[book post] Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edogawa Rampo

First off, this little quoted bit from the book's introduction seemed so 100% kradeelav's jam that I'm quoting it here too:

Erotic-grotesque cultural performance functioned as an indirect form of resistance against the totalitarian tendencies exhibited by the Japanese state during the 1920s and 1930s . . . [Such] works were produced and consumed at a historical moment when Japanese citizens were bombarded by propaganda urging them to devote themselves to such "productive" goals as nation building and mobilization. In this context, the sexually charged, unapologetically "bizarre" subject matter associated with erotic-grotesque cultural products is reconstituted as a transgressive gesture against state-endorsed notions of "constructive" morality, identity, and sexuality.

— Jim Reichert, "Deviance and Social Darwinism in Edogawa Rampo's Erotic-Grotesque Thriller Kotoo no oni"

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