Neojaponisme.com — a new web journal from the founder of Néomarxisme and friends.
Néojaponisme a web journal on Japan and elsewhere
Neojaponisme's staff blog
- MY LITTLE DEAD DICK (0)
by Ian LYNAM - Tokyo is All Fuzz-y (12)
by W. David MARX
©2008 Neojaponisme
September 3, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Looks nice. Congrats!
September 4, 2007 at 2:00 am
I don’t really care for the font.
September 4, 2007 at 2:31 am
Images with white backgrounds (such as the one in your manifesto, there) look a little strange on the off-white background. A light one-pixel border might help set them off properly. I don’t think this looks half bad:
.entry img {
border:1px solid #DDC;
}
Otherwise, I look forward to the new project, once some content appears.
September 4, 2007 at 2:47 am
Looks great!! Glad to see something like this.
September 4, 2007 at 3:57 am
I don’t care if i offend anyone, or look like an idiot and no gaijin will ever nod their head to me on the street again but WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT DESIGN. wake up people !
–Celebrate diversity and inconsistency!
Oh, let ten thousand flaming Swastikas shatter my browser instead !
September 4, 2007 at 4:49 am
The manifesto certainly sounds promising. If these promises can be delivered on, count me in as a frequent reader…
September 4, 2007 at 7:11 am
Looking forward to the new site!
September 4, 2007 at 8:52 am
The new site looks great, and your call-to-arms manifesto is as inflammatory as it is inspiring. This notion of “we” seems to be a wide-open question — is it just “you” or is it any western expat who takes a constructively critical view of Japan?
September 4, 2007 at 10:51 am
Do western expats(read English teachers) actually take a CONSTRUCTIVE critical view of Japan?
Let’s hope Neojaponism would persuade them to do so!
September 4, 2007 at 11:18 am
whats with all the haters.. seriously.. that is just hating for the sake of hating.. sad sad people..
September 4, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Oops,Sorry trevor.I had some Japan Today discussion forum guys on my mind….
I am looking forward for this new project as much as you do.No hard feelings.
September 4, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Liking the new site. I really think that getting it translated into Japanese is going to take this thing in a whole different direction.
I don’t think that Aceface is a hater (alin maybe) and he has a point here. Are the expat critiques really constructive when other expats are the audience? That’s more like having a critical conversation behind the back of the person being criticized. The Mutantfrog blog sets a good tone (not all posts are Japan posts, little generalization) and “Neomarxisme” has managed that at its best.
The manifesto does a very good job of describing what Japan is in the context of Marxy’s world view but it does not really answer the “why Japan?” question. Is Japan set up as the critical object because of a tendency for outsiders to make it into a rhetorical utopia? If so, I think that would be a fine point to make up front.
I also can’t resist getting a lil’ theory dig in here - Said identified the tendency of Orientalist scholars to represent “the East” as backward and its people as easily dominated by their leaders. This is the stereotype of Asian societies going back to the Greeks. And here you are using the f-word (feudalism) - beloved of the Japanese left but potentially putting you in Said’s Orientalist category.
I’m not seriously calling you out on this (I think that I know what you mean by feudal or worse and we’d be sure to find common ground on this if we nutted it out) but since you’re as up on the pomo-lingo as anyone that I’ve seen writing online, this gives me a chance to ask a question I’ve always wanted to ask somebody - what makes you not an Orientalist?
I know that you are not but I’m hoping that your answer can help me to look at Orientalism - and the new site - in a new way.
September 4, 2007 at 12:27 pm
“WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT DESIGN. wake up people !”
Alin, mate, I’ll still nod as we pass, but what specifically enrages you so about the design?
Judging from your gritty, “let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may” aesthetic, I kind of thought you’d like the look of neoretrojaponikanizme. No?
September 4, 2007 at 1:28 pm
First off, I think an audience of other expats has its limits but is not by definition non-constructive. Transmitting ideas in Japanese would be a completely different animal, and would actually bypass the “English teachers” who are in fact one of the most prominent forces in shaping and reinforcing Western opinion of Japan.
“what makes you not an Orientalist?” “why Japan?”
I am unconvinced that there is anything close to an entire movement among the Western population in Japan that has any real appreciation for the country that isn’t mixed with some condescension or alternatively adoration (i.e. Orientalist tendencies). This is the same basic mindset that has prevailed since not so long after the end of the War (and just maybe since the times of Ancient Greece).
The notion that one can “fight” Orientalism assumes that it isn’t already inborn, and I think that is wrong. Every Westerner in Japan stands on the shoulders of the Orientalists before them and therefore must fight those intellectual demons. And it is despite this inherent shortcoming or institutional racism that we can make some contribution.
And it does not follow that those who harbor Orientalist feelings must be fought tooth and nail. They too are lawyers, translators, computer programmers, and yes English teachers, and their occupational contribution to Japan aside, they also make up their own small part of the West’s Japan narrative. While many of the “neo-orientalist” ideas must be respectfully rejected, they must be respected because there’s no way you can tell me that you’ve never dealt with them yourself. I’ve always found the progressive denial of any politically incorrect thought to be disingenuous, and as we are knocking down trees and planting fair elms and what have you, we might as well try and deal with our own baggage at the same time.
“in Japanese”
For me, Mutant Frog has always been about my own exploration of themes that I am interested in but am somewhat ignorant of, so going behind Japan’s back can be pretty convenient if admittedly limiting.
Talking about Japanese society in English is a completely different exercise than it is in Japanese and would necessarily mean very different things. For example, in English an obvious target would “Orientalism” among the Westerners themselves, while in Japanese speaking about the same “we” would require engaging the Japanese stereotypes of the West (the Pakkuns, the Dave Spectors, the Zomahons, the Ben Fulforts) and would lack any of the punch of the already prominent (translated) foreign commentators in the Japanese media (the Mike Greens, the Richard Katzses, the Joseph Nyes). In a culture where prestige counts and power is worshipped, a group of glorified English teachers may lack credibility.
