Episode 101: Our Fear of the Dark: On Tanizaki's 'In Praise of Shadows'
Weird Studies
00:00
The Importance of Light in Modern Culture
Tanizaki: Electric light came to Japan from the West, and so Tanizaki is thinking about how this is an innovation from outside his culture. He traces like the light bulb is the culmination of an aspiration that goes way back. There are really cool passages about how darkness is just filled with color. The elegant aristocrat of old was immersed in the suspension of ashen particles soaked in it but the man of today has forgotten such a darkness existed.
Play episode from 07:08
Transcript
