{"id":375569,"date":"2010-03-01T09:13:13","date_gmt":"2010-03-01T13:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=8703"},"modified":"2010-03-01T09:13:13","modified_gmt":"2010-03-01T13:13:13","slug":"kissing-the-mask-beauty-understatement-and-femininity-in-japanese-noh-theater-with-some-thoughts-on-muses-especially-helga-testorf-transgender-women-kabuki-goddesses-porn-queens-poets-housew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/375569","title":{"rendered":"Kissing the Mask: Beauty, Understatement and Femininity in Japanese Noh Theater, with Some Thoughts on Muses (Especially Helga Testorf), Transgender Women, Kabuki Goddesses, Porn Queens, Poets, Housewives, Makeup Artists, Geishas, Valkyries and Venus Figurines by William T. Vollmann"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bookdragonreviews.files.wordpress.com\/2010\/01\/kissing-the-mask.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bookdragonreviews.files.wordpress.com\/2010\/01\/kissing-the-mask.jpg?w=129&#038;h=194\" alt=\"\" title=\"Kissing the Mask\" width=\"129\" height=\"194\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8702\" \/><\/a>Vollmann (<em>Imperial<\/em>; <em>Europe Central<\/em>), who has tackled an astonishing array of subjects in fiction and nonfiction, here explores female beauty \u2013\u00a0its creation and consumption\u2013\u00a0with a spotlight on highly stylized traditional Japanese Noh theater. Because male actors wearing strictly codified masks perform all Noh roles, men, ironically, are both the creators and purveyors of female beauty. From Noh, Vollmann explores other far-flung performances of feminine beauty, including revered geisha, L.A. transvestites, a porn model, Andrew Wyeth&#8217;s Helga paintings, and legendary Norse women and even dons his own cross-gendered mask with the help of a makeup artist. While Vollmann&#8217;s sprawling tome clearly contains committed research, it is a flawed hodgepodge of indulgent musings (or a &#8220;string-ball of idle thoughts,&#8221; as he calls it).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Verdict<\/strong>: Describing himself as &#8220;Deaf, dumb and illiterate in Japanese,&#8221; Vollmann also admits, &#8220;This book cannot pretend to give anyone a working knowledge of Noh.&#8221; Readers might instead try <em>Japanese N\u014d Dramas<\/em>, translated by Royall Tyler, or, for Japanese perspectives on beauty, the works of Yukio Mishima and Yasunari Kawabata.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Review<\/strong>: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.libraryjournal.com\/article\/CA6719695.html\" >&#8220;Theater,&#8221; <em>Library Journal<\/em>, March 1, 2010<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 2010<\/p>\n<p>Filed under: <a href='http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/category\/adult-readers\/'>..Adult Readers<\/a>, <a href='http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/category\/memoir\/'>.Memoir<\/a>, <a href='http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/category\/nonfiction\/'>.Nonfiction<\/a>, <a href='http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/category\/japanese\/'>Japanese<\/a>, <a href='http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/category\/nonethnic-specific\/'>Nonethnic-specific<\/a> Tagged: <a href='http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/tag\/artarchitecture\/'>Art\/Architecture<\/a>, <a href='http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/tag\/cultural-exploration\/'>Cultural exploration<\/a>, <a href='http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/tag\/identity\/'>Identity<\/a>, <a href='http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/tag\/personal-transformation\/'>Personal transformation<\/a>, <a href='http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/tag\/sociology\/'>Sociology<\/a>, <a href='http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/tag\/theater-studies\/'>Theater studies<\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/gocomments\/bookdragonreviews.wordpress.com\/8703\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/comments\/bookdragonreviews.wordpress.com\/8703\/\" \/><\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/godelicious\/bookdragonreviews.wordpress.com\/8703\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/delicious\/bookdragonreviews.wordpress.com\/8703\/\" \/><\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/gostumble\/bookdragonreviews.wordpress.com\/8703\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/stumble\/bookdragonreviews.wordpress.com\/8703\/\" \/><\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/godigg\/bookdragonreviews.wordpress.com\/8703\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/digg\/bookdragonreviews.wordpress.com\/8703\/\" \/><\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/goreddit\/bookdragonreviews.wordpress.com\/8703\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/reddit\/bookdragonreviews.wordpress.com\/8703\/\" \/><\/a> <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/stats.wordpress.com\/b.gif?host=bookdragon.si.edu&#038;blog=6730168&#038;post=8703&#038;subd=bookdragonreviews&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vollmann (Imperial; Europe Central), who has tackled an astonishing array of subjects in fiction and nonfiction, here explores female beauty \u2013\u00a0its creation and consumption\u2013\u00a0with a spotlight on highly stylized traditional Japanese Noh theater. Because male actors wearing strictly codified masks perform all Noh roles, men, ironically, are both the creators and purveyors of female beauty. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2824,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-375569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2824"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}