Because the reverse of “why Japan?” is “why should anyone listen to us?” Westerners are a tiny fraction of the population of Japan, but they receive a vastly disproportionate amount of attention and praise.
Separately, apart from Marxy’s own diligence, I see little capacity from this “we” to engage in the practice of digging into Japan’s taboos. Marxy talks about ending “feudalism” (which is often used in Japanese to talk about Johnny’s business practices, etc) in certain aspects of Japanese society. Where can a group of Westerners (who on the site are so far mostly graphic designers) supposed to succeed where Japanese journalists have seen their careers and even lives ruined because of their efforts to say for example that Hosoki Kazuko is mobbed up?
But that said, I feel that the answer to questions like this can only be obtained through practice, and that is what is so exciting about this project.
September 4, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Great. I’m gonna add it to my live bookmarks here. Gambatte!
September 4, 2007 at 1:54 pm
“Transmitting ideas in Japanese would be a completely different animal, and would actually bypass the “English teachers” who are in fact one of the most prominent forces in shaping and reinforcing Western opinion of Japan.”
So do you see your writing as offering constructive criticisms to trump Joe Nova Teacher’s un-constructive ones? If it is, you do a good job of it. The first thing that brought me to Mutantfrog was the very good job that you guys did of covering the whole “Kuni ga Moeru” Nanking censorship thing back in the day - putting in a reasonable word when lots of other bloggers were screaming bloody murder.
“Every Westerner in Japan stands on the shoulders of the Orientalists before them and therefore must fight those intellectual demons. And it is despite this inherent shortcoming or institutional racism that we can make some contribution.”
You go a bit father than I would here (into determinism) but good point.
“respectfully rejected, they must be respected because there’s no way you can tell me that you’ve never dealt with them yourself.”
You can respect some (Marxy’s - because I agree with half of what he says and read him because of the half I don’t agree with) but why the guy drinking at a pub in Yokohama telling you “Hey, mate. These Jappers are like a bunch of robots.” (spilling 19th century racist tripe while trying to convince you of how smart he is to have figured out these strange Japanese)? And don’t we owe it to ourselves to stay away from this mindset by abandoning its binaries (feudal East, progressive West) or at least defining them as such?
“In a culture where prestige counts and power is worshipped.”
Did you just describe every culture on the planet?
“I see little capacity from this “we” to engage in the practice of digging into Japan’s taboos.”
I think that the best way to do that is to highlight Japanese efforts to slam taboos and myths (be they efforts in academia or shukanshi). That way, there is more “engagement” and less scouting round the back of Japanese discourse.
There is also another point that has to be kept in mind here - having a blog with a critical focus invites overcompensation, which in turn validates the critical approach. For example, if I go by a blog and see someone say something overly general that I don’t agree with (eg. no social mobility in Japan), I’m far more likely to get fired up and give what I see as the other side. Likewise, I’ve seen anime blogs where someone will be too positive (anime roolz, so much better than anything in America) and feel motivated to stick up for the States (with something like - “seen a Kubrick movie?”). So perhaps Neomarxisme, through its tearing down of utopian imagery, has been motivating others to build it up.
September 4, 2007 at 2:00 pm
rarely have i been so upset by, well, graphic design. i did before express some concern here about neo-neomarxisme becomming ‘designed’ but this is a different thing alltogether.
evidently this is not the right place to describe my feeling but march ahead into the “Brand New Century” you revolutionaries. a (well, indeed, designed) webpage did what hours of bitter, often hostile debate couldn’t so count me out.
trevor, mate, you’ve seriously got to chill out with your hate-paranoia. other than my short comment, which has nothing to do with hate anyway, everybody’s saying it’s nice and promising which even i don’t disagree.
September 4, 2007 at 2:08 pm
“evidently this is not the right place to describe my feeling but march ahead into the “Brand New Century” you revolutionaries. a (well, indeed, designed) webpage did what hours of bitter, often hostile debate couldn’t so count me out.”
Well that clears things up.
September 4, 2007 at 2:36 pm
“So do you see your writing as offering constructive criticisms to trump Joe Nova Teacher’s un-constructive ones?”
What I actually meant to say is that to write only in Japanese would be to miss out on the opportunity to *write for* and thus influence the Joe Nova audience (because of their importance it might be nice to have them say something worthwhile). But of course I do see my writing as an alternative to sources like your friend in Yokohama.
And Yokohama guy is an extreme case of irresponsible pap, but where does one draw the line? Is the Outpost Nine (of “gaijin power” fame) guy discounted because his Japanese isn’t perfect? Is Ampontan dismissed because he’s a rightwinger?
“So perhaps Neomarxisme, through its tearing down of utopian imagery, has been motivating others to build it up.”
So if we criticize, people overcompensate, and if we don’t no one’s interested? Whats the whole point then??
This new site comes at an interesting time for me because I just got done dealing with a now former coworker who is known (in a very minor way) as a respected commentator and serious person in the expat community but who ended up being a complete fraud when put to the test. I am writing this now because we still have to clean up the mess she left behind and I am procrastinating on it. The experience has left me very mistrustful of those who present themselves as experts on Japan and may even on the surface have some decent things to say about certain things.
September 4, 2007 at 2:45 pm
I’m really excited to see where this goes! Some glimmers of hope would be a welcome ingredient to the chunky stew pot we have had going here.
“Do western expats(read English teachers) actually take a CONSTRUCTIVE critical view of Japan?”
