![]() ![]() Yet those on the outside constantly peek in: Shonagon peeks at visiting nobles men peek into women’s homes those with complaints seek a listening ear among the gentlewomen. In Buddhist temples, at court, and even between family members, screens and walls separate higher-ranking people from lower, men from women, and outsiders from insiders. ![]() Language reaches beyond the barriers that seem prominent in Shonagon’s society. ![]() She also expresses, privately in The Pillow Book, a significant disdain for those who use language ineloquently. Shonagon earns a reputation, and many close relationships, through her skillful attention to language. Literacy is a mark of class in the Heian court, and nothing is more elegant and respectable than writing, memorizing, and reciting both Chinese and Japanese poems with ease. Many of her delicately crafted poems describe relationships with the Empress Teishi, who presides over the Heian court, as well as many male courtiers. Shonagon describes a deep interest in the art of poetry. Some reviewers have remarked that parts of The Pillow Book feel uncannily similar to a Tumblr account, a listicle, or Twitter feed a young woman might write in our own century. Even so, Shonagon’s vivid descriptions of nature, her fascination with royal spectacle, and her tendency to gossip, have a timeless quality. ![]()
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