Films this year:
8. Hijosen no onna (Dragnet Girl), Yasujiro Ozu (1933)
This is Ozu's silent masterpiece, set in Yokohama and conceived as a mélange of a gangster movie and a melodrama. Neatly done and thoroughly enjoyable. Ozu was not quite thirty years old, and the scenery depicted is not quite Japan, but not quite US either; a noman's land of cultural migration.
The sister of would-be gangster Hiroshi, Kazuko (?), is very lovely. Interestingly, the actress (name?) who portrayed her retired soon after and not much is known about her anymore but an attempted suicide...
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Implicit theodicy
The following bit about the basic theodicy of modernity sounds true:
This implicit theodicy of all social order, of course, antecedes any legitimations, religious or otherwise. It serves, however, as the indispensable substratum on which later legitimating edifices can be constructed. It also expresses a very basic psychological constellation, without which it is hard to imagine later legitimations to be successful. Theodicy proper, then, as the religious legitimation of anomic phenomena, is rooted in certain crucial characteristics of human sociation as such.
Peter Burger, The Sacred Canopy (1967)
This implicit theodicy of all social order, of course, antecedes any legitimations, religious or otherwise. It serves, however, as the indispensable substratum on which later legitimating edifices can be constructed. It also expresses a very basic psychological constellation, without which it is hard to imagine later legitimations to be successful. Theodicy proper, then, as the religious legitimation of anomic phenomena, is rooted in certain crucial characteristics of human sociation as such.
Peter Burger, The Sacred Canopy (1967)
Monday, January 19, 2009
Sauf en moi, and yet
Some statements in this world are simply impossible to follow. Especially when it comes to matters of faith. This from the French poet-translator Jean Grosjean:
Dieu est partout sauf en moi et en même temps il me semble qu'il est plus en moi qu'autre part, plus en moi par son austérité et par sa miséricorde. Pourquoi si sévère? Et pourquoi si peu?
Jean Grosjean, Si peu (2001)
God is everywhere but in me. At the same time, one has the impression that God is in one's self than elsewhere. The logic is out of reach. God, as an absolute other, is by His austerity and compassion, also infiltrates me. This is the aldilà of transcendence / immanence question. Very strange. Very intriguing.
Misericordia! C'est ce que j'ai besoin...
Dieu est partout sauf en moi et en même temps il me semble qu'il est plus en moi qu'autre part, plus en moi par son austérité et par sa miséricorde. Pourquoi si sévère? Et pourquoi si peu?
Jean Grosjean, Si peu (2001)
God is everywhere but in me. At the same time, one has the impression that God is in one's self than elsewhere. The logic is out of reach. God, as an absolute other, is by His austerity and compassion, also infiltrates me. This is the aldilà of transcendence / immanence question. Very strange. Very intriguing.
Misericordia! C'est ce que j'ai besoin...
Sunday, January 18, 2009
On sounding different
Here is an impressive passage from Richard Poirier:
The American writers I have been discussing have made the value of sound explicitly a subject of their work, and explicitly a resource for eccentricity. They suggest that the individual voice has in fact little else to depend on beyond the sounds it makes and, decidedly, those it refuses to make. [...] And yet, it should be apparent by now that in pressing their case the Americans simply SOUND different. They sound altogether less rhetorically embattled, less culturally ambitious than do any of these European cousins.
Richard Poirier, Poetry and Pragmatism (1992)
So it's all about becoming simple, wild, and... strange.
The American writers I have been discussing have made the value of sound explicitly a subject of their work, and explicitly a resource for eccentricity. They suggest that the individual voice has in fact little else to depend on beyond the sounds it makes and, decidedly, those it refuses to make. [...] And yet, it should be apparent by now that in pressing their case the Americans simply SOUND different. They sound altogether less rhetorically embattled, less culturally ambitious than do any of these European cousins.
Richard Poirier, Poetry and Pragmatism (1992)
So it's all about becoming simple, wild, and... strange.
The Galaxy Train / Atanarjuat
Films this year:
6. Ginga tetsudo no yoru (The Night of the Galaxy Train), Gizaburo Sugii (1985).
7. Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner), Zakharias Kunuk (2001)
Last tuesday watched 6 with a couple of second-year students. Based on a hyper-famous story by Kenji Miyazawa, this animation is after Hiroshi Masumura's lovely all-cat characters comics version. Well-made, faithful, and as touching as the original. This term my undergraduate seminar students are expected to write on the story and I have my own theory about the whole structure of it, but will keep my mouth shut for a while.
7 is an EXTREME, TRULY OUTRAGEOUS masterpiece. This is the second time I watch it, but I still can't figure out the pre-history (one generation before, that is) part of the rivalry between Oki and Atanarjuat. All Inuit film based on an Inuit legend that calls for a GA (Eric Gans's generative anthropology, itself a development from René Girard's originary anthropology) kind of reading. Actually, I will write up my analysis one of these days, time permitting.
6. Ginga tetsudo no yoru (The Night of the Galaxy Train), Gizaburo Sugii (1985).
7. Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner), Zakharias Kunuk (2001)
Last tuesday watched 6 with a couple of second-year students. Based on a hyper-famous story by Kenji Miyazawa, this animation is after Hiroshi Masumura's lovely all-cat characters comics version. Well-made, faithful, and as touching as the original. This term my undergraduate seminar students are expected to write on the story and I have my own theory about the whole structure of it, but will keep my mouth shut for a while.
7 is an EXTREME, TRULY OUTRAGEOUS masterpiece. This is the second time I watch it, but I still can't figure out the pre-history (one generation before, that is) part of the rivalry between Oki and Atanarjuat. All Inuit film based on an Inuit legend that calls for a GA (Eric Gans's generative anthropology, itself a development from René Girard's originary anthropology) kind of reading. Actually, I will write up my analysis one of these days, time permitting.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
The war went on
Again from Henry Green's Pack My Bag:
The war went on, more and more people were killed. When our mothers visited us they often had news of relatives who had lost their lives. When they came down they were allowed to take us out to tea in the town and it was a rule we had made between ourselves that each of these times we should take a friend with us. This rule was unbreakable and it so happened that when a friend's father lost his life and his mother came down to read out his last letters home I went out with them and after tea we sat in that park I have described and they both cried over his letters as we sat with our backs against a tree. You would have thought this rule could be relaxed at such a time but there was no question of it. We always had boiled eggs when out for tea.
The passage talks about the unbreakable rules and its last sentence, "We always had boiled eggs when out for tea," is surprisingly efficient and fresh. Such is his power of mind that you are caught breathless. The kind of style I'd love to emulate.
The war went on, more and more people were killed. When our mothers visited us they often had news of relatives who had lost their lives. When they came down they were allowed to take us out to tea in the town and it was a rule we had made between ourselves that each of these times we should take a friend with us. This rule was unbreakable and it so happened that when a friend's father lost his life and his mother came down to read out his last letters home I went out with them and after tea we sat in that park I have described and they both cried over his letters as we sat with our backs against a tree. You would have thought this rule could be relaxed at such a time but there was no question of it. We always had boiled eggs when out for tea.
The passage talks about the unbreakable rules and its last sentence, "We always had boiled eggs when out for tea," is surprisingly efficient and fresh. Such is his power of mind that you are caught breathless. The kind of style I'd love to emulate.
Friday, January 16, 2009
On style
Some people's really got style. It comes so naturally to them, or so it seems. Henry Green is one such person. This from his mid-life autobiography:
They say the fox enjoys the hunt but the sound of the horn as he breaks covert must set great loneliness on him. When he knows by the cry of the pack at his heels that the huntsman has put the hounds on then surely in so far as animals can be expected to have feelings and however cruel they may be by nature fear must enter into it, he must fear for his life.
Henry Green, Pack My Bag (1940)
It's this great loneliness, beyond human loneliness, that sounds so true.
They say the fox enjoys the hunt but the sound of the horn as he breaks covert must set great loneliness on him. When he knows by the cry of the pack at his heels that the huntsman has put the hounds on then surely in so far as animals can be expected to have feelings and however cruel they may be by nature fear must enter into it, he must fear for his life.
Henry Green, Pack My Bag (1940)
It's this great loneliness, beyond human loneliness, that sounds so true.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
In Taipei
For the first time since 1985 I am in Taipei. Visited National Chengchi University and was impressed by the level of facility and students' work at the School of Communication. A million thanks to Prof. Lu and his assistant Victor for showing me around.
Later I went atop the famous Taipei 101; the view was awesome. Then visited two quite nice bookstores: Eslite and Page One. Their selections of English books are much better than any bookstores in Tokyo, Kinokuniya or Junkudo.
Bought two books, both at Page One, after all:
Bill McKibben, Enough (2003)
Leonard Cohen, Beautiful Losers (1966)
I guess I will repeat the visit often in the pragmatically near future. Taiwan I think is one of the most interesting areas in the world. Luckily, I have several friends here. I got to be more serious about picking up as much Chinese as I can.
In the evening Martin Su treated me to a nice dinner with his family. Our encounter last time was back in 2004 in Tokyo. Next time I'll go south to Taichun to see Lee Shuen-shin, my friend and novelist. It's so nice that our orbits come across from time to time, if only for at most less than ten times a life.
Later I went atop the famous Taipei 101; the view was awesome. Then visited two quite nice bookstores: Eslite and Page One. Their selections of English books are much better than any bookstores in Tokyo, Kinokuniya or Junkudo.
Bought two books, both at Page One, after all:
Bill McKibben, Enough (2003)
Leonard Cohen, Beautiful Losers (1966)
I guess I will repeat the visit often in the pragmatically near future. Taiwan I think is one of the most interesting areas in the world. Luckily, I have several friends here. I got to be more serious about picking up as much Chinese as I can.
In the evening Martin Su treated me to a nice dinner with his family. Our encounter last time was back in 2004 in Tokyo. Next time I'll go south to Taichun to see Lee Shuen-shin, my friend and novelist. It's so nice that our orbits come across from time to time, if only for at most less than ten times a life.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Hazlitt on Burke
I really don't know what good prose is. But in English and when I think about finesse, Hazlitt comes to mind among the old-timers. For Hazlitt, it was Burke who showed the way. Here is what Hazlitt says on Burke's prose:
It has always appeared to me that the most perfect prose-style, the most powerful, the most dazzling, the most daring, that which went the nearest to the verge of poetry, and yet never fell over, was Burke's. It has the solidity, and sparkling effect of the diamond: all other fine writing is like French paste or Bristol-stones in the comparison. Burke's style is airy, flighty, adventurous, but it never loses sight of the subject; nay, is always in contact with, and derives its increased or varying impulse from it.
William Hazlitt, On the Prose-Style of Poets (1822)
"Airy, flighty, adventurous",I'd like to say the same for the most perfect prose fiction in American English in the latter half of the twentieth century: Marilynne Robinson's sublime Housekeeping.
It has always appeared to me that the most perfect prose-style, the most powerful, the most dazzling, the most daring, that which went the nearest to the verge of poetry, and yet never fell over, was Burke's. It has the solidity, and sparkling effect of the diamond: all other fine writing is like French paste or Bristol-stones in the comparison. Burke's style is airy, flighty, adventurous, but it never loses sight of the subject; nay, is always in contact with, and derives its increased or varying impulse from it.
William Hazlitt, On the Prose-Style of Poets (1822)
"Airy, flighty, adventurous",I'd like to say the same for the most perfect prose fiction in American English in the latter half of the twentieth century: Marilynne Robinson's sublime Housekeeping.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Ah, les anglais...
Read pages from Jeremy Paxman's The English. Quite interesting. It gives me a very different picture of the English than I had in mind. I was talking to a friend from London this evening and now that's the city I'd like to visit most of all cities.
Here is Paxman:
Travel to England by the cross-channel train fron Paris to London and you can see the English indifference to the nation state at once. It is a journey from a city that, with its grand boulevards and avenues, proclaims a belief in central planning, to one that has just grown like Topsy. Paris remains a city when the government can still plough ahead with grands projets like La Défense or the Bastille Opera, whereas London can scarcely agree on a new statue.
Jeremy Paxman, The English (1998)
Two old world-cities... I'll see you both again soon, or so I hope.
Here is Paxman:
Travel to England by the cross-channel train fron Paris to London and you can see the English indifference to the nation state at once. It is a journey from a city that, with its grand boulevards and avenues, proclaims a belief in central planning, to one that has just grown like Topsy. Paris remains a city when the government can still plough ahead with grands projets like La Défense or the Bastille Opera, whereas London can scarcely agree on a new statue.
Jeremy Paxman, The English (1998)
Two old world-cities... I'll see you both again soon, or so I hope.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Simon on Ted
What Simon has to say on Ted:
Hughes's magic was his writing. He made little black marks against clean white pages, marks that somehow detailed the absolute matter and manner of a bird or an eel or a foal or a wolf or a bear. At later dates and in distant locations, when we looked at those marks, when we read the poems, those creatures came to life. Out of nothing. Has any other magician ever pulled off a greater trick?
Simon Armitage's Introduction to Ted Hughes, Poems (2000)
Well put. I was not paying attention to Armitage but for this introduction, but the Japanese translation of his Kid appeared late last year and it read pretty good. An authentic successor to Hughes? Surely. I will read them side by side this year.
Hughes's magic was his writing. He made little black marks against clean white pages, marks that somehow detailed the absolute matter and manner of a bird or an eel or a foal or a wolf or a bear. At later dates and in distant locations, when we looked at those marks, when we read the poems, those creatures came to life. Out of nothing. Has any other magician ever pulled off a greater trick?
Simon Armitage's Introduction to Ted Hughes, Poems (2000)
Well put. I was not paying attention to Armitage but for this introduction, but the Japanese translation of his Kid appeared late last year and it read pretty good. An authentic successor to Hughes? Surely. I will read them side by side this year.
Rio Branco/Moriyama
Went to see a very interesting exhibition of photography; Miguel Rio Branco takes Tokyo and Daido Moriyama takes São Paulo. Together, they hold this show called A Quiet Gaze, Echoing Worlds. (But shouldn't the "gaze" be plural?)
Rio Branco's highly bio-chromatic (word? you know what I mean) images are dazzling. Moriyama is his usual self, but no less powerful than his Hawaii collection. Short documentary videos projected near the exit reveals the two photographers at work.
Watching it, I am very initerested in acquiring a GR21.
Rio Branco's highly bio-chromatic (word? you know what I mean) images are dazzling. Moriyama is his usual self, but no less powerful than his Hawaii collection. Short documentary videos projected near the exit reveals the two photographers at work.
Watching it, I am very initerested in acquiring a GR21.
The chiasm rules!
Here is what Lawler says on the figure of chiasm:
Since the chiasm is a figure of great antiquity, shaping the Hebrew mentality according to N.W. Lund and functioning classically as a device suggesting completeness or closure and, in the Petrarchan tradition, as a convention of variety, it would perhaps be naive to read any intensely personal torment into Marvell's agonizing over his mistress's tyranny.
Celestial Pantomime (1979)
Quant à moi, I love chiasms. Chiasms, oxymorons, paradoxes... give an essential bite to any poetry.
Since the chiasm is a figure of great antiquity, shaping the Hebrew mentality according to N.W. Lund and functioning classically as a device suggesting completeness or closure and, in the Petrarchan tradition, as a convention of variety, it would perhaps be naive to read any intensely personal torment into Marvell's agonizing over his mistress's tyranny.
Celestial Pantomime (1979)
Quant à moi, I love chiasms. Chiasms, oxymorons, paradoxes... give an essential bite to any poetry.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
A penchant for failure?
Now I know it; only those artists who tend to fail interest me. Here is Lawler's passage on Stevens:
E.A. Robinson has a sonnet called "Credo" which, like a few of Stevens's poems, seeks almost by an act of will to affirm the capability of the finite imagination's attaining the infinite reality---the very large difference between the two poets is that Stevens usually resigns himself to failure, whereas Robinson, as in the disastrous sestet to this sonnet, blindly and like a mechanical optimist affirms fulfillment.