Well, maybe not the ones who don’t try to speak Japanese and set out to recreate all the comforts of home, endlessly discuss “Lost” and “24″ etc. Shadows in the cave…
Aceface, I can’t speak for the whole contingent, as I’m one of the fools who stayed and planted roots here, but I wouldn’t write off the JETs and Eikaiwa people so quickly. Granted, there may be a lot of opportunists, yellow-cab chasers, and endless working-holiday types, but there are also quite a few undercover artists, scholars, and scientists trying to comprehend your nation, reconcile their preconceived notions, and contribute in some way, while slugging it out as 契約社員 with dubious career prospects. As you said, I think that discussions such as the ones here, and to be had over there, will be essential to reaching more of that group, as well as everyone else.
Marxy, I’m stoked! Is your current blog going to continue or be scuttled? I just hope the manifesto’s rhetoric is made manifest in the coming months.
Good luck!
September 4, 2007 at 2:49 pm
someone who helped guide me into/though my life.. once said.
“if you don’t have a better idea, shut up.”
i now aim this at alin,
shut up. all you do is complain, and never offer up a better or different idea. other then the proposed thought or idea is wrong.
that is “hating”.. not crituqe.. or anything even remotely like it. i don’t even think ideas need to be better. just even another idea of how or what. anything. you lack it all. your a hatin’ machine”.’ your use of caps sealed the deal.
everyone else may continue on with this crisis. as i’m apparantly just totally confused at this point.
September 4, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Lost and 24 down, Sopranos and the Wire (which just finished filming!) up
September 4, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Lost and 24 down, Sopranos and the Wire (which just finished filming!) up
September 4, 2007 at 3:35 pm
Since I ignited the debate,I want express my feeling of apology for anyone who felt offended and certainly I should not put any pejorative term for “English teachers”.There are moments in my life that I forget it was them who taught me how to speak and write in English in the first place.
It’s my habit of thinking certain bloggers as close friends(I mean I’ve been sending comments for almost everyday in the past 10 months to both Neomarxisme and Mutant frog Travelogue,Naturally I feel close to David and Adamu than the guy who works next to me in the office!)so I’ve send rather rude comment occasionary, feeling I could get away with it.
Thus I’ve responded instantly to the comment by Adamu “your call-to-arms manifesto is as inflammatory as it is inspiring. This notion of “we” seems to be a wide-open question — is it just “you” or is it any western expat who takes a constructively critical view of Japan? “.
I enjoy commenting in a blog(wriiten and moderated by other people’s effort) for I get to know what other people think about an idea and that is untangible when you are working in the mainstream media which is usually one-way traffic.
I also had some undigested feeling toward the tendency of the idea on Japan and the perception of social reality here is being shaped solely by the hand of expats/English teachers/foreign correspondents(read Gaijins)much much long.
So there was always some tiny Genies inside me demanding to write counter-argument in aggressive manner,calling to fight for the good name of the rising sun.Which can eitherly be an overkill to your opponent when you are commenting in handle name.
It was my bad and very un-Japanese thing to do.I’m sorry to those who were offended by me in the past threads for that.
I will learn how to behave in the future.
September 4, 2007 at 3:58 pm
It is interesting that even Ace has gotten into the game of ranking English teachers on the bottom rung of the gaijin hierarchy. It’s not fair but there are a lot of bad apples that spoil the bunch.
Still Aceface the last thing we need is for you to behave. Your comments are always appreciated.
September 4, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Am I the only one here who has fantasized about holding a big, gay, naked bash for the entire “cast” of neomarxisme? The only article of “clothing” allowed would be one of those “Hello, my name is…” tags on everyone’s freshly waxed chests.
I’m not gay or anything; I just think it would be neat.
September 4, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Maybe leave out the gay part? And the wax?
September 4, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Maybe leave out the gay part? And the wax? And um, the nudity?
September 4, 2007 at 5:10 pm
“Maybe leave out the gay part? And the wax? And um, the nudity?”
Yeah, I can see how this might affect attendance. How about a Cool Biz theme instead?
September 4, 2007 at 7:32 pm
“It is interesting that even Ace has gotten into the game of ranking English teachers on the bottom rung of the gaijin hierarchy.”
As I said,I take that back and you know what,my mom is an English teacher back in the day.Could be one of those Freudian thing behind all this.
Talking about “gay”,I have two things come to my mind relating the issue at hand.
I let a French guy come to my apartment who was teaching French in Fukuoka in’97.He was friend of a friend and I liked him a lot,fun to talk with,very polite,he would definitely liked Neojaponisme project because he himself wanted to start a magazine or free paper in French about cultural and social criticism on Japanese society(this was before things called “blog” appeared in this world,children).
Never knew he was a gay until he told me so when we went to Hong Kong together.He was afraid that I would’ve kick him out from my flat instantly or something.Anyway He stayed in my apartment for over all eight months.
But what I want to talk is not about his sexuality but the money for plane ticket he owed me when he went back to Paris.He was supposed to be paying me back when he come back to Japan,but eventually it turned out that he got a job in Grunoble and decided not to come back.
While I’m happy for him finding some opportunity in his native country,I haven’t heard from him for 8 years now,let alone any money back.
Not that I’m saying I use different name for the french fries after that or want to enlarge this personal incident into any thesis about expats.But the experience has left me very mistrustful of those who present themselves as expat in Japan and may even on the surface have some decent things to say about certain things for a while too,Adamu.
I’ve been thinking I’m the only guy who fall in the trap of “being too nice to foreigner” thing.But more I hear about people around me,I hear pretty many story relating trouble with expat such as rending money/helping in business at your expenses.Something you will not hear on Japan related English blogsphere.There is always other side in a coin.
I’m very much aware that this is not a serious issue compared to what Laotree was referring,the dubious career prospects the expats had been offered by the society and they have to endure it, though.
