Abstract:
Oldman is a world famous translator of Japanese poetry and literature. He is very fond of Japan and his writing is very pro-Japanese. He becomes involved with two of his female Japanese research assistants, which causes him a great amount of stress. He writes a series of letters to them, in which he tries to reawaken their interest. This is a study in obsession. Oldman, however, has very little in common with Ahab in Melville’s “Moby Dick”, or Young Werther in Goethe’s “Sorrows of Young Werther”. Perhaps, along with Oldman, you will be left wondering why.