Justus George Lawler, Celestial Pantomime (1979)
Resigning to fail, choosing to fail, whatever. I need more time to work on Stevens...
E.A. Robinson has a sonnet called "Credo" which, like a few of Stevens's poems, seeks almost by an act of will to affirm the capability of the finite imagination's attaining the infinite reality---the very large difference between the two poets is that Stevens usually resigns himself to failure, whereas Robinson, as in the disastrous sestet to this sonnet, blindly and like a mechanical optimist affirms fulfillment.
Justus George Lawler, Celestial Pantomime (1979)
Resigning to fail, choosing to fail, whatever. I need more time to work on Stevens...
Friday, January 09, 2009
Extremely up close
Steven Shaviro talks about Godard's extremely close-up images: a pebble held in a hand in Weekend, and of coffee swirling in a cup in Deux ou trois choses que je sais d'elle.
Here is Shaviro:
The abberant scale and unfamiliar lighting of these images defamilializes their objects---or, better, forces us to stop regarding them AS referential objects. They appear in fixed shots, held for a long time: duration has become an independent dimension of the image, and is no longer a function of the time needed for cognition and action. The pebble and the coffee are neither useful nor significant; they work neither as things nor as signs. They are nothing but images, mutely and fascinating soliciting our attention. The pebble rests, the coffee swirls, filling the screen.
Steven Shaviro, The Cinematic Body (1993)
Shaviro is one person I failed to take a course with in Seattle in early 1990s. My friend Tsu-Chung Su from Taiwan had him as dissertation director. I often saw Shaviro at Eliott Bay (Book Company) in Seattle, but I don't think he remembers me at all. A missed encounter.
Here is Shaviro:
The abberant scale and unfamiliar lighting of these images defamilializes their objects---or, better, forces us to stop regarding them AS referential objects. They appear in fixed shots, held for a long time: duration has become an independent dimension of the image, and is no longer a function of the time needed for cognition and action. The pebble and the coffee are neither useful nor significant; they work neither as things nor as signs. They are nothing but images, mutely and fascinating soliciting our attention. The pebble rests, the coffee swirls, filling the screen.
Steven Shaviro, The Cinematic Body (1993)
Shaviro is one person I failed to take a course with in Seattle in early 1990s. My friend Tsu-Chung Su from Taiwan had him as dissertation director. I often saw Shaviro at Eliott Bay (Book Company) in Seattle, but I don't think he remembers me at all. A missed encounter.
Mondo
Films this year
5. Mondo, Tony Gatlif (1995)
Watched with some of my students Gatlif's heartbreaking Mondo, based on a short story by Le Clézio. This is my fourth or fifth viewing; this film is a gem. I like every bit of it. The cinematography is also excellent.
I'd like to review all of Gatlif, my favourite director, in the course of 2009.
5. Mondo, Tony Gatlif (1995)
Watched with some of my students Gatlif's heartbreaking Mondo, based on a short story by Le Clézio. This is my fourth or fifth viewing; this film is a gem. I like every bit of it. The cinematography is also excellent.
I'd like to review all of Gatlif, my favourite director, in the course of 2009.
Thursday, January 08, 2009
The Women's Sutra, The Munekata Sisters
Films this year:
3. Jokyo (The Women's Sutra), Masumura, Ichikawa, Yoshimura (1960).
4. Muneka kyodai (The Munekata Sisters), Yasujiro Ozu (1950).
3 is a very enjoyable omnibus film by three masterful directors, each using a star actress of the day. Yasuzo Masumura with his regular Ayako Wakao, Kon Ichikawa with fox-like Fujiko Yamamoto, and Kozaburo Yoshimura with demoniac Machiko Kyo. Each episode runs for 30 to 40 minutes, all of them very well-made, and occasionally very beautiful with real sceneries of Tokyo, Shonan, and Kyoto.
4 is narrated as a comedy but there is an undercurrent of something sinister. Madness is lurking at unexpected corners. The sisters are portrayed by two great actresses Kinuyo Tanaka and Hideko Takamine. Takamine with her funny face and essentially comic character is brilliant and lovable. The story is woven around the grave, cats, and chairs. You'll know what I mean when you see it.
3. Jokyo (The Women's Sutra), Masumura, Ichikawa, Yoshimura (1960).
4. Muneka kyodai (The Munekata Sisters), Yasujiro Ozu (1950).
3 is a very enjoyable omnibus film by three masterful directors, each using a star actress of the day. Yasuzo Masumura with his regular Ayako Wakao, Kon Ichikawa with fox-like Fujiko Yamamoto, and Kozaburo Yoshimura with demoniac Machiko Kyo. Each episode runs for 30 to 40 minutes, all of them very well-made, and occasionally very beautiful with real sceneries of Tokyo, Shonan, and Kyoto.
4 is narrated as a comedy but there is an undercurrent of something sinister. Madness is lurking at unexpected corners. The sisters are portrayed by two great actresses Kinuyo Tanaka and Hideko Takamine. Takamine with her funny face and essentially comic character is brilliant and lovable. The story is woven around the grave, cats, and chairs. You'll know what I mean when you see it.
Scapegoating Artaud
What exactly was society for Artaud? In his vision of the artist, that culminated in Van Gogh as a suicidee of society, the artist could not but be a scapegoat, whether s/he knew it or not.
L'art a pour devoir social de donner issue aux angoisses de son époque. L'artiste qui n'a pas ausculté le cœur de son époque, l'artiste qui ignore qu'il est un BOUC EMISSAIRE, que son devoir est d'aimanter, d'attirer, de faire tomber sur ses épaules les colères errantes de l'époque pour la décharger de son mal-être psychologique, celui-là n'est pas un artiste.
Antonin Artaud, "L'Anarchie sociale de l'art"
It may be more interesting if we read the verb in the phrase "scapegoating Artaud" both as transitive and intransitive. An artist is scapegoated, but at the same time it is s/he who chooses to become a scapegoat.
L'art a pour devoir social de donner issue aux angoisses de son époque. L'artiste qui n'a pas ausculté le cœur de son époque, l'artiste qui ignore qu'il est un BOUC EMISSAIRE, que son devoir est d'aimanter, d'attirer, de faire tomber sur ses épaules les colères errantes de l'époque pour la décharger de son mal-être psychologique, celui-là n'est pas un artiste.
Antonin Artaud, "L'Anarchie sociale de l'art"
It may be more interesting if we read the verb in the phrase "scapegoating Artaud" both as transitive and intransitive. An artist is scapegoated, but at the same time it is s/he who chooses to become a scapegoat.
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
On failure
It is interesting how Leo Bersani talks of Beckett's aesthetic of failure. For Bersani, Beckett "has yearned to fail more explicitly and more consistently than any other artists we know."
Here is the beginning of Bersani's essay on Beckett:
Perhaps the most serious reproach we can make against Samuel Beckett is that he has failed to fail. Failure is the ideal of nearly all Beckett's characters, and, in one of his rare theoretical statements, Beckett himself has said that "to be an artist is to fail, as no other dare fail, that failure is his world and the shrink from it desertion, art and craft, good housekeeping, living."
Leo Bersani and Ulysse Dutoit, Arts of Impoverishment (1993)
But this quotation from Beckett is hard to grasp. It's from "Three Dialogues" in Disjecta. Let me spend some time pondering on it.
Here is the beginning of Bersani's essay on Beckett:
Perhaps the most serious reproach we can make against Samuel Beckett is that he has failed to fail. Failure is the ideal of nearly all Beckett's characters, and, in one of his rare theoretical statements, Beckett himself has said that "to be an artist is to fail, as no other dare fail, that failure is his world and the shrink from it desertion, art and craft, good housekeeping, living."
Leo Bersani and Ulysse Dutoit, Arts of Impoverishment (1993)
But this quotation from Beckett is hard to grasp. It's from "Three Dialogues" in Disjecta. Let me spend some time pondering on it.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Skin that coon!?
There are some racoons in my neighborhood and it's surprising considering the density of human population in the area. How do they survive, nobody knows. Wild animals. I hope one day they prevail in Tokyo.
Harold Rosenberg is widely considered a founding father of modern art criticism in the US. His seminal The Tradition of the New is dated, undeniablly, and some of the points are rather tedious, yet the style is still pretty funny and fresh. This bit about "coonskinism" is unforgettable:
[...] I call this anti-formal or trans-formal effect Coonskinism. The fellows behind the trees are "men without art," to use Wyndam Lewis' label for Faulkner and Hemingway. This does not mean that they do not know how to fight. They have studied manoeuvers among squirrels and grizzly bears and they trust their knowledge against the tradition of Caesar and Frederick. Their principle is simple: watch the object--if it's red, shoot!
Harold Rosenberg, The Tradition of the New (1959)
What we learn from this passage may only be a way to be funny in one's writing. But it's enjoyable. Strange, too.
Harold Rosenberg is widely considered a founding father of modern art criticism in the US. His seminal The Tradition of the New is dated, undeniablly, and some of the points are rather tedious, yet the style is still pretty funny and fresh. This bit about "coonskinism" is unforgettable:
[...] I call this anti-formal or trans-formal effect Coonskinism. The fellows behind the trees are "men without art," to use Wyndam Lewis' label for Faulkner and Hemingway. This does not mean that they do not know how to fight. They have studied manoeuvers among squirrels and grizzly bears and they trust their knowledge against the tradition of Caesar and Frederick. Their principle is simple: watch the object--if it's red, shoot!
Harold Rosenberg, The Tradition of the New (1959)
What we learn from this passage may only be a way to be funny in one's writing. But it's enjoyable. Strange, too.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Kosher/terefah
Anything edible by ritualistic standards is KOSHER, which means literally fit or suitable. Anything forbidden is denominated TEREFAH; a word signifying originally a living thing that had fallen victim to a beast or bird of prey and hence unacceptable as a food, but subsequently extended to cover all unacceptable foods.
Milton Steinberg, Basic Judaism (1947)
How did this originate? To forbid being a scavenger? To avoid possible sickness caused by it? There is no way to tell, but rather intriguing. Is there any kind of psychological anthropomorphism working in all this?
Milton Steinberg, Basic Judaism (1947)
How did this originate? To forbid being a scavenger? To avoid possible sickness caused by it? There is no way to tell, but rather intriguing. Is there any kind of psychological anthropomorphism working in all this?
A born outsider
Some people have naturally strong, powerful voices. They can be murmurs and rather ordinary in their explicit contents, yet curiously strong. One such person is Leslie Marmon Silko, undoubtedly one of the greatest American novelists living.
Here is what she says about her childhood:
My earliest memories are of being outside, under the sky. I remember climbing the fence when I was three years old, and heading for the plaza in the center of Laguna village because other children passing by had told me there were KA'TSINAS there dancing with pieces of wood in their mouths. A neighbor, a woman, retrieved me before I ever saw the wood-swallowing ka'tsinas, but from an early age I knew I wanted to be outside: outside walls and fences.
Simon Ortiz ed., Speaking for the Generations (1998)
OUTSIDE is really the keyword. Personally, I would never want to die INSIDE any human-made structure, let alone a hospital. I want to leave this world outside, under the sky, in the immediacy of the elements.
Thus I belong to Leslie's pack.
Here is what she says about her childhood:
My earliest memories are of being outside, under the sky. I remember climbing the fence when I was three years old, and heading for the plaza in the center of Laguna village because other children passing by had told me there were KA'TSINAS there dancing with pieces of wood in their mouths. A neighbor, a woman, retrieved me before I ever saw the wood-swallowing ka'tsinas, but from an early age I knew I wanted to be outside: outside walls and fences.
Simon Ortiz ed., Speaking for the Generations (1998)
OUTSIDE is really the keyword. Personally, I would never want to die INSIDE any human-made structure, let alone a hospital. I want to leave this world outside, under the sky, in the immediacy of the elements.
Thus I belong to Leslie's pack.
The Burmese Harp (Kon Ichikawa)
Watched two versions consecutively. Ichikawa's popular The Burmese Harp was first released in 1956, when the memory of war was not alien to the Japanese ethos. Then after so many years he self-remade the film in 1985. This, too, was popular enough, suitable to his well-established statue as master film director.
The 1985 version is in color and slightly longer. It's got some good moments of cinematography, yet the 1956 original is infinitely better.
One big blunder of the story (not the director's fault but the novelist's) is that in local buddhism music is prohibited to monks! Tant pis! Yet the framework of the story is convincing enough and it's not hard to imagine that it responded to the collective trauma left by the war.
Not much is depicted about local people, though. Knowing this weakness I think Ichikawa tried to present, although remaining silent, as many local faces as possible in the 1985 version. But the production was supported by a major TV company and it must have lead to some easy mise-en-scène here and there.
Still, it was interesting to watch the two in this fashion.
Films this year
1. Biruma no tategoto (The Burmese Harp), Kon Ichikawa (1956).
2. Biruma no tategoto (The Burmese Harp), Kon Ichikawa (1985).
The 1985 version is in color and slightly longer. It's got some good moments of cinematography, yet the 1956 original is infinitely better.
One big blunder of the story (not the director's fault but the novelist's) is that in local buddhism music is prohibited to monks! Tant pis! Yet the framework of the story is convincing enough and it's not hard to imagine that it responded to the collective trauma left by the war.
Not much is depicted about local people, though. Knowing this weakness I think Ichikawa tried to present, although remaining silent, as many local faces as possible in the 1985 version. But the production was supported by a major TV company and it must have lead to some easy mise-en-scène here and there.
Still, it was interesting to watch the two in this fashion.
Films this year
1. Biruma no tategoto (The Burmese Harp), Kon Ichikawa (1956).
2. Biruma no tategoto (The Burmese Harp), Kon Ichikawa (1985).
Chestov according to Bonnefoy
On reading an interview, I found it interesting that Yves Bonnefoy was initially influenced by Léon Chestov (1866-1938). Russian born philosopher who is not read anymore but Chestov was a crucially important figure for those who were interested both in literature and philosophy, or, in short, existentialist reading of texts. He was from Kiev and his real name was Jehuda Schwarzmann. Sounds like Robert Zimmerman turning to Bob Dylan.
Here is what Bonnefoy says:
Chestov, avec Le Pouvoir des clefs, puis Athènes et Jérusalem, m'aida brusquement à voir ce que doit être l'objet, le seul objet de la conscience et de sa parole: un être qui est, là, devant nous, en son instant et son lieu. Mais je lisais aussi Kierkegaad--Les Quatre étapes sur le chemin de la vie--, aidé par les admirables Etude kierkegaardiennes de Jean Wahl, que je puis dire mon maître. Et bientôt j'avais découvert Eros et Agapé, de Nyguen, qui analysa avec une vigueur et une clarté avant lui, me semble-t-il, inconnue la nature complexe et même contradictoire du mouvement qui nous porte vers, justement, ce qui est.
Yves Bonnefoy, Entretiens sur la poèsie (1990)
An aspect of Chestov that's so intriguing is that he was a great traveller. His life was a seris of displacements, especially before he installed in Paris. He also had a passionate interest in Palestina. What would he have said, if he were to see the current state of affairs in the area?
Here is what Bonnefoy says:
Chestov, avec Le Pouvoir des clefs, puis Athènes et Jérusalem, m'aida brusquement à voir ce que doit être l'objet, le seul objet de la conscience et de sa parole: un être qui est, là, devant nous, en son instant et son lieu. Mais je lisais aussi Kierkegaad--Les Quatre étapes sur le chemin de la vie--, aidé par les admirables Etude kierkegaardiennes de Jean Wahl, que je puis dire mon maître. Et bientôt j'avais découvert Eros et Agapé, de Nyguen, qui analysa avec une vigueur et une clarté avant lui, me semble-t-il, inconnue la nature complexe et même contradictoire du mouvement qui nous porte vers, justement, ce qui est.
