The Blind Swordswoman

"I don't know what I don't cut"

Here is a page for my novel THE ODOR OF SICILIAN LEMONS .
Newer Post Older Post Home

The Blind Swordswoman

What is the strange allure of the swordswoman figure in martial arts novels and movies?

Is it all just pulp garishness? A prolonged adolescent erotic fantasy hangover?

Then why is the swordswoman figure — whether she is blind, tattooed, one-armed, or merely disgraced, outcast, suffering and abused — always so melancholy, so wounded, so tragic?

Listen to these painfully beautiful last lines intoned by a narrator at the end of CRIMSON BAT: THE BLIND SWORDSWOMAN (1969, aka BLIND OICHI STORY: RED BIRD OF FLIGHT): ”Oichi went away on the cold wintery wind, carrying with her her sword-cane and a great deal of loneliness . . . her sightless eyes filled with tears.”

Writing, like cinema, is here only to give pleasure. Sometimes a jolt of pain or sorrow can be pleasurable, once it has been fully absorbed & understood.
OSAI's razor

OSAI'S RAZOR is a powerful samurai epic of desire, hatred, obsession, disguise, eroticism and vengeance set in Edo-era Japan. "Delves into some strange and sensitive subjects that you normally don't see in most samurai yarns. NOT for kids."
Awesome Inc. theme. Powered by Blogger.