{{italic title}} {{nihongo|'''''Hateful Things'''''|にくきもの|Nikuki mono}}, also known as '''''Infuriating Things''''', is a section of ''[[The Pillow Book]]'' by [[Sei Shōnagon]], a Japanese author and [[courtier]] of the Middle [[Heian period]] around 1000 AD.
[[File:Lady Sei Shonagon LACMA M.71.100.59a-c (2 of 3).jpg|thumb|''Lady Sei Shonagon'', [[woodblock print]] by [[Kobayashi Kiyochika]], 1896]]
==Form== ''Hateful Things'' was written in the form of a list of the author's dislikes.<ref>{{cite book|author=Marthe Jocelyn|title="Scribbling Women": True Tales from Astonishing Lives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kArrP6C8hdAC&pg=PA174|date=22 March 2011|publisher=Tundra|isbn=978-1-77049-230-1|page=174}}</ref><ref>Mark Vickers, [http://www.iu.edu/~easc/outreach/educators/literature/workshops/documents/Vickers_PillowBook.pdf "The Pillow Book – Sei Shonagon"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180921004737/http://www.iu.edu/~easc/outreach/educators/literature/workshops/documents/Vickers_PillowBook.pdf |date=2018-09-21 }} (educational notes), University of Indiana</ref> This short essay is an example of her preference for a list-based style of writing. She lists her hates within topics such as etiquette, women, men, and society. Sei slowly begins by explaining some habits she feels are intolerable that are practiced by others. She uses a comical sense in some of her points giving it a twist to what a simple list can be. At the end of the short essay we can understand that everything bothers her. The author uses hyperbole to illustrate her hates. Shonagon's tone throughout her listing is frank and critical. She writes openly about sensitive subjects: for example, one of her topics is the boorish behavior of men having affairs.<ref name="Mulhern1994">{{cite book|author=Chieko Irie Mulhern|title=Japanese Women Writers: A Bio-critical Sourcebook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q9eFckEQAMkC&pg=PA343|year=1994|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-25486-4|page=343}}</ref> She starts by stating the issue, then illustrates with an example of the issue.
==Theme== This short essay was written to express Sei Shōnagon's own dislikes. She focuses on topics such as respect, the poor, children, and parenting. She criticizes practices of her time and place to inform the reader what others may think when they fall into her categories. Her purpose of writing this list is to entertain the reader with a comical view on a need for change. Sei writes with a cautious tone of dreaming of change within society. She describes the way Japanese society functioned and her opinion towards it.
==Culture and time period== Sei Shōnagon was a Japanese lady in the court of [[Fujiwara no Teishi|Empress Consort Teishi]] (定子) during the tenth century. Her exact birth dates are unknown. She lived during the Heian era, when there was much literary activity, and she found herself in rivalry with the novelist [[Murasaki Shikibu|Lady Murasaki]].<ref>{{cite book|title=World Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wbu68fPr9ygC&pg=PA107|year=2010|publisher=Goodwill Trading Co., Inc.|isbn=978-971-574-160-6|pages=107–}}</ref> Sei was an outstanding and independent woman, who used her skills to be outspoken and wrote ''Hateful Things'' with no filters. During this time-period she also wrote several other pieces to express her opinions in a similar form to ''Hateful Things'', including ''Depressing Things'' and ''Elegant Things''.<ref name="Dalby2009">{{cite book|author=Liza Dalby|title=East Wind Melts the Ice: A Memoir Through the Seasons|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VBR6h5tZ9toC&pg=PA22|date=1 February 2009|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-25991-1|page=22}}</ref> This short essay is part of her famous piece ''The Pillow Book'', a meditation on her personal beliefs about social life.
==Imitations== Modern-day literature students sometimes choose or are tasked to imitate the form of ''Hateful Things''.<ref name="Glazer2012">{{cite book|author=Francine S. Glazer|title=Blended Learning: Across the Disciplines, Across the Academy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rqkmBs2rL6IC&pg=PA96|date=12 March 2012|publisher=Stylus Publishing, LLC.|isbn=978-1-57922-719-7|page=96}}</ref><ref name="LoweZemliansky">{{cite book|author1=Charles Lowe|author2=Pavel Zemliansky|title=Writing Spaces: Readings on Writings, Vol. 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u4VPAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA297|publisher=The Saylor Foundation|page=297|id=GGKEY:ZF56GEHS8CD}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.basicincome.com/bp/hatefulthings.htm English text of "Hateful Things"]
[[Category:Late Old Japanese texts]] {{essay-stub}}