Another thing.That came up to my mind while reading M-Bone-Adamu argument on orientalism and critical attitude to the japanese society.
“Every Westerner in Japan stands on the shoulders of the Orientalists before them and therefore must fight those intellectual demons. ”
I was actually quite surprised with there are no mentioning in many Japan blogs on the death of Edward Seidensticker (he was a gay too)on August 27 in Tokyo .He was a great Japanese lit translator and harsh critic on many aspects of Japanese society(even wrote two books dedicated to the issue)and lived in the life of love/hate relation with Japan all his life.His symptom was named as Seidensticker syndrome by Edwin Reischauer.
I think his life is worth discussing because he is in a way an orientalist for he had translated Genji tales and Mishima and Kawabata.But he was always interested in the current things too and never “gave in”to the Japanese in his way of thinking and attitude.For that he was not exactly loved nor financially supported by the Japanese society unlike his friend and rival Donald Keene.
September 4, 2007 at 8:31 pm
The reason I didn’t mention Seidenstecker is because I know next to nothing about him (he was already an old man by the time I arrived in Japan), even less than I know about Donald Keene. I don’t know what this says about me or other bloggers, except it makes me wonder how much we are inheritors of a legacy if we are only dimly aware of (and probably don’t care much about) those who came before us.
As for your experience with the French man, that sucks. I certainly know of one doozy of a story off the top of my head (though it involved an American woman scamming a Korean woman who lived in Japan) but I would agree that this sort of thing is definitely a part of the overall Japanese-foreign interaction. And you have a point that someone like me would be reluctant to talk about the trouble he may or may not have caused in his younger days.
But if we are to go there, why don’t we just admit that the story that Neojaponisme wants to tell isn’t really the most relevant, i.e. Chinese/Korean/Brazilian immigrants are the most likely group of foreigners in Japan to have lasting impacts on Japanese society out of sheer numbers and the role they play in the economy.
The influence that Westerners who live in Japan hold is directly proportionate to the need for Japanese people to learn (or in my case, use) English, their interest in foreign goods, their exploitation of foreign technological advances, the US-Japan security relationship (literally so for military and ex-military people), and other such factors that have almost nothing to do with the individuals themselves. That the Westerners who live here adapt, understand, interpret, and then make a contribution to Japanese society (a positive one, presumably) is almost besides the point. I’m going to sound like a right-wing bastard here, but let’s be realistic - Japan is run by and for Japanese people and it is all things considered getting along just fine without the input of some lollygaggers and scholarship beneficiaries. For us to pretend (or exploit those Japanese people) who think otherwise is to make use of that so-called “gaijin power” - and let he who has no sin throw the first stone.
Getting back to this manifesto, Marxy does mention the need to reject “fame.” I would say that fame includes the cachet that Japanese people attach to Westerners and the assumed superiority that Westerners are fond of attaching to themselves. If “we” are to act positively in Japan, we should do it on the basis of our merit, not simply because we are that white guy who’s a Japan otaku and isn’t that nice he takes an interest in little old Japan.
And in the end, if we hold people up to standards like what I just mentioned, there might be no more than a few dozen people left, and they would probably all be half-Japanese MTV VJs or the current head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan. “We” are a fundamentally flawed group of people, enjoying the hospitality of a country whose people are overall friendly but at best have mixed feelings about our presence. “We” simultaneously exploit our elevated status and then complain when when we are subjected to negative discrimination. I think the best thing is to examine that honestly and try and live with ourselves just as everyone goes on with their contradictory existences.
BTW, much like David Chase (who fled to France for the weekend the last episode of The Sopranos was aired), Marxy seems to be away while his baby is getting torn to shreds. Where are you already?
September 4, 2007 at 8:32 pm
Hi, I was out of the country.
Re: design
For the time being, I want to play with the idea of 1920s art journals. Sorry for those not “down.”
The manifesto itself is a parody of this era - no one is even picking up on the Marinetti pakuri!
Re: Orientalism
I am not sure why “feudalism” should be the sole privilege of Orientalists. Does it not describe a certain state of economic relations in society? Sure, there is probably some (terribly wicked!) ideas of forward progress in not advocating feudalism, but I am going to go out on a limb and say that land reform in the 1940s is pretty crucial to making Japan what it is now. I am not sure why that eradication of feudalistic practice is not debated wildly as a terrible insult to “Japanese culture.”
I think you can call basically everyone “Orientalist” in the Japan debate - even the Japanese. Erring on the side of objective numerical analysis is probably the only way to get around it, although those guys are also criticized for not realizing that a comment on Japan’s interest rates is a direct arrow to the heart of bushido spirit. In the end, all these words are just tags to take the wind out of enemy arguments. At least they have been here…
Re: Neojaponisme
I am not sure I made this clear enough, but one of the reasons I wanted to move over is that I want to kind of be more quiet for a while and have time to work on tackling bigger things in greater scope. We have some really great stuff lined up (especially our first week-long feature) and this makes me a lot happier as a free content provider than just being allowed to talk in autopilot mode.
Re: Neomarxisme.
I will keep it up for a while before incorporating it into Neojaponisme. It won’t die, but the action will be over there.
September 4, 2007 at 8:34 pm
And you know, I’m such an airhead I didn’t even realize it was *that* Seidenstecker
September 4, 2007 at 9:06 pm
“The manifesto itself is a parody of this era - no one is even picking up on the Marinetti pakuri!”
because it was lame. ^______^
September 4, 2007 at 9:29 pm
OK, so that ’stayed up all night’ thing didn’t come from outer space. It’s been too long since sophomore year of college!
http://www.cscs.umich.edu/%7Ecrshalizi/T4PM/futurist-manifesto.html
I prefer this part:
Literature has up to now magnified pensive immobility, ecstasy and slumber. We want to exalt movements of aggression, feverish sleeplessness, the double march, the perilous leap, the slap and the blow with the fist.
