From: bliss@mouse-potato.com   
      
   On 09/18/2016 03:45 PM, Bobbie Sellers wrote:   
   > On 01/21/2015 07:44 AM, Bobbie Sellers wrote:   
   >> On 01/20/2015 10:02 PM, Kenneth M. Lin wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>>   
   >>> "Bobbie Sellers"  wrote in message news:m9hv2o$ji0$1@dont-email.me...   
   >>>   
   >>> Hi Lurkers and Posters.   
   >>> I got lucky at the San Francisco Public Library and found volumes 8 & 9   
   >>> of Ooku (already owning volumes 1-7) and was able to   
   >>> catch up this weekend.   
   >>> It starts to get good in volume 8 and begins to turn on   
   >>> Dutch Medicine versus the traditional doctors and relegated heirs   
   >>> to the Shogun begin to intrigue against the Shogun, her primary   
   >>> councilor and a woman scholar as well as the half-Dutch commoner   
   >>> scholar who has been brought into the Ooku to help teach Dutch   
   >>> medicine to the male inmates.   
   >>> The objective of the study is to find a way to deal with   
   >>> the deadly Red Face Plague and it is exciting to read.   
   >>>   
   >>> I hope you will read Ooku.   
   >>>   
   >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>   
   >>>   
   >>> I have read the first volume in Japanese but haven't had the chance to   
   >>> get caught up with the series.  It's an alternative history book of   
   >>> feudal Japan where men died off and became rare and women took on almost   
   >>> all occupation including running the country as shogun.   
   >>   
   >>     So try getting it at your local public library and maybe they   
   >> can borrow it from the SFPL system.   
   >>>   
   >>> Most women cannot even meet a woman so they could get impregnated while   
   >>> Oo-oku/ Shogun has many men essentially serving as her male concubines.   
   >>   
   >>     I believe you have made a typo in that paragraph above and   
   >> good fertile men are available for stud service at some expense.   
   >> In less favored areas men are passed around in communities so that the   
   >> population can be kept up with enough workers,  But because men   
   >> are so important they tend to be coddled so they are trying avoid   
   >> being taken captive by the collectives.  One in the two chapters is   
   >> a chef but not permitted to work outside the Ooku because of gender   
   >> discrimination.   
   >>   
   >>> I believe the same artist did a foodie manga Kinou Nani Tabeta (What Did   
   >>> You Have for Dinner Last Night) among a gay couple.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>     bliss   
   >>   
   >   
   >      I foolishly thought the series wrapped up at volume 10 when a male   
   > became shogun again.   
   >      Yesterday at the Kinokinya manga shop I found volume 11 and   
   > it ends as the male shogun asserting himself makes an appeal to the   
   > physician trained in Western medicine to renew the attempt to develop   
   > a vaccination against the Red Face pox.  His mother who was alway   
   > a schemer with no regard for human life has descended to ....   
   > cannot spoil this for you,   
   >   
   >      Read Ooku volume 11 as soon as you may,   
   >      It is very good.   
   >   
   > BLISS   
      
   	Well it looks like volume 12 is the end of this story but there   
   is room for more.  It closes with the latest female shogun and Perry's   
   black ships are sailing into the bay.   It is a powerful ending story   
   though.   
   	Yoshinaga has done a great story.  If she continues it   
   it will be worth the reading and more.   
      
   	And to comment on Kinou Nani Tabeta (What Did You Have for Dinner Last   
   Night) is a careful depiction of a gay couple and their   
   friends and co-workers.   
   	One is a lawyer and he is the main cook.  Every day on return   
   from work he carefully does a Japanese dinner menu and he is doing his   
   fine cooking to save money and to relax.  He shops carefully and that is   
   shown as well.  I have only read the first few volumes but this is not   
   yaoi or even gay male porn.  These I found at the SF Public Library.   
   	At one point they have a social meeting with another gay   
   couple and one remarks that the main character is not a "queen" but   
   a "mom".  It makes sense to me.   
   	The author has written some other stories which are very   
   highly regarded as well as rewarded(literary prizes)and she is   
     Fumi Yoshinaga.   
   A better appreciation of the story is at the following URL.   
      
   	   
   	If I had the money or credit presently I would try to buy the   
   translated volumes.   I find it very soothing to read something like   
   this and read it as soon as I could after bringing a couple of volumes   
   home.   
      
   	bliss   
      
   --   
   bliss dash SF 4 ever at dslextreme dot com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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