Lost In Translation

Amae And "Personalism"

I have to say that I was disappointed by Kate Elwood's latest Cultural Conundrum's column for The Daily Yomiuri. She has this discussion of the concept of amae:

Based on open-ended interviews with Japanese laymen informants describing their experiences with what they would personally label amae, human development researcher Kazuko Behrens proposes five distinct amae categories: 1) "affective" amae of infants, children and romantic partners, motivated by a desire for physical and emotional closeness and characterized by snuggling and playfulness; 2) "manipulative" amae of children and romantic partners, driven by a desire to manipulate and characterized by acting helpless and clingy; 3) "reciprocal" amae of child and adult friends and peers for emotional closeness and to reciprocate favors, seen in desperate conduct and deal making; 4) "obligatory" amae used by adult non-intimates of unequal status like bosses and subordinates and involving taking advantage of another by making unreasonable demands; and 5) "presumptive" amae of adult non-hierarchical distant acquaintances, marked by presuming inappropriately on another's good will.

Taking a different tack, cross-cultural psychologists Rees Lewis and Ritsuko Ozaki made a study comparing amae and "mardy," a dialect word in the English Midlands, which means soft or spoiled. The researchers asked Japanese informants to recall specific incidents when they and others behaved in an amae way, and similarly English respondents who had grown up in the region that uses the word "mardy" were asked the same questions regarding "mardy."

Lewis and Ozaki found considerable overlap regarding the two terms of emotion. However, they note that while amae was sometimes described in situations in a constructive way and sometimes in a negative way, "mardy" was exclusively bad. They conclude that the existence of "good" amae and "bad" amae is part of the reason that amae can be used to manipulate people, while "mardy," always viewed disapprovingly without any wiggle room for a positive spin, cannot succeed in such attempts.

In a paper published 20 years after The Anatomy of Dependence, Doi applies the concept of amae to Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince, suggesting the happiness of attachment and dependence the fox describes in being tamed by the boy corresponds to amae. Doi remarks that while amae is a normal Japanese word, Saint-Exupery could not express it except through a fable using an animal. Doi even goes as far as to suggest that humans keep pets so as to "enjoy vicariously the gratification of amae."

However, Elwood refuses to critically comment on this idea of Doi's that humans "enjoy vicariously the gratification of amae." It seems like a ridiculous statement and culturally specific since in most western traditions this "mardy" is seen negatively. Elwood refuses to take sides, why?

I can say that I was equally disappointed in Sawa Kurotani's most recent Behind The Paper Screen column for the same paper. that being said lately she has been addressing America-centric ideas that aren't particularly interesting or revelatory about Japanese culture in her analysis. Here she contemplates "personalism" in Japanese society and contrasts the concept with American individualism without drawing any real conclusions:

I wonder, however, what Japan's recent interest in home-improvement and its dissatisfaction with politics-as-usual may mean. Unlike the United States, Japan has very little historical background in rugged individualism--in fact, words such as shakai (society) and kojin (individual) had to be invented in the mid-19th century to translate the Western social philosophy--and social scientists have categorized the Japanese construction of selfhood as distinctly different than Western "individuals," emphasizing more overtly the social roles and relationships as essential constituents of a person.

Instead, I wonder if they are part of a larger trend that I may call "personalism." Many of Japan's recent fads have to do with a sort of cocooning into a personal world, as most dramatically exhibited in hikikomori (social withdrawals) and other asocial behavior, but also suggested in such ideas as iyashi (healing) and maibumu (my boom). The former focuses on personal healing and comfort in the midst of social upheaval and uncertainty, while the latter--an oxymoron in itself--suggests a solitary person buried in his or her own world of personal likes and dislikes. This indulgence in personal life also explains an increased attention to one's home and personal space. Similarly, the ever-shifting voter loyalty seems to be motivated not by political consciousness or social concerns, but by which party promises to satisfy one's own personal needs and tastes.

Both "rugged individualism" and "personalism" are what social scientists call "ideology": a system of ideas that guide people's thoughts and actions in a given social, historical moment, and as such, American individualism and Japanese personalism show us an intriguing trend that runs through two very different national societies. The return to the individual/personal signifies both Japanese and Americans are dissatisfied by their governments and societies, and, more fundamentally, disillusioned by the promise of modern society to provide happiness to all. This is a much bigger question than any one political candidate or political party can handle.