September 4, 2007 at 9:45 pm
“So if we criticize, people overcompensate, and if we don’t no one’s interested? Whats the whole point then??”
The note that you guys (Marxy too) have been hitting 90% of the time is that of critical but not over-critical. In that case, you generate profitable discussion, not overcompensation. Bringing in a bunch of different perspectives is a nice end goal.
“ended up being a complete fraud when put to the test.”
Could you elaborate on that without going into personal details?
“mistrustful of those who present themselves as experts on Japan”
Yeah, people shouldn’t really be going around presenting themselves in that way. It is really up to others to give you that cred.
Amen about “The Wire” - everybody should watch that show.
“It is interesting that even Ace has gotten into the game of ranking English teachers on the bottom rung of the gaijin hierarchy. It’s not fair but there are a lot of bad apples that spoil the bunch.”
Very true. I think that it is the tendency for them to get together and hate on Japan that bugs me. Most of them are fine one on one. The thing that really gets me is how different the English teacher and Japanese “working holiday” mindsets can be. I’ve hung out with Joe Nova in Japan and Ichiro Working Holiday in Canada, New Zealand, etc. and I really like how young Japanese don’t feel pressured in any way to analyze and criticize their host society. The JET and eikaiwa crowd have a tendency (with no language skills in most cases) to get involved in games of Japan interpretation one-up-manship.
“except it makes me wonder how much we are inheritors of a legacy if we are only dimly aware of (and probably don’t care much about) those who came before us.”
Don’t worry, nobody is asking you guys to write/think like academics on your blogs. Gawd knows some of us come to these blogs to see what “real people” have to say, not to read more academlish. However, Keene, Richie, make for fascinating study and I’d recommend that you check out some of their autobiographical writing some time.
September 4, 2007 at 9:54 pm
“I am not sure why “feudalism” should be the sole privilege of Orientalists. Does it not describe a certain state of economic relations in society? Sure, there is probably some (terribly wicked!) ideas of forward progress in not advocating feudalism, but I am going to go out on a limb and say that land reform in the 1940s is pretty crucial to making Japan what it is now. I am not sure why that eradication of feudalistic practice is not debated wildly as a terrible insult to “Japanese culture.”
Nothing feudal about the landholding in the 1940s. Most people who ended up in indentured relationships did so because of debt during the 20s or 30s. It was purely a class / wealth amassed thing. Feudalism is more of a system of social relationships and mutual obligations. You could say that this exists in Johnny’s or the LDP, but for matters of wealth concentration (Japan being better off than the USA or UK in terms of equitable distribution) I don’t think that the f-word is quite appropriate.
While using “feudalism” is not sole privilege of Orientalists, its use as a generalization to denigrate “the East” has been a major side of Orientalist rhetoric. Are you sure that you’re not doing that? Really, next to nothing in Japanese society today resembles either Japanese feudalism (which peaked under the Tokugawa) or European feudalism (pre-1400).
September 4, 2007 at 9:54 pm
“I am not sure why “feudalism” should be the sole privilege of Orientalists. Does it not describe a certain state of economic relations in society? Sure, there is probably some (terribly wicked!) ideas of forward progress in not advocating feudalism, but I am going to go out on a limb and say that land reform in the 1940s is pretty crucial to making Japan what it is now. I am not sure why that eradication of feudalistic practice is not debated wildly as a terrible insult to “Japanese culture.”
Nothing feudal about the landholding in the 1940s. Most people who ended up in indentured relationships did so because of debt during the 20s or 30s. It was purely a class / wealth amassed thing. Feudalism is more of a system of social relationships and mutual obligations. You could say that this exists in Johnny’s or the LDP, but for matters of wealth concentration (Japan being better off than the USA or UK in terms of equitable distribution) I don’t think that the f-word is quite appropriate.
While using “feudalism” is not sole privilege of Orientalists, its use as a generalization to denigrate “the East” has been a major side of Orientalist rhetoric. Are you sure that you’re not doing that? Really, next to nothing in Japanese society today resembles either Japanese feudalism (which peaked under the Tokugawa) or European feudalism (pre-1400).
September 5, 2007 at 3:36 am
“The manifesto itself is a parody of this era - no one is even picking up on the Marinetti pakuri!”
I’ve known it,but had no time getting at it,because my comment suddenly turned everyone starts John-Woo-ing at each other.
You know YMO had done that some 30 years ago….
“It is interesting that even Ace has gotten into the game of ranking…”
OK,Please.I’m a changed man now.I now think English teachers are the salt of the earth.
“However, Keene, Richie, make for fascinating study and I’d recommend that you check out some of their autobiographical writing some time.”
I can’t recommend Seidenstecker’s “Tokyo Central”.Too long and boring.He already wrote a book called “My 50 years war with Japan”(In Japanese)and also “Things I like and things I do not like about Japan”(What kind of a title is that?Also in Japanese)are much more easy and “fun” reading.
The guy,I must say had a pretty confused idea and life,and as I “heard”from an American living in Ueno who had some intersection with Seidensticker that he is a very difficult man to be with.Something I’ve always felt after I read his essays and “Tokyo Central” is full of complaint about thousand of things both public and private.
Seidensticker’s lively portrayal can be seen in Donald Richie’s(another gay expat from GHQ days)
“The Japan Journals”.Worth reading if you are an expat in Tokyo,Not that I liked it that much,but I read it for the gossip searching.
