Re: [tlug] (OT) The enigma of Japan

[Michael Bitker <mbitker@example.com>]

On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 12:00 AM, JC Helary<brandelune@example.com> wrote:
>
> On mardi 09 juin 09, at 23:28, Raedwolf Summoner wrote:
>
>>> I started reading Dogs and Demons a week before the Enron scandal
>>> started hitting the fan. When Enron was all over the place in the
>>> news
>>> I closed the book. I thought it lacked a great deal of perspective.
>>
>> Books are necessarily limited in the scope of what they can even
>> attempt to accomplish. Sometimes, though, when we say that a book
>> "lacks perspective" it is a code for saying we don't agree with the
>> author, or that it was not written by someone who shares our
>> political biases. What better reason to read the book, especially if
>> it is widely read and discussed? If we read only what suits our own
>> biases, we surely limit ourselves.
>
>
> My bias is that I don't consider Japan to be any more special than any
> other nation state. And his litany about Japan being so unorthodox and
> ineffective was a little bit overdone.
>
> As far as human societies are concerned, I don't think there is
> anything like "orthodoxy" or "effectiveness". It is all messy and not
> by the rules.
>
>
> Jean-Christophe Helary

You guys must have skipped past all the parts where he explains his
reasons for writing this book. Main among these was his wanting to
balance all of the naively wonderful things he wrote about Japan and
her culture when he was writing for Lonely Planet. It was his
intention to demonstrate that there were (and still are!) deep
problems in this country we (most of us) now live in. It's a bit sad
that people read Dogs and Demons and come away with this idea that the
author somehow despises Japan. To the contrary he explains that he
wrote it after Japanese friends implored him to shed light on the less
savory parts of Japan. The end result probably comes off harsher (and
less accurate in some respects) than he intended, and overshadows his
previous writing.
-Mike