Yves Bonnefoy, Entretiens sur la poèsie (1990)
An aspect of Chestov that's so intriguing is that he was a great traveller. His life was a seris of displacements, especially before he installed in Paris. He also had a passionate interest in Palestina. What would he have said, if he were to see the current state of affairs in the area?
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Kenner on McLuhan
In my old copy of Hugh Kenner's Mazes, this paragraph is highlighted. I must have done it in 1992 or thereabouts, in Seattle:
What always saved him was his ability to get interested in something else. Nothing was too trivial. "Let us check on this," he would say, and steer the two of us into a movie house, where we stayed for twenty minutes. "Enough." Out in the light he extemporized an hour of analysis.
Hugh Kenner, Mazes (1989)
This kind of restlessness I surely share, which has caused me a lot of trouble in life. But the skill to extemporize I still need to elaborate, if only to keep these two great, mad Canadians company!
Marshall's got his style, Hugh's got his style. I seek my own in their shadows.
What always saved him was his ability to get interested in something else. Nothing was too trivial. "Let us check on this," he would say, and steer the two of us into a movie house, where we stayed for twenty minutes. "Enough." Out in the light he extemporized an hour of analysis.
Hugh Kenner, Mazes (1989)
This kind of restlessness I surely share, which has caused me a lot of trouble in life. But the skill to extemporize I still need to elaborate, if only to keep these two great, mad Canadians company!
Marshall's got his style, Hugh's got his style. I seek my own in their shadows.
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Narrating Julien
Here is what Peter Brooks says about Stendhalian narrators:
The narrator constantly judges Julien in relation to his chosen models, measuring his distance from them, noting his failures to understand them, his false attributions of success to them, and the fictionality of the constructions he builds from them. As Victor Brombert has so well pointed out, the Stendhalian narrator typically uses hypothetical grammatical forms, asserting that if only Julien had understood such and such, he would have done so and so, with results different from those to which he condemns himself.
Peter Brooks, Reading for the Plot (1984)
The narrator's pedagogic desire aimed both at Julien and the readers?
The narrator constantly judges Julien in relation to his chosen models, measuring his distance from them, noting his failures to understand them, his false attributions of success to them, and the fictionality of the constructions he builds from them. As Victor Brombert has so well pointed out, the Stendhalian narrator typically uses hypothetical grammatical forms, asserting that if only Julien had understood such and such, he would have done so and so, with results different from those to which he condemns himself.
Peter Brooks, Reading for the Plot (1984)
The narrator's pedagogic desire aimed both at Julien and the readers?
Friday, January 02, 2009
Spinoza & co.
[...] many rabbis kept their distance from the Judaizing Marranos, refusing to recognize them as Jews. It is ironic that while these Marranos were risking their lives in order to be faithful to what they thought was the religion of their forefathers, the official Jewish world refused to welcome them as brethren, at least not without misgivings and thorough examination.
Yirmiyahu Yovel, Spinoza and Other Heretics (1989)
Yovel's book is one that I've been meaning to read in earnest, but haven't been able to find time to do so. Full of dazzling moments. My knowledge of Spinoza is only rudimentary, this will one day be my Spinoza 101 (more than Deleuze's books).
Another very attractive paragraph:
Spinoza was not the first philosopher of immenence; pre-Socratics, Epicureans, and Stoics had preceded him in ancient times. But with Spinoza the idea of immanence, powerfully systematized, re-emerged after having been discredited and repressed by the overpowering weight of medieval Christianity.
Idem.
Spinozism is so different from what we usually picture on hearing the word Judeo-Christian monotheism. Something to be done on its affinity with some aspects of hinduism and buddhism. That, of course, must have been done already, but I, this I, have not. Hence this note.
*Yovel is the founder of the Jerusalem Spinoza Institute and professor (former?) at New School for Social Research in New York.
Yirmiyahu Yovel, Spinoza and Other Heretics (1989)
Yovel's book is one that I've been meaning to read in earnest, but haven't been able to find time to do so. Full of dazzling moments. My knowledge of Spinoza is only rudimentary, this will one day be my Spinoza 101 (more than Deleuze's books).
Another very attractive paragraph:
Spinoza was not the first philosopher of immenence; pre-Socratics, Epicureans, and Stoics had preceded him in ancient times. But with Spinoza the idea of immanence, powerfully systematized, re-emerged after having been discredited and repressed by the overpowering weight of medieval Christianity.
Idem.
Spinozism is so different from what we usually picture on hearing the word Judeo-Christian monotheism. Something to be done on its affinity with some aspects of hinduism and buddhism. That, of course, must have been done already, but I, this I, have not. Hence this note.
*Yovel is the founder of the Jerusalem Spinoza Institute and professor (former?) at New School for Social Research in New York.
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Reconsidering inhabitation
Happy new year to y'all.
The year 2009 marks the twentieth anniversary of my moving to Nuevo Mexico and to my beloved Albuquerque... Time has passed, I got older, but no wiser. It's so nice to start anew anyways, or to pretend to do so, at this beginning of the year. On recommence toujours, and that's (as Stanley Cavell once said) very American. This possiblitiy of renewal is at the core of what is America.
This year I will daily update this blog with notes from my personal library, in view of connecting various strains of thought seemingly unrelated one from the other. This will be an experimental field of the CONNECTIVE HUMANITIES, or so I hope.
"As a result, the philosophers who followed Plato and Aristotle, if they still sought balance and fullness of life, no longer dared to seek it in the city. They betrayed their own creed by dodging their civic responsibilities or by turning to an idealized empire or a purely heavenly polity for confirmation; whereas those who took on the burdens of commerce, politics, and war had no place in their muddy routine for the highest possibilities of personal development. The monuments of Greek art, which we now prize, were valid expressions of this life at its loftiest moments. But in part they were likewise material substitutes for a spirit that, had it known the secret of its own perpetuation, might have made an even more valuable contribution both to urbanism and to human development."
Lewis Mumford, The City in History (1961)
Mumford will definitely be a chapter in my future project on American thoughtscape, along with Loren Eiseley, Rachel Carson, Gary Snyder among others. This also has been on my mind for a couple of decades without materializing itself... But I sense that things are beginning to take shape. By 2018 this will see the day (promises, promises...).
The year 2009 marks the twentieth anniversary of my moving to Nuevo Mexico and to my beloved Albuquerque... Time has passed, I got older, but no wiser. It's so nice to start anew anyways, or to pretend to do so, at this beginning of the year. On recommence toujours, and that's (as Stanley Cavell once said) very American. This possiblitiy of renewal is at the core of what is America.
This year I will daily update this blog with notes from my personal library, in view of connecting various strains of thought seemingly unrelated one from the other. This will be an experimental field of the CONNECTIVE HUMANITIES, or so I hope.
"As a result, the philosophers who followed Plato and Aristotle, if they still sought balance and fullness of life, no longer dared to seek it in the city. They betrayed their own creed by dodging their civic responsibilities or by turning to an idealized empire or a purely heavenly polity for confirmation; whereas those who took on the burdens of commerce, politics, and war had no place in their muddy routine for the highest possibilities of personal development. The monuments of Greek art, which we now prize, were valid expressions of this life at its loftiest moments. But in part they were likewise material substitutes for a spirit that, had it known the secret of its own perpetuation, might have made an even more valuable contribution both to urbanism and to human development."
Lewis Mumford, The City in History (1961)
Mumford will definitely be a chapter in my future project on American thoughtscape, along with Loren Eiseley, Rachel Carson, Gary Snyder among others. This also has been on my mind for a couple of decades without materializing itself... But I sense that things are beginning to take shape. By 2018 this will see the day (promises, promises...).
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Artaud as Super-Proust
[...] Artaud's first mark on the notebook page forms the initiatory gash in language and image upon which he would amass a vast accumulation of interconnected fragments, maintained and recapitulated over the subsequent three years, honed in fury through thousands of pages, far exceeding Proustian dimensions (and violently 'in search of lost anatomy' rather than of lost time). The notebooks simulataneously negate language and image, and build into an immense and intricate corporeal architecuture.
Stephen Barber, Artaud: Terminal Curses (2008)
My two major tasks for the year 2009 are... still kept in secret. But I'll be working a lot on Antonin Artaud. Watch out for what happens.
Feliz ano novo!
Stephen Barber, Artaud: Terminal Curses (2008)
My two major tasks for the year 2009 are... still kept in secret. But I'll be working a lot on Antonin Artaud. Watch out for what happens.
Feliz ano novo!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Seymour's girl
On rereading RAISE HIGH THE ROOF BEAM, CARPENTERS, I came to remember the core of Seymour's trouble; the existence of Charlotte and the unending pursuit of a femme-enfant. And interestingly, the anecdotic charm of Charlotte comes mostly from two elements: violence (slight but dangerously menacing) and accent (verbal).
Here is how Buddy our narrator reports about her:
"On certain nights when he was in especially good form, Seymour used to come home with a slight limp. That's really true. Charlotte didn't just step on his foot, she tramped on it. He didn't care. He loved people who stepped on his feet. He loved noisy girls." (81)
And then:
"We were playing stoopball on the side of the building one afternoon after school, Seymour and I, and somebody who turned out to be Charlotte started dropping marbles on us from the twelfth story. That's how we met. We got her on the program that same week. We didn't even know she could sing. We just wanted her because she had such a beautiful New Yorkese accent. She had a Dyckman street accent." (82)
As a self-contained novella, this work doesn't hold well. But Salinger is brilliant in his unexpected move from one sentence to another. The real weakness, then, comes from Seymour's only partially developped (throughout the saga) character.
It has been construed that Seymour stands for "See more." To me, it's "Say amour." And on saying that a dark shade is already ripe in the name.
Here is how Buddy our narrator reports about her:
"On certain nights when he was in especially good form, Seymour used to come home with a slight limp. That's really true. Charlotte didn't just step on his foot, she tramped on it. He didn't care. He loved people who stepped on his feet. He loved noisy girls." (81)
And then:
"We were playing stoopball on the side of the building one afternoon after school, Seymour and I, and somebody who turned out to be Charlotte started dropping marbles on us from the twelfth story. That's how we met. We got her on the program that same week. We didn't even know she could sing. We just wanted her because she had such a beautiful New Yorkese accent. She had a Dyckman street accent." (82)
As a self-contained novella, this work doesn't hold well. But Salinger is brilliant in his unexpected move from one sentence to another. The real weakness, then, comes from Seymour's only partially developped (throughout the saga) character.
It has been construed that Seymour stands for "See more." To me, it's "Say amour." And on saying that a dark shade is already ripe in the name.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Scribe labours
Writing on parchment, moreover, was a two-handed operation. As the right hand held the pen, the left held a knife against the springy surface of the page in order to keep it steady. Intermittently, the knife was also used for sharpening the quill and erasing errors. Medieval scribes would sit bolt upright, often on a tall-backed chair, with the manuscript laid before them on a steeply sloping desk or on a board attached to arms projecting at an incline from the chair itself. Theirs was not light work. On the contrary, writing was perceived as an act of endurance in which, as one scribe lamented, "the whole body labours."
Tim Ingold, Lines.
This december I failed to answer the questionnaire from Misuzu Shobo publishers on "The books you read in 2008". You are supposed to pick about 5 titles that impressed you most during the year. I have more than a handful, of course, but I can easily name the BEST.
Tim Ingold's illuminating Lines, which my friend Daniela Kato recommended to me. This work belongs to the same league up there with Elias Canetti, André Leroi-Gourhan or Alphonso Lingis. A book that truly changes your attitude toward LIFE.
Come to think of it I have had a copy of What is an animal? edited by Ingold for a long time! My laziness led to my overlooking his other works. Tant pis.
And thus my personal prize for the year 2008 goes to Tim Ingold. I'd love to come and visit him in Scotland next year.
Tim Ingold, Lines.
This december I failed to answer the questionnaire from Misuzu Shobo publishers on "The books you read in 2008". You are supposed to pick about 5 titles that impressed you most during the year. I have more than a handful, of course, but I can easily name the BEST.
Tim Ingold's illuminating Lines, which my friend Daniela Kato recommended to me. This work belongs to the same league up there with Elias Canetti, André Leroi-Gourhan or Alphonso Lingis. A book that truly changes your attitude toward LIFE.
Come to think of it I have had a copy of What is an animal? edited by Ingold for a long time! My laziness led to my overlooking his other works. Tant pis.
And thus my personal prize for the year 2008 goes to Tim Ingold. I'd love to come and visit him in Scotland next year.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Taking a walk with John K.
From Ayr they walked north to Glasgow, then headed northwest into the Highlands. [...] The wild country farther west, around Loch Fyne and Loch Awe, was more to their liking. Here they could walk for miles through the heather and hear no sound but mountain streams, or see no living thing but a few sheep on the hills or an eagle soaring overhead. The Highlanders spoke Gaelic, the first foreign language Keats had heard; they were intelligent and friendly, with nothing of the Lowlanders' suspicion of the English, but their living conditions were still more primitive.
Aileen Ward, John Keats: The Making of a Poet (1963)
And this passage makes me want to fly to Scotland even more.
Aileen Ward, John Keats: The Making of a Poet (1963)
And this passage makes me want to fly to Scotland even more.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Billy Black
"Oh, God, if I'm anything by a clinical name, I'm kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy."
So says Seymour in his diary, read by Buddy. A very weird novella I've been trying to decipher over years... Salinger may not be the greatest of all novelists, but he is PECULIAR. Peculiar enough to attract my attention for more than half a life.
His quote from Saigyo:
What it is I know not
But with the gratitude
My tears fall
I know not what to say.
So says Seymour in his diary, read by Buddy. A very weird novella I've been trying to decipher over years... Salinger may not be the greatest of all novelists, but he is PECULIAR. Peculiar enough to attract my attention for more than half a life.
His quote from Saigyo:
What it is I know not
But with the gratitude
My tears fall
I know not what to say.
Mika Ninagawa/ Light Insight
Went to see Mika Ninagawa's solo exhibition at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery.
Rather crowded on a Saturday afternoon; this must be one of the most succesful photography exhibitions today anywhere in the world. She is immensely popular among young girls and the demography of the audience was wildly different from usual shows.
The title is "Earthly Flowers, Heavenly Colors." True to the statement, or the declaration thereof, every room is filled with mad, exhilarating colors. This is her staple. Also she has taken portraits of so many girl/woman icons. Hence part of her popularity. It's so girly. Room after room, it's a wild ride. I ended up laughing.
But my vote goes to her Mexican works. Photographs framed in wooden, hand-made frames. These works are somewhat dated in her career, I know, but the charm is lasting.
Also the goldfish room was fascinating.
After this I went upstairs to ICC for the first time in donkey's bitten-off tail (am I making any sense) to see Light Insight (Light in Sight) exhibition. This is about those multimedia works using light as their major component.
Nam-jun Paik's Candle TV was almost sublime. Ingo Gunthar's Thank You Instrument was very powerful, Yukio Fujimoto's LIGHT was ever-lasting (you'll know when you experience it with your own retina), and Anthony McCall's You and I, Horizontal was VAST.
This "light sculpture" using tiny mists was quite addictive. I could stay there for about ten minutes.
Then Joseph Beuys's Capri Battery's was a cute joke.
All in all, it was a nice stroll at the end of the year. Happy holidays to y'all.
Rather crowded on a Saturday afternoon; this must be one of the most succesful photography exhibitions today anywhere in the world. She is immensely popular among young girls and the demography of the audience was wildly different from usual shows.