I wasn’t particulary interested in Donald Keene,partly because he is well accepted by the Japanese compared to Seidensticker(by the way he is a gay too,if my memory is accurate)but a book that he edited with Otis Cary(former Prof.of Doshinsya,now dead)called “From a ruined empire”is a great read.It is a collection of letters from Keenes warbuddys who were U.S Army translators and splattered elsewhere in the Pacific theater, right after the war for disarming the Japanese military.Keene and others wrote vivid experience they had with Japanese.One of the most striking part was in China,where Keene had interrogated an officer who was very polite and later got some partial evidence that he had conducted canibalism of a POW.
and one last thing,M-Bone.Check this months issue of Eureka.It is featuring Yasuhiko Yoshikazu and he is taking about anime/manga and representation of war.
September 5, 2007 at 4:45 am
> YMO had done that some 30 years ago…
everybody has done it , but to also see it framed in fkn lizitskian design - and even that done not with irony but with the fascist arrogance/confidence of a 00s highly skilled star web designer is just 最fkn悪. the andre the giant guy is possibly the last person in history to have gotten away with that (a highly debatable thing itself).
i actually came back here now here to apologize but i can’t bring myself to it.
still commenting here but there’s no fucking way i’m clicking on that link again unless i have strong reason to believe things have changed. not that anybody cares, for sure.
However as Joseph says first it “Looks nice.”
i’m not even starting to think about the potential (in)efficiency of framing what appears to be a serious enterprise with one big bad joke but i’m inclined to think it might work better as an art project.
anyway, best of luck with it.
September 5, 2007 at 5:14 am
[…1. We no longer want to hear the echoes of our own voices bouncing off the cocoon walls! We invite a host of authors and speakers, artists and thinkers, professors and students, enemies, compatriots, dissidents, and traitors to speak their mind in the virtual pages of our humble journal…]
Is this for real? I demur. Any self respecting journal ought to place a ban on posts emanating from anonymous broadband connected caves. Down with broadband connected hermits, up with hip, fashionable youngstas and their hip IP addresses.
BTW - I luuuuuv the design. You know what they say:
Red and Black
Friend of Marx…
Luuuuuuv ur policy page:
http://neojaponisme.com/category-about/contact/
Godspeed old sport! Godspeed!
September 5, 2007 at 10:42 am
Okay, Chuckles.
September 5, 2007 at 11:09 am
“You could say that this exists in Johnny’s or the LDP, but for matters of wealth concentration (Japan being better off than the USA or UK in terms of equitable distribution) I don’t think that the f-word is quite appropriate.”
Interesting enough, but again, my possible mis-usage caused discussion rather than just meant as an dialogue-stopping insult. That’s the idea.
“still commenting here but there’s no fucking way i’m clicking on that link again unless i have strong reason to believe things have changed.”
Okay, alin.
I am not sure why the red/black limited stuff is somehow automatically a Marxist or Constructivist thing when we are aping the limited printing palette of a certain few decades. Check out the Iowa Dada archives if not convinced. Otherwise, sure, dogmatically refuse to view the new site.
September 5, 2007 at 12:17 pm
“not just meant as an dialogue-stopping insult. That’s the idea.”
Hey, that’s why I mentioned it and keep coming back to the blog in the first place.
Incidentally, I should have mentioned that the “feudal” word was being thrown around by GHQ to describe Japanese landholding patterns but most scholars now agree that this was backwardass rhetoric. What they were describing as “feudal” was really analogous to American “sharecropping”. In addition, the two phenomena both appeared in the same period and were due to the same international economic depression.
BTW, your list of things wrong with Japan had me on board until feudalism. If we are listing “isms” wrong with Japan “workaholism” would be near the top of my list.
In any case, I know that you are not an Orientalist and the easiest way to defend yourself against that charge would be to challenge a critic to find a way that you are supporting a Western power project to dominate Japan. That’s the core of Said’s definition and I don’t see you doing it. In fact, you may actually be challenging a potential Orientalist push by drawing attention to various consumer quirks, and their sketchy origins, that multi-nationals would very much like to see as an essential part of the “Japanese mind”.
Ace - Thanks for the Eureka tip. It will be on my next amazon.co.jp order.
September 5, 2007 at 12:46 pm
“challenge a critic to find a way that you are supporting a Western power project to dominate Japan.”
I think it has been suggested that my being anti-oligopoly is akin to being a neo-liberal free marketer or that any challenge to the subordination of individual rights to state power is an attack on essential components of Japanese culture. I don’t agree, but I think basically any position on Japan can be cast as imperialist or Orientalist simply on the virtue of the speaker being from the Western First World.
September 5, 2007 at 2:28 pm
>dogmatically refuse to view the new site.
i might get over it (you know , progressive stuff is always a bit hard to deal with for the elderly) but then it might be better for everyone if i didn’t.
September 5, 2007 at 4:59 pm
dada archives
constructivist, dada, whatever their vectors merge. they did even at the time. while i do think that on some level our times might be compared to the period exactly one century before those things happened
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0520223381/ref=sib_dp_pt/102-2254937-6695361#reader-link
and why is that the idea of a kid in harajuku wearing a swastika tshirt is less disturbing than seeing 20thC revolutionary stuff applied with corporate precission and confidence?
or might it be that it’s exactly that corporate precission and confidence that you guys are bending in your revolutionary pursuit because we have to admit just fucking around with visual symbols and their meanings won’t take you very far these days?
September 5, 2007 at 5:01 pm
sorry forgot to finish the first sentence ..
September 5, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Fun link.
I am not sure why this site is “corporate” seeing that there is no company or funding behind it. Do I taint everything because I have a job? That seems like it would disqualify a large number of people from ever saying anything.
“we have to admit just fucking around with visual symbols and their meanings won’t take you very far these days?”
