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September 30, 2005Lafcadio Hearn had the yellow fever bad...
I've been reading Lafcadio Hearn's "Japan: An Interpretation," and while it's been an entertaining enough read, at page 470 of a total 500, I'm feeling a little "Herniated".
It's an odd book. In some respects, Hearn is able to make very keen, critical observations of the turn-of-the-century Japan in which he lived. But for every keen, critical observation he makes, Hearn trots out a pile of blandishments that usually negate it.
Consider the following:
"For it has well been said that the most wonderful aesthetic products of Japan are not its ivories, nor its bronzes, nor its porcelains, nor its swords, nor any of its marvels in metal or lacquer--but its women."
"Only a society under extraordinary regulation and regimentation,--a society in which all self-assertion was repressed, and self-sacrifice made a universal obligation,--a society in which personality was clipped like a hedge, permitted to bud and bloom from within, never form without,--in short, only a society founded upon ancestor-worship, could have produced [the Japanese woman]."
"[The Japanese woman is] a being working only for others, thinking only for others, happy only in making pleasure for others,--a being incapable of unkindness, incapable of selfishness, incapable of acting contrary to her own inherited sense of right,--and in spite of this softness and gentleness ready, at any moment, to lay down her life, to sacrifice everything at the call of duty; such was the character of the Japanese woman."
Hearn praises Japanese women by claiming they lack any of the baser qualities of human nature. However, by holding them up as more than human, he dehumanizes them. His compliments are probably sincere, but that doesn't make them any less racist than somebody who praises all African-Americans for being good at sports, or all Asian-Americans for being studious, or all Caucasians for being...um...well, for having some skill which some of us (but by no means all of us) possess.
That said, I'm willing to cut the man some slack, given that he wrote the book just over one hundred years ago. I'd like to think that, when measured against its faults, "Japan: An Interpretation" is still more praiseworthy of a read than not.
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I got my car washed this morning--which would have made tons more sense if the Ventura County fire not still dumping tiny bits of ash into the air. Oh well, it was due for a wash either way.
Posted by patrick at September 30, 2005 01:43 PM
CommentsYeah, how 'bout [COUGHCOUGH] them [COUGHHACKCOUGH] fires, [HACKGACKCOUGHCOUGHUGH] huh? .
But, one technicality. When you say "turn of the century Japan," which turning century do you mean? Was he there in the 1990s or 1890s? If the latter, his comments wouldn't sound so weird. But if the former -- what planet did he come from? Must have been in a red state...
Posted by: Teotwawki23 at October 1, 2005 03:30 AM
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