The title is "Earthly Flowers, Heavenly Colors." True to the statement, or the declaration thereof, every room is filled with mad, exhilarating colors. This is her staple. Also she has taken portraits of so many girl/woman icons. Hence part of her popularity. It's so girly. Room after room, it's a wild ride. I ended up laughing.
But my vote goes to her Mexican works. Photographs framed in wooden, hand-made frames. These works are somewhat dated in her career, I know, but the charm is lasting.
Also the goldfish room was fascinating.
After this I went upstairs to ICC for the first time in donkey's bitten-off tail (am I making any sense) to see Light Insight (Light in Sight) exhibition. This is about those multimedia works using light as their major component.
Nam-jun Paik's Candle TV was almost sublime. Ingo Gunthar's Thank You Instrument was very powerful, Yukio Fujimoto's LIGHT was ever-lasting (you'll know when you experience it with your own retina), and Anthony McCall's You and I, Horizontal was VAST.
This "light sculpture" using tiny mists was quite addictive. I could stay there for about ten minutes.
Then Joseph Beuys's Capri Battery's was a cute joke.
All in all, it was a nice stroll at the end of the year. Happy holidays to y'all.
Friday, December 26, 2008
No kidding!
This from AbeBooks' "A year in review":
" Unknown outside France, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio won the Nobel Prize for Literature."
No hard feelings, but can it be? UNKNOWN OUTSIDE FRANCE? Most of Le Clézio's works are translated into Japanese and well received. And this for over forty years!
And don't imply he's ONLY a French writer... he's avowedly and factually FRANCO-MAURICIAN; so to call him a French writer is but halfway true.
In other languages, too, J.M.G. has been an imposing presence. And to my eyes he's one of the two most important writers, along with Gary Snyder, actively writing.
English-speaking (reading, rather) world, awake.
" Unknown outside France, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio won the Nobel Prize for Literature."
No hard feelings, but can it be? UNKNOWN OUTSIDE FRANCE? Most of Le Clézio's works are translated into Japanese and well received. And this for over forty years!
And don't imply he's ONLY a French writer... he's avowedly and factually FRANCO-MAURICIAN; so to call him a French writer is but halfway true.
In other languages, too, J.M.G. has been an imposing presence. And to my eyes he's one of the two most important writers, along with Gary Snyder, actively writing.
English-speaking (reading, rather) world, awake.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Lovely things
I found a piece of paper in the drawer on which is written the sentence:
"Lovely things can be done when you know how to make it happen."
I don't even recall if it's a quotation or not.
On the reverse side is the name: Grand Funk Railroad.
And a Japanese name that I don' t even recognize.
Strange how we accumulate these verbal bric-a-bracs for unknown purposes.
"Lovely things can be done when you know how to make it happen."
I don't even recall if it's a quotation or not.
On the reverse side is the name: Grand Funk Railroad.
And a Japanese name that I don' t even recognize.
Strange how we accumulate these verbal bric-a-bracs for unknown purposes.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Robert Hurley's intuition
I am hoping now to write an entry every day for the rest of my sojourn...on this planet, quoi. Mostly about the books I lay my hands on.
Today I took up Robert Hurley's translation of Deleuze's Spinoza: Practical Phiosophy and liked Hurley's preface immensely.
It's funny, come to think of it, that City Lights publishes this book. But when one hints upon the axis Spinoza-Bateson-Deleuze, it's all too natural that a Frisco house does so. This is such a Californian take on Deleuze!
"The environment is not just a reservoir of information whose circuits await mapping, but also a field of forces whose actions await experiencing."
So Batesonian,eh. I also like Hurley's great sentence: "the intuitive or affective reading may be more practical anyway."
And then, almost maxim-sounding: "Deleuze maximizes Spinoza."
That's exactly what we should aim at when reading; to maximize the author you are dealing with.
I don't know much about Hurley except that he's a translator of Foucault, Bataille, and Donzelot, among others. If anybody knows anything about his writings, pray let me know.
We belong to the invisible non-community of translators of the French texts: Richard Howard, Alphonso Lingis, David Macey, my friend Michael Richardson, and myself alike.
I still got some homeworks to do in this stream of collective-bodily consciousness.
Today I took up Robert Hurley's translation of Deleuze's Spinoza: Practical Phiosophy and liked Hurley's preface immensely.
It's funny, come to think of it, that City Lights publishes this book. But when one hints upon the axis Spinoza-Bateson-Deleuze, it's all too natural that a Frisco house does so. This is such a Californian take on Deleuze!
"The environment is not just a reservoir of information whose circuits await mapping, but also a field of forces whose actions await experiencing."
So Batesonian,eh. I also like Hurley's great sentence: "the intuitive or affective reading may be more practical anyway."
And then, almost maxim-sounding: "Deleuze maximizes Spinoza."
That's exactly what we should aim at when reading; to maximize the author you are dealing with.
I don't know much about Hurley except that he's a translator of Foucault, Bataille, and Donzelot, among others. If anybody knows anything about his writings, pray let me know.
We belong to the invisible non-community of translators of the French texts: Richard Howard, Alphonso Lingis, David Macey, my friend Michael Richardson, and myself alike.
I still got some homeworks to do in this stream of collective-bodily consciousness.
Like Boo Boo says
One thing I regret (already) about the year 2008 is that I couldn't write more entries on this blog. Which I promise to do once the year turns around. I really need to habitually (read, daily) write in English and this is about the only way I can do so. Without being paid or anything. My pleasure is unarguable.
Today I took up Salinger's RAISE HIGH THE ROOF BEAM, CARPENTERS for the first time in several years and I am instantly hooked!
Take this enchanting enchaînement, for example, from Boo Boo's letter to her brother Buddy (talking about Seymour):
"He weighs about as much as a cat and he has that ecstatic look on his face that you can't talk to. Maybe it's going to be perfectly all right, but I hate 1942. I think I'll hate 1942 till I die, just on general principles."
AWESOME.
Today I took up Salinger's RAISE HIGH THE ROOF BEAM, CARPENTERS for the first time in several years and I am instantly hooked!
Take this enchanting enchaînement, for example, from Boo Boo's letter to her brother Buddy (talking about Seymour):
"He weighs about as much as a cat and he has that ecstatic look on his face that you can't talk to. Maybe it's going to be perfectly all right, but I hate 1942. I think I'll hate 1942 till I die, just on general principles."
AWESOME.
Friday, December 12, 2008
4
It seems sleep is his problem. Several ominous signs scattered around.
Here he is facing "la rue des Mutilés," he talks about "le monsieur de Rouen" (charged with regularity, and Flaubertian), then "le tramway 7" is that of "Abattoir-Grands Bassins" (two terms of death, submersion).
He goes on to say "Je vais me coucher. Je suis guéri." But nobody says that when s/he is really cured.
Alas. Now "Journal" begins on the following page.
Here he is facing "la rue des Mutilés," he talks about "le monsieur de Rouen" (charged with regularity, and Flaubertian), then "le tramway 7" is that of "Abattoir-Grands Bassins" (two terms of death, submersion).
He goes on to say "Je vais me coucher. Je suis guéri." But nobody says that when s/he is really cured.
Alas. Now "Journal" begins on the following page.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
3
Then comes "Feuillet sans date".
This looks too much, way too much now. Too contrived. But at the time of its publication, probably it looked cool enough.
Something has happened to the narrator. It changed his perception. So much is true.
"Je pense que c'est le danger si l'on tient un journal: on s'exagère tout, on est aux aguets, on force continuellement la vérité."
But this happens even before actually writing a diary. The very moment of writing itself tends to force la vérité, or at least veracity.
Writing is always trop en retard... it's delay is unforgivable! What really bugs Roquentin is the gap between perception and reflexion.
"Et il y a eu aussi cette suite de coïncidences, de quiproquos, que je ne m'explique pas."
Ah, synchronicity. One subject that can turn anybody ENLOQUECIDO!
This looks too much, way too much now. Too contrived. But at the time of its publication, probably it looked cool enough.
Something has happened to the narrator. It changed his perception. So much is true.
"Je pense que c'est le danger si l'on tient un journal: on s'exagère tout, on est aux aguets, on force continuellement la vérité."
But this happens even before actually writing a diary. The very moment of writing itself tends to force la vérité, or at least veracity.
Writing is always trop en retard... it's delay is unforgivable! What really bugs Roquentin is the gap between perception and reflexion.
"Et il y a eu aussi cette suite de coïncidences, de quiproquos, que je ne m'explique pas."
Ah, synchronicity. One subject that can turn anybody ENLOQUECIDO!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
2
Famously, the work begins with "Avertissement des éditeurs".
A very dirty old trick, indeed. The Mock-author tradition.
"Ces cahiers ont été tourvés parmi les papiers d'Antoine Roquentin."
The name of Roquentin resembles somewhat to Rochefort. Why this name? Quentin? Faulkner?
And then: "A cette époque, Antoine Roquentin, après avoir voyagé en Europe Centrale, en Afrique du Nord et en Extrême-Orient..." Gide, as if?
And this final "le marquis de Rollebon" is only enigmatic.
A very dirty old trick, indeed. The Mock-author tradition.
"Ces cahiers ont été tourvés parmi les papiers d'Antoine Roquentin."
The name of Roquentin resembles somewhat to Rochefort. Why this name? Quentin? Faulkner?
And then: "A cette époque, Antoine Roquentin, après avoir voyagé en Europe Centrale, en Afrique du Nord et en Extrême-Orient..." Gide, as if?
And this final "le marquis de Rollebon" is only enigmatic.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
La nausee: 1
Now I am beginning to take notes on reading La nausee by Sartre. Everyday, if possible. But I don't want to spend more than 15 minutes a day on this. So I'll go page by page.
What a project.
Here is what Sartre quoted at the beginning of La nausee:
"C'est un garçon sans importance collective, c'est tout juste un individu."
And this from Céline's L'Eglise.
In the eyes of a group of which he is a member, the boy has no importance whatsoever. So? But without valorization of some kind does an individuality hold?
And why Céline? Think about the status Céline held around 1938, the year of the publication of this work.
And what Céline meant for Sartre, satyre. Very interesting.
"Importance collective" is a rather interesting phrase I'd love too keep in mind.
What a project.
Here is what Sartre quoted at the beginning of La nausee:
"C'est un garçon sans importance collective, c'est tout juste un individu."
And this from Céline's L'Eglise.
In the eyes of a group of which he is a member, the boy has no importance whatsoever. So? But without valorization of some kind does an individuality hold?
And why Céline? Think about the status Céline held around 1938, the year of the publication of this work.
And what Céline meant for Sartre, satyre. Very interesting.
"Importance collective" is a rather interesting phrase I'd love too keep in mind.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
The Dam and Us
, Here is roughly what I am going to talk about at a conference in Wuhan, China, the day after tomorrow.
Two recent Chinese films deal with the Three Gorges Dam. I am off to that area tomorrow. I first watched Lee Yifan and Yan Yu’s very interesting documentary film Before the Flood (2004), then Jia Zhang-Ke’s critically acclaimed Still Life (2006). These films called my renewed attention to the colossal project of building a dam and its consequences.
In Japan, there is an interesting case of the Tokuyama Dam in central Japan, completed this year, that produced the largest dam lake in this country. Hidden under the water today is the old, small village called Tokuyama Mura. By the time the village was officially abandoned in 1987, an elderly woman named Tazuko Masuyama had taken 70,000 photographs to record the daily life of her community and their ancestral land. This constitutes an archive of a lifestyle that is now forever lost.
Another example. “The Ship Rides on the Mountain” is a very interesting art project that took more than a decade to complete. When it was decided to submerge a rural area in western Japan under water for the new Haizuka Dam, a group of artists and architects together with the local community united to build a 60-meter long raft using local timbers. When the dam was finally completed, and as the level of water rose, the raft began its move toward the top of a hill and eventually stayed there like an ark on Mt. Ararat. A documentary film of the same title, directed by Takayoshi Honda, was released last year (2007). It invites us once again to think about the dam.
The impact that a dam gives to the water system and environments are variously stated. Photographer Kazutoshi Hieda, for example, talks about the threatening recent change at the bottom of a Hokkaido river where various fishes come up regularly to lay eggs. Now the bottom is covered with a layer of mud because the natural supply of pebble has been hindered by a series of dams. Still keeping a very high quality of clear, uncontaminated water, the river is now turning into a zone not fit for fish. But a new trend is currently being set by the case of partial demolition of a dam in Gunma. Will this open an utterly new way to restore regional biodiversity?
Two recent Chinese films deal with the Three Gorges Dam. I am off to that area tomorrow. I first watched Lee Yifan and Yan Yu’s very interesting documentary film Before the Flood (2004), then Jia Zhang-Ke’s critically acclaimed Still Life (2006). These films called my renewed attention to the colossal project of building a dam and its consequences.
In Japan, there is an interesting case of the Tokuyama Dam in central Japan, completed this year, that produced the largest dam lake in this country. Hidden under the water today is the old, small village called Tokuyama Mura. By the time the village was officially abandoned in 1987, an elderly woman named Tazuko Masuyama had taken 70,000 photographs to record the daily life of her community and their ancestral land. This constitutes an archive of a lifestyle that is now forever lost.
Another example. “The Ship Rides on the Mountain” is a very interesting art project that took more than a decade to complete. When it was decided to submerge a rural area in western Japan under water for the new Haizuka Dam, a group of artists and architects together with the local community united to build a 60-meter long raft using local timbers. When the dam was finally completed, and as the level of water rose, the raft began its move toward the top of a hill and eventually stayed there like an ark on Mt. Ararat. A documentary film of the same title, directed by Takayoshi Honda, was released last year (2007). It invites us once again to think about the dam.
The impact that a dam gives to the water system and environments are variously stated. Photographer Kazutoshi Hieda, for example, talks about the threatening recent change at the bottom of a Hokkaido river where various fishes come up regularly to lay eggs. Now the bottom is covered with a layer of mud because the natural supply of pebble has been hindered by a series of dams. Still keeping a very high quality of clear, uncontaminated water, the river is now turning into a zone not fit for fish. But a new trend is currently being set by the case of partial demolition of a dam in Gunma. Will this open an utterly new way to restore regional biodiversity?
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Decreation
Here is a bit of Simone Weil:
Décréation: faire passer du créé dans l'incréé.
Destruction: faire passer du créé dans le néant.
"La pesanteur et la grâce" was first published in 1947. Derrida must have known it at the time of publication or soon after (when he was still a teenager in Algiers).
Déconstruction, rather than Ab-bau, seems to me to be décréation itself.
Décréation: faire passer du créé dans l'incréé.
Destruction: faire passer du créé dans le néant.
"La pesanteur et la grâce" was first published in 1947. Derrida must have known it at the time of publication or soon after (when he was still a teenager in Algiers).
Déconstruction, rather than Ab-bau, seems to me to be décréation itself.
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Novembering, or remembering de novo
Haven't written on this blog for a while; now I am trying to start anew. With only a couple of more days to prepare for my trip to China, it's hectic all over... . Maybe I'll stick to quotations here.
Here is a nice one from Anthony Kerrigan in his preface to Borges' Ficciones:
"Borges restates, in a few allegorical pages, the circular, ceremonial direction of our curious, groping, thrilling and atrocious ignorance."
Oh, our ATROCIOUS IGNORANCE... how sweet the sound! It is the very source of our quest into the verbal signs left behind by those who have passed before us on the surface of this planet. I don't mean humans, but everything, and all events.
Here is a nice one from Anthony Kerrigan in his preface to Borges' Ficciones:
"Borges restates, in a few allegorical pages, the circular, ceremonial direction of our curious, groping, thrilling and atrocious ignorance."
Oh, our ATROCIOUS IGNORANCE... how sweet the sound! It is the very source of our quest into the verbal signs left behind by those who have passed before us on the surface of this planet. I don't mean humans, but everything, and all events.
