- The city is sealed due to an air raid (499)
- Japanese frequently bombed Shanghai during the second Sino-Japanese War which became part of the Second World War (499)
- People would tug on the railings and beg to get in the tram (499)
- Those inside of the tram were quiet (499)
- A beggar tried to take advantage of the situation by begging for money but stopped when he was intimidated by the silence (499)
- Another beggar sang a song about having no money. The tram driver, being from the same region and recognizing the tune, joined in. (499)
- Lu Zongzhen is an accountant for Huamao Bank (500)
- Wu Cuiyuan was a good daughter and student. She became an English teacher after graduating from college. She decided to grade papers while stuck in the air raid. (501)
- While I can understand the devotion to one's job, this was still weird. There's absolutely no way I'd be able to focus on school or work-related things if there was some notable form of violence or danger around me. I say that anyways, but I remember playing video games when all of the California fires were going on not too long ago. Actually, I have no idea how I'd act in such a situation now that I've thought about it.
- Some people begin to discuss art and argue their preferences (502)
- Lu doesn't joined in the conversation and stays in his seat. He sees Peizhi and fears Peizhi would take advantage of the opportunity to press forward with his attack (502)
- Something with the narrator and point of view keeps ripping me out of the story. The story's being told in a third person point of view by referring to characters as "he" or "she" and never speaking as "I" but rather "Lu." Yet there's constant commentary between various moments in the story. "Oh no! The woman..." "Damn! Dong Peizhi had..." "Now, thank God, he was..." It's sort of disorienting and I can't help but feel I missed a crucial detail about who's telling this story. Either that or the narrator is just very vocal about their opinions.
- Peizhi sees anyone over thirty years old as being old. (502)
- "Her whole body was like squeezed-out toothpaste, it had no shape." Well that's just hurtful. (502)
- Cuiyuan was shocked that Lu was resting his arm behind her. (503)
- I don't understand why Lu is trying to avoid Peizhi if Peizhi is his nephew.
- Lu feels his wife doesn't understand him at all (504)
- Lu's marriage as arranged. He was against it from the start. (504)
- He was happy to see Cuiyuan blush (504)
- Lu wants a divorce but can't get on (505)
- Cuiyuan is 24 and Lu is 34 (505)
- They were both happy to sit by each other (505)
- Lu spontaneously decided to tell her she can't sacrifice her future and that he doesn't want to ruin her life (505)
- Cuiyuan felt she would most likely get married eventually but her husband wouldn't be as "dear" as some stranger (Lu) that she just met (506)
- She felt he was a good person and throwing away his own happiness (506)
- "If a woman needs to turn to words to move a man's heart, she is a sad case" (506)
- He asked for her number (506)
- He frantically searched for a pen and paper while she spouted out her number. Noise built-up all around them. The tramp began to move faster. She noticed he hadn't got off the tram when she did since they couldn't see each other between the crowd. "The whole of Shanghai had dozed off, had dreamed an unreasonable dream" (506)
Tanizaki Jun'ichiro - "The Tattooer"
- In an age when men honored frivolity (80).
- Kabuki theater is a form of popular, highly dramatic theater (80)
- Seikechi had formerly been an ukiyo-e painter of the school of Toyokuni and Kunisada (80)
- As a tattooer, the clients he accepted had to leave the design and cost up to his discretion (80)
- His secret pleasure was the agony men felt as he drove needles into them (80)
- "Don't act like a child. Pull yourself together--you have hardly begun to feel my needles" (80-81).
- I feel like this would be hilarious in a cartoon or anime.
- "Soon your body will begin to throb with pain" (81)
- He had desired to create a masterpiece on a beautiful woman for a long time (81)
- "I have waited five years for you. This is the first time I have seen your face, but I remember your foot" (82)
- Seikechi is creepy.
- He showed the girl a painting of a Chinese princess.
- She asks why he showed this painting to her, he said because the woman in the painting is "yourself" and says her blood runs through her. The girl admits she is like the woman in the painting but requests that he put the painting away. (82)
- "Don't talk like a coward" (82)
- He had to say this with a "malicious smile," of course. (82)
- He put her to sleep with some anesthetic (82-3)
- Hours later, the tattoo wasn't even half done (83)
- She has to bathe to bring out the colors of the tatoo (84)
- The tattoo on her back is a spider (84)
Ailing, Zhang. "Sealed Off." The Norton Anthology World Literature, edited by Martin Puchner, Third Edition, vol. F, W. W. Norton 2012, pp. 497-506
Jun'ichiro, Tanizaki. "The Tattooer." The Norton Anthology World Literature, edited by Martin Puchner, Third Edition, vol. F, W. W. Norton 2012, pp. 78-84
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