A Thousand One-Second Stories

by Taruho Inagaki, Inagaki Taruho

Dubbed by the Japanese as "the 21st Century's Dandy," Inagaki Taruho writes short and incredibly concentrated stories of his favorite machines, airplanes, modern fairies, Saturn, falling stars, the tin moon, geometrical shapes, boys, policemen, aromatic Turkish cigarettes, black cats who turn into smoke, crashing comets, gay bars, and numerous other subjects which run throughout his tales. Writing from the 1920s to the 1970s, Inagaki is a true original, seen by many Japanese as the equal in talent of Tanizaki, Kawabata, and Mishima, and as one of the great Japanese writers of the 20th century.

Genres: Japan, Short Stories, Japanese Literature, Poetry, Fiction, Fantasy

161 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1923

About the author

Taruho Inagaki was a Japanese writer. He was born in Osaka, moved to Akashi in Hyōgo Prefecture while he was in elementary school, and spent much of his childhood in Kōbe. He graduated from Kwansei Gakuin Junior High School. In 1968 he won the first annual Japan Literature Grand Prize for Shōnen'ai no Bigaku (少年愛の美学, The esthetics of boy-love), an essay on "aesthetic eroticism".

Inagaki's works often dealt with themes including flight, astronomical objects, and erotic and romantic relationships among beautiful adolescent boys. His stories on the later topic, and his essays in Shōnen'ai no Bigaku, were an influence on early writers of the yaoi genre such as Keiko Takemiya.

Reviews

[Melting Uncle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny at first then repetitive
//
but this is good

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hidden gem, or a star in the gutter. I would love to read more of his work translated into English

[Jürgen Voet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unique and intriguing, this collection of short texts by Inagaki Taruho successfully revitalizes the child-like imagination of the reader.

[kermit · Rating 2 out of 5]

我不能理解这本书的编辑是怎么想的，译者在译后记里写作者的作品分为四个部分，但这四个部分实在是差距有点大，但是把每个部分都放在这本书里面，让我觉得很割裂，就像书的最后一篇，里面作者和他的女弟子从肛交突然说到耶路撒冷一样

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inagaki Taruho was an experimental writer who wrote quirky, little nonsensical stories from the 1920s onward. Imagine a Georges Melies film in writing... Each of these delicious little stories is an object for contemplation.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book. Avant-garde short stories (ranging from a few sentences to a page) about....well....crazy stuff. Lots of encounters with Mr. Moon, comets and stars.

[Pokhara · Rating 5 out of 5]

薄荷水の香りがします。