogai's final novelitself reveal a writing with ofnarrative andthemeanremarkable struggle questions aboutthenature ingof fiction. As Ogai's lastcomplete, Gan is thelogicalfocus sustained original fiction, of an attempt to understand at themoment to be coming he seems into why, in no his own as a novelist, Ogai abandonsfiction forever.2 The question, ofa moral orphilosophical sense often a newone,is most posedinterms arguoffiction, ment aboutthenature andjustifiability anditis posedinthese terms in hiscritical aretheonesusedbyOgai himself becausethey largely writings. of whathappened and after thewriting of Gan, of themotiAnalyses during that vationforOgai's movement toward thehistorical fiction and biography
University of Coloradoat Boulder. 1 NagaiKaffi Zenshif Iwanami, 1962-1965, 7ck i,, Kafiu 15,p. 255. 2 Richard John Bowring, MoriOgaiand themodernization ofJapanese culture, Cambridge U.P., 1979, p. 194.Bowring suggests that theunfinished novel Kaijin1fJ. (written before Ogai had addedthefinal chapters to Gan and published as a single volume) also shows that he was 'beginning to exhaust thepresent as a source of literary inspiration.'
THE AUTHOR is an assistant intheDepartment professor ofOriental Languages andLiteratures,
IN thiswayNagaiKafudescribes oneofthemore andperhaps noted, most
354
MonumentaNipponica, 49:3
wouldoccupy therest of hiscareer, conclude thatOgai, bynature and training,foundthevery notionof fiction on grounds repellent thatcan onlybe calledmoral.Richard outthat Bowring points Ogai glosses 'fiction' as uso,or of Vaihinger's Die Philosophie lie, in his translation desAls Ob and specufrom an inability lates,'Ogai wasnotsuffering to usehisimagination, so much as a reluctance to use it on anything as unworthy as fiction.'3 voiceto suchmisgivings inhisfirst Indeed, Ogaigives work offiction, inthe form oftheopening inMaihime soliloquy theprotagonist, aboutto OM where of mymomentary shouldI showjottings I may impressions?-thing which approve todayonlyto condemn tomorrow....'4 Publicwriting, Ogai seems to argue,evenas he is setting off on a career of writing shouldbe fictions, in fact,notsubjective rooted impression or, worsetill,deliberate deception. ThatOgai finally succumbed to thislineof reasoning following Gan is clear, himto continue butwhat formore prompted fiction than writing twenty years between and howhe finally Maihime, 1890,and Gan, 1911-1915, reached an as a fiction writer are questions worth impasse asking. The development ofOgai's theoretical attitude toward fiction, as seeninhis critical has beencarefully traced.5 Suchdiscussions, while writings, however, in of the history illuminating terms of the Meiji encounter withWestern tendto ignore works themselves and hisdevelopment thought, Ogai's literary as a writer to a theoretician). As is often thecasewith writers who (as opposed or theorists of literature, are also critics Ogai's pronouncements, especially theproblem offiction, thoseconcerning aregenerally more than given weight thefictions themselves. The fact that remains, whatever histhoughts however, on German or theIch roman, aesthetics, Hartmann, Ogai wenton creating at leastoccasionally, formore thantwenty in thewriting fictions, years until, of Gan, he reached a pointat which he was unableor unwilling to continue. But thisimpassewas not a suddendevelopment, and in tracing its origins fiction hisearly it is possible to describe of the through Ogai's understanding nature ofnarrative andto gainsomeinsight fiction, intotheprocess bywhich he cameto reject I willargue fictional that itwasnotso much a moral writing. buta rhetorical and narratological that compunction against lying,6 impasse
3 Bowring, p. 156. The equation of 'fiction' and 'lies' is, of course, hardly a newone in Japanese literary history. See, forexample, Richard Okada's discussion of the 'defense of fiction' in the 'Hotaru' chapter '11 of GenjiMonogatari in hisFigures of Resistance, Duke U.P., 1991, pp. 224-31. 4 MoriOgai, Ogai Zensha[oz], Iwanami, 1951,3, p. 4. See also Richard Bowring's translation:'Maihime: The Dancing Girl',in MN 30:2 (Summer 1975),pp. 151-66.
set down his story,wondersabout the validity of his project: '. . . to whom
BijutsuKoronsha, 1984,in particular, thediscussions of Ogai's study of aesthetics and the works ofEduard vonHartmann. also provides Bowring an account ofOgai'sdevelopment as a theoretician of thenovel, inMori Ogai,pp. 33-87. , too are,inevitably, 6 As has beenshown recently, theshiden theproducts of 'editorial' fictionalizing. Marvin Marcus finds inthis fictionalizing genre particularly problematic: 'Equally
5 See, for example, Sadoya Shigenobu
Ogai to Seiyo Geijutsu 9k1t?
SNYDER:
Ogai and the Problem of Fiction
355
In theend,it seems, led Ogai to abandonfiction. bythetime he wrote Gan, he had explored and exhausted thepossibilities fornarrative structure as he understood them. Rhetorical Experiments Prior to Gan,Ogai had written somefifty offiction ofvarying works lengths, in in and eachofthese he addresses, someform, theproblem ofhowto tella He was a gifted butbyno means a facile story.7 he writer, one; andeachtime ifwecanjudgefrom to write satdown theproduct, heconfronted fiction, a set ofdifficult questions abouttruth andfalsehood, andrepresentation, reality actionand detached observation. Thesequestions manifest themselves explicitly in hiscritical andthey arealso, frequently, thesubject writings of speculation in his fiction. by characters The samequestions underlie Ogai's variousexwithnarrative periments whichare themselves to come to form, attempts terms witha central or imagined-between contradiction-real truth and its representation bymeansof fictions (uso). fiction was written between 1909and 1915: VitaSexualis, Ogai's longest 1909;Seinen , 1911;Kaijin(unfinished), 1913;and Gan(towhich headded in 1915).8But in preparation thefinal fortheseworks, he experichapters on a smaller of years.Characters mented scale fora number in and themes thenovelscan be tracedfrom theearlier and thesurprising stories, variety ofnarrative usedinthese in structures lastandmature works areall rehearsed in briefer, someform earlier pieces.Ogai's ongoing concern with European narrative began with thefirst trio ofnovellas published to considerable acclaim not longafter his return from (and controversy) Germany: Maihime,1890; Utakata no Ki '"1891.Thesestories 1890;andFumizukai t i5b, are separated by nearly twenty yearsfrom Ogai's periodof greatest activity a as fiction butthey writer, showan essential with thelater works continuity in terms of theme and structure. Fromthefirst linesofMaihime, quotedabove,Ogai reveals a problematic
paradoxical is thatdespite thehomage paid to factuality and objectivity, Ogai regularly tamwith pered thesource record-selecting, Marvin amending, omitting.' Marcus, Paragons of the Ordinary: TheBiographical Literature ofMoriOgai,University ofHawaiiPress,1993, p. 136. 7 Edwin McClellan suggests thatas 'distinguished as someof his "modern"fiction written before [hisworks aboutthepast]maybe, eventhebestof ittends to suffer from whatI guess to be Ogai'sdoubts aboutwhat hewasdoing when hewrote it.Unlike Soseki, hisgreat contemporary, he seems to havelacked inthevalidity faith offiction.' Woman intheCrested Kimono, Yale U.P., 1985,p. 5. 8 The first twenty-one chapters of Gan werepublished from September 1911to May 1913 inSubaru. Thefinal three chapters were addedin 1915 when thework wasfinally published as a single volume.Thereis reasonto believe, however, thatthesefinal-andcrucial-chapters were written earlier than1915.Thebestevidence considerably ofthis theory is thesimplest: the 'wildgoose' from which thework takesitstitle doesnotappearuntil Chapter 22. I haveused theLatin VitaSexualisin preference to theromanization of theJapanese pronunciation of thetitle.
356
