Just a funny aside. I have a little crush on one of the Japanese staff here and last night this old Gary Larson cartoon popped into my mind. Had to share it 'cause this is really how it is (though the genders would be reversed):
Oh well...shikata ga nai (it can't be helped...)
I can't think of a better place to announce, again, my discovery of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's stories earlier this year. Have you read him?
ReplyDelete=======================================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com
Hi Peter,
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting on my blog. Apparently it's quite the feat...some glitch in my blog settings that I'm still trying to work on.
I haven't heard of Akutagawa, but would love to check him out. Is he a short story writer?
He wrote short stories, including the two on which Rashomon is based. I put up a pair of posts about him some time ago include basic information and link or two that might help.
ReplyDelete=======================================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com
Nothing to do with Akutagawa or the Far Side, but I think Peter and I can both comment here because we have Google passwords. Random commenters may meet some obstacle or not know how to get past it.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I just sent that comment as anonymous as an experiment, not logged in, but it still worked
ReplyDeleteThanks for trying Seana....
ReplyDeletePeter, of course! Akutagawa's "In the Woods!" And here I am in a Kurosawa online film club and I forgot that name...shame on me.
Now I really must read those stories!
Julie, you might try Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories in the Penguin Classics edition. It comes with a interesting, opinionated introduction by Haruki Murakami that situates Akutagawa within twentieth-century Japanese literature and was, for me, like a short course in the subject.
ReplyDelete.
I'll second the Akutagawa recommendation. Really fun stuff. I also just finished reading Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa. It was a terribly unsettling coming of age novel.
ReplyDeleteSo desu ne?
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas, thanks for the information. Speaking of Murakami, Japan is in national mourning right now because Murkakami didn't get picked for the Nobel Prize in Literature, again.
"At least one bar in Tokyo hosted a special Murakami Nobel gathering for so-called “Harukists,” the label at home and abroad for Murakami’s most ardent fans. They were shown clutching copies of his books and framed photographs of the author, and half-finished glasses of wine and beer. Only the World Cup and the Olympics have occasioned similar events in the past. For the first time, oddsmakers, scholars, critics, readers, and publishing pros in and beyond Japan seemed united in nodding their belief that this was “his year.” But it wasn’t. China’s Mo Yan won, and the disappointed Harukists managed only sighs, followed by half-hearted applause for their neighbor’s accolade. “I’m very happy the winner was someone from Asia,” one female Harukist told the Mainichi newspaper on her way home, polite to the end."
However, Murakami famously said after not winning, "I don't want prizes. That means you're finished."
Sorry, forgot to cite that paragraph...'twas from the New Yorker.
ReplyDelete