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New genre of commuter bloggers overtake traditional literature

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

London, Mar 23 (UNI) Makiko and Midoriko don't get along very well. While Makiko is worn out from single-handedly raising her teenage girl, Midoriko lives in fear of ending up like her exhausted mother and communicates only in writing. Guilt and resentment curdle their lives as Makiko considers breast implants.

The plot of Japan's this newest literary sensation, Breasts and Eggs, originally written as a blog by Mieko Kawakami has astonished literary conservatives by bagging the Akutagawa Prize, Japan's coveted award for new authors.

The award stamps that the world has a new writing genre ''blog-lit''.

According to a 2007 survey, more than 70 million people in Japan use mobile phones daily to surf the net, especially during long commutes. Inevitably, some have started to read, as well as write, novels on their handsets. Several novice mobile authors have emerged as writers, the Independent reported.

Traditionalists, however, are not amused with the new style of writing which apparently lacks respect for Japan's 1,000-year literary tradition. Tokyo's governor and Akutagawa-winner, Shintaro Ishihara, called Ms Kawakami's novel ''unpleasant and intolerable''.

There are others who have defended the book saying, ''her popularity was part of the phenomenon of confessional fiction of the Japanese chick-lit variety, where the writer is very frank about sex and personal, especially family, relationships.'' Author Roger Pulvers said in a superficially uptight society like Japan's, people craved this sort of fiction.

UNI XC SYU KN1838

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