stance toward theartofwriting, a stance thatsurfaces again,in subtler form, in Gan. The strategically placed question-'to whomwould I show these of mymomentary jottings impressions?'-renders suspect thestory thatfollowsit;thevalidity oftheactofnarration, ofmaking public these 'momentary is already, impressions', Thenarrator ofMaihime explicitly, opento question. thaton thevoyage to Germany he filled explains notebook after notebook, butnow,whilereturning to Japan, remain the lack of they empty; anysure truths to tellcausesa kindofparalysis, a writer's block.(Although ofcourse, he does 'write',producing the 'text'of Maihime.)This first paradoxically, questionin Ogai's writing, posed almostinnocently, is the one thatwill himthroughout trouble hiscareer: whatis one to write and how? In Maihime, the'how' is apparently In hisfirst relatively straightforward. bothhisunderstanding of and control effort, Ogai demonstrated overone of themostfundamental toolsoffiction as itwasthen in writing being practiced voice.Maihime Europeand theU.S.: a consistent narrative is theproduct in oftheIch roman, a technique ofthelate-Romantic partofOgai's study novel, of thatartform and in imitation to thepointof viewof Ogai adheres strictly theprotagonist, Ota Toyotaro, thestory.9 on or viothroughout Speculation of other lationof theconsciousnesses characters is scrupulously avoided,a rigor havebeenparticularly that must startling to contemporary readers, who wereaccustomed to fiction suchas thatof theKen'yusha who &Aa, writers narrative voicein a moreliberal approached manner, switching freely among often several within thesamepassage.Ogai,however, seems narrators, to have learned therhetorical lessons to be taught byEuropeanliterature and, in an featoftransference, to havedeveloped impressive a Japanese idiomforthem in hisvery first workof fiction. Thisfact is not,however, indiscussion generally emphasized ofMaihime, in rhetorical hasbeencustomarily partbecause Ogai's distinctly accomplishment in psychosocial KameiHideo,forexample, interpreted terms. argues that'the of modern birth literature' should be traced Japanese notto thegembun itchi butto Ogai's story and the >5t-iR movement (in spiteof itsarchaic diction) ofwhat creation therein Kameicallsan 'immanent self'(naizaiteki najiko P in Western 'self'conceived terms-in theperbMs i)-that is, an individual ofMaihime.10 In general, sonoftheprotagonist/narrator Kamei'scontention thatmodern literature Maihimeappearssound,but it Japanese beganwith seemsto me thatthe notionof the 'immanent self' givesan unnecessarily or ontological turn to a phenomenon thatis essentially rhetoripsychological of thecreation of a consistent narration cal, a matter (first-person) (or what GerardGenette refers to as 'fixed internal focalization' of thenarrative).1"
9 Bowring, MoriOgai,p. 147.Ichroman translates literally as 'I-novel', buttheGerman term refers onlyto theconsistent use of thefirst-person narrative. inNihonBungakuEl Ic rf OAIMw,
10 Kamei Hideo 4i%, 'Kindai Bungaku ni okeru "Katari" no Mondai 11 GerardGenette, Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method, CornellU.P., 1980, p. 189. ;
, 27 (November 1978),p. 8.
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357
Karatani Kojin has also discussed thenature of Ogai's achievement in Maiit with hime, contrasting Futabatei Shimei's gembun AJ*EIi* self-described itchiwork, Ukigumo jfg#.Karatani agrees with Kamei, arguingthat 'it is reductive ... to consider gembun itchi merely a matter of verbendings,' and thus, itsuse of literary Maihime, despite z] style, [bungo shouldbe seenas themore'modern' work:'Whenwe consider therealnature of thegembun itchimovement, it is Ogai's workthatrepresents an advance,and it is his work, rather thanFutabatei's, that theissueofgembun brings itchi to light.'12 inMaihime Although Ogaidisplayed both an understanding ofWestern literarytechnique and a mastery overthe Japanese in thecreation language of a 'self' (jiga ri) fortheprotagonist, first-person narrative was not to be thechosen form formostof Ogai's fiction. In later he useda sustained years, first-person voicein thelongframed of VitaSexualis, narrative buta single narrative voiceor perspective is notcharacteristic ofmostofhisother works. Hannichi#Fi, 1909,and Fushinchui , 1910,amonghis better-known areessentially stories, unbroken third-person butOgai,more narratives, often than not,gavehisstories narrative oruseda variety frames ofvoices or focaliin a diegetic zations,embedded to tell stories-within-stories.13 frame, The othertwo worksfromthe periodof Maihimeare examples of thismore complex structuring. Utakata no Ki is a fictional on thecircumstances speculation surrounding themysterious of 'Mad' drowning KingLudwigII of Bavaria-muchas MishimaYukio,a great admirer of Ogai's short wouldlaterimagine stories, a psychological forthearsonthatdestroyed explanation Kinkakuji.14 Ogai tells thestory of Mariewho,in his version, is boththecause and victim of the death.15 king's The story is toldin several voices:an impersonal third-person frame thatconstitutes thediegesis, Marie'sfirst-person metadiegetic narrative ofher life complicated andthefirst-person story, voiceofKose,a Japanese student whodescribes hisfirst with Marie.In Utakata meeting no Ki, Ogai usesa thatis rhetorically strategy the oppositeof the one employed in Maihime with thesameobjective): (although themixture perhaps of several of points viewserves to enhance, in a sensecorroborates, theillusion of reality in an
Karatani Kojin,Origins ofModern Japanese Literature, Duke U.P., 1993,pp. 49-51. inFushinchul, of Ogai'suse ofEuropean sources seeHirakawa Sukehiro Fora discussion to Rengyel no KuniNippon:Mori Ogai no Tampen no Jinshugeki JIIWG, I "Fushinchu" HX -CC, in Nihon Kenkyui I: f o Megutte' RF18N i a vI rj6DW E narrative' is Tzetvan Mori Ogai, Yfiseido, 1970,pp. 101-24.'Embedded Shiryo Kankokai, Todorov, ThePoeticsof Todorov's term fora story-within-a-story. See, forexample, Tzetvan I willbe using article, Prose,Cornell U.P., 1977,pp. 72-73.For thepurposes of thepresent (first degree) and Todorov'sterminology as wellas Genette's distinction between 'diegetic' narrations. 'metadiegetic' (second degree) Genette, pp. 227-34. 14 Mishima hisadmiration in 'Ogai no Tamandexpresses for fiction analyzes Ogai'sshorter inMishima Yukio 1975, 27,p. 273.See also penShosetsu' Zenshiu, Shinchosha, M of Utakata translation no Ki, in MN 29:3 (Autumn 1974), pp. 247-62. Richard Bowring's 15 Thomas andOgai'sfictional verE. Swann discusses discrepancies between historical fact of Utakata no Ki', in MN 29:3 (Autumn pp. 263-87. sionin 'The Problem 1974),
12 13
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Monumenta 49:3 Nipponica,
a lendsMaihime narrative romantic tale (just as Ota's first-person otherwise and credibility). senseof immediacy of voicesdoes notmeanthatOgai has abandoned Buttheuse of a number in Utakata no Ki. Levelsof privilege consistency to narrative hiscommitment outside ofa narrator to know events orthoughts orinability (that is,theability manipulated expertly violated and thethree are never his or herexperience) In this and Utakaboth Maihime sense, tointermingle. allowed voices arenever styles to thenarrative butsuccessful precursors ta no Ki can be seenas early which preceded Gan: in thetwolonger fictions directly thatOgai developed VitaSexualisand Seinen. Maihime. narrative notunlike VitaSexualis is, in themain,a first-person from experiences exclusively his own Shizuka, relates Kanai The protagonist, by, or is surrounded his ownpointof view.Kanai's long 'essay',however, inthis Thespeaker device frame. framing diegetic embedded in,a third-person variousreceived opinionsof him, him,relates introduces Kanai, describes In from Sosekito sexeducation. and 'reads'Kanai,so to speak,on subjects no Ki, thethird-person voiceis strictly narrative as in Utakata VitaSexualis, in thetextby a marked from thatof thecharacter (a separation separated thecentral andto situate is to introduce itsfunction with asterisks); spacefilled context. in lend it credence through and general narrative it andthus forKanai'sstory, also serves to setthestage frame Thenarrative in the frame; forit is thematized itself is hardly coincidental thatwriting of his 'sex in thecourse of Kanai'smonologue, thehistory apparent becomes is as much Sexualis about for theedification ofhisson,thatVita life'recorded wearetoldintheframe, as itis aboutsex.KanaiShizuka, reading andwriting by Natsume inspired is a manwho 'readsquitea fewnovels',and who felt a novelof wa Neko de Aru RVtpc6 to write Soseki's -H*;F Wagahai in notwith sexperse, butwith thathisrealconcern hisown.16 We also learn he finds sex (of which, the with antonymically, theunnatural preoccupation Andjustas Kanai,as heis described for us, Naturalists most guilty). Japanese so the with hiswriting thanwith hissexuality, moreconcerned seems project butwith notwith Kanai's sexuality, too, is concerned narrator of theframe, before us came set howhe cameto write whathe did-how these pagesbeing he is that ofKanai'snarrative, ofcourse, Theirony throughout intoexistence. andinthefinal moment is essentially uninterested of,theerotic, in,orterrified him: to interest andnotsex,that continues itis storytelling ofthestory, itself,
I went with hadturned theweather Oneday,when Kogato theFukinukiwarm, Encho. Sitting to [thefamous quite tei to listen rakugostory-teller, Sanyuitei] himwas a geisha;-none old and with closebywas a fatmanaboutfifty years We lookedat one thanthe'virtuous' one I had metthatother other evening. as if staring intothin another air.17
16 oz, 17 oz,
3, p. 244. 3, p. 362.