Monday, October 13, 2008
What, what
Today I listened to the Dylan album Selfportrait for the first time in long years... and was ASTOUNDED by The Boxer.
Some of you may recall. It's sung by two Dylans, who in fact are one, yet utterly distinct one from the other. A beautiful-voice Dylan and that dirty coarse sounding Dylan.
It's so uncanny when you really listen to it. It reveals a structure of our voice; always on two levels on the way to go apart.
Some of you may recall. It's sung by two Dylans, who in fact are one, yet utterly distinct one from the other. A beautiful-voice Dylan and that dirty coarse sounding Dylan.
It's so uncanny when you really listen to it. It reveals a structure of our voice; always on two levels on the way to go apart.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Autumn?
Can't quite believe it and don't want to believe it, too.
But it seems that AUTUMN is written all over the place!
There's a bitter edge of remorse in every space.
I don't think I can ever keep up the frantic pace.
No district of my mind is slated for the ace.
Whatever I undertake is well out of the race.
A pitbull doesn't hunt for mice.
I better cook and preserve some rice.
For I need to go on a trip abroad.
Nothing soothing awaits me on the road...
After my viewing of the very fine documentary Freestyle I can't help but try some rhyming as if I was also a cipher!
But only another week to go before we lose August with the face of Augustus the reticent.
I have lots of work to finish up. And I am rather nervous for this up-coming, very important trip of my life.
I am off to Nuevo Mexico in a week.
But it seems that AUTUMN is written all over the place!
There's a bitter edge of remorse in every space.
I don't think I can ever keep up the frantic pace.
No district of my mind is slated for the ace.
Whatever I undertake is well out of the race.
A pitbull doesn't hunt for mice.
I better cook and preserve some rice.
For I need to go on a trip abroad.
Nothing soothing awaits me on the road...
After my viewing of the very fine documentary Freestyle I can't help but try some rhyming as if I was also a cipher!
But only another week to go before we lose August with the face of Augustus the reticent.
I have lots of work to finish up. And I am rather nervous for this up-coming, very important trip of my life.
I am off to Nuevo Mexico in a week.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Time is definitely NOT on my side
Time, time. So much to be done, so little space-time to take them in.
Now we are happily approaching the end of the term, but I got quite a few to finish up before I can EVER hit the road. But the tickets are there and I have to manage my schedule wisely so as not to cause unnecessary troubles.
My summer plans:
Trips to the Cook Islands, then to Nuevo Mexico.
Finish the Artaud translation.
Move on to the Glissant translation.
Make editorial plans of the Saroyan collection.
Prepare for the speech on Asian American lit.
Begin painting (inspired by Emily Kngwarreye)
Let's see what happens...
I am giving a lecture tomorrow at Waseda. You are all invited.
Now we are happily approaching the end of the term, but I got quite a few to finish up before I can EVER hit the road. But the tickets are there and I have to manage my schedule wisely so as not to cause unnecessary troubles.
My summer plans:
Trips to the Cook Islands, then to Nuevo Mexico.
Finish the Artaud translation.
Move on to the Glissant translation.
Make editorial plans of the Saroyan collection.
Prepare for the speech on Asian American lit.
Begin painting (inspired by Emily Kngwarreye)
Let's see what happens...
I am giving a lecture tomorrow at Waseda. You are all invited.
Friday, June 06, 2008
Use the mirror
"If the world and its cares are a 200-lb. weight, the mind can be a mirror reflecting the weight without carrying the poundage." (Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the Karmapa, quoted by David Van Biema in Time magazine)
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Fringe Frenzy
Fringe Frenzy is the name of our newly established give-away paper issued by the members of my graduate seminar. Our regular attendees are:
Masaki Unozawa, an art activist and critic
Francisco "Paco" Garcia, from Montréal, a subtitle translator for Japanese anmimation films
Takahiro Ito, a would-be photographer
Koyo Kitamura, an experimental filmmaker
Our first issue is actually the issue number ZERO. In which I interviewed my friend Shuhei Hosokawa (musicologist) and wrote an article on painter Takako Hojo, as well as a travel diary from my trip to Lisbon in 2003.
This we will publish monthly, hopefully. Keep an eye on it!
Masaki Unozawa, an art activist and critic
Francisco "Paco" Garcia, from Montréal, a subtitle translator for Japanese anmimation films
Takahiro Ito, a would-be photographer
Koyo Kitamura, an experimental filmmaker
Our first issue is actually the issue number ZERO. In which I interviewed my friend Shuhei Hosokawa (musicologist) and wrote an article on painter Takako Hojo, as well as a travel diary from my trip to Lisbon in 2003.
This we will publish monthly, hopefully. Keep an eye on it!
And Artaud says
Time to resume my writing this blog. Here is what Artaud says, and it's very true.
"...pas de pensée si le corps ne se meut."
Exactly. And no écriture if we don't die one day...sooner or later.
It's between myself and death that I negociate this infra-space of writing.
"...pas de pensée si le corps ne se meut."
Exactly. And no écriture if we don't die one day...sooner or later.
It's between myself and death that I negociate this infra-space of writing.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
No longer listed
The list of books is discontinued because of its futility. There is no reason that I shouldn't list library books. And with that the list would become too cumbersome.
Now I am going back to occasional bits of thoughts, etc. Aux armes, etc. Tu restras hyène, etc.
This from Leiris:
...parce que rares sont les livres qui parviennent à fixer longtemps mon attention: j'en prends un, qui répond à mes préoccupations du moment, et j'en lis un certain nombre de pages... Partie paresse, partie instabilité, c'est ainsi que j'en viens à laisser s'accumuler les lectures inachevées... (Biffures)
Now I am going back to occasional bits of thoughts, etc. Aux armes, etc. Tu restras hyène, etc.
This from Leiris:
...parce que rares sont les livres qui parviennent à fixer longtemps mon attention: j'en prends un, qui répond à mes préoccupations du moment, et j'en lis un certain nombre de pages... Partie paresse, partie instabilité, c'est ainsi que j'en viens à laisser s'accumuler les lectures inachevées... (Biffures)
Friday, April 11, 2008
A bunch
A box of mixed crops arrived, and then some.
354. Stephen Greenblatt, Learning to Curse (Routledge)
355. Bertrand Russel, Sceptical Essays (Routledge)
356. Bertrand Russel, In Praise of Idleness (Routledge)
357. Thomas Sotinel, Pedro Almodóvar (Cahier du Cinéma)
358. Tom Zaniello, The Cinema of Globalization (ILR Press)
359. Christopher Bracken, Magical Criticism (Chicago)
360. Nick Browne ed., The Godfather Trilogy (Cambridge Film Handbooks)
361. Ato Quayson, Aesthetic Nervousness (Columbia)
362. Lorraine Daston ed., Things that Talk (Zone Books)
363. James Chapman, Cinemas of the World (Reaktion Books)
364. Yvonne Tasker ed., Fifty Contemporary Filmmakers (Routledge)
365. Jacques Rancière, The Future of the Image (Verso)
366. Christian Metz, Film Language (Chicago)
367. Isabelle Vanderschelden, Amélie (Illinois)
368. Kyoko Okazaki, River's Edge (Casterman)
369. Godard et Ishaghpour, Archéologie du cinéma (Farrago)
370. Mike Davis, In Praise of Barbarians (Haymarket Books)
371. Konrad Lorenz, Man Meets Dog (Routledge)
372. Burgett & Hendler eds., Keywords for American Cultural Studies (NYU)
373. James Welch, Fools Crow (Penguin)
374. Salman Rushdie, The Enchantress of Florence (Jonathan Cape)
375. Jean-Joseph Julaud, L'Histoire de France pour les nuls (First Editions)
376. Shaffer & Wong eds., Conversations with Kazuo Ishiguro (Mississippi)
377. Mary Litch, Philosophy Through Film (Routledge)
378. Sharon Cameron, Impersonality (Chicago)
379. William Calin, The Twentieth-Century Humanist Critics (Toronto)
380. 西村頼男『草が生い茂り、川が流れる限り』（開文社出版）
381. 清水孝純『ルネサンスの文学』（講談社学術文庫）
382. 桜井満『花の民俗学』（講談社学術文庫）
383. メルヴィン・ブラッグ『英語の冒険』（三川基好訳、講談社学術文庫）
384. 松岡正剛『フラジャイル』（ちくま学芸文庫）
385. 五十嵐太郎『現代建築に関する１６章』（講談社現代新書）
386. ジョン・マーハ『チョムスキー入門』（明石書店）
380 may be the fisrt full-length study in Japanese of American Indian literature by a realiable Americanist. 384 is my second copy; I will use this book as a reading assignment for one of the graduate seminars. 386 I bought on impulse because of the association from a conversation I had with a person from an institute that invited Chomsky to Japan around 1970.
354. Stephen Greenblatt, Learning to Curse (Routledge)
355. Bertrand Russel, Sceptical Essays (Routledge)
356. Bertrand Russel, In Praise of Idleness (Routledge)
357. Thomas Sotinel, Pedro Almodóvar (Cahier du Cinéma)
358. Tom Zaniello, The Cinema of Globalization (ILR Press)
359. Christopher Bracken, Magical Criticism (Chicago)
360. Nick Browne ed., The Godfather Trilogy (Cambridge Film Handbooks)
361. Ato Quayson, Aesthetic Nervousness (Columbia)
362. Lorraine Daston ed., Things that Talk (Zone Books)
363. James Chapman, Cinemas of the World (Reaktion Books)
364. Yvonne Tasker ed., Fifty Contemporary Filmmakers (Routledge)
365. Jacques Rancière, The Future of the Image (Verso)
366. Christian Metz, Film Language (Chicago)
367. Isabelle Vanderschelden, Amélie (Illinois)
368. Kyoko Okazaki, River's Edge (Casterman)
369. Godard et Ishaghpour, Archéologie du cinéma (Farrago)
370. Mike Davis, In Praise of Barbarians (Haymarket Books)
371. Konrad Lorenz, Man Meets Dog (Routledge)
372. Burgett & Hendler eds., Keywords for American Cultural Studies (NYU)
373. James Welch, Fools Crow (Penguin)
374. Salman Rushdie, The Enchantress of Florence (Jonathan Cape)
375. Jean-Joseph Julaud, L'Histoire de France pour les nuls (First Editions)
376. Shaffer & Wong eds., Conversations with Kazuo Ishiguro (Mississippi)
377. Mary Litch, Philosophy Through Film (Routledge)
378. Sharon Cameron, Impersonality (Chicago)
379. William Calin, The Twentieth-Century Humanist Critics (Toronto)
380. 西村頼男『草が生い茂り、川が流れる限り』（開文社出版）
381. 清水孝純『ルネサンスの文学』（講談社学術文庫）
382. 桜井満『花の民俗学』（講談社学術文庫）
383. メルヴィン・ブラッグ『英語の冒険』（三川基好訳、講談社学術文庫）
384. 松岡正剛『フラジャイル』（ちくま学芸文庫）
385. 五十嵐太郎『現代建築に関する１６章』（講談社現代新書）
386. ジョン・マーハ『チョムスキー入門』（明石書店）
380 may be the fisrt full-length study in Japanese of American Indian literature by a realiable Americanist. 384 is my second copy; I will use this book as a reading assignment for one of the graduate seminars. 386 I bought on impulse because of the association from a conversation I had with a person from an institute that invited Chomsky to Japan around 1970.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
It's a raining-in-the-head day
Starting my seminar at 13:00, finishing at 18:00, then went to Digital Hollywood, all under the cold spring rain. But it was fun. Found a short time dropping in at the Librairie française at Shinjuku.
352. Jean-François Sabouret, La dynamique du Japon (CNRS)
353. Paul Veyne, Foucault (Albin Michel)
How soothing.
352. Jean-François Sabouret, La dynamique du Japon (CNRS)
353. Paul Veyne, Foucault (Albin Michel)
How soothing.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
New Semester
Tomorrow begins our new semester. We gave a guidance session yesterday and its addendum cum reunion today. All set for a new adventure!
344. 村山匡一郎編『映画史を学ぶクリティカル・ワーズ』（フィルムアート社）
345. ナタリー・ゼーモン・デイヴィス『歴史叙述としての映画』（中條訳、岩波書店）
346. エルンスト・ブロッホ『ルネサンスの哲学』（古川＋原訳、白水社）
347. ナドー＋バーロウ『フランス語のはなし』（中尾ゆかり訳、大修館書店）
348. ***『日本列島驚異の自然現象』（昭文社）
349. 柳沼重剛『地中海世界を彩った人たち』（岩波現代文庫）
350. 赤瀬川原平『芸術原論』（岩波現代文庫）
351. ***『アキバが地球を飲み込む日』（角川ＳＳＣ新書）
346 is a book I've been reading for some time (with a library copy) and finally decided to purchase one. This year my graduate seminar will be on documentary films. No clues on this subject. A lightless walk in the cave continues.
344. 村山匡一郎編『映画史を学ぶクリティカル・ワーズ』（フィルムアート社）
345. ナタリー・ゼーモン・デイヴィス『歴史叙述としての映画』（中條訳、岩波書店）
346. エルンスト・ブロッホ『ルネサンスの哲学』（古川＋原訳、白水社）
347. ナドー＋バーロウ『フランス語のはなし』（中尾ゆかり訳、大修館書店）
348. ***『日本列島驚異の自然現象』（昭文社）
349. 柳沼重剛『地中海世界を彩った人たち』（岩波現代文庫）
350. 赤瀬川原平『芸術原論』（岩波現代文庫）
351. ***『アキバが地球を飲み込む日』（角川ＳＳＣ新書）
346 is a book I've been reading for some time (with a library copy) and finally decided to purchase one. This year my graduate seminar will be on documentary films. No clues on this subject. A lightless walk in the cave continues.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Is this free? Wow.
341. *** The Best Books Ever Written (Penguin Classics)
342. Rufus Butler Seder, Gallop! (Workman)
343. カペラーヌス『現代ラテン語会話』（有川ほか訳、大学書林）
Dropped in at Kinokuniya and picked up a free copy of 341. It makes a lovely reading and I want more of this kind in every imaginable field... this kind of gift (from language itself to readers?) only saves the book and its culture!
343 is pretty funny and I can pick up a lot of locutions, etc.
We are holding an orientation session tomorrow.
342. Rufus Butler Seder, Gallop! (Workman)
343. カペラーヌス『現代ラテン語会話』（有川ほか訳、大学書林）
Dropped in at Kinokuniya and picked up a free copy of 341. It makes a lovely reading and I want more of this kind in every imaginable field... this kind of gift (from language itself to readers?) only saves the book and its culture!
343 is pretty funny and I can pick up a lot of locutions, etc.
We are holding an orientation session tomorrow.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
C'est la vitesse qui domine...
Geez, nothing going. Nothing whatsoever is going as was planned. And it's getting quite warm, too.
332. 青柳いづみこ『ドビュッシー』（中公文庫）
333. 谷口ジロー『冬の動物園』（小学館）
334. Ramuz, La Grande peur dans la montagne (Poche)
335. Ramuz, La Beauté sur la terre (Poche)
336. Ramuz, Si le soleil ne revenait pas (Poche)
337. Hagerman, Maria Eladia, Babel: A Film by Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu (Photo Books)
338. 鈴木カツ『こだわりアメリカン・ルーツ・ミュージック事典』（NHK出版生活人新書）
339. 増田義郎『図説・海賊』（河出書房新社）
340. 東京外国語大学アジア・アフリカ言語文化研究所『図説・アジア文字入門』（河出書房新社）
It's time to seriously catch up with my own LIFE.
