Trying to finish book 9

[petronia]

I really should summarize when I read Mirage of Blaze but my sleepy brain provides meta instead... ^^; There's a constructed feel to the one-shot novels in this series that I find I quite like, probably because I suck at plotting myself. I find it ingenious, like a case-of-the-week TV drama episode (as McGuffins run the Araki mandala doesn't beat that damned teapot beastie at sheer weirdness, albeit it's definitely more aesthetically pleasing XD). Although what I like about it is not so much plot per se as... thematics? There's a hint of didacticism about it, not as heavyhanded as CLAMP even. "Today you are invited to consider--" and then she brings examples to the table. 5.5 was like that. In book 9 the topic of the day is Leadership, I think. Kagetora's personality shortcomings, Murashige's failure under pressure, and then she brings Nobunaga into the discussion and all the rest rather pales - really, what I always end up wondering whenever I read some anecdote concerning Oda Nobunaga (not just in Mirage, generally speaking) is how on earth he managed not to get himself assassinated long before he actually did. XD;; In the end the only decent boss out of the lot is the avuncular president of an Osakan snack foods company. She doesn't touch on Uesugi Kenshin but I'm starting to have my doubts, given that one never sees him and his subordinates are decidedly out to lunch. It's hard not to picture him sitting up in Buddhist Heaven stroking his beard and peering into a mirror-basin at the Uesugi's SNAFU'd mortal affairs below, like a portmanteau of Dumbledore and Kanzeon out of Saiyuki.

...Gawd, too tired to explain. ^^; Essay for another night, eh.