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It is morethancoincidence thatOgai setsthislittle farce under thegaze of in there is Kanai's Encho,theconsummate conMeijinarrator. Clearly, irony heandthegeisha oneanother, tention that since their is meant stare to ignored of a pastmisadventure) imply intense embarrassment rather (at thememory is also clear is that sexhasbeenonly an excuse thandisregard; butwhat for the of errors 'thatother thattranspired a comedy comedy thatEncho evening', and to which wouldhaveappreciated he wouldhaveknown howto givejust theright narrative turn ofphrase. Thistheme, or rather, thematic diad,ofsex and writing, is theobjectof as much desire and narrative, ambivalence as itis and it is in tracing fascination throughout how Ogai embodies Ogai's work, thisambivalence overtimethatthe processby whichhe (and fascination) of Gan becomes reached theimpasse clear. in VitaSexualis The closing of theframe portion illustrates Ogai's conceptionof narrative thecreation ofillusory desire theuse ofthe erotics, through 'uso' of writing. As suggested above,theframing device serves to giveweight or credibility to Kanai'snarrative, a process represented metaphorically bythe literal soundthat Kanai'smanuscript is saidto makeas hetosses itin a trunk; we know itis 'real' (that is,we areseduced bytheillusion that Ogai creates of itsreality), intheclosing lines ofthebook,itfalls'battari because, to' intoour readerly laps.The function oftheframe is analogous to thissound;thereader trusts thecontent of Kanai's(patently fictitious) first-person narrative because theobjective voiceoftheframe, although itself a fictive construct, encourages suchtrust.18 in part, is intended, Ogai's fiction as an investigation ofthepossibilities ofcreating an illusion oftruth, ofsincerity, andofreality-that is,of a certain brandof narrative desire-bythecareful manipulation ofconsistent narrative voices. Thenarrative structure ofSeinen is similar to that of VitaSexualis butwith a reversal in emphasis; in Seinen, shorter passagesin thefirst-person, in the form of quotedsections of theprotagonist's journal,are embedded intoa third-person omniscient narration. The impersonal narrative voicedescribes theevents, attributes andis capableofrelating speeches, theinner of thoughts variouscharacters. In fact,Seinenmaybe faulted forbeingtoo muchin its characters' heads(in longpassagesof 'quoted' rumination) or too muchin their mouths (inevenlonger of improbable passages monologue or dialogue). andregardless Nevertheless, ofanyartistic difficulties thenovel mayhave,here
As withMaihime, discussions have untilrecently tended to focuson identifying the parallels between Ogai'slifeandtheevents in Vita Sexualis. It seems that a similar likely equationof author withprotagonist is responsible forthebanning of theworkshortly after it appeared. No portion of Vita Sexualis waslabeled pornographic (infact noneis), butitcanbe imagined thatthecharacter of sucha young protagonist wouldbe considered incompatible with thedignity of Ogai's position as Surgeon General of theArmy. Or perhaps itwas simply thetitle thatgavethecensors pause?As JayRubinpoints out,theUniversity of Washington Library keepsitscopyunder lockand key.See hisdiscussion of thebanning of thebook in Injurious to PublicMorals: Writers and theMeiji State,University of Washington Press,
18
1984, p. 134n.
360
voice. The thirdnarrative to control his ability again Ogai demonstrates European on themodelof nineteenth-century is constructed narration person of voicesis maintained amongand consistency and the distinctions fiction, journalare seJun'ichi's quotedfrom care. The sections withconsiderable VitaSexualis, of to' 'battari the like which, dates, from the text by parated the to confirm also serve Thesedatedjournalentries a senseof reality. confer theobservations visionby reinforcing narrator's of theomniscient accuracy VitaSexfrom has beenreversed The structure character. madeof Jun'ichi's is thesame. ualis,butthefunction Fumizukai to, attention thusfarall sharean essential and novelsexamined The stories rulesforwhatWayneBoothcalls 'rhetorical of, (Western) and observance Fumizukai,seemsto broach The thirdof Ogai's earlystories, purity'.19 an appropriate and in doingso forms forthenarrative, another possibility in that is familiar Fumizukai however, to Gan. At first glance, introduction voices. narrative amongitsseveral thedistinctions maintains it generally a kindofmiseenscene, with a fewlinesofintroduction, begins Fumizukai a recent namedKobayashi, is a youngofficer thatthe narrator explaining Clubin Tokyo.WhatfoloftheGerman at a meeting forth holding returnee, in Saxony:briefly, of his experience account first-person lowsis Kobayashi's vonMeerheim Baron in the service, of comrade is that Kobayashi's thestory and of CountBulow. Kobayashi Ida, thedaughter fiancee and Meerheim's attheBillow castle. Ida, a beaufield maneuvers, go to stay between Meerheim, tower' to climbthe 'pyramid tifulbut distracted youngwoman,arranges imagines by the invitation, on the estatewithKobayashi,who, startled sheonly to hisdisappointment, on herpart.Somewhat motive someromantic in Dresden. to a relative to be takenin secret wishesto givehima letter he at thepalace,where to a NewYear'scelebration is invited Kobayashi Later, herlovelessengagethatshe has fledfrom again meetsIda, who explains had Theletter Kobayashi at thecourt. to comeintoservice ment to Meerheim as a lady-ina position helpin securing had beento an auntasking delivered herescape. forhelping to Kobayashi Ida is grateful waiting. for thevariis interesting plotis embodied inwhich simple this Thestructure embedded) within (already Kobayashi's voicescontained etyof metadiegetic in form to the similar examples, Thereare twonotable account. first-person night, of Utakatano Ki. In one, on a sleepless thenarrative within stories whois a harelip of a boywith thefable-like story tellsKobayashi Meerheim oftheboyinthewayonecares is fond inlovewith Ida; she,inturn, hopelessly tells Ida herself embedded narratives, fora pet.Later,in thesecondof these
19For a general in Western narrative, purity of rhetorical discussion of thedevelopment ofFiction', Purity andtheRhetoric ofFiction, Part1, 'Artistic Booth,TheRhetoric seeWayne of ChicagoPress,1983edition. University
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thattheboy was so despondent after herdeparture Kobayashi forDresden He was,Ida says, theonly onehurt that he drowned himself. byheractions.20 with Theexplanations forherbreak Meerheim (shedoesnotlovehim)andfor theletter are also told in Ida's voicein extended As in sending quotations. is to maintain the distinction other works, Ogai careful between thevoices: third-person objective, Kobayashi'sthird-person, Meerheim's first-person, and Ida's. He evenpayscloseattention to suchmatters as thechronology of when narrative privilege: forexample, andMeerheim first Kobayashi arrive at thecountess takesMeerheim CountBillow'scastle, asideto whisper to him.2' haveguessed later ofhisnarraAlthough Kobayashi might (that is, at thetime oftheir tionoftheevents) at thesubject conversation-the mother must have Meerheim of herdaughter's been warning restlessness-he avoidstemporal intheinterest prolepsis ofsuspense andrecords theincident without of benefit He tellsus onlywhathappens and whathe was toldat thetime, hindsight.22 in hisabsence. nothowothers felt or whatmust havehappened inthenarration, this At onepoint limited however, judiciously maintained, first-person narration becomes somewhat and it does so in a partimuddied, manner. The narrator's toneis, forthemostpart,objective; cularly telling ina distant isdescribing events Kobayashi concerned counlong pastthat people theclimb try. Butwhenhe relates to thetop of thetower with Ida, thetone is somewhat The sceneis curious in thatit is structured as the jeopardized. ofa story, climax thereader's to raising expectations (andthenarrator's) only them. maintains that he sawnothing odd orprovocative disappoint Kobayashi in Ida's offer to accompany himto thetop of thepyramid, buthe admits, if with thathe found herattractive: imperfect self-knowledge, 'I was strangely drawn to her,although notin anyvulgar sense.'As they makethestrenuous climbtogether, the otherwise controlled narrative becomesmarkedly more thesplendid florid, scenery suddenly to Ida's beauty: comparing unfavorably 'The viewof thisSaxonplainwe had cometo see was quitelovely, butsomehowit was notto be compared to theluxuriant and deeppools I felt forests must lie within thisgirl'sheart.'23 Thesearestrong abouta comrade's andthenarrator feelings fiancee, seems to be in somedanger of losinghis objectivity. As they reachthetop of the he grows moreand morecertain of whattheyoung tower, womanmustbe of how hardherheart mustbe beating, thinking, as if his owndesires were Ida andthecarefully maintained narrative infecting were perspective conbeing taminated thefeelings of by an omniscient third-person capableof knowing various characters.
20
26:1-2 (1971), pp. 101-14. 21 OZ, 3, p. 72.

