One thousand years ago, a female poet named Sei Shōnagon wrote a fragmented, shrewd, lyrical book of observations about life in a Japanese court. The Pillow Book is part poetry, part gossip, and still famous today. It’s also full of lists. A few of my favorites:
Things that look fresh and pure - “Earthenware cups. Shiny new metal bowls. The transparent light in water as you pour it into something.” Yes, co-sign. All very fresh and pure. I would add: a six-month-old’s forearms, doughy and bisected like an uncooked baguette.
Alarming-looking things - “Thorny acorn husks. A hairy yam that’s been baked. The sight of a man with a lot of hair, drying it after washing.” I can’t picture a hairy baked yam, but it does sound alarming. Although based on her note about the man-with-much-hair, sounds like Shōnagon is just not down with hair in general?
Distasteful-looking things - “A bad hairline in black hair.” (More hair!) Followed by, inexplicably, “A cabinet with sliding doors.” Someone please explain this cabinet comment to me.
Things that make the heart lurch with anxiety - “When a parent looks out of sorts, and remarks that they’re not feeling well.” This observation plopped me back in my seven-year-old body, taut with distress as I spent a summer day with my mom who was very sick with—what we didn’t yet realize was—appendicitis. At the end of this list Shōnagon concludes, “Indeed the heart is a creature amazingly prone to lurching.” Indeed, indeed.
Endearingly lovely things - Of this long list, here’s my favorite item: “A sparrow coming fluttering down to the nest when her babies are cheeping for her.” One endearingly lovely thing on my own list: watching a stranger (the gruffer-looking the better) dote on their dog.
Things with terrifying names - “Iron. Clods. Thunder. … Robbery is terrifying in every way.” Okay, yes, but can we talk about SCALPEL???
Things that look ordinary but become extraordinary when written - “Strawberries. The dew plant. Doctors of literature.” And to my own list of Things whose extraordinariness is matched by their name I would add, “phosphorescence.”
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