I've always been very wary of cross-gendered authorship. Not that I'm against it, I mean, I read cross-species books sometimes, and I don't have a problem with them. It's just that I'm very suspicious of the accuracy with which a male author can portray the female experience (and vice versa*), particularly when that experience relates to prostitution (as, curiously, it so often does when a man decides to write a story from a woman's perspective).
Is Memoirs of a Geisha about prostitution? That is to say: What is a geisha, and what is its relation to prostitution? Consider this passage:
Since moving to New York I've learned what the word "geisha" really means to most Westerners. From time to time at elegant parties, I've been introduced to some young woman or other in a splendid dress and jewelry. When she learns I was once a geisha in Kyoto, she forms her mouth into a sort of smile, although the corners don't turn up quite as they should. She has no idea what to say! And then the burden of conversation falls to the man or woman who has introduced us -because I've never really learned much English, even after all these years. Of course, by this time there's little point in even trying, because this woman is thinking, "My goodness...I'm talking with a prostitute..." A moment later she's rescued by her escort, a wealthy man a good thirty or forty years older than she is. Well, I often find myself wondering why she can't sense how much we really have in common. She is a kept woman, you see, and in my day, so was I.
Geisha existed to entertain wealthy, powerful men. Typically this entertainment would take the form of tea rituals, dances, witty conversation, elegant outfits. Ritualized flirtation, as one friend described it. However it cannot be doubted that the main character of Memoirs, Sayuri, is sold for both her mizuage (her virginity) and again sold as a danna (mistress). While a geisha was certainly not a prostitute as Westerners understand the word, I think what is distinct is Sayuri's utter powerlessness over her own circumstances- extremely common for women in prewar Japan (and, indeed, the West), unlikely to be any more imaginable for a white American male from Tennessee than it would be for you or I.
That grain of salt in mind, I have to say I found this to be an excellent novel. It reads like a dream, flowing effortlessly from one chapter to the next, always interesting, engaging and informative, and genuinely redolent of a time and place I've never considered before (the segments during WWII and the postwar years were of particular interest to me, even though they are largely glossed over).
Particularly well handled is Sayuri's mental maturity, which unfolds along with the reader in measured and realistic paces. At times Sayuri's situation seems impossibly desperate; at others it seems no harm can come to her- and of course, both are prone to changing on the whim of fate.
"Destiny isn't always a party at the end of the evening. Sometimes it's nothing more than struggling through life from day to day."
advises Sayuri's mentor, Mahema.
Too right.
* ref The Outsiders, a book authored by a woman that hilariously misrepresents life as a male teenage gang member.
This is a 
Gosh, that was a good book - read it ages ago. Yet another one that I must read again.
Yeah, I really liked it. Although I rarely read books a second time- too many to get through as it is!
I know, I feel the same. But then I look at the piles of books that I own and realise that it's over ten years since I read them, and find that I can't remember the contents of any of them. There is some value to having a memory like a goldfish.
Also it saves both money and trees.
yeah I loved the book too...the only thing is that at the time I thought it was a 'true story' and got to the end and found out it was largely fictional...still a great read. I really felt for the main character at times!
Interesting what you are saying about the geisha-prostitute thing... geishas at the time had some sort of status in Japan...whereas prostitutes in the West never have.
Have just finished 'Ecstasy' by Irvine Welsh which is utter genius...he writes from a woman's point of view brilliantly...I know what you mean, it must be quite a skill to be able to pull off writing from the opposite gender's point of view.
That is a very good point about status Jayne, although still very much on men's terms? I would like to clarify that I didn't consider Geishas to be the equivalent of a western prostitute, just that there were definitely elements to Sayuri's life that involved her body being sold that were outside of her own control.
Now consider that losing her virginity to a virtual stranger and then again repeatedly submitting to the General could be, for some, incredibly traumatic events for someone to go through. As Goldman writes her, Sayuri undergoes them rather casually. For a female author to write of such thing I would attribute that casualness to the author's own experience, or at least a realistic derivation of it. For a male author to present such harsh realities in such a casual light makes me think: "Well on what knowledge is he drawing that experience from?"
I'm not saying that Sayuri's sexual experiences were unrealistic or badly written, or indeed that people shouldn't write of things that they cannot have experienced- it just raises an eyebrow, is all. I know I should really just read books independantly of their context- if a story is good, it's good, regardless of who wrote it. But it did cross my mind a few times while reading it, and often does when reading cross-gendered fiction.
I would say high class hookers have some sort of status in western environments. They choose their clients, and are often given gifts and taken on expensive holidays and the like. Not that I have any experience of these things, so it's just a supposition.
I do think however that teen girls forced into prostitution and adults who make a decision to go into it as it pays well aren't quite the same thing.
Precisely my point. If you wrote a book about "high class hookers", I'd think it was a pretty odd topic for you to focus on, and if you made it out like it was quite the great lifestyle because you got to have sex all the time and it paid for all your shoes and jewelery (and so on), I'd question your bias.
I'm heartbroken that The Outsiders misrepresents male teenage gang members Dan, it's a cheesy book but I'm so fond of it. How does it misrepresent them?
Cross-gendered writing is the bravest kind of writing and when it works (like with Memoirs of a Geisha) can be the best fiction. I don't think it's unconvincing because it's written by a man - she has traumatic experiences but we read the trauma between the lines, because in context it's what she expects from her life. Clever hey?
It's true, Annie. Real gang members don't sit around pondering poetry and losing fights to preppy rich kids. The Outsiders is outrageously camp. Which doesn't mean it's not great!
I agree when fiction is good, it's good- but when dealing with actual existences, it's useful to question the lines between fact and fantasy.
I read the book years ago and I thought it was
simply marvelous!I would read it again if I
had the time.