22 23
OZ,3, p. 93. See also KarenBrazell's translation ofFumizukai as 'The Courier', in MN
Genette, p. 40, defines hisuseful term as 'anynarrative maneuver that consists 'prolepsis' of narrating or evoking in advance an event thatwilltakeplacelater.'
oz, 3, pp. 82-83.
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This momentary lapse is, however, just that;thesupposedconfluence of sympathies is revealed to be one-sided on Kobayashi's part,and the scene comesto a suddenanticlimax. The narrator has been telling one story-a romantic idyll with himself castopposite Ida-while another story hasactually beentaking place.Ida reveals herreason for bringing Kobayashi to thetower: shewants butonly as hermessenger him, (fumizukai). Kobayashi's half-conscioushopesaredashedandhe returns to theroleof storyteller. Thenarrator has repeatedly in Germany, mentioned that, he was an objectof curiosity, an outsider, andinhermonologue Ida too makes itclear that Kobayashi hasbeen of helpprecisely becausehe in no wayparticipates in herworld (that is, inthe he is telling); story he is making onlya brief visit to hercountry and thushe views those whom he meets as 'no more thanscenery bythesideoftheroad,' as Ida putsit.24 role(orrather, hiscomplete Kobayashi's lackofone)is, perhaps obviously, to thatoftheharelipped addedpoignancy given byanalogy boyhe has heard If we understand as Ida does, as a messenger of from Meerheim. Kobayashi herletter thenarrative itself whoimpartially delivers and,byextension, (tohis as surrogate then theboy auditors at theGerman Club,whofunction readers), a largely But if the readerhas remains irrelevant romantic embellishment. intoxication on the tower,the noticedKobayashi'smoment of rhetorical forKobayashi's own:bothlovehopemust be readas a metaphor boy'sstory from as tobanish them thesetofIda's so radical lessly, disfigured bydifference is so extreme Theirdifference thatIda can hurt lovers. possible (foreignness) evenrealizing distinction their without thatshehas doneso. The only feelings is in their themute, between harelipped boyand Kobayashi, perhaps, respective toexpress todealwith thepain.Unable ability his,theboydies;Kobayashi, on the otherhand,retreats of the narrator's role and to the safe distance in of Fumihis desire, the the tale. reconstructs heavily disguised, language andinturn themessage-bearer's zukaiis boththetaleofa message-bearer tale, likethedesire andtransposed that it. butthemessage is suppressed engenders ofthenarrator's toldin careful modulations of The subtle subtext tragedy, in of It the real a voiceand in metaphor, becomes, sense, story Fumizukai. is in inherent theCyrano ofnarration that story-atragedy itself; is,thetragedy in thedistance and instead of theactor, between beingthespeaker language cannever be bothaboveandin theworld. to regret that a narrator Ogai seems at thesametime. narrator and a character a story at once,botha truthful as in Maihime, thenarrative is in imWhenthenarrator tellshisownstory, ofbad faith; cannot Ota's monologue mediate danger indeed, helpbutimpress is forthenarrator to tellsomeone at best.The onlysolution us as self-serving of Fumizukai is the The fascination else's story objectively, unemotionally. he sugundermines thisobjective wayin which Ogai then alternative; stories,
24 oz,
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their tellers gests,have a wayof drawing in, theact of telling beinginextricably bound up withthe story and thetragedy of the storyteller is thepainful itself, and desire. suspensionbetweentruthand representation, objectivity The Problem of Gan As we have seen, Ogai set considerable storeby his ability to createconsistent narrative voice, perhapsin partbecause such voices werenot generally found in Japanesefiction or priorto even duringhis time.Masao Miyoshiattributes the lack of rigorin dealingwithnarrative voice in Japan to a simplelack of in thesubject,bornof inherited interest attitudes towardstorytelling: 'The general indifference to the tale-teller's identity points to the still-present belief in a communalstorytelling persona that can slip into any storyand take on narrativeself. Who tells the storydoesn't the voice of an undifferentiated matter;it's the actionthatcounts.'25 Althoughhe is speakinghereof Japanesecritics, Miyoshiimpliesthatthis is also characteristic of most Japanese writers, indifference whose attitude towardnarrative 'loose' and 'over casual'.26 But itis possiblethat plan he finds in generalizing of Japaneseauthorstowardnarrative, about theloose attitude we mayoverlookthe exceptional care thatsome writers devoteto the creation of consistent voice. From the previousdiscussionit should be clear thatin Ogai's case a charge of looseness of narrative were as concerned plan is unfounded;few writers withquestionsof voice,privilege, pointof view,and chronology. It is curious, and provocative then,thatMiyoshi,in his insightful readingof Gan as a turnto the 'West', dismissesthe ing point in Ogai's dependenceon and reference narrative of the workwithmuchthe same indifference structure forwhichhe faultsJapanesecritics: Thenarrative of The Wild a frequent structure Gooseis a bitawkward, problem with novels. The narrator, Okada's friend, on past Japanese begins reminiscing butsoondisappears from thetale,almost ita third-person events, making story. in Chapter He returns it become to present events 8, when increasingly clumsy ... havebeenin a position to know.His explanation which thenarrator cannot themindof Suezo and hiswife?)27 voice aside, Gan does seem Ogai's previousrecordas a creatorof narrative to strike theWestern readeras particularly it in terms inept.Bowringdescribes similarto Miyoshi's:
how to tell a story.... Thereis ...
25 26 27
is unpersuasive. (How could he, evenwith .
. Otama's help,evercome to know
... thestructure thatOgai had notyetsolved theproblem of [ofGan]reveals

