How to decide whether to read Naomi or Makioka Sisters and what to do in each case

What everyone must do regarding Tanizaki's Naomi and Makioka Sisters:

read one of the two works and submit a RJE on it, on time
attend lectures and pay attention since basic plot content on either work is included in the quiz

Students have choices regarding the Tanizaki reading, they can ...

decide to read the shorter Naomi
decide to read the longer Makioka Sisters which earns extra credit if the RJE is submitted and the quiz passed (see below)
for fun, read both

Naomi tells the story of a man's infatuation with a young Western-style woman who doesn't fully return his love. The plot is direct and easy to follow. Makioka Sisters is a more complicated story (in that it is a more detail-oriented story, with more characters involved.) It tells the stories of four women of an aristocratic Osaka household, each with their personal challenges. It is a slow-paced, elegantly told story, a very beautiful and long book.

There are a few of ways to handle this:

Option A: If you are sure you do not want to take on Makioka Sisters (about four times as long, maybe longer) then you read Naomi and submit the RJE on time.

Option B: If you are not quite sure what you want to do, kick around online to find out about the two texts and/or take a look at Makioka Sisters which is in full translations on our bSpace site. Maybe you can decide based on that.

Option C: If you really like keeping your options open, you can read Naomi and submit that RJE and submit the RJE for Makioka Sisters which is due a bit later. You can still drop Makioka Sisters without penalty with this one exception: both submissions are graded and an average is used. (This is to prevent students from submitting just anything awful thing on Makioka Sisters as a place-marker to hold option the extra credit option.) The final quiz on Makioka Sisters is towards the end of the term. It is usually a short oral "quiz" where we (usually you and me, sometimes the GSIs take these interviews, too) talk about the book a little bit together, but it can take other forms. It depends on how many are involved and other scheduling issues. It is not, however, designed to be a "tough" quiz that you need to hurdle to get extra credit. It will explore the question "Did you read the text in full and with some thought?"

Option D: You can also simply start Makioka Sisters, submit the RJE and then drop the project later if you get too busy. There is no penalty (but the RJE grade counts).

What you can't do:

Join the Makioka Sisters party later. You have to submit an RJE on time to be eligible for EC.

The above is designed so that you select a text based more on interest rather than grade calculations. What I most definitely want to avoid is late-semester grade calculations where you choose Makioka Sisters just because you are worried about your grade. No thank you. This is for those interested in reading a great book.

A good reading of Makioka Sisters earns "major extra credit" which means your final grade average will be rounded up from n.3 or n.4 (depending on how well you read Makioka) rather than n.5. So a 10.3 course average might be rounded up to an 11 which means you would receive an "A-minus" in the course rather than a "B+".