Novelist who paints with words, Yasunari Kawabata, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature
‘Snow Country’ is the representative work of Yasunari Kawabata, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature. I would like to explain in this article the greatness I discovered in Yasunari Kawabata through reading ‘Snow Country’.
When it comes to ‘Snow Country,’ as a hardcore science-minded person, I can’t quite grasp what is so highly appreciated about it. That’s because it seems to be filled with logical inconsistencies. I believe it’s fundamentally a work to be read with sensitivity, and perhaps those with more of a humanities-oriented mindset might enjoy it more.
But I’ve discovered that even a scientific-minded person can explain certain aspects, so I’ll describe them.
This person, for lack of a better term (I will explain why I say this at the end), is a painter. In simpler terms, he is someone who tried to paint with words. ‘Snow Country’ contains landscape paintings, but its main focus is female portraiture, depicting women with various backgrounds, colors, and staging.
In terms of mechanism, this person is thoroughly familiar with how to predict what kind of image will be painted in the mind based on the input text. Therefore, he doesn’t paint pictures with a brush but with words (more accurately, he makes the human brain draw the pictures). He manipulates words to such an extent that these images reach the realm of art.
In a more technical sense, it’s as if he has a deep understanding of AI algorithms and know exactly what kind of output will be produced when feeding certain data into a trained AI. Consequently, he creates input data in a way that the output information can evoke a sense of wonder in humans. In other words, he is a master of manipulating input information.
His writing is often praised for its beautiful Japanese language expressions, but it would be more accurate to say that it’s about Japanese language expressions that conjure beautiful images in the mind.
He is also famous for collecting and appreciating ancient art, but it is likely that he engaged in the verbalization of the beauty of abstract art as a part-work, part-hobby through his appreciation.
In other words, it is possible that he followed a process of:
- Pondering why something is beautiful.
- Reflecting on why the brain perceives it as beautiful.
- Understanding the process by which the brain finds it beautiful.
- Iteratively searching for Japanese language expressions that evoke the same process as above.
Finally, as for the reason for referring to “this person”:
This person (AI or the human mind) has a complete mastery over the input information, and we mere mortals are well aware that we can no longer compete. However, whether he is aware of his position or not (probably he is), there’s a certain air of enjoying the activities of ordinary people from a superior perspective, including the protagonist, Shimada, in “Snow Country” (likely including Yasunari Kawabata himself to some extent). It feels somewhat unfair… that’s why I can’t admire them.
And he should be aware of the above impression we have, which makes it seem like we are playing in the palm of Yasunari Kawabata’s hand. It’s kind of frustrating…