a fundamental of touch in the uncertainty Masao Miyoshi, Accomplices of Silence, of California University Press,1974, p. xi. Miyoshi, p. x. Miyoshi, pp. 48-49.
narration of Gan. The ostensible narrator in thefirst is only active twochapters
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authorial voice,thusmaking the and then fadesquickly intoa straightforward butalso unnecessary.28 clumsy apologiaat theendnotonlyannoying
structure is thatOgai's study of Bowring's explanation forthisinfelicitous must be toldin a rounded thenovellaform had convinced himthata story first-person narrator, framework, a conviction giving riseto the'superfluous' in tworespects: identified is problematic onlyas bokuM. Butthisreasoning in Utakata that noKi, Seinen, onebeing andelsewhere Ogaihaddemonstrated to write thathe was willing unframed narrative (although it is truethathe theframe thatBowring's indictment of the favored device);and theother, in Gan begins thathe is first-person narrator and endswiththeassumption in detailbelow. Perhaps a proposition thatwill be examined superfluous, what to theWestern reader aboutGanis nottheframe structure, is disturbing it is or eventheseemingly handled, but Ogai's unwillingness to clumsy way ofnarration that he has so faithfully maintained to follow the(Western) rules what is upsetting is hisrefusal tomaintain strict distinctions between this point; narrator to say,as Bowring does, thatthefirst-person voices.It is accurate in Gan 'fades'to an authorial thatit is this fadingitself, voice,butI suspect thathe explanation rather thantheannoying apologia(that is, thenarrator's fromOtama, the keptwoman),that learnedthe 'otherhalf' of the story readers.29 bothers (Western) 'Furui de aru', 'Thisis an old story', a with thesentence, hanashi Ganbegins a it wouldseem,of the monogatari formula 'Ima wa mukashi', variation, to situate thestory liketheEnglish 'Onceupona time',functions phrase that, in a distant, from theeveryday experience perhaps mythical, pastfarremoved of thisopening sentence is bothcarried out and of thereader. The intention in some senses,a typical contradicted is, by whatcomes after:the story intheJapanese a handsome hero(Okada),a beautiful romance tradition, with of a corrupt heroine intotheclutches moneylender (Suezo), (Oyuki)fallen a and evena mockslaying of a monster chance (thesnake).Unlike meetings, in andnone-too-distant Gantakes true romance, however, place a determinate on thefingers and thedetailsof past,thedate of which maybe calculated that is, nearlyconwhich-names,places, events-are clearlyhistorical, thenis The romantic as theywouldbe in a novel.30 intention, temporary, of in an in Gan other contradicted the details; words, uneasywedding is,
28 Bowring, in Bowring and thissamecomment notes Mori Ogai,p. 149.NakaiYoshiyuki that Ogaideliberately Yukiobelieved Jun andMishima such as Ishikawa addsthat 'somewriters sucha sought through Ogai systematically In their estimation, refused to tella good story. thetrue oftheauthor.' NakaiYoshiyuki, intentions intopondering strategy to teasethereader 1980),p. 105. 'MoriOgai: The Stateof theField',in MN 35:1 (Spring 29 Perhaps untillately purity of toward indifference suggests-an forthereasonMiyoshi ones reacted as Western havenot,in general, and critics readers narrative rhetoric-Japanese aspects of Gan. or historical instead of biographical do, focusing 30 oz, 5, p. 269.Although and themixture ofhistory ofvoices is quite different, thehandling no Ki. fiction is somewhat similar to Utakata
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the romanceand the modernnovel. Nowhereis this conflict traditions, madeso clearas in thewayOgai organizes hisnarration. In a general thestructure of Vita sense, Ogai maybe said to havereversed of Gan. In theformer, Sexualisforthenarrative he embedded a first-person in a third-person narrative whilein thelatter he surrounds a thirdframe, an introduction narration with and conclusion person objective by a dramahereafter tized,personified, thebokunarrator. first-person narrator, The boku narrator might be compared to Nickin ScottFitzgerald's The He is a character in thestory,31 GreatGatsby. he playsa seemingly although 32 The narrator a 'bystander'. insignificant rolein theaction.He is, as itwere, thesetting in begins byestablishing about and his credentials (Tokyo as 1880) a competent narrator (hehadlived nextdoor to andbecome acquainted with the hero,whohas toldhimthestory). To add substance (and a textual to quality) thelinkbetween himself andthehero, he describes theruseheusedto initially meet Okada,namely, buying a copyofJing pingmeithat Okada had wanted. Butalready in thesecondchapter thenarrator's voicehas begun to 'fade'; as he describes theorigins ofthelink Okada andtheheroine, between Otama,he says:'After there was hardly that, a time when passing thishousethatOkada failedto see the woman'sface. She began to intrude occasionally on his and she daydreams gradually grew to seemvery muchat homethere.'33 At thispointreaders ifthey maystillimagine, are in thehabitof keeping ofsuchthings, track that thenarrator is simply inthewaythat thestory telling Okada told it to him,but thetoneis already thatof an objective authorial voiceable to 'read' Okada's thoughts. Furthermore, an insight suchas this, a fair amountof self-knowledge, demonstrating is not compatible with Okada's character, at leastas we cometo knowit through thefilter of the narrator's description, and thisnot a likely pieceof information forhimto include in theaccount he gives thebokunarrator. Atthebeginning ofthefourth chapter, thebokunarrator speaks directly to thereader to explain a digression: 'To be honest, I learned thehistory of the woman[Otama] at thewindow onlyafter in which this incident Okada played theherohadtaken thesakeofconvenience place;butfor I willnowbriefly tell herstory.'34
Unlike, forexample, thecelebrated narrator of Fielding's TomJones, who is also personified butnotdramatized in thefictional world. 32 The much-studied notion of Ogai as 'bystander' (bokansha MMS) willnotbe examined here at anylength. Butitseems to methat thebokansha motif serves Ogai'snarrative purposes (as distinct from his political and philosophical ones) at certain times and notat others. In Fumizukai, itis neatly congruent with thetheme. Butas I havebeensuggesting, thebokansha position seems to be simply one pole of a continuum and thatOgai's realinterest was in the tension between theroleof thebystander and thatof theactor.Certainly hisownbiography suggests that,morethanmostof his literary contemporaries, he was unwilling to acceptthe bystander's role.
31 33 34
oz, 5, p. 278.
oz, 5, p. 280. With sucha comment, and in light ofthediscussion thatfollows, thisnar-
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nottaken up againunOkadaplayed thehero'is,infact, The'story inwhich the'briefly told' (zatto hanasu) interruption more than tilChapter 18,making out that is singled oftelling thisdigression halfthenovel, anditis themanner ina Thevoiceoftheboku setthescene as 'clumsy'. narrator, having bycritics has brought thechanges thattime to Tokyo,gives describing fewparagraphs is thatin which Seinen impersonal voice,not unlike wayto an omniscient, from to impersonal, thetransitions firstto thirdtold. But unlike personal inSeinen or Vita were marked byspacesandasterisks, Sexualis, which person, The personal hereis subtle and gradual. voicecan be heardoccathechange in thefollowing fewchapters, butit becomes increasingly apparent sionally and the one telling it are not the the story thatthe voice thatintroduced clearest when thenarrative to reveal thethoughts begins same.35 Thisbecomes of the moneylender that,as Miyoshi and motivations Suezo, information to thenarrator. Thenew notes, no one,leastofall Okada,couldhavesupplied narrator whotemporarily butthenon-focalized vanishes, narrator is notboku, thatGenette labels'classical'.36 intheearly chapter is found at the narrator Thelasttrace ofthefirst-person inUenohas had few andI ofChapter 7: 'The mainboulevard fires, beginning so thatroomis heard that theMatsugen ever don'tremember burned, having is performing one ofhis narrator Here,thepersonified probably still there.'37 in thepast,but a locatablepast of mainfunctions, to situate thenarrative find thevoicedescribing we maystill traces. Buta fewsentences later, which one that has becometheobjective forOtamaand herfather Suezo waiting 18: until persists Chapter
thepillar ofthealcoveandblewsmoke as he mused. Suezoleanedagainst rings ofthepretty hehadseenas hepassedher house;butshehadbeen He thought girl wouldshe a girl then. Whatsort ofwoman hadshebecome? What no more than with her howunpleasant itwasthat theold manwascoming be like?He thought himhomequickly.38 ifthere be a wayof sending and wondered might
rative intrusion can be seenas proof thatOgai was conscious of what he wasup to. Narrative continuity, and therest, he appearsto say,are merely chronology, privilege, conveniences, with to reality, to thetruth of livedevents. the constructs little relation Thus,byimplication, willful manipulation of suchdevices is merely partof thegameof writing fiction. ina later uwasao 35 Anexample ofa trace ofthevoice chapter: 'Bokuniitsu tare ga hajimete shitaka shiranu whoitwasthat mentioned itto meor when ga....' ('I don'tknow but.... oz, 5, p. 281. 36 Genette, of Proust's ofhisdiscussion narrative p. 189.In thecontext complex structures, in focalization neednotdisrupt thenarthat suchunmarked Genette, p. 195,suggests changes in focalization, ifit is or thereader's of it: a 'change rative structure understanding especially isolated within a coherent can also be analyzed as a momentary infraction of thecode text, intoquestion ofthecode....' which governs that context without thereby calling theexistence But Ogai's infraction is neither norcontextualized; momentary (morethaneleven chapters) indeed, Ogai seems to be intentionally intoquestion thevery existence calling (or at leastthe of thenarrative codethathe had worked so hardto create. sustainability)
