egoplant Wrote:Would these even be good practice? A lot of them were written 100 years ago, and hasn't the Japanese language changed a bit since then?to answer your rhetorical question: yes, i imagine the language is changing in some way as we speak and is never a static thing. however, a piece of literature written 100 years ago that people still read today must have something in it that's pretty special.
being that a language is a living breathing changing thing, then studying the way the language was written 100 years ago you might learn some historical context for the words spoken and the kanji written nowadays. i learned recently while reading reading 坊ちゃん that 言う was written 云う. you will learn about the history of the language, the history of the culture. soseki's works are layered and multi-dimensional (might i say timeless?). i think understanding social commentary and subcontext in an out-of-copyright novel in a foreign language can be a pretty rewarding achievement.