More thoughts on the Tale of Genjii

The chapter I am on deals with Genjii as an "adult", at a few years older than twelve. Genjii is now running around with women and breaking the occasional heart. He sometimes visits his wife.
This chapter is written as a conversation between three men, one of whom is Genjii, on the qualities of a perfect and desirable woman and wife. It's interesting to try and interpret this, as it was of course written by a woman. How much of this is information gleaned from court, cattiness, or personal opinion? It states in the introduction that Shikibu herself was not by birth of the higher court, and she indeed states that it is more desirable to court a pretty and talented girl of middle rank than one who's upbringing has gone wrong in the higher rank. The chapter is a long list and story of types of women in black and white terms, such as the naive ones, the household busibody, and those obsessed with etiquette(long story short-all not that great).
At times I could almost feel as though I was picking up on her personal frustration about certain practices of women and their families, especially when she talks about women having a few good qualities that are played up and leaked to the world, and their character never matching up to the story created around them.
Women are not portrayed as opressed, mearly sheltered, and have access to the arts. In fact, one of the most looked-for qualities is a talented woman, at least according to Shikibu, though she, or rather one of the men, says that ultimatley steadfastdness of personality is more desirable than talent. Women are taught to write, though whether or not they memorize the classics such as upper-class men is not clear. It is also unclear how accepted they are in the fields of painting and caligraphy. So far, however, women are not portayed as having relationships with more than one man. It may be implied in a couple of places that some of the ones around Genjii's age do.
So, yes. It is incredible to interact with these characters from the first book in the twenty-first century, to understand them and the beauty surrounding them, to appreciate how novels have evolved over time, to analyse and critique it, and occasionally observe my own modern enculturation about men and women color the text. It is a gratifying read, though a slow one.