Althouse: "I’m moved the most when people use words in a way that only they can to write definitively about freedom."

October 6, 2023

"I’m moved the most when people use words in a way that only they can to write definitively about freedom."

Said Banana Yoshimoto, responding to the question "What moves you most in a work of literature?"

Quoted in "Banana Yoshimoto Wants Books to Give Her Insomnia/'I love it when I don’t have any plans the next day and end up reading until daybreak because I can’t sleep,' says the author, whose new novel is 'The Premonition.' 'It’s the best feeling'" (NYT).

14 comments:

Political Junkie said...: I could not move once I saw the first name "Banana".; 10/6/23, 6:19 AM
rehajm said...: The fruit you had on your cereal for breakfast and the last name of the assistant director of your favorite Godzilla movie…; 10/6/23, 7:59 AM
Jamie said...: I also got hung up on Banana. At first I thought, "Maybe it's a perfectly acceptable (if maybe uncommon) name in Japan." Then I looked her up and discovered that it's a pseudonym. And now I've been moved to comment on something utterly unimportant...

Moving on. I also love finding a book that won't let me sleep. It seldom happens any more, but I having let my library card lapse, maybe that's because now the economic analysis is all about how expensive books are when you read through the night.; 10/6/23, 8:10 AM
mikeski said...: I need to hear what Orange Julius thinks.; 10/6/23, 8:16 AM
mikee said...: She'd be great at the name game song.

Banana, Banana, Banana
Bo-Banana, banana-fanana
Fo-fanana, fee-fi-mo-manana, Banana!

Reading without interruptions is one of the great pleasures of both childhood and adulthood.; 10/6/23, 8:53 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Banana - awesome.; 10/6/23, 8:57 AM
Oligonicella said...: Whenever I want to sleep I put on a thunderstorm mpg. It's foolish to deprive yourself of sleep.; 10/6/23, 9:01 AM
Kate said...: Being unable to sleep -- reading straight through the night -- because a book is so good is indeed one of the great feelings. I wouldn't have used the word "freedom" to define the kind of book that gives me insomnia, though.; 10/6/23, 9:16 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Banana Yoshimoto sounds like a vaccine hesitant insurrectionist.

Find out if she sent money to the Canadian truckers.

Where was she on Jan6?

Is her vax and boosters up to date?

Has she ever been on a podcast?; 10/6/23, 9:26 AM
Big Mike said...: Who is Banana Yoshimoto? Why am I supposed to care what she likes in literature?; 10/6/23, 9:31 AM
mikeski said...: Who is Banana Yoshimoto?

From the less well-known sequel Atlas Shrugged 2: Libertarian Boogaloo.; 10/6/23, 10:13 AM
Narr said...: The headline makes sense only as the utterance of a sleep-deprived person. Or so it strikes this sometime-insomniac.

I haven't stayed up all night to read in my adult life, though I have gotten up earlier than usual sometimes to resume a good tale.; 10/6/23, 10:17 AM
Rocco said...: So you want a fruit for a first name? Ok, Banana is taken. How about Tomato?; 10/6/23, 3:58 PM
rcocean said...: Its a tribute to how well I've been brainwashed by the race obsessed liberal MSM, that when I saw the name Banana Yomishoto, my first thought was she was a Japanese-American somehow playing off the insult against Asian Americans.

In fact, she's a Japanese writer and she uses the fake name "banana" because she likes the Bannana flower - a vegtable eaten in Asia.

And I also love novels or books that are so great you "cant put them down". I've never had one that made me lose sleep. But I can remember reading well into the night to finish "For Whom the Bell tolls" and listening for HOURS to complete War and Peace. The last was so absorbing that I could no longer just walk and listen, or do things & listen, I would simply pace in front of the stereo and listen.

I thank Tolstoy for losing at least 5 lbs.; 10/6/23, 4:42 PM