Then Mizuno falls under the spell of Fräulein, a heartless Japanese prostitute who speaks German and eats black bread and sausages. That said, Tanizaki does raise important aesthetic questions about what fiction writers do and why. Why does Mizuno want the fictional Codama to die? Why does the Shadow Man want Mizuno to be guilty of a crime he didn’t commit and be executed? Why does Tanizaki want his central character to die?

Source: New York Times February 15, 2018 10:01 UTC