I am not sure that our sole point is that we are “fucking around” with visual symbols. I started this new site to provide a variety of content. We have decided to frame that content in a certain art direction. I can see that you are not a fan of the specific direction, but we are not ARTISTS whose main product is the design itself. For me, those art journals of yore just happen to be a convenient reference and aspiration.
I am not sure there’s really a winning position for me within the construct of your judgment.
September 5, 2007 at 5:59 pm
>site is “corporate”
i wasn’t saying that but that the design itself was corporate. (probably myself sub-consciously nostalgic of a more recent and arguably more relevant revolution: in the late 90s when websites were interesting and different before the one corporate model, implemented with varied dergees of precission, took over .. i should really continue this on my own blog, huh.. i mean i can’t help thinking that mcluhan or the buddhist sutras have a point saying that form=content and stuff.. anyway
i’d say my main issue with you is precisely the fact that you want “a winning position”.
September 5, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Touché.
September 5, 2007 at 6:25 pm
Come on alin.You just like the old coke,can’t drink the new coke.Can’t stand with new VW beetle.Can’t read The Villege Voice on the screen,Isn’t that what you’ve been writing about?
September 5, 2007 at 6:42 pm
>old coke,can’t drink the new coke.Can’t stand with new VW beetle
no , not really.
>Touché.
失礼しました。back to my seat.
September 5, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Momus weighs in on his blog:
“The Neojaponisme manifesto isn’t a good start. It’s boring, overblown waffle which mixes humourous pomposity with the statement of serious aims (and some abjuration of past mistakes — hey, “we like Japan”!). The site is going to have to come up with more interesting content than that to overcome its late-entry penalty. I hope it can avoid the grousing, ethnocentrism and tediously narrow focus (Johnny’s! Can Cam! Black vans!) of Neomarxisme.”
September 5, 2007 at 6:54 pm
narcissusussicran
i think 53 comments return on a 12 words investment is quite something. mightn’t it be good to leave it here.
September 5, 2007 at 7:18 pm
narcissusussicran, I think you’ll find it’s been quite some time since anyone with a serious interest in Japan has paid any heed to what Momus thinks.
September 5, 2007 at 7:26 pm
I remember Momus.
September 5, 2007 at 7:37 pm
Ya know, I’ve come back from the States a bit groggy, a bit pre-occupied with some exciting personal developments, and maybe this is giving me a bit more objectivity on all this blog nonsense, but HOLY SHIT WE ARE SO FUCKING BITCHY! I am not going to even try to exclude myself, but there are so many knives in the air! I know it’s impossible to please everyone, but man, the chronically-unsatisfied are sure loud on this particular medium.
I was kind of dreading the eventual Momus take-down but he seems particularly mean this round. “I read [Neomarxisme] just to remind myself why I stopped reading it.” Okay, Momus. The naysayers are like my grandmother who used to write to companies over and over again about how unsatisfying their products are.
September 5, 2007 at 7:53 pm
I wouldn’t worry about it, Marxy. Leave Momus to his fantasy Japan, apparently only visible to those who don’t live there, and don’t speak or read the language.
September 5, 2007 at 8:28 pm
exciting personal developments…
I dont think a guacamole party quite qualifies, but you are entitled to your opinion!
September 5, 2007 at 9:14 pm
Momus’ Japan may be a fantasy projection, but his insights are more elegant, whimsical & uplifting than what neomarxisme devolved into. Maybe a bit of Seidensticker Syndrome ? That said, if Neojaponisme can rise above the “post flame-baity article about breasts or nazis, sit back & watch the commenters scream” thang i’ll be the first to tip my hat to you. All the best with it..
September 5, 2007 at 9:20 pm
I am not sure my goals were ever to provide “whimsical” insights. By the way, I think Momus is now anti-insight anyway.
September 5, 2007 at 9:51 pm
pity bout the whimsy, just what neomarxisme needed.
re momus, i meant to say “insights” though perhaps outsights would have been more accurate
September 5, 2007 at 9:54 pm
it looks good. content, please, now! we are starved.
September 5, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Content was meant to start today but I am jetlag zapped.
Soon though. (I have a backlog of about three-weeks content at this point, so stay tuned.)
September 6, 2007 at 12:23 am
Though a (fairly) long-term reader of this site, I’ve thus far shied away from contributing any comments to the annals. I want to break with tradition just this once though to wish you the best of luck with the new project. The manifesto got me genuinely excited about what’s in store: self-deprecating and humble, while still brimming with the romantic enthusiasm and confidence that, just maybe, we as a small collective can make sense of things that seem bent on defying any claim to sense.
One thing: I’m particularly excited at the prospect of the site being bi-lingual, and at contributions from Japanese peeps too. Fingers crossed that this turns into a reality!
September 6, 2007 at 7:34 am
I will say up front that we lack the infrastructure at the moment to have Japanese translations for English, but that is one of the short term goals. We are going to do be doing a lot of J-to-E translations of Japanese writing, however.
September 6, 2007 at 11:01 pm
“That said, if Neojaponisme can rise above the “post flame-baity article about breasts or nazis, sit back & watch the commenters scream” thang i’ll be the first to tip my hat to you.”
At first I misread that as “…breasts of nazis…” Boy was I disappointed when I found out the real wording was more mundane!
e.
September 6, 2007 at 11:27 pm
> new coke.Can’t stand with new VW beetle
Aceface, by that logic i’d have loved that good old black and red dada-sans. nostalgia wasn’t the right word i was rather talking about a potential (for things yet unknown) that has been crippled but will undoubtedly manifest itself. (I’m with zizek here who can respect someone like Lenin, even to some extent Stalin in dealing with the consequences of the ‘revolution’ as opposed to what he calls ‘beautiful souls’ , those who either burn out or sell out once the hype is over.
