#a tale for the time being

[dashedwithromance]

i love it when you read multiple works from a writer and you start being able to pick out the things that stick with them. like the themes they keep thinking about, that can’t be satisfied with just one poem or novel or story. or the motifs they like to reuse and recycle throughout their works like an extradiagetic thread. it’s like drawing a map through a writer’s collection of all the things that keep them up at night

#thinking about ruth ozeki and crows. and the ocean #the book of form and emptiness #a tale for the time being #also so many things about the amazing devil #singing silence and smashing plates like waves and heart-like wallpaper

[aseaofquotes]

Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being

#Ruth Ozeki #A Tale for the Time Being #memories #crying #tears #stories

[therefugeofbooks]

Currently reading A Tale For The Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

#booklr #books #book photography #books and nature #books and beaches #beaches #a tale for the time being #ruth ozeki #a terra inteira e o céu infinito #the refuge of books

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

#a tale for the time being #ruth ozeki #book poll #have you read this book poll #polls

[zhabe]

I AM ONE WITH THE WORLD: ON IDENTITY & IMPERMANENCE

excerpt from “a tale for the time being” by ruth ozeki / agnieszka lepka / tumblr post by @sketiana​ / excerpt from “the waves” by virginia woolf / guillaume amat / excerpt from “a tale for the time being” by ruth ozeki / excerpt from “tough questions jews ask” by edward feinstein / miles cleveland goodwin / excerpt from “buddha” by the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy / susanna majuri

#web weaving #webweaving #parallels #ruth ozeki #a tale for the time being #owen.tg #le mien

[ninasbookshelf]

re-reading an old favorite - a tale for the time being by ruth ozeki

#booklr #bibliophile #currently reading #reread #ruth ozeki #a tale for the time being

[commonplacenook]

I have to hurry up and write them down before I forget. I have a pretty good memory, but memories are time beings, too, like cherry blossoms or ginkgo leaves; for a while they are beautiful, and then they fade and die.

Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being

#quote of the day #fiction #reading #books #commonplace book #ruth ozeki #a tale for the time being

[pg13judaskiss]

Mom was almost never at home at the time. She was into her jellyfish phase, and she used to spend all day at the invertebrate tank in the city aquarium, where she would sit, clutching her old Gucci handbag, watching kurage (水母 — jellyfish; lit. "water" + "mother") through the glass. I know this because she took me there once. It was the only thing that relaxed her. She had read somewhere that watching kurage was beneficial to your health because it reduces stress levels, only the problem was that a lot of other housewives had read that same article, so it was always crowded in front of the tank, and the aquarium had to set out folding chairs, and you had to get there really early in order to get a good spot, all of which was very stressful. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure she was having a nervous breakdown at the time, but I remember how pale and beautiful she looked with her delicate profile against the watery blue tank, and her bloodshot eyes following the drift of the pink and yellow jellyfish as they floated by like pulsing pastel-colored moons, trailing their long tentacles behind them.

A Tale for the Time Being (2013) by Ruth Ozeki

#ruth ozeki #a tale for the time being #novel #quote

[heycressy]

“She wasn’t crying. They were just memories, leaking out.”

#book #booklr #a tale for the time being #ruth ozeki

[gohollagohoogs]

I've been reading A Tale For the Time Being recently, and I'm not very far, but I'm really enjoying it. I'm just getting to the part with Nao's family tree.

What I want to talk about is the watch that comes in the Hello Kitty lunch box with the book and the letters, the reason being, of course, that it's obviously a symbol. Right now, I'm kind of in the boat of thinking that it's either Nao or Jiko's life, and that since it's stopped when she opens the book, one of them is dead. I am holding out hope for Nao surviving the book but I wouldn't be surprised if this book ended up making me cry. I feel that it's probably Jiko's though, sentimentality aside, since the book is supposed to be about her, not Nao, and the lunchbox also contains letters that she probably wrote.

I think that when Oliver winds the watch and it starts ticking again, it's symbolic of Ruth picking up the book and reading it as a way of reviving this person's life. I feel like that's gonna be the message of the book though, something about art being a way of looking back into someone's past and keeping them alive.

I also find this message kind of reinforced in a way through Oliver's idea of bringing back ancient plants to the area, and how it will be fruitless until long after his death, which is when his impact will be most seen.

Anyways that's all for now I might make a new post on this later.

#a tale for the time being #atfttb #ruth ozeki #books #novels #literary analysis

[michelle-likes-to-read]

A Tale for the Time Being – Ruth Ozeki book review

I don’t know how to describe what I’m feeling right now. After completing this book I’m left with a storm in my chest, Ruth Ozeki wrote a touching and unforgettable story. It was funny and tragic at the same time, and a lot of times very harrowing and so gut wrenching that I had to put the book down and stop for a couple minutes.