332. 青柳いづみこ『ドビュッシー』（中公文庫）
333. 谷口ジロー『冬の動物園』（小学館）
334. Ramuz, La Grande peur dans la montagne (Poche)
335. Ramuz, La Beauté sur la terre (Poche)
336. Ramuz, Si le soleil ne revenait pas (Poche)
337. Hagerman, Maria Eladia, Babel: A Film by Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu (Photo Books)
338. 鈴木カツ『こだわりアメリカン・ルーツ・ミュージック事典』（NHK出版生活人新書）
339. 増田義郎『図説・海賊』（河出書房新社）
340. 東京外国語大学アジア・アフリカ言語文化研究所『図説・アジア文字入門』（河出書房新社）
It's time to seriously catch up with my own LIFE.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
And the answer is...
325. 北道邦彦『アイヌ語地名で旅する北海道』（朝日新書）
326. 手塚治虫『手塚治虫傑作選＜家族＞』（祥伝社新書）
327. 吉田秀和『ソロモンの歌／一本の木』（講談社文芸文庫）
328. 山下聖美『賢治文学＜呪い＞の構造』（三修社）
329. エマニュエル・トッド＋ユセフ・クルバージュ『文明の接近』（藤原書店）
330. 吉川恵美子『接続法を使って話そうスペイン語』（NHK出版）
331. 生田・村上・結城編『＜場所＞の詩学』（藤原書店）
Oh how the wind blows. It blows down bicycles near the station. It makes dogs happy. And it blows away the sakura petals.
331 is a collection of essays from our symposium last summer in Kanazawa, with Ko Un and Gary Snyder as special guests. My intervention (as the French calls it) is also included in the publication.
326. 手塚治虫『手塚治虫傑作選＜家族＞』（祥伝社新書）
327. 吉田秀和『ソロモンの歌／一本の木』（講談社文芸文庫）
328. 山下聖美『賢治文学＜呪い＞の構造』（三修社）
329. エマニュエル・トッド＋ユセフ・クルバージュ『文明の接近』（藤原書店）
330. 吉川恵美子『接続法を使って話そうスペイン語』（NHK出版）
331. 生田・村上・結城編『＜場所＞の詩学』（藤原書店）
Oh how the wind blows. It blows down bicycles near the station. It makes dogs happy. And it blows away the sakura petals.
331 is a collection of essays from our symposium last summer in Kanazawa, with Ko Un and Gary Snyder as special guests. My intervention (as the French calls it) is also included in the publication.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
April
321. 宮澤淳一『マクルーハンの光景』（みすず書房）
322. 本田勝一『俺が子どもだったころ』（朝日新聞社）
323. 鈴木孝夫＋田中克彦『言語学が輝いていた時代』（岩波書店）
324. 海津ゆりえ『日本エコツアー・ガイドブック』（岩波書店）
Our new academic year began today and our brand new graduate program is now taking off. Let's make it a really exciting collective enterprise! In a decade we'll see. See what? See WHAT.
322. 本田勝一『俺が子どもだったころ』（朝日新聞社）
323. 鈴木孝夫＋田中克彦『言語学が輝いていた時代』（岩波書店）
324. 海津ゆりえ『日本エコツアー・ガイドブック』（岩波書店）
Our new academic year began today and our brand new graduate program is now taking off. Let's make it a really exciting collective enterprise! In a decade we'll see. See what? See WHAT.
Monday, March 31, 2008
March ending, March on
315. エドワード・レビンソン『エドさんのピンホール写真教室』（岩波書店）
316. 秋山仁ほか『HOLGASCAPE』（池田書店）
317. 『We Love Holga』（池田書店）
318. 『We Love Holga Plus』（池田書店）
319. 熊崎勝『はじめてのピンホールカメラ入門』（風媒社）
320. 藤田一咲『ポラロイドの時間』（えい文庫）
Alas, alas, this month is ending and my mountain of work is not. And yet.
Having learned that Polaroid is terminating its production of instant films, I have decided to seriously take a series of Pola photos for exhibition. But my Spectra 2 is not working properly... why is that? Maybe it needs some cleaning. A machine is always a living organism... it needs attention, constant use, and love.
316. 秋山仁ほか『HOLGASCAPE』（池田書店）
317. 『We Love Holga』（池田書店）
318. 『We Love Holga Plus』（池田書店）
319. 熊崎勝『はじめてのピンホールカメラ入門』（風媒社）
320. 藤田一咲『ポラロイドの時間』（えい文庫）
Alas, alas, this month is ending and my mountain of work is not. And yet.
Having learned that Polaroid is terminating its production of instant films, I have decided to seriously take a series of Pola photos for exhibition. But my Spectra 2 is not working properly... why is that? Maybe it needs some cleaning. A machine is always a living organism... it needs attention, constant use, and love.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Walking about
308. W.B.Yeats, Selected Poems (Penguin Books)
309. 萩原延壽『旅立ち 遠い崖１』（朝日文庫）
310. 森山大道ほか『GR Digital Box』（東京キララ社）
311. 森山大道『t-82』（パワーショベル）
312. 白井雅人ほか『メディアアートの教科書』（フィルムアート社）
313. 山本精一『ゆん』（河出書房新社）
314. デリダ＋ファティ『言葉を撮る』（港道＋鵜飼訳、青土社）
Another exhausting day... and the new academic year is only days away.
Then at night a review copy came:
315. 黒川創『かもめの日』（新潮社）
I'm hoping to read it within a week, time permitting.
309. 萩原延壽『旅立ち 遠い崖１』（朝日文庫）
310. 森山大道ほか『GR Digital Box』（東京キララ社）
311. 森山大道『t-82』（パワーショベル）
312. 白井雅人ほか『メディアアートの教科書』（フィルムアート社）
313. 山本精一『ゆん』（河出書房新社）
314. デリダ＋ファティ『言葉を撮る』（港道＋鵜飼訳、青土社）
Another exhausting day... and the new academic year is only days away.
Then at night a review copy came:
315. 黒川創『かもめの日』（新潮社）
I'm hoping to read it within a week, time permitting.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Y llego Vallejo
305. César Vallejo, "Spain, Take This Chalice from Me" and Other Poems (Pengin Classics)
306. Marcus Reeves, Somebody Scream! (Faber & Faber)
307. 鷲田清一『夢のもつれ』（角川ソフィア文庫）
307 I bought some time ago but failed to register. Here it is.
306. Marcus Reeves, Somebody Scream! (Faber & Faber)
307. 鷲田清一『夢のもつれ』（角川ソフィア文庫）
307 I bought some time ago but failed to register. Here it is.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
On a short trip nearby
Picked up some books on the way:
297. 大竹伸朗『カスバの男』（集英社文庫）
298. 村井則夫『ニーチェ』（中公新書）
299. 池田葉子『マイ・フォト・デイズ』（エイ文庫）
300. 荒川洋治『文芸時評という感想』（四月社）
301. 清水哲朗『モンゴリアン・チョップ』（NNA）
302. 椹木野衣『なんにもないところから芸術がはじまる』（新潮社）
303. 高柳ヤヨイ『文字のデザインを読む。』（ソシム）
304. 島田裕己『日本の１０大新宗教』（幻冬社新書）
Days, days. I'm dazed.
297. 大竹伸朗『カスバの男』（集英社文庫）
298. 村井則夫『ニーチェ』（中公新書）
299. 池田葉子『マイ・フォト・デイズ』（エイ文庫）
300. 荒川洋治『文芸時評という感想』（四月社）
301. 清水哲朗『モンゴリアン・チョップ』（NNA）
302. 椹木野衣『なんにもないところから芸術がはじまる』（新潮社）
303. 高柳ヤヨイ『文字のデザインを読む。』（ソシム）
304. 島田裕己『日本の１０大新宗教』（幻冬社新書）
Days, days. I'm dazed.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Los animales fascinantes
At my office for the first time in about 10 days and much mail awaiting. Books arrived, too.
286. 宮崎学『けもの道』（偕成社）
287. 宮崎学『水場』（偕成社）
288. 宮崎学『ワシ・タカの巣』（偕成社）
289. 宮崎学『ツキノワグマ』（偕成社）
290. 宮崎学『廃棄スイカに群がるイノシシ家族』（理論社）
291. Charles S. Peirce, Selected Writings: Values in a Universe of Chance (Dover)
292. Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee (Melville House)
293. J. Maarten Troost, Getting Stoned with Savages (Broadway)
294. Cohnitz & Rossberg, Nelson Goodman (McGill-Queen's)
295. Nelson Goodman, Fact, Fiction, and Forecast (Harvard UP)
296. Julio Cortázar, Queremos tanto a Glenda (Punto de lectura)
Miyazaki's photographs are simply fascinating! Yes, we are living, aren't we, on this planet with our many fellow creatures. Let's RESTRICT ourselves, humanity! Nothing at this historical moment is more important than that.
286. 宮崎学『けもの道』（偕成社）
287. 宮崎学『水場』（偕成社）
288. 宮崎学『ワシ・タカの巣』（偕成社）
289. 宮崎学『ツキノワグマ』（偕成社）
290. 宮崎学『廃棄スイカに群がるイノシシ家族』（理論社）
291. Charles S. Peirce, Selected Writings: Values in a Universe of Chance (Dover)
292. Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee (Melville House)
293. J. Maarten Troost, Getting Stoned with Savages (Broadway)
294. Cohnitz & Rossberg, Nelson Goodman (McGill-Queen's)
295. Nelson Goodman, Fact, Fiction, and Forecast (Harvard UP)
296. Julio Cortázar, Queremos tanto a Glenda (Punto de lectura)
Miyazaki's photographs are simply fascinating! Yes, we are living, aren't we, on this planet with our many fellow creatures. Let's RESTRICT ourselves, humanity! Nothing at this historical moment is more important than that.
Cherry blossoms
Here is what I received and bought today:
284. 小沼純一『はたらくって何？』（アスペクト）
285. 西川治『世界ぐるっと朝食紀行』（新潮文庫）
Thanks to my friend Junichi Konuma for his latest book. It's exactly aimed at college students that we daily interact with.
284. 小沼純一『はたらくって何？』（アスペクト）
285. 西川治『世界ぐるっと朝食紀行』（新潮文庫）
Thanks to my friend Junichi Konuma for his latest book. It's exactly aimed at college students that we daily interact with.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
And another
Another Annie Leibovitz book arrived.
283. Annie Leibovitz, Olympic Portraits (Bulfinch)
Stunning.
283. Annie Leibovitz, Olympic Portraits (Bulfinch)
Stunning.
Back from my trip south
Just got back to Tokyo from Tahiti and La Isla de Pascua. The latter offered me a mind blowing experience...
258. Malú Sierra, RAPANUI: Náufragos del planeta (Editorial Persona)
259. -----, Ietu: Edición experimental (Diócesis de Villarica y Diócesis de Valparaíso)
260. Nelson Castro Flores, El diablo, dios y la profetisa (Rapanui Press)
261. María Eugenia Santa Coloma, Guardianes de la tradición (Rapanui Press)
262. Katherine Routledge, The Mystery of Easter Island (Rapanui Press)
263. Vaero Roa, El sueño de Haumaka (Rapanui Press)
264. Arturo Hernández Sallés et al., Rapa Nui: Lengua y cultura (Pehuén)
265. A. Elena Charola, Isla de Pacua: El patrimonio y su conservación (World Monuments Fund)
266. Jean-Marc Pambrun et al., No hea mai matou: Destins d'objets polynésiens (Musée de aTahiti et des îles)
267. Heipua Teuira et al., Mon premier dico bilingue reo tahiti / reo farani (Editions Vahine)
268. Guy Wallart, Akakai (Te pu tuhuna eo enata)
269. Christian Serres, Rencontre avec la Polynésie (Christian Serres)
270. Yves Lemaître, Lexique du Tahitien contemporain (IRD éditions)
271. Anne D'Alleva, Le monde océanien (Flammarion)
272. Catherine et Michel Orliac, Bois sculptés de l'Ile de Pâques (Editions Parenthèses)
273. -----, Littérama'ohi: Patrimoine en danger
274. Tavae Raioaoa, Si loin du monde (Pocket)
275. Sonia Faessel, Poètes de Tahiti (La Table Ronde)
276. Bengt Danielsson, Expédition Boumerang (Albin Michel)
277. Thor Heyerdahl, Aku-Aku (Phébus)
278. Catherine et Michel Orliac, L'Iles de Pâques (Gallimard)
279. Anne Brenon, Les Cathares (Les Essentiels Milan)
280. Mathilde Annaud, Les arts premiers (Les Essentiels Milan)
281. Johanna Sinisalo, Jamais avant le coucher du soleil (Babel)
282. Gazzotti/Verlmann, Seuls (Dupuis)
This interface between Ibero-America and Polynesia is my eternal source for... consciously being a tangata of this planet.
258. Malú Sierra, RAPANUI: Náufragos del planeta (Editorial Persona)
259. -----, Ietu: Edición experimental (Diócesis de Villarica y Diócesis de Valparaíso)
260. Nelson Castro Flores, El diablo, dios y la profetisa (Rapanui Press)
261. María Eugenia Santa Coloma, Guardianes de la tradición (Rapanui Press)
262. Katherine Routledge, The Mystery of Easter Island (Rapanui Press)
263. Vaero Roa, El sueño de Haumaka (Rapanui Press)
264. Arturo Hernández Sallés et al., Rapa Nui: Lengua y cultura (Pehuén)
265. A. Elena Charola, Isla de Pacua: El patrimonio y su conservación (World Monuments Fund)
266. Jean-Marc Pambrun et al., No hea mai matou: Destins d'objets polynésiens (Musée de aTahiti et des îles)
267. Heipua Teuira et al., Mon premier dico bilingue reo tahiti / reo farani (Editions Vahine)
268. Guy Wallart, Akakai (Te pu tuhuna eo enata)
269. Christian Serres, Rencontre avec la Polynésie (Christian Serres)
270. Yves Lemaître, Lexique du Tahitien contemporain (IRD éditions)
271. Anne D'Alleva, Le monde océanien (Flammarion)
272. Catherine et Michel Orliac, Bois sculptés de l'Ile de Pâques (Editions Parenthèses)
273. -----, Littérama'ohi: Patrimoine en danger
274. Tavae Raioaoa, Si loin du monde (Pocket)
275. Sonia Faessel, Poètes de Tahiti (La Table Ronde)
276. Bengt Danielsson, Expédition Boumerang (Albin Michel)
277. Thor Heyerdahl, Aku-Aku (Phébus)
278. Catherine et Michel Orliac, L'Iles de Pâques (Gallimard)
279. Anne Brenon, Les Cathares (Les Essentiels Milan)
280. Mathilde Annaud, Les arts premiers (Les Essentiels Milan)
281. Johanna Sinisalo, Jamais avant le coucher du soleil (Babel)
282. Gazzotti/Verlmann, Seuls (Dupuis)
This interface between Ibero-America and Polynesia is my eternal source for... consciously being a tangata of this planet.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Step into the Desert
I am just about to go on a trip, and at the final moment this book arrived:
257. 工藤庸子『砂漠論』（左右社）
I am taking it with me to read in the air...
257. 工藤庸子『砂漠論』（左右社）
I am taking it with me to read in the air...
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Milton, and Marvell, and Marlowe
Of them I will read probably only Milton, not knowing a line from Marvell or Marlowe, unlike Navokov from his Cambridge days. So be it.
254. ミルトン『アレオパジティカ』（原田純訳、岩波文庫）
255. ユクスキュル／クリサート『生物から見た世界』（日高・羽田訳、岩波文庫）
256. 三浦俊彦『ラッセルのパラドクス』（岩波新書）
I'm off to the Ocean in a couple of days.
254. ミルトン『アレオパジティカ』（原田純訳、岩波文庫）
255. ユクスキュル／クリサート『生物から見た世界』（日高・羽田訳、岩波文庫）
256. 三浦俊彦『ラッセルのパラドクス』（岩波新書）
I'm off to the Ocean in a couple of days.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
It's been a hard...
