Beef
Genji #9 A celebration under the red maple leaves あふひ (葵 / aoi)
The trees are in misery, and the birds are in misery. I don’t think they sing. They just screech in pain… Taking a close look at what’s around us, there is some sort of harmony: It’s the harmony of overwhelming and collective murder. — Werner Herzog
Re-reading for the hundredth time what has to be one of the most infamous scenes in Japanese literature, when Lady Rokujo’s spirit leaves her body to kill yet again, all I could think of was the brilliant Netflix series Beef.
First, there is road-rage.
In Genji, the incident occurred when Genji’s pregnant wife decides to go see a festival in her carriage and the carriage men jostle Lady Rokujo’s carriage roughly out of the way, hurling insults as they do so.
車争ひ, kuruma arasoi= carriage altercation
Like in the TV show Beef, this incident becomes a trigger unleashing what Genji commentators call “female anger” —but in reality is probably more like repressed rage and fury—or perhaps even a type of inherited trauma.
As I have written before about Lady Rokujo, she is the subject of countless plays and dramas and is more or less viewed as a sympathetic character. Her anger physical leaves her body and rages fury, leaving Genji’s wife Aoi dead, not days after Aoi has given birth to their son.
Regarding the term “female anger,” commentators always use this when explaining urami 恨み in the text… but the word is more about the building up, or piling up of hate and resentment, something like a grudge. It is a certain kind of anger that was on true display throughout the series, Beef. The kind of anger that is just beneath the surface. Something that the person themselves would be afraid to touch, for fear of unleashing a fury that could not be controlled, triggering a dark chain of events. Like you can’t put it back in the box.
I thought Beef was maybe the best television I have ever seen—except for West Wing.
I’m slowly catching up on all this good stuff from the past month or so when I haven’t been around substack. I loved BEEF also, but have felt strange recommending a show that is so violent and emotionally fraught, with seemingly no way out. Good catch to talk about Lady Rokujō though! The road rage incident! Now I know I make more sense than I thought! Thanks for putting this out there, you’re so great at connecting the dots!
Such an interesting quality of our humanity to investigate. That anger -- whether it be a rage of the collective psyche, or the moment of the instant's experience -- takes on the physical weight of our being -- gravitas -- in a way that immediately is itself of us. Joy and pleasure seem to be connected so differently that the fine thread spun by eros is perhaps mere hint of the gravitas of life distinguished from death, yet not so indistinguishable that the veil of breath is freely expressed. And now, thanks to our sponsor "Desire To Be The Want of Here", now I don't know what the hell I am talking about! Lol!