flemmings | (no subject)

Some Japanese names roll off the tongue. Hikaru no Go. Houshin Engi. Otona no Mondai. Even the long ones: Zankoku na Kami ga Shihai Suru. Hi Izuru Tokoro no Tenshi. However: Hyakki Yakou Shou does not roll. The sound of it will turn an English speaker puce. Hence it's Cent Démons from now on.

I shall write Cent Démons fic eventually, when I've reread the series in its entirety (in Japanese- can't wait for the French) *and* Garth Nix's Abhorsen as well, because the correct way of handling Aoarashi is, I think, somewhere in there. Not that too much should be made of parallels, no doubt. But as a fanfic character I see Aoarashi with 'snare and delusion' written all over him. He's the kind of creation that western writers want to do things with that are not in his nature or conception. When we play paper dolls (I date myself, don't I? Barbies, then) with Japanese characters, I fear we'll want to dress him in a witty Mephistophilean frilled shirt and those hawt Miltonic Satin pantaloons and add a drooping pink bow from, oh, Ariel I assume: Mine would, sir, were I human-- but I'm not, oh bitter bitter woe is me at being denied the bliss of possessing a human soul. My own human soul, not one I happen to have eaten for breakfast. "I feel Aoarashi *should* be an ambivalent spirit aspiring to humanity malgré lui, even if all the evidence says he isn't,' to paraphrase one school of fandom that irks me mightily.

The challenge perhaps is to write a ghost story or a weird tale or a whatever, the same way Ima does- as the forefront events happening against a backdrop of social comedy. Much of the social comedy comes from the juxtaposition of the mundane accepted and the irrational otherworldly and the attempt to treat the inconveniences of the latter with the coping mechanisms of the former. Ritsu must pass his entrance exams. As a consequence Ritsu is attacked by a host of gloomy bogles that make the air in his house unbreathable. The ancient curse of the Iijimas appears again- juku!

I'm torn by this approach. My French half thinks social comedy is the best balancer these peculiarly insane stories could have, and there should be more of it. My English half is outraged at this frivolity in the middle of a serious blood-curdling genre. What next? Comic song and dance routines with the birds? (Yes. Drunken birds.)

My ponderings on possible stories to tell so far have only brought up the implied parallels of Aoarashi slumming among the humans- "your world is fascinating- your customs and your food- I learn something new every day"- and a westerner playing the Theme Park Japan game. ("Your country is fascinating- your customs and your food- and your bois/ girls are HAWT!!!') The twist might be that while the gaijin lacks what to the Japanese is common sense (often another name for common courtesy) he might well be possessed of- OK, use the French- 'une certaine sensibilité aux esprits.' But maybe not Japanese ones. Must go bone up on NFLD folklore to see what's there besides ghostly lighthouse keepers.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I was reading the result of a poll of world happiness, and again compared to other countries with comparable wealth and education the East Asian countries (China, Japan, Korea) came out worse. There is such a thing as a cultural temperament, isn't there? What I don't get about the Japanese though is that if they're generally so genki, how come they polled so low? Sometimes I think maybe the Japanese can manage this trick of being unhappy yet trying their genki best to be happy.

I didn't know that about Zhen He, but even given all that he seems remarkably well-adjusted. In generally eunuchs, if they want vengenance and power go about it in palace politics and back-stabbing etc etc. If he wanted to get out and exact revenge against the hans there are many many other methods. Building your own fleet is really one that comes to mind.

There is such a thing as cultural temperament, yes. My view is that Japanese genkiness is just the flip side of Japanese pessimism and negativity, just as American hedonism is the flip side of American puritanism. That's why Japanese genki and American hedonism feel fundamentally wrong to me: it's not the cheerfulness of a genuinely cheerful people like the Italians, or the sensuality of a genuinely sensual people like the French, it's a slightly neurotic reaction to what one is convinced is The Way It Is.

In Japan's case it works rather well in practice. Maybe the world is a howling wilderness but you put a cheerful smile on your face so as not to inconvenience other people and do your best at whatever you're doing even though it's probably pointless in the end: but in the doing at least you can be happy and efficient. This contrasts rather strongly IME with let-us-say the Russians. The Russians I've known have all been as gloomy as the stereotype says they are, and might as well all be carrying signs saying 'Why fucking bother? Piss on you anyway.'

And I note that the Japanese fondness for bright cheerful characters who are 'akarui'- without a dark thought in their heads, and from a western pov frequently without cerebral processes entirely- looks to me like the way Christians feel about natural saints. This person doesn't even have to try to be the thing we're all desperately aiming for. She doesn't have to strive to hide her negative feelings/ sinful thoughts, she simply doesn't have them in the first place. Oh fortunate she!