I would have liked to see Kurotani discuss the fedualistic attitudes that thwarted democratic thought and concept like individualism. I think saying that people feel governments are not serving the need of modern people is a pretty shallow conclusion-disappointing where she took this arguement. 

Night Walking

 

The Friends Of Eddie Coyle

Picador just came out with a 40th anniversary edition (1970) of George V. Higgins’ classic crime novel, The Friends of Eddie Coyle. It is an extremely entertaining novel as it depicts the petty criminals, gangsters, and cops who pursue them in the Boston area. The strength of the novel lies in the great dialogue that captures the Boston accent, rhythm, and cadence of this working class stiffs. It is evident that Quentin Tarantino was fan of the book (and or film) as one of Eddie’s friends, a gun seller, is named Jackie Brown. It is a compelling thriller as well-the crux is the intersection of Eddie who is trying to beat a prison rap and some of his friends who are on a bank heist spree. It feels very cinematic, so it was no surprise that it was later made into a film in 1973.

Last year Criterion released a version of the film, released in 1973, directed by Peter Yates starring Robert Mitchum in one of his finest roles. The film was filmed on location in Boston with a top-notch supporting cast including Peter Boyle, Richard Jordan, Alex Rocco, and Steven Keats as Jackie Brown. It’s not surprising that almost all of the dialogue from the novel makes it into the film. The soundtrack captures the music of the day and the cars and clothes are all vintage 70s and gives the film that gritty 70s feel to it like the great new York films of the 70s like Dog Day Afternoon and The French Connection. The Criterion DVD has audio commentary from Yates and the booklet has an extremely entertaining gonzo journalistic profile of Robert Mitchum from Grover Jones for Rolling Stone and an essay by film critic Kent Jones.

Hearts And Minds

I recently saw Hearts and Minds at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in Ebisu. It was the 1974 winner for Best Documentary and is said to have inspired Michael Moore to become a filmmaker. I can see how he borrowed from this film in his own films by using interviews, news footage, pop music, and popular films to create the desired defense. But the film (and Moore) is also effective in the use of successive contrast in the way that director Peter Davis juxtaposes interviews and newsreel footage to demonstrate how high-level opinions (like those form General Westmoreland) were far removed from reality. Davis (Moore as well) also is selective in his interviewing and editing-the interviewees are mostly critical of American involvement in Vietnam save the footage from Lt. Fred Corker who was a POW and still believes in the war. It is full of powerful images and moving testimonies of people who have first hand knowledge of the war. It is a film classic.

When The Women Come Out To Dance

I was inspired to pick up Elmore Leonard’s short story collection When The Women Come Out To Dance after learning that the story “Fire In The Hole” inspired FX’s great new TV series Justified. It is a fine story that was well cannibalized for the pilot. Apparently, the main character Raylan Givens makes his first appearances in the novels Riding The Rap and Pronto. The collection was published in 2002, but one of the stories were originally printed in 1982, it seems most of the others were written in the 90s. Leonard is master of realistic and colorful dialogue-no to mention an economy of style in which he can sum up characters and situations with a minimum of description.  In addition, I’m also a great fan of Stephen Soderberg’s adaptation of Leonard’s novel Out of Sight and one of the main characters from that novel, Karen Sisco, gets a story here, “Karen Makes Out.” It seems that Soderbergh and his screenwriter Scott Frank adapted scenes from the story and put them in the novel I’ll have to listen to their commentary for the film again, because I recognized some scenes like how Karen shoots her bank-robbing boyfriend after she finds out the truth and he tries to run, and bank robbing descriptions, etc. I have to say that I enjoyed all 9 stories especially the last one “Tenkiller” which should get it’s own treatment-Hollywood stuntman, tough guy comes home to Oklahoma and runs the con men off his papa’s property (it actually bears more than a passing resemblance to “Fire In The Hole”-but entertaining nonetheless). The title story was also a standout. I like how Leonard’s sometimes infuses his writing with pop culture references for short hand. For example, in the story “Sparks” he uses compares a character’s appearance to that of Linda Fiorentino and references the modern day film noir film I first saw her in, The Last Seduction (directed by Montana son John Dahl-I need to re-watch that one highly entertaining as I remember). There’s a historical-based story of a black soldier, “Hurrah For Capt. Early,” as well as some stories that feature American Indian references like “The Tonto Woman,” “Chikasaw Charlie Hoke,” and the aforementioned “Sixkiller.” There’s not dud in the bunch. I’m looking forward to reading more Leonard and I’ve got his two Raylan Givens novels sitting on my bookshelf, so it won’t be too long before I treat myself to some more Leonard.