37
38
oz, 5, p. 296. oz, 5, p. 298.
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Although thispassagefrom onlya fewlinesseparate theprevious one, the voiceis quitealtered. Thisvoicedoesnotinhabit a Tokyowhere theMatsugen might still be visited, buta literary thatis uniqueto fiction. landscape It is a no human voicethatcan do something unfamiliar to human can, something with ofanother buttheonly half-conscious experience: speak authority thoughts alonein a room. person Not onlythevoice,however, has changed. The story of Otama,forwhich has interrupted the romance of Okada and Otama,gradually the narrator of the livesof thosewho are connected becomesa general narrative with Otama: her father, Suezo, and eventually and startlingly, Suezo's wife Otsune.The middlechapters of the book includedescriptions of Suezo, Otama'sfather, eachofwhich ranks Otama,and Otsune, among Ogai's most and insightful sensitive characterizations. Yet it is precisely psychologically becausetheseportraits are so welldrawn thatthey can be so disconcerting whois conscious oftheways inwhich fortheWestern reader Ogaiis flaunting convention. objectsto 'the disturbing Bowring waythereader's sympathies are engaged of nearly on behalf every character at somepointin thestory,' andfinds inthesection this noticeable 'particularly which dealswith Suezoand hisneurotic wife.'39 Thenarrative structure of Gannotonly violates oursense ofhowa story should be told,itseems, butitalso betrays ourexpectations of intothethought whatit shouldtell.By entering of each character processes inturn, inhumanizing succeeds andnaturalizing thenarrative evenSuezo,the villain. ostensible Butto do so meansthenarrative mustexceedtheabilities of thefirst-person It also meansthatthesesubstantial narration. and often ofperipheral brilliant characters that form thecenter ofthebookcan portraits seem to overwhelm the'main'story ofthefailed romance between Okada and Otama. and impersonal voicein alternation, Ogai's use of personal almostinterin thelatter can be seenevenmoreclearly changeably, partof thenovelafter thebokunarrator 'reappears':
Thefinches as ithappened, thepretense for SuezogavetoOtama, became Otama I am reminded and Okada to speakto one another. thisstory, of the Telling weather that whois deadnow,wasplantyear;aboutthesametime, myfather, flowers behind thehousein Kita-Senjui....40 ingautumn
After eleven ofimpersonal thefocalization tothe chapters narration, reverts bokunarrator, thereader of thedifference between the and, as if to remind twovoices, thenarrator hisownhumanity emphasizes bywayofhissensitivity to theweather and thefactthathe has losthis father sincethetimeof the story. The tale of thefinches in thefollowing continues chapter with thewords:
40 oz,
39 Bowring, MoriOgai,p. 5, p. 367.
149.
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to theonesusedin form similar of story....', a hearsay sort 'Okada toldthis from thatof themiddle The voiceherecan be distinguished thefirst chapter. of the as if,in this situation, to Okada's knowledge byitsrestriction chapters narrator wereactually (but doingwhathe has ostensibly case,thepersonified what he has relate as well:simply chapters hasn't)donein themiddle patently in thestory. thecharacters heardfrom on Okada'slackof the thenarrator comments of the In telling story finches, has thathe, the narrator, whathas happened, implying candorin relating distance to detect an ironic openbegins source as well.Herethereader another 'WhenOkada toldmethisstory, and hischaracters: thenarrator ingbetween that hehad buthedidnotmention beautiful, wasquite thewoman hesaidthat northathe had beenin thehabit ofthefinches] incident [this seenherbefore house.'41 hepassedher Okada,inhisownroleofnarhereachtime ofgreeting in thatbecomes bad faith pandemic theartof narrative demonstrates rator, and skeptical, thebokunarrator is increasingly novel.In response, themodern Thenarrator of Okada's story. himself, to be skeptical, thereader encourages is byimplication moretrustworthy in whatOkada omitted, sincehe is filling himself as such). (or represents at theend of is emphasized Okada and thenarrator between The distance himself to thehero: 'At thetime, whenthenarrator compares thechapter I was at ofthewoman[Otama], thewholestory I didnotas yetknow though hismistress nextdoorto the leastawarethatit was Suezo whohad installed I was better In thatrespect informed thanOkada.'42 teacher. sewing thenarrator's more than thecharacIn general, itis, ofcourse, job to know part inthis butinthelatter comment, irony andthere is more thana little ters, on finding with Okada. The fault seems intent ofthenovel, thebokunarrator ifslightly handsome, and innocent, as healthy, hero,whohas beendescribed andcoldinthenarrator's somewhat eyes.After to seem priggish begins dense, form to describe in whichthe narrative reverts to an impersonal a section forthehoped-for with chapOkada, thefinal meeting Otama'spreparations The and also of the narrator. the picture of the protagonist terscomplete he sees between by thedifferences comesto be defined narrator's character to Okada's final in hisimagined alternative and Okada, culminating himself of Otama. rejection I didnot back from toturn andglance third hesitate party, anuninvolved Being to follow us for a long while. totime. Otama's time gazecontinued thehillwithout hisbrisk slackening hiseyes anddescended Okadalowered A jumble inside the source me, insilence. offeelings wasatwar pace.I followed to in Okada'splace.I hated, however, to putmyself of which wasa desire I wondered ifI could be to myself; inmy heart really this desire acknowledge I wasindignant the with myself so base,andI tried tosuppress idea.Andthen
41
oz, 5, p. 372.
42 oz,
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forbeingunableto restrain thesethoughts. The feeling thatI wouldliketo be in Okada's place was not a matter of wanting to givein to thewoman's temptations, but simply a senseof howhappyI wouldhavebeento be loved thewayOkadawasbysucha beautiful woman. If I hadbeentheobjectofsuch I would,ofcourse, affection, havewanted to retain butI wouldn't myfreedom, haverunoff thewayOkada did. I wouldhavevisited herand we wouldhave I wouldhavedefiled Notthat talked. wewouldonly I would myself; havetalked. havehelped her;I'd haverescued herfrom this slough. Myimagination rambled on to sucha conclusion.43
stitutes the narratorfor the hero." As the only place in the novel wherea character in his own voice,thepassage has conrelates his own feelings directly siderableimmediacy and power. The narrator, at least in his imagination, has ceased to be a bystander. The actual endingof Gan, likethekilling of thewild goose that servesas its symbol,is a storyof crippling inactionand thwarted desire;thenarrator proposesherean alternative scenariowithhimself as hero. The narrator, however,quite obviouslyfeels considerableambivalence(and is practicing considerableself-deception) at the idea of supplanting Okada, ambivalence rootedin his uncertainty apparently about how to deal with(that is, in his case, how to write)his own sexual desire. His unconvincing cant about the platonicrelationship he would establishwiththe beautifulwoman is a transparent place markerfor the sexual relationship he imagineswould have developed if he, instead of Okada, had been invitedinto her house. Althoughhe declinesto expressthesedesireseven to himself-anotheract of narrative bad faith-they are nonetheless presentin the textin the formof his halfhearted denials. In any case, at this point the narrativeperspective has become extremely complex. As Wayne Booth puts it: 'Some of our greatest problemscome whenwe are givenanothercharacter as unreliableas the hero to tell his ambiguousstory.'45
Koizumi Koichiro feels thatOkada's character himas theheroof disqualifies 'J/MC -0 what hecallsthe'youthful drama'(seishun no doramaN Qj F 7 X) of Ganleaving Otamaand thebokunarrator as heroine andheroofthenovel. MoriOgaiRon: Jissho toHihyo @%i-f: $ Shobunsha, 1981,p. 126. 9E I wouldagree that sucha substitution takes thanOkadadisqualifying place,butrather himthenarrator self, him. dislodges Nordoesthebokunarrator himself ironic treatment that escape himas heroas well(notleastof which might disqualify is theself-deception in being practiced thepassagequotedabove). This entire notion of thenarrator in theroleof himself casting Okada'srival fora desired (erotic) objectis cleverly at theoutset inthe prefigured ofthenovel above-mentioned scene where thenarrator reveals that heintentionally a copy ofJing purchased pinmeithat Okadahadbeencoveting inorder tomake hisacquaintance in (andsetthenarrative motion). 45 Booth, p. 339.
44 43 oz, 5, p. 404.
Thisremarkable flight ofthenarrator's fancy accomplishes several things: it convinces thereader of Okada's coldness and effectively endsthestory of his encounter with Otama;it allowsus to imagine Otama'sfeelings we although inthepresence areno longer oftheomniscient anditrhetorically subnarrator;
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In fact, theportrait of thenarrator must be inferred from passages suchas are never this,sincehis thoughts investigated objectively by theomniscient voice;he is, in a sense, a blindspotin thetext, symbolized bythefact thathe has onlya pronoun fora name.To viewthisblindspot,wemust examine the narrator's comments and their implications, and one of thebestplacesfor suchan examination is theportion of thetext referred to as the'apologia'.