In this book we follow two stories at the same time but not actually. Ruth is a novelist living in a remote island who one day discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox, there she finds the diary of sixteen-year-old Nao who lives in Tokyo. As Ruth continues to read Nao’s diary she plunges into the life of a young girl who’s bullied by her classmates and has an unemployed suicidal father. Nao’s voice is funny, quirky and deep while she talks about life and death, quantum physics and Buddhist nuns. We go from one story line to the other, back and forth between past and present, and so we find ourselves wanting to know what’s going to happen at the end.

A Tale for the Time Being is a beautiful story with touching characters, compelling narrative that is equally magical and wise. It may make you bit sad but it’s a story worth reading.

First post yay! Hello my name is Michelle and i like to read :) this account is to share my love for books and make friends on the way <3 have you read this book? if you have please tell me your thoughts :D

#book review #books and reading #book recommendations #bookstagram #bookshelf #i like to read #readersofinstagram #long reads #ruth ozeki #a tale for the time being #nao #ruth #quantum physics #japan #review

[christabelq]

Quote from Ruth Ozeki's A TALE FOR THE TIME BEING…

It made me sad when I caught myself pretending that everybody out there in cyberspace cared about what I thought, when really nobody gives a shit. And when I multiplied that sad feeling by all the millions of people in their lonely little rooms, furiously writing and posting to their lonely little pages that nobody has time to read because they’re all so busy writing and posting, it kind of broke my heart.

I definitely think there's a brighter side to social media, but it still makes you think.

A TALE FOR THE TIME BEING is a great book btw. It's about a woman who finds the diary of a Japanese school girl washed up on a beach in a Hello Kitty lunchbox. As she reads it her life becomes increasingly entwined with the writer's. Ozeki does a great job of creating distinctive voices for the two main characters and sensitively explores themes like time, relationships, bullying, life and death. I really think this book speaks to us all, because as Ozeki says, we are all beings in time.

#ruth ozeki #ozeki #a tale for the time being #book review #book recommendations #time being #booker prize #magical realism #japanese culture #womens fiction #womens literature #follow back #followback #follow for follow #follow #like for like

[angietherose]

Just finished this. 10/10. Highly recommend.

#a tale for the time being #ruth ozeki #book reccs

[therefugeofbooks]

A Tale For The Time Being was my last read of 2023, and it deals with some heavy topics, one of them being suicide. It is set during the early 2000s, and it briefly mentions people connecting through forums to suicide together. It made me revisit a dark horror manga called Suicide Club and there're some parallels between the main characters and how suffering, mental illness, and violence are depicted.

While Suicide Club is a horror story with a gory style and a dark ending, contrasting with the more hopeful tone of the A Tale For The Time Being, they're both great reads, depending on your mood.

Venturing beyond, I ended up watching Suicide Club (2001), the movie that inspired the manga but with a different narrative. It's unsettling, but it's one more movie to watch if you're into weird horror movies!

#booklr #books #book photography #manga #rereading is reliving #suicide club #a tale for the time being #ruth ozeki #talking about movies #the refuge of books

[bunnyinatree]

"A Tale for the Time Being" was amazing from start to finish, and I am furiously spinning plot points and characters around in my head right now.

I'm specifically heartbroken and feral over the fact that Haruki #1 repeatedly emphasized how well his mother knew him—"I truly believe that although you have not laid eyes on these pages, still you have read every word I have written. You, dear Mother, know my true heart" (328)—and even though she (presumably) never learned the true nature of his death, she still taught Nao how to bully waves in an uncanny parallel to Haruki #1's near-final words: "Better to do battle with the waves, who may yet forgive me" (328).

I wonder what sorts of parallels you can draw between characters using the theme of parent-child relationships. Jiko and Haruki #1 were incredibly close and understood each other's true feelings without having to say them out loud (similar to what happens with Nao at Jiko's deathbed), which contrasts sharply with Nao's isolation from her father, Haruki #2. Neither truly understands the suffering that the other is going through, and the heart of the matter is often hidden from view (or intentionally obscured by either Nao or her father).

Then, in one of the final portions of the book (Appendix E), Ozeki talks about Hugh Everett, who supposedly remarked after his daughter's suicide attempt, "I didn't know she was so sad" (417). I think all of this ties into the themes of communication and connection in the novel and how words can reveal the truth of the matter.

Speaking of which, the story of the Sixth Patriarch and the finger pointing at the Moon absolutely rocked my word. I truly feel like this image right now:

[image ID: an edit of the feral keyboard smash drawing, where the humanoid creature with red eyes is vigorously shaking the novel "A Tale for the Time Being" by Ruth Ozeki. End image ID.]

#bunny babbles #a tale for the time being #ruth ozeki

[lightmoon]

these are my current reads at the moment (along with like five more books lmao) and i’m LOVING these books dearly ahhh

#shhhh august #a tale for the time being #the hurting kind