Osaka Elegy

Osaka Elegy (1936), part of the Criterion Eclipse series: #13 Kenji Mizoguchi’s Fallen Women, is the first Mizoguchi film I’ve seen and I was impressed. There were some interesting shot and a lot of deep focus cinematography as well as a standout performance by the lead Isuzu Yamada. However, I was more impressed by Mizoguchi’s warts and all approach to his depiction of, then, contemporary society. There’s no real sugarcoated “official version” of Japanese society. A young woman working at a large company succumbs to the boss’ insistence that she become his mistress, which she does to pay off her father’s debt obtained through embezzlement. She resents her father-the father resents his children. Her boss resents his wife, and his wife resents him. You won’t get any filial piety here-except that the daughter succumbs to a lower ranking executive in order to pay off her brother’s tuition. She gets in trouble with the police and essentially disowned by the family-even though the father knows what she has done for the family. Her fiancé gives up on her since she is a fallen woman and she is left to ram the streets friendless, and cast out from her family. At least it didn’t end in suicide-which is where I thought it was headed. I’m looking forward to seeing the other titles in this series.

Fukutoku Ramen

Fukutoku Ramen is a local ramen shop in Sasazuka and I noticed that they had a habernero ramen and vowed to try it. It was very spicy, however, not the spiciest I've had in Japan (that distinction goes to Nakamoto Ramen in Ikebukuro)-but the outside of my lips were burning well after the meal.

 

Penguin Classics: Victory

One of my favorite writers is Graham Greene and one if his favorite writers is Joseph Conrad-thus I feel he deserves my attention for that reason alone. But Conrad casts a much larger shadow than that. I read Heart of Darkness in high school and was impressed by the artistry of the story as much as the film it later inspired. I felt the need to read more Conrad in my post-college days and read Lord Jim and in recent years and The Secret Agent since it was referenced heavily in the post 9/11 days by journalists trying to make sense of the terrorist attacks. I found myself reading Victory since two separate authors in interviews in The Believer’s Book of Writers Talking To Writers said they always read this book before writing their next novels. It is set in the Indonesian isles of the South China Sea and is exotic by location alone, but it exotic in its portrayal lonely damaged Europeans residing there. It is a fairly simple story that is painstakingly told in subtle details of character and emotion-it seems people had more time to leisurely read in Conrad’s time I guess. It seems to end somewhat ambiguously despite also ending tragically. I’ll be back to read more Conrad in the future-it was time well spent.

Lunafied

After seeing Luna’s concert film Tell Me Do You Miss Me-and the DVD included a flier about Luna’s online only covers album, Lunafied. I was able to find it on iTunes, so I downloaded it and have been enjoying it. They did two of the songs in the film Harry Nilsson’s “Everybody’s Talkin’”-complete with a kazoo solo as well as Beat Happening’s “Indian Summer.” (I don’t know the original but I really like Luna’s version). There are two versions of Serge Gainsbourgh’s “Bonnie and Clyde” in which Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier plays Brigitte Bardot to Wareham's Serge. Not to mention New York legends like the Velvet Underground (a very hypnotic take of “Ride Into The Sun”), Blondie (“In The Flesh”), Talking Heads ("Thank You for Sending Me an Angel"), and Suicide ("Dream Baby Dream"). They also do a cover of Donavon’s “Season Of The Witch”(from the I Shot Andy Wharhol OST), homage to The Dream Syndicate (“That’s What You Always Say”) and Boston legend Jonathon Richmond (“Fly Into The Mystery”). This might be  collection for serious fans like myself, but I think there’s a lot to like about the collection-if nothing else it shows what a reliable curator of cool music Dean Wareham is. Oddly, my favorite cover didn’t make it: a stripped down barebones versions of Gun-N-Roses “Sweet Child O’ Mine.”

Curry Rice

Japan has it's own version of curry that is savory and mildly spicy-really nothing like Indian curry. However, it is a kind of popular Japanese fast food since it doesn't take long to prepare and is easy to wolf down. I ordered a potato croquette with it as well.