As for Neojaponisme, although i have no hostile feelings for Marxy and I consider Jean Snow a friend I also share momus’ concern about the combination of the two. Marxy tackles the hard politics, Jean arts and culture. However (yes, judging on the past, and metamorphoses take time so i think using the past as an index is reasonable) while marxy might for example have a(n outsighter’s) stab at 合コン will Jean, the culture guy look at say Naisu no Mori the movie that (among other things) critically looks at the same thing from WITHIN (yes, i’d say, “nonsense”, is probably the most EFFICIENT (sorry trevor i don’t mean to scream but i don’t think this can handle html to do italics) form of critique in this country) and give us a somewhat more complete picture. I somewhat doubt it. Ironically it’ll be momus who will do that. (I would even go as far as saying that, in spite of the all too obvious it’s momus who actually offers ,however small the fragments may be, a more wholesome critique of japan)
September 7, 2007 at 2:56 am
having come this far i have to say i’ve never come here looking for a fight and my general intentions were i believe basically constructive.
i do finally apoligize if my first reaction to the design was a bit strong but, as Aceface said, I would have said the same to the guy next to me at the desk, or to Marxy or Jean themselves in a cafe - maybe a bit more tactful but this is the internet.
probably will check neojaponisme every now and , well, i don’t know. the clast blog for example doesnt interest me in the slightest.
there have been some wonderful people around here and as much as it can be accepted i apologize to everyone whom i might have pissed off during the last 2 years or so.
September 7, 2007 at 8:17 am
“As for Neojaponisme, although i have no hostile feelings for Marxy and I consider Jean Snow a friend I also share momus’ concern about the combination of the two.”
Isn’t Momus a type of combination of these forces? I am not sure I understand the idea that Momus isn’t political: he’s just perfectly supportive of all Japanese self-constructs while claiming that any deconstruction would be “rude” (for example, “wa” [harmony] becomes a perfectly good thing and not possibly a way to perpetuate a conservative order.) So, he is maybe even more confrontational and willing-to-displease than I am, just added to Jean’s sense of “positivity.”
That being said, I think Momus could add a lot to Neojaponisme, but my guess is that he is going to automatically hate it and build theories around why he is justified in ignoring it.
I am not sure I made this clear enough, but I am taking this opportunity of “rebirth” to mellow out a bit and try to write things with more nuance and less political point scoring. Not that I will “lose my edge,” but I think my best writing is often the least agitating. (Although I usually think my essays pull punches only to find that I am mortally offended somebody in the fundamental idea, so maybe it will be just more of the same…)
September 7, 2007 at 9:20 am
Personally,I think Momus is doing a good job in both his blogs and his music(I have two of his albums).
I don’t agree with Mitsuko that”it’s been quite some time since anyone with a serious interest in Japan has paid any heed to what Momus thinks.”
Lots of people who come here do not live in Japan nor speak any language too.
He has his own style and ways to approach his subject and that is basically it’s his business,right?
Momus’s only sin is coming here and doing what his name was showing back in the day.
I’ve been thinking his name has something to do with Japanese teen idols,but according to Wikipedia,Momus=Greek god of satire mockery,censure,a spirit of evil-blame and unfair criticism,and to me that sums up his attitude toward Marxy’s work in general
But if Momus wouldn’t find any importance in what Marxy does he wouldn’t pay so much time and effort to bring him down.I think.
About the way of the words in here.Maybe I too should watch my own words as I’ve posted before.
In offline,I’m one of those meeky Japanese salary men squashed in Yamanote line who only talk wild when he gets drunk in Izakaya(as Adamu had rightly guessed in the past),but when I’m online,I turn into some highplains drifter walking into a saloon full of drunken cowboys.Looking for some shootouts.This got to be stop at somewhere….
September 7, 2007 at 12:28 pm
Thought you were the one accusing us all for being “Haters” and against hating for the sake of hating,trevor,instead of against being nice for nice sake…
Anyway if I ever have a chance of seeing you in face to face,I’ll just give you my business card,smile and run off for life the next second…
and I would definitely not challenge Marxy in any of the comment if only he tells me in advance that he is such a gentle guy in real life and also twice as tall than me……
Maybe we should stop starting full scale internet warfare around here.Not that we need to be a getalong gang but we are all supposed to be a grown-ups and this is Marxy’s turf,not entirely a public space.
September 7, 2007 at 4:14 pm
I said that? I mean it makes sense and its something I *would* say but what the hell, I can never remember anything
September 7, 2007 at 4:50 pm
こっちはよく覚えてるぞ！
君は「酔ったら国家を語るタイプだね。」っていったんだ・・・
September 7, 2007 at 5:24 pm
>why does everyone need to be nice all the time.
trevor, i think i understand your feeling.
it was basically reading all the whishi-whashi ‘nice, nice’ one-liners about what i thought was a lame design that gave the momentum to my first comment here.
September 7, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Oh yes thats right, I didnt mean just “talk wild” though
September 7, 2007 at 9:20 pm
Adam beat me to it, but this reminded me of both the Futurist Manifesto and the Utopia of Essayism.
In any case, it appears to me that what you desire is not a cathedral but a junta.
September 7, 2007 at 9:30 pm
“>why does everyone need to be nice all the time.”
Obviously being overly nice is in no one’s interest, but being bitchy usually zaps all effectiveness out of constructive criticism. Unless we all intentionally desire “destructive criticism” for some reason.
September 7, 2007 at 9:40 pm
Also the font is too small before adjustment. Video? Well, here’s some video for you - I figured something pre-dada-ized for modern convenience would be appropriate.
September 9, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Hah, sorry, I just saw that and had this picture of Japan as the guy and Marxy and Momus as the gals.
Anyway, isn’t “destructive criticism” the whole point here?