I havefinished Nowthat writing this narrative andcount on my fingers, I seethat havepassed since time. thirty-five years that Onehalfofthestory I witnessed as a close friend of Okada, and theother halfI heardfrom OtamawithwhomI became after Okadahadleft. acquainted quitebychance Thisstory is somewhat likea stereoscope which makes oneimage bysuperimposing twopictures; itwas toldbycombining whatI saw before with whatI heardafterword. The reader maywantto ask: how did you cometo be familiar withOtama?Underwhat did you hearall this?But, as I said, the answer circumstances to thatfalls thescopeofthistale,I add only outside thatit should go without saying thatI lackthenecessary qualities to havebeenOtama'slover; thereader woulddo well to avoididlespeculation.46
other than the modernEuropean one.47 But the most conspicuous feature of the apologia is thatit is patently false. It is a transparent, failedattempt to in the narrative obscurethe inconsistencies voice, to givethe illusionthatthe storywas, in fact,told entirely by the first-person whose view was narrator, enhancedthrough slightly acquaintancewiththe 'otherhalf' of the tale. The apologia is, however,much betterseen as a disclaimer,a warningthat the narrative (and, perhaps,thecharacter of itsnarrator) should not be examined too closely;it is an announcement, thatthe narrative is precisely finally, that, an illusionlike thatconjured up by the stereoscope. storytelling, The warning thatwe thereadershouldnot inquiretoo closelyintothenarrativeis bound up as wellwiththeinsistence thatwe not ask about thenarrator's relationship withOtama (once again insisting on the ties betweennarration and sexuality-by denying too them). But in both cases the narrator protests much. His admonitionthatwe avoid 'idle speculation'can onlyhave the (inof encouraging denial clearly tended)effect speculation;thenarrator's implies
46 47
The stereoscope metaphor is perhaps bestseenas an updated version ofthe of in artificial ending numerous gesaku thespeaker exMf narratives which metone of thecharacters plainsthathe cameto knowthestory having years later. It is perhaps that thenarrator for thefirst refers to significant here, time, his story as a monogatari, indicating Ogai's indebtedness to traditions
Mydiscussion hasfocused on Ogai'smanipulation ofrhetorical techniques that helearned from Buthe was also wellacquainted European fictions. thenative with tradition thatplaced lessemphasis on consistent narrative voiceor,toputitmore positively, that allowed for thepossibility ofmultiple, often narrative simultaneous, perspectives. with Ogai'sexperiment violating narrative may be seen, perhaps, as an attempt to reopen an investigation ofthis other tradition.
Oz, 5, p. 149.
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into thestory andhisimagined inthe hewasindeed Otama'slover, that entry howhe wouldhandle therole.But interior monologue quotedaboveindicates ofthenarrative is thatthenarrator is himself bad faith theimplication guilty he has previously which (with charged Okada) in nottelling all, and thisbad which is notwhatitpurports faith is paralleled bythatof thenarrative itself, of 'stereoscopic' be theproduct vision. to be, thatis, is notand cannot Miyoshi suggests thatthetwo'intrusions' bythefirst-person narrator (the andtheapologia)are'failed at authorial that monologue show attempts irony' on Ogai's part.48 Theirony because 'poorartistic judgment' fails, apparently, for thecleverer of TomJones, is drawn thenarrator, narrator unlike, example, in intothetale. In Fumizukai, an ironic unbecomingly Ogai created subplot which fallshead-over-heels intothestory, Kobayashi onlyto be reminded by heis nothing more In Gan,thenarrator Ida that thana messenger, a narrator. is allowedno morethana pronoun and a position thatrapidly dissolves into in at of the modern novel. But thedisembodied authorial the 'eye' (no 'I' all) final this narrator takeshisrevenge, as itwere, control chapters, byreclaiming thereader oftheroleofthevoiceintelling ofthenarrative andreminding and thestory. not'failed'butindeed thus Therevenge an ulticreating is,I believe, sort ofnarrative that theclever of mate irony Ogaieffects though manipulation a self-defeating forit pullsthenarrative voice.It is, however, irony, apartor in a kindofunacceptable thereader mired undercuts itirrevocably byleaving ambiguity. thetemptations of fiction For Ogai, as I havebeensuggesting, are likethe in of sexuality, to which itis so closely thatother linked temptations pleasure hiswork: botharean invitation to incontinence, to thewasting of ourenergy. The illusions offiction maybe beautiful and seductive, butin theendthey do not satisfy higher needsforclarity, moralrectitude, and a reconciliation of In the diegetic form and content. frame of VitaSexualis,theprotagonist, Kanai Shizuka,is depicted borrowing a copy of WilliamJerusalem's EininDie Philosophie leitung to Philosophy'), ('Introduction where he reads:
Each and every artis Leibeswerbung. It seduces. It demonstrates to thepublic sexual Whenartis viewed desire. inthis inmuch thesamewaythat manner, the menstrual flow is attimes disoriented andemerges through thenose,sexual cravingbecomes in drawings, embodied engravings, music, novels, and plays.49
The notion of artas seductive, publicdemonstration of sexualdesire is an extraordinarily modern one,one thatcallsto minda variety of recent critical from gambits ranging reader-response theory to attempts to define a poetic
Miyoshi, p. 49n. oz, 3, p. 245.It is difficult to tellwhere thequotation endsandKanai'sthought begins. As nearly as I candetermine from myrather dated translation ofWilliam Jerusalem, Introduction toPhilosophy, Macmillan, NewYork,1910, pp. 231-32, thecorresponding intheorigipassage nal reads:'It is thehighest degree of perfection, . . . artistic creation is a species of wooing.' There is no mention of menstrual blood.
48 49
372
while 'erotics'. Ogai,however, awareofthisaspect apparently fully of narrais problematizing rather than tive, it.In Vita celebrating Sexualis, sexual desire In Gan,thesituation is foregrounded andyet absent. isyet oddly more ambiguous: thenarrative bothseduces andlaysbarethehighly artificial of mechanism seduction. a subtle Ogai has drawn between thesexualambivacomparison ofthenarrator lence onewith which (andhero)andtherhetorical hehasstruchis text.Just as thenarrator of Fumizukai tured wavers between objectivity hisnarrative andsubjectivity, andhisdesire, so thebokunarrator of Ganis at oncethestoryteller andthestory. Likewise, on yet Ogaihimself, another level, is replicating itseems (quite tome)this inthe(largely consciously, ambivalence conflict theactsofestablishing effaced) between andviolating narrative codes. ofGanis a purposeful The 'clumsinessonthemachinery attack ofnarrative illusion, machinery that Ogai himself hadbeenlargely responsible for creating inmodern fiction. Japanese Butincreating this machinery, Ogainever satisfies himself thatitsend result is worthwhile. Like Kanai,Ogai seemsto fearthe of desire; and it is in Gan, where he bothperfects disoriented, publicletting and rejects thisart of narrative thatwe getthe clearest viewof seduction, Ogai's mixed feelings. Conclusion After Gan, Ogai continued to concern himself with thequestion of narrative in hishistorical and biographical fictions a series structure, creating of comconceived and problematically situated narrative plexly postures.50 Karatani Kojinhascharacterized fiction as an attempt Ogai'shistorical to undomuch of In Karatani's whathe had done in his fiction. drafting metaphor, Ogai was of 'one-point in Japanese amongtheoriginators narrative: 'For perspective' was a necessity.' In his fiction, Ogai, . . . the one-point perspective system Karatani theJapanese argues, Ogai had revolutionized and created language a 'modern' novelthatdeployed a 'thoroughly reconstituted conperspectival In other centralized arounda vanishing figuration, point.51 (narratological) he had devised a structure of consistent narrative voiceof thekindI words, havebeendescribing above.Karatani goeson to arguethatthehistorical ficwere in tions 'about-face the form of an atavistic Ogai's accomplished return, rather thana newopening.' Thatis, having 'taken thelead byestablishing the of modern perspectival configuration to literature, Ogai himself attempted it.' As Karatani decenter tired'of pointsout, Ogai said thathe had 'gotten modern thisweariness, notuniqueto Ogai, writing novels;butforKaratani, wasdueto a (perhaps aversion to thevery he innate) perspectival configuration had created:
50Marcus, pp. 134-42, provides a persuasive of theshiden reading as 'fictional' creations, despite Ogai'suseof 'fact'as the'master trope' ofthese works. I would addthat the'authority' of thevoicethatOgai deploys in these works serves to morecompletely obscure his roleas 'seducer'. 51 Karatani, p. 150.
SNYDER:
373
The aversion to 'tying strands which together', somewriters had calledan aversionto 'construction', or kosei,was to become a dominant trend in embodied theshishosetsu, paralleling Ogai's increasing inclination toward thehistorical novel.If one considers perspectival configuration rather thanmeaning and connovels and theshishosetsu tent, Ogai's historical sharea common movement.52
'Where doesthis aversion comefrom?' Karatani asks.'It is obviously from an aversion to theconfiguration of linear to theconception perspective, of transcendental orvanishing meaning On thewhole, I find point.'53 this a satisfying (ifmetaphorical) ofthemovement reading noted byKafu: at theoutset ofthis article. whether from Clearly, weariness or queasiness, Ogai turns awayfrom thenarrative 'illusions' he had designed so brilliantly forhisfictional works and begins them.I wouldonlyadd to Karatani's undermining observations thatthisprocess is already wellunderway in Gan, and had perhaps begunat in Fumizukai, atop a pyramid thebeginning, in Saxony. tower
52
53
Karatani, p. 154.
Karatani, p. 154.

