[Spoilers]
Memoirs of a Geisha ripped its way through our family -first the book, then the show- in the early 2000s. First me, then my mom, my sister and my brother who called the the main character's love interest a pedo, upsetting my mom greatly.
But it was an upsetting book- I knew that even then- way before society decided it was wrong for a dude called Arthur Golden to write a fictional, first-person account of the life of a young Geisha in Japan. My sister loved the aesthetics of it- I still remember her exclaiming over the beauty of Hatsumomo- "The angles of her face!", my mom loved the love-story and feel-good ending in USA, and I was just conflicted.
On the one hand, I recognize a good story when I see it. On the other, it just made me so uncomfortable, not just the hard life story of a child growing up in horrible, exploitative circumstances- that was pretty much Oliver Twistian par for the course, but the obsession of the God's eye view author over the blue eyes of the main character, the sexual exploitation, the exoticisation of the lives of the women. There was just so much wrong with that world, but it was presented in a non-questioning way, which was fine for the main character, but not fine for the author, if that makes sense?
Anyway. Of course, I believe anyone should write what they want, and yet, dissonantly, I am glad that times have changed, and that it is no longer really possible for books like Memoirs of A Geisha, or hell, Daddy Long-Legs, another much-loved books from my teen years which would have never seen the light of day if written these days, to appear.
(as an aside, I remember putting on the movie version of Daddy Long-Legs for my dad during his dementia-afflicted decline- and it was really funny (as in, not funny at all) when the friends of the male main character tell him it's not really cool for him to be in love and pursuing his teen ward whom he is funding through college, and he brushes them off with a song and a beautiful dance, telling them they're stodgy old folk who don't understand love. Bleurgh. lol.)
by 1000andonenites