Pillow Talk

74. Things That Lose by Being Painted
Pinks, cherry blossoms, yellow roses. Men or women who are praised in romances as being beautiful.

75. Things That Gain by Being Painted
Pines. Autumn fields. Mountain villages and paths. Cranes and deer. A very cold winter scene; an unspeakably hot summer scene.

Like most of the best entries in Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book, these are effective because they spark that epiphany of recognition I was on about earlier. Like, they work because you read them and think, "That is totally true! An unspeakably hot summer scene really is more appealing when you look at a picture of it than when you're actually in it." At the same time, there's an element of surprise with these. I for one had never thought of things in terms of these two categories before, but now that I've been prompted to, the examples the author is offering really ring true. My list of things that gain by being painted, if I had thought to make one, would have looked a lot like Shonagon's. So in other words what she's doing is articulating, with great precision, something that has been on the tip of my tongue forever. Or at least that's how it feels; these are not revelations, they are reminders.

One unrelated thing to point out is that the first list is kind of seriously flawed. Specifically the last entry: "Men or women who are praised in romances as being beautiful." Problematic because she talking about representations, not actual things in the world, and representations can't really be painted. I guess you could argue that they can, but either way, it's fundamentally unlike the other things on the list.

I like this one:

101. Squalid Things
The back of a piece of embroidery.
The inside of a cat's ear.
A swarm of mice, who still have no fur, when they come wriggling out of their nest.
The seams of a fur robe that has not yet been lined.
Darkness in a place that does not give the impression of being very clean.
A rather unattractive woman who looks after a large brood of children.

Especially the second to last one.