Word: geishas
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...creation of such a confident narrativevoice attests to Golden's diligence and skill as afiction writer. While Golden's name and the words"a novel" appear on the cover of Memoirs ofa Geisha, the novel begins with a translator'snote, convincingly signed by "Jakob Haarhuis,Arnold Rusoff Professor of Japanese History, NewYork University." The story begins from there asthe ever hopeful, bitterly realistic voice ofSayuri takes over, and the reader finds himself sotaken by the enveloping prose, quietly blendingthe "superlative degree of comparison" present inDickens's opening in A Tale of Two Citieswith the seducing party-haze of wealth...
...chuckled in obviousenjoyment as he told this story at the Bostonreading and wondered aloud whether "it was me on agood day or a bad day?" He then added that thename of the supposed translator was a pun,"Haarhuis" substituting for "whore-house" inrecognition of the darker side of the geisha'sworld. "Arnold Rusoff," far from endowing aprofessorship at NYU, is actually a dear friend ofGolden's, eager for his 15 minutes of fame...
Perhaps the story's repeated usage through timehas caused the plot to appear overly trite: Amorally corrupt American man deserts his innocent,trusting Japanese geisha-wife who waits faithfullyfor three years despite numerous signs of beingforsaken. The man then returns with his newAmerican wife expecting the Japanese wife to giveup their...
Thus, the role of Butterfly is crucial. Whenshe is first wed to Pinkerton, Butterfly is only15 years of age. This is not to say that she wascompletely naive of the world. Rather, as thestory goes, Butterfly is forced into geisha-hoodbecause of the poverty inflicted upon her familyafter her father's death. So on many levels, oneimportant challenge to the vocalist is thejuxtaposition of the innocent child and therealistic woman...
...like the true cultural icon/diva/ice queen/anathema that she is and always has been, Madonna has found--and promptly appropriated--the newest fad. It was Erotica Madonna, then Evita Madonna, then Mama Madonna, then Om Shanti Madonna, and now--gasp!--it's Geisha Madonna. Obsessed with Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha, Madonna has turned into a pop culture juggernaut. She has declared herself "Hatsumomo," the malevolent nemesis of the book's protagonist. (In a recent interview she clued us in to the disturbing fact that baby Lourdes seems to like calling her mom "Hatsumomo...