Episode 101: Our Fear of the Dark: On Tanizaki's 'In Praise of Shadows'
Weird Studies
00:00
The Toilet in Japanese Literature
Of all elements of Japanese architecture, the toilet is the most aesthetic. Our forebears transformed what by rights should be the most unsanitary room in the house into a place of unsurpassed elegance,. replete with fond associations with the beauties of nature. In showing you this beautiful world revealed in shadows, revealed to his eye in shadows by revealing the world, he invites us to find those worlds too. It's like Bergson's idea: We can't think life, but we live life.
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