Natsume Soseki: Grass pillow

Acting with reason makes you rigid. Following your emotions sweeps you away. Stubbornness makes life stifling. In any case, it is hard to live in the human world. This early masterpiece by Soseki, known for its famous opening lines, was written in 1906, when he was suffering a nervous breakdown and could find no stability at school or at home. The novel portrays “non-sentiment,” a term that may be unique to Soseki. It means stepping beyond human relationships and feelings to accept things as they are, transcending both sentiment and its absence. The painter in the novel offers a glimpse of Soseki’s desire at the time to escape the many troubles born of complicated human relationships. Soseki also called this a “haiku-like novel whose life is beauty.” In reaction to the European naturalism and realism then dominant in Japanese literature, he argued that beauty is what a novel as art must preserve. He said he wrote this work believing that it would be enough if it left a beautiful feeling in the reader’s mind. The novel also offers an intriguing, deep look at Soseki’s literary and artistic views and philosophy of life at the time, including his criticism of Eastern and Western literature and art and of modern civilization.

Korean title: 풀베개

Korean author: 나쓰메 소세키

Korean publisher: 시와서

ISBN-13: 9791191783100