Mori Ogai Gan

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Ogai and the Problem of Fiction.

Ogai and the Problemof Fiction

the serializationof Gan .

. was being com-

IN thiswayNagaiKafudescribes oneofthemore andperhaps noted, most

5 See, for example, Sadoya Shigenobu

Ogai to Seiyo Geijutsu 9k1t?

Ogai and the Problem of Fiction

Ogai and the Problem of Fiction

Monumenta 49:3 Nipponica,

Ogai and the Problem of Fiction

Ogai and the Problem of Fiction

26:1-2 (1971), pp. 101-14. 21 OZ, 3, p. 72.

OZ,3, p. 93. See also KarenBrazell's translation ofFumizukai as 'The Courier', in MN

Ogai and the Problem of Fiction

is unpersuasive. (How could he, evenwith .

. Otama's help,evercome to know

... thestructure thatOgai had notyetsolved theproblem of [ofGan]reveals

narration of Gan. The ostensible narrator in thefirst is only active twochapters

Ogai and the Problem of Fiction

oz, 5, p. 296. oz, 5, p. 298.

Ogai and the Problem of Fiction

39 Bowring, MoriOgai,p. 5, p. 367.

of Fiction Ogai and theProblem

Ogai and the Problem of Fiction

Ogai and the Problem of Fiction

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