246. Gwendolyn Dubois Shaw, Seeing the Unspeakable (Duke UP)
247. Nelson Goodman, Language of Art (Hackett)
248. Charles S. Peirce, The Essential Writings (Prometheus Books)
249. Hannah Arendt, The Jewish Writings (Schocken)
250. ジェイ・ボールドウィン『バックミンスター・フラーの世界』（梶川泰司訳、美術出版社）
251. 竹信悦夫『ワンコイン悦楽堂』（情報センター出版局）
252. 田中長徳『カメラは知的な遊びなのだ。』（アスキー新書）
253. 片倉もとこ『イスラームの日常世界』（岩波新書）
Spent the whole afternoon for a meeting at school. It was rather exhausting. But some books arrived to cheer me up. Goodman, Peirce, I got to be serious by now. 253 I already had a copy and couldn't find it. Then at night, there it is, as usual. INSANITY. But Katakura's way of showing the Islam world and culture is so attractive. Islam might be the most accomplished way of sharing the world view. This I say as an utterly non-religious person.
247. Nelson Goodman, Language of Art (Hackett)
248. Charles S. Peirce, The Essential Writings (Prometheus Books)
249. Hannah Arendt, The Jewish Writings (Schocken)
250. ジェイ・ボールドウィン『バックミンスター・フラーの世界』（梶川泰司訳、美術出版社）
251. 竹信悦夫『ワンコイン悦楽堂』（情報センター出版局）
252. 田中長徳『カメラは知的な遊びなのだ。』（アスキー新書）
253. 片倉もとこ『イスラームの日常世界』（岩波新書）
Spent the whole afternoon for a meeting at school. It was rather exhausting. But some books arrived to cheer me up. Goodman, Peirce, I got to be serious by now. 253 I already had a copy and couldn't find it. Then at night, there it is, as usual. INSANITY. But Katakura's way of showing the Islam world and culture is so attractive. Islam might be the most accomplished way of sharing the world view. This I say as an utterly non-religious person.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Pragmatism at Birth (ou presque)
242. 山根貞男『映画の貌』(みすず書房）
243. 田中英司『現代・映画・アメリカ』（河出書房新社）
244. 鶴見俊輔『たまたま、この世界に生まれて』（SURE）
245. 山田宏一『フランソワ・トリュフォーの映画誌』（平凡社）
After a very lengthy meeting at our school headquarter, I strayed into a used-book shop and voilà, I encountered 242, Yamane's magnum opus, at a very decent price (less than half the original price)! He's great, one of the best film critics in the world. This lead me to pick up a couple more and on the way home I read 245 that I treasured like nothing else. 244 is by an old philosopher who has been instrumental in introducing American phil., esp. pragmatism/pragmaticism. The book is his private lecture to a small group of thirty-something's. Looks very readable, too.
243. 田中英司『現代・映画・アメリカ』（河出書房新社）
244. 鶴見俊輔『たまたま、この世界に生まれて』（SURE）
245. 山田宏一『フランソワ・トリュフォーの映画誌』（平凡社）
After a very lengthy meeting at our school headquarter, I strayed into a used-book shop and voilà, I encountered 242, Yamane's magnum opus, at a very decent price (less than half the original price)! He's great, one of the best film critics in the world. This lead me to pick up a couple more and on the way home I read 245 that I treasured like nothing else. 244 is by an old philosopher who has been instrumental in introducing American phil., esp. pragmatism/pragmaticism. The book is his private lecture to a small group of thirty-something's. Looks very readable, too.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
A Trip to the Peninsular
Made a quick round-trip to Boso on a school-related business. A nice way to spend a perfectly sunny sunday... to get blown by the strong sea wind! On the way back went to Shinjuku with a muskrat-like state of mind. And then.
240. Cormac McCarthy, The Sunset Limited (Vintage)
241. Jules Verne, Voyage au centre de la terre (Le livre de poche)
240 looks so inviting with its peculiar style; it's a novel written in dramatic form. 241 I have to re-read for a project with a friend... a geo-aesthetic study of underground spaces, sort of.
Time is definitely not on my side, but who cares? Festina lente...
240. Cormac McCarthy, The Sunset Limited (Vintage)
241. Jules Verne, Voyage au centre de la terre (Le livre de poche)
240 looks so inviting with its peculiar style; it's a novel written in dramatic form. 241 I have to re-read for a project with a friend... a geo-aesthetic study of underground spaces, sort of.
Time is definitely not on my side, but who cares? Festina lente...
Friday, March 07, 2008
Que divino!
227. Alec Wilkinson, My Mentor (Mariner Books)
228. Alec Wilkinson, The Happiest Man in the World (Vintage Originals)
229. William Maxwell, Early Novels and Stories (The Library of America)
230. Barbara Burkhardt, William Maxwell: A Literary Life (U of Illinois P)
231. Baxter et al., eds, A William Maxwell Portrait (Norton)
232. Susan Sontag, The Volcano Lover (Picador)
233. Susan Sontag, Death Kit (Picador)
234. Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory (Penguin Classics)
235. Kristen Guest, ed., Eating Their Words (SUNY P)
236. Ian McEwan, Saturday (Vintage)
237. Pete Seeger, Abiyoyo (Aladdin)
238. 片倉もとこ『イスラームの世界観』（岩波現代文庫）
239. オノレ・ド・バルザック『ランジェ公爵夫人』（工藤庸子訳、集英社）
Days are getting really bright. The sunshine already reminds me of the summer solstice... my favorite day of the year. I have a big project in mind to write on Maxwell, but still got miles to go before I get there. Quant à YouTube, it's a joy to see Seeger, Pete, on some videos uploaded there. Pete Seeger. A truly great guy. A short piece in which he and Arlo Guthrie play together is so nice and uplifting.
239 is another superb translation by Yoko Kudo, one of our best French lit specialists. I am asked to give a bookstore talk with her in April. It's good, but I have to overcome my tendency to be needlessly stiff in front of an unknown / unknowable audience...
228. Alec Wilkinson, The Happiest Man in the World (Vintage Originals)
229. William Maxwell, Early Novels and Stories (The Library of America)
230. Barbara Burkhardt, William Maxwell: A Literary Life (U of Illinois P)
231. Baxter et al., eds, A William Maxwell Portrait (Norton)
232. Susan Sontag, The Volcano Lover (Picador)
233. Susan Sontag, Death Kit (Picador)
234. Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory (Penguin Classics)
235. Kristen Guest, ed., Eating Their Words (SUNY P)
236. Ian McEwan, Saturday (Vintage)
237. Pete Seeger, Abiyoyo (Aladdin)
238. 片倉もとこ『イスラームの世界観』（岩波現代文庫）
239. オノレ・ド・バルザック『ランジェ公爵夫人』（工藤庸子訳、集英社）
Days are getting really bright. The sunshine already reminds me of the summer solstice... my favorite day of the year. I have a big project in mind to write on Maxwell, but still got miles to go before I get there. Quant à YouTube, it's a joy to see Seeger, Pete, on some videos uploaded there. Pete Seeger. A truly great guy. A short piece in which he and Arlo Guthrie play together is so nice and uplifting.
239 is another superb translation by Yoko Kudo, one of our best French lit specialists. I am asked to give a bookstore talk with her in April. It's good, but I have to overcome my tendency to be needlessly stiff in front of an unknown / unknowable audience...
Monday, March 03, 2008
Flying In
Two books flying in from colleagues:
225. 森洋子『ブリューゲル探訪 民衆文化のエネルギー』（未来社）
226. 長尾輝彦編著『文学研究は何のため』（北海道大学出版会）
225 makes me want to go back in time, 226 makes me ask "Yeah, why? What for?"
225. 森洋子『ブリューゲル探訪 民衆文化のエネルギー』（未来社）
226. 長尾輝彦編著『文学研究は何のため』（北海道大学出版会）
225 makes me want to go back in time, 226 makes me ask "Yeah, why? What for?"
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Stunning. This one photo will change my life.
224. Annie Leibovitz, American Music (Random House)
But I'm not gonna tell which one it is!
But I'm not gonna tell which one it is!
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Marching in
218. Benjamin Lee Whorf, Language, Thought, and Reality (The MIT Press)
219. Colin MacCabe, Godard (F & F)
220. Judy Budnitz, Flying Leap (Picador)
221. Immanuel Wallerstein, World-Systems Analysis (Duke UP)
222. Kirby Dick and Amy Kofman, Derrida (Routledge)
223. 伊藤邦武『パースの宇宙論』（岩波書店）
A series of American thinkers I can't do without: Peirce, Boaz, Sapir, and Whorf on the one hand, Emerson and James on the other. Time to begin working on them.
219. Colin MacCabe, Godard (F & F)
220. Judy Budnitz, Flying Leap (Picador)
221. Immanuel Wallerstein, World-Systems Analysis (Duke UP)
222. Kirby Dick and Amy Kofman, Derrida (Routledge)
223. 伊藤邦武『パースの宇宙論』（岩波書店）
A series of American thinkers I can't do without: Peirce, Boaz, Sapir, and Whorf on the one hand, Emerson and James on the other. Time to begin working on them.
Friday, February 29, 2008
On Rereading (Nabokov)
Here is what I have always known, yet I have often forgotten in practice:
Curiously enough, one cannot READ a book: one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader. (Nabokov)
Read it until the work turns into a painting.
Curiously enough, one cannot READ a book: one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader. (Nabokov)
Read it until the work turns into a painting.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Eureka
In Eureka this month (the March 2008 issue) that appeared today is a tri-alogue between myself, Tadashi Wakashima, and Kazuki Sakuraba, who has recently been awarded the Naoki Prize for fiction. The article is titled "From World Literature to Literature World." This was the editor's idea and I don't really know what it means... I'd probably throw in a hyphen and make it "Literature-World." Whatever.
Some books arrived from France (via Germany) and elsewhere:
204. Philippe Claudel, Le Café de l'Excelsior (Poche)
205. Philippe Claudel, La petite fille de Monsieur Linh (Poche)
206. Philippe Claudel, Quelques-uns des cent regrets (Folio)
207. Philippe Claudel, J'abandonne (Folio)
208. Stéphane Audeguy, La théorie des nuages (Folio)
209. Nimrod, Les jambes d'Alice (Actes Sud)
210. Dona Haraway, When Species Meet (U of Minnesota P)
211. 小沼純一編『武満徹 対談選』（ちくま学芸文庫）
212. 坂部恵『かたり』（ちくま学芸文庫）
213. 市村弘正『敗北の二十世紀』（ちくま学芸文庫）
214. ネルソン・グッドマン『世界制作の方法』（ちくま学芸文庫）
215. 北村・宮部編『名短篇、ここにあり』（ちくま文庫）
216. 川上未映子『先端で、さすわさされるわそらええわ』（青土社）
217. 川上未映子『乳と卵』（文藝春秋）
And it's spring. Enjoy.
Both 208 and 209 were recommended to me by Jérôme from L'Institut. Look so interesting, too.
Some books arrived from France (via Germany) and elsewhere:
204. Philippe Claudel, Le Café de l'Excelsior (Poche)
205. Philippe Claudel, La petite fille de Monsieur Linh (Poche)
206. Philippe Claudel, Quelques-uns des cent regrets (Folio)
207. Philippe Claudel, J'abandonne (Folio)
208. Stéphane Audeguy, La théorie des nuages (Folio)
209. Nimrod, Les jambes d'Alice (Actes Sud)
210. Dona Haraway, When Species Meet (U of Minnesota P)
211. 小沼純一編『武満徹 対談選』（ちくま学芸文庫）
212. 坂部恵『かたり』（ちくま学芸文庫）
213. 市村弘正『敗北の二十世紀』（ちくま学芸文庫）
214. ネルソン・グッドマン『世界制作の方法』（ちくま学芸文庫）
215. 北村・宮部編『名短篇、ここにあり』（ちくま文庫）
216. 川上未映子『先端で、さすわさされるわそらええわ』（青土社）
217. 川上未映子『乳と卵』（文藝春秋）
And it's spring. Enjoy.
Both 208 and 209 were recommended to me by Jérôme from L'Institut. Look so interesting, too.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Gathering Like a Powwow
Days are obviously getting longer. What a relief.
186. Nick Hornby, A Long Waydown (Penguin)
187. Nick Hornby, Housekeeping vs. The Dirt (Believer Books)
188. Nick Hornby, Slam (Putnum)
189. Dave Eggers ed., The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007 (Houghton Mifflin)
190. André Bazin, Jean Renoir (trans., Halsey and Simon, Da Capo)
191. Maxine Hong Kingston, The Fifth Book of Peace (Vintage)
192. José Saramago, Journey to Portugal (Harvill)
193. Gail Sakurai, Japanese American Internment Camps (Scholastic)
194. スティーヴン・ベラー『世紀末ウィーンのユダヤ人』（桑名映子訳、刀水書房）
195. 鈴木一誌『重力のデザイン』（青土社）
196. 鈴木一誌『ページと力』（青土社）
197. 鈴木一誌『画面の誕生』（みすず書房）
198. 石川九楊ほか『デザインのことば』（左右社）
199. 菊池良生『図解雑学ハプスブルク家』（ナツメ社）
200. 上山安敏『フロイトとユング』（岩波書店）
201. 上山安敏『神話と科学』（岩波現代文庫）
202. 上山安敏『魔女とキリスト教』（講談社学術文庫）
203. 上山安敏『科学と宗教』（岩波書店）
Some homeworks to be done...
186. Nick Hornby, A Long Waydown (Penguin)
187. Nick Hornby, Housekeeping vs. The Dirt (Believer Books)
188. Nick Hornby, Slam (Putnum)
189. Dave Eggers ed., The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007 (Houghton Mifflin)
190. André Bazin, Jean Renoir (trans., Halsey and Simon, Da Capo)
191. Maxine Hong Kingston, The Fifth Book of Peace (Vintage)
192. José Saramago, Journey to Portugal (Harvill)
193. Gail Sakurai, Japanese American Internment Camps (Scholastic)
194. スティーヴン・ベラー『世紀末ウィーンのユダヤ人』（桑名映子訳、刀水書房）
195. 鈴木一誌『重力のデザイン』（青土社）
196. 鈴木一誌『ページと力』（青土社）
197. 鈴木一誌『画面の誕生』（みすず書房）
198. 石川九楊ほか『デザインのことば』（左右社）
199. 菊池良生『図解雑学ハプスブルク家』（ナツメ社）
200. 上山安敏『フロイトとユング』（岩波書店）
201. 上山安敏『神話と科学』（岩波現代文庫）
202. 上山安敏『魔女とキリスト教』（講談社学術文庫）
203. 上山安敏『科学と宗教』（岩波書店）
Some homeworks to be done...
Monday, February 25, 2008
The Election Day
This has been a big election day at our university, that of the chancellor. Later, I dropped in at Sanseido in Jinbocho and bought some, related to some of my upcoming writings.
181. Tim Flannery, We Are the Weather Makers (Penguin)
182. 柴谷篤弘『構造主義生物学』（東京大学出版会）
183. 北野宏明＋竹内薫『したたかな生命』（ダイヤモンド社）
184. ヴェルナー・フロイント『オオカミと生きる』（今泉みね子訳、白水社）
185. 粕谷知世『ひなのころ』（中公文庫）
181. Tim Flannery, We Are the Weather Makers (Penguin)
182. 柴谷篤弘『構造主義生物学』（東京大学出版会）
183. 北野宏明＋竹内薫『したたかな生命』（ダイヤモンド社）
184. ヴェルナー・フロイント『オオカミと生きる』（今泉みね子訳、白水社）
185. 粕谷知世『ひなのころ』（中公文庫）
Saturday, February 23, 2008
A Spring Wind
An incredibly strong western wind brought yellow sands from the continent and our visibility was reduced to about 1 kilometer this afternoon. Just before that, before noon, we had a spell of warm southern wind which was declared to be "haru ichiban" (the first of spring, literally). Weather is great. I can't get enough of it!
178. エイミー・ベンダー『わがままなやつら』（角川書店）
179. アントワーヌ・ベルマン『他者という試練』（みすず書房）
180. 宮地尚子編『性的支配と歴史』（大月書店）
178 is my own translation of the second collection of short stories by Aimee Bender. 179 I received from an editor friend, a foundational text in this field (translation studies). 180 is based on a seminar held at Hitotsubashi University which I missed out as I was in NZ at that time.
179 has a Friedrich painting on the cover, 180 a Gauguin. Oh, books. What are you?
178. エイミー・ベンダー『わがままなやつら』（角川書店）
179. アントワーヌ・ベルマン『他者という試練』（みすず書房）
180. 宮地尚子編『性的支配と歴史』（大月書店）
178 is my own translation of the second collection of short stories by Aimee Bender. 179 I received from an editor friend, a foundational text in this field (translation studies). 180 is based on a seminar held at Hitotsubashi University which I missed out as I was in NZ at that time.
179 has a Friedrich painting on the cover, 180 a Gauguin. Oh, books. What are you?
Friday, February 22, 2008
A Sparkling Evening
It's been such a warm day... in the evening had supper with two old friends, one from NYC and the other from DC, in Ginza. Just to see how each of us has aged? Ja, ja.
175. Muriel Spark, The Ballad of Peckham Rye (New Directions)
176. Muriel Spark, Robinson (New Directions)
177. John Updike, Terrorist (Ballantine)
I didn't know that Muriel Spark had a Robinson story...itself a staple genre in literary history. With her charming style, it must be fun.
175. Muriel Spark, The Ballad of Peckham Rye (New Directions)
176. Muriel Spark, Robinson (New Directions)
177. John Updike, Terrorist (Ballantine)
I didn't know that Muriel Spark had a Robinson story...itself a staple genre in literary history. With her charming style, it must be fun.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Awakening to History
Is this a full moon night? The air is filled with spring...
173. 樺山紘一『ルネサンスと地中海』（中公文庫）
174. 関川夏央『現代短歌そのこころみ』（集英社文庫）
History is the best cure for any personal adversities. Happy reading.
173. 樺山紘一『ルネサンスと地中海』（中公文庫）
174. 関川夏央『現代短歌そのこころみ』（集英社文庫）
History is the best cure for any personal adversities. Happy reading.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Annie Get Your Camera!
After watching the wonderful, moving documentary film on the life and work of Annie Leibovitz, this is a welcome addition to my coffee table:
172. Annie Leibovitz, A Photographer's Life 1990-2005 (Random House)
She is super!
172. Annie Leibovitz, A Photographer's Life 1990-2005 (Random House)
She is super!
Monday, February 18, 2008
Tuesday Evening
Got two books:
170. 西成彦『エクストラテリトリアル』（作品社）
171. 羽田正『東インド会社とアジアの海』（講談社）
170 is by the comparatist who has been my guiding spirit in the area... 171 seems to be a very interesting history of European expansion into Asia. The first step to a globalized world.
And the moon is shining in the sky...
170. 西成彦『エクストラテリトリアル』（作品社）
171. 羽田正『東インド会社とアジアの海』（講談社）
170 is by the comparatist who has been my guiding spirit in the area... 171 seems to be a very interesting history of European expansion into Asia. The first step to a globalized world.
And the moon is shining in the sky...
Monday Morning
After a long, restless weekend I received a new crop of strangely assorted books:
159. Cynthia Kadohata, Cracker (Simon and Schuster)
160. Skenazy and Martin eds., Conversations with Maxine Hong Kingston (Mississippi UP)
161. Gordon and Okihiro eds., Drothea Lange: Impounded (Norton)
162. Hicks et al. eds., The Literature of California (UC Press)
163. Maxine Hong Kingston, To be the Poet (Harvard UP)
164. Wenying Xu, Eating Identities (U of Hawaii P)
165. Donna Haraway, The Haraway Reader (Routledge)
166. J.F. Sowa, Conceptual Structures (Addison Wesley)
167. Eric Gans, The Scenic Imagination (Stanford)
168. クリスチャン・オステール『待ち合わせ』（宮林寛訳、河出書房新社）
169. 『建築の記憶』カタログ（東京都庭園美術館）
169 is an exhibition catalog that's unusually interesting. With incredibly accmplished photographs by Yasuhiro Ishimoto and Naoya Hatakeyama, along with a refreshing vision of Risaku Suzuki.
159. Cynthia Kadohata, Cracker (Simon and Schuster)
160. Skenazy and Martin eds., Conversations with Maxine Hong Kingston (Mississippi UP)
161. Gordon and Okihiro eds., Drothea Lange: Impounded (Norton)
162. Hicks et al. eds., The Literature of California (UC Press)
163. Maxine Hong Kingston, To be the Poet (Harvard UP)
164. Wenying Xu, Eating Identities (U of Hawaii P)
165. Donna Haraway, The Haraway Reader (Routledge)
166. J.F. Sowa, Conceptual Structures (Addison Wesley)
167. Eric Gans, The Scenic Imagination (Stanford)
168. クリスチャン・オステール『待ち合わせ』（宮林寛訳、河出書房新社）
169. 『建築の記憶』カタログ（東京都庭園美術館）
169 is an exhibition catalog that's unusually interesting. With incredibly accmplished photographs by Yasuhiro Ishimoto and Naoya Hatakeyama, along with a refreshing vision of Risaku Suzuki.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
A Third Brain
The final day of this year's entrance exam related work... Phew. Picked up some books afterward. Now I get some chunks of time!
153. Howard Sounes, Seventies (Pocket Books)
154. Bruce Stewart, James Joyce (Oxford)
155. Rachel Carson, Under the Sea-Wind (Penguin Classics)
156. 伝田光洋『第三の脳』（朝日出版社）
157. ニコラス・ハンフリー『内なる目』（紀伊國屋書店）
158. 下鶴大輔監修『火山に強くなる本』（山と渓谷社）
Of particular importance is 156 which I believe is ASTOUNDING. The skin as a third brain, the touch as the basis of our judgment. Right on the mark!
153. Howard Sounes, Seventies (Pocket Books)
154. Bruce Stewart, James Joyce (Oxford)
155. Rachel Carson, Under the Sea-Wind (Penguin Classics)
156. 伝田光洋『第三の脳』（朝日出版社）
157. ニコラス・ハンフリー『内なる目』（紀伊國屋書店）
158. 下鶴大輔監修『火山に強くなる本』（山と渓谷社）
Of particular importance is 156 which I believe is ASTOUNDING. The skin as a third brain, the touch as the basis of our judgment. Right on the mark!
Friday, February 15, 2008
On a Night Like This
Still walking past the deadline, deadman walking, zombie writing begins. To cheer up a little I bought the immer good-humoured fellow's talks with friends... and a case of désespoir.
151. 吉田健一『吉田健一対談集成』（講談社文芸文庫）
152. フロイト『幻想の未来／文化への不満』（中山元訳、光文社古典新訳文庫）
Nakayama's Freud translation is awesome... the kind of work I would have wanted to do.
Now a half of february's gone and I feel as if I was left behind.
151. 吉田健一『吉田健一対談集成』（講談社文芸文庫）
152. フロイト『幻想の未来／文化への不満』（中山元訳、光文社古典新訳文庫）
Nakayama's Freud translation is awesome... the kind of work I would have wanted to do.
Now a half of february's gone and I feel as if I was left behind.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
My Mathematics
In high school I was very bad at math, as I didn't put any time into it. To this day I am bad at math, or rather, I know practically nothing about it. Now is the time to overcome this deficit. Now or never. Thus:
148. 石山たいら・大上丈彦『マンガでわかる微分積分』（サイエンス・アイ新書）
149. 根上生也『人に教えたくなる数学』（サイエンス・アイ新書）
150. 桜庭一樹『ブルースカイ』（ハヤカワ文庫ＪＡ）
Much to be learned, no time to learn. Imagination morte, imaginez.
148. 石山たいら・大上丈彦『マンガでわかる微分積分』（サイエンス・アイ新書）
149. 根上生也『人に教えたくなる数学』（サイエンス・アイ新書）
150. 桜庭一樹『ブルースカイ』（ハヤカワ文庫ＪＡ）
Much to be learned, no time to learn. Imagination morte, imaginez.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Some from Powell's
This is our entrance exam week and in Japan it's a big thing. A really big thing for a university like no other occasion of the year. We at Meiji had over 100,000 applicants this year! The second largest number in Japan, only after immensely popular Waseda.
Good news, ain't it, but it keeps us busy. To overcome this hardship by intoxicating myself with new books, I ordered some to Powell's in Portland, Oregon, and a package arrived today. I love Powell's because it's located in Portland, Oregon. If it was located in Portland, Maine, maybe still I would love it nontheless. It's a solid, good bookstore.
Now.
141. Rubén Darío, Selected Writings (Penguin)
142. Gabriela Mistral, Selected Poems (Aris and Phillips)
143. Rainer Maria Rilke, Uncollected Poems (F, S & G)
144. Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Images (F, S & G)
145. Xavier Villaurrutia, Homesick for Death (SARU)
146. Shirley Geok-Lim et al., eds, Transnational Asian American Literature (Temple UP)
147. Rachel Lee, The Americas of Asian American Literature (Princeton UP)
Happy reading.
Good news, ain't it, but it keeps us busy. To overcome this hardship by intoxicating myself with new books, I ordered some to Powell's in Portland, Oregon, and a package arrived today. I love Powell's because it's located in Portland, Oregon. If it was located in Portland, Maine, maybe still I would love it nontheless. It's a solid, good bookstore.
Now.
141. Rubén Darío, Selected Writings (Penguin)
142. Gabriela Mistral, Selected Poems (Aris and Phillips)
143. Rainer Maria Rilke, Uncollected Poems (F, S & G)
144. Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Images (F, S & G)
145. Xavier Villaurrutia, Homesick for Death (SARU)
146. Shirley Geok-Lim et al., eds, Transnational Asian American Literature (Temple UP)
147. Rachel Lee, The Americas of Asian American Literature (Princeton UP)
Happy reading.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Orson Who?
Under a cold, grey rain, walking past the deadlines...
137. Karen Shimakawa, National Abjection (Duke U P)
138. Derek Attridge, J.M.Coetzee and the Ethics of Reading (U of Chicago P)
139. Scholes et al., eds., Text Book (Bedford/St.Martin's)
140. Andre Bazin, Orson Wells (Acrobat Books)
Got to take in a couple of flics to write up an essay tonight.
137. Karen Shimakawa, National Abjection (Duke U P)
138. Derek Attridge, J.M.Coetzee and the Ethics of Reading (U of Chicago P)
139. Scholes et al., eds., Text Book (Bedford/St.Martin's)
140. Andre Bazin, Orson Wells (Acrobat Books)
Got to take in a couple of flics to write up an essay tonight.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Two from Friends
Received books from two friends:
135. 黒田龍之助『語学はやり直せる』（角川ONEテーマ２１）
136. 中沢新一・波多野一郎『イカの哲学』（集英社新書）
Mis agradecimientos and will talk about them in the near future!
135. 黒田龍之助『語学はやり直せる』（角川ONEテーマ２１）
136. 中沢新一・波多野一郎『イカの哲学』（集英社新書）
Mis agradecimientos and will talk about them in the near future!
Thursday, February 07, 2008
At Work All Day
Phew. It's been a long working day, and it continues. In the meantime some voices arrived:
128. Catherine Crawford ed., If You Really Want to Hear About It (Thunder's Mouth Press)
129. Kim Chernin, The Hungry Self (Harper Perennial)
130. Slavoj Zizek, ed., Lacan: the Silent Partners (Verso)
131. Slavoj Zizek, How to Read Lacan (Norton)
132. 十文字美信『感性のバケモノになりたい』（求龍堂）
133. 小柳学『宮沢賢治が面白いほどわかる本』（中経出版）
134. Bill Bryson, The Lost Continent (Harper Perennial)
133 I bought in preparation for my undergraduate seminar on Miyazawa Kenji. I'll be dedicating the seminar for a comparative study of Gary Snyder and Miyazawa.
128. Catherine Crawford ed., If You Really Want to Hear About It (Thunder's Mouth Press)
129. Kim Chernin, The Hungry Self (Harper Perennial)
130. Slavoj Zizek, ed., Lacan: the Silent Partners (Verso)
131. Slavoj Zizek, How to Read Lacan (Norton)
132. 十文字美信『感性のバケモノになりたい』（求龍堂）
133. 小柳学『宮沢賢治が面白いほどわかる本』（中経出版）
134. Bill Bryson, The Lost Continent (Harper Perennial)
133 I bought in preparation for my undergraduate seminar on Miyazawa Kenji. I'll be dedicating the seminar for a comparative study of Gary Snyder and Miyazawa.
Sanity and Diet
In search of some sanity I bought myself a heavy dose of Deleuze in translation. I have been away from him too long...
121. ドゥルーズ＋クレソン『ヒューム』（合田正人訳、ちくま学芸文庫）
122. ルネ・シェレール『ドゥルーズへのまなざし』（篠原洋治訳、筑摩書房）
123. ナイオール・ルーシー『記号学を超えて』（法政大学出版局）
124. ウンベルト・エコ『中世美学史』（谷口伊兵衛訳、而立書房）
125. 川下勝『アッシジのフランチェスコ』（清水書院）
126. Gilles Deleuze, Two Regimes of Madness (Semiotexte)
127. Douglas Hofstadter, I am a Strange Loop (Basic Books)
121 I bought for a long essay by Goda which I intend to read carefully.
Time to retrieve some THINKING with Deleuze. And I mean it!
121. ドゥルーズ＋クレソン『ヒューム』（合田正人訳、ちくま学芸文庫）
122. ルネ・シェレール『ドゥルーズへのまなざし』（篠原洋治訳、筑摩書房）
123. ナイオール・ルーシー『記号学を超えて』（法政大学出版局）
124. ウンベルト・エコ『中世美学史』（谷口伊兵衛訳、而立書房）
125. 川下勝『アッシジのフランチェスコ』（清水書院）
126. Gilles Deleuze, Two Regimes of Madness (Semiotexte)
127. Douglas Hofstadter, I am a Strange Loop (Basic Books)
121 I bought for a long essay by Goda which I intend to read carefully.
Time to retrieve some THINKING with Deleuze. And I mean it!
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Spring Approaches
All of a sudden walking on the street and I felt the light luminous in a different phase. And then:
117. Paul Auster, The Inner Life of Martin Frost (Picador)
118. マーティン・エイモス『ジェネシス・マシン』（ギボンズ京子訳、日経BP社）
119. ハラウェイ＋グッドイヴ『サイボーグ・ダイアローグズ』（高橋＋北村訳、水声社）
120. 池上高志『動きが生命をつくる』（青土社）
Need more grease on my elbows...
117. Paul Auster, The Inner Life of Martin Frost (Picador)
118. マーティン・エイモス『ジェネシス・マシン』（ギボンズ京子訳、日経BP社）
119. ハラウェイ＋グッドイヴ『サイボーグ・ダイアローグズ』（高橋＋北村訳、水声社）
120. 池上高志『動きが生命をつくる』（青土社）
Need more grease on my elbows...
Sunday, February 03, 2008
You Can Ring My Bell
After the snowfall, the world is shining in our part.
110. Charlotte Gray, Alexander Graham Bell and the Passion for Invention (Arcade)
111. Elizabeth MacLeod, Alexander Graham Bell (Nelvana)
112. H.D., Collected Poems: 1912-1944 (New Directions)
113. H.D., Trilogy: The Walls Do Not Fall, Tribute to the Angels, The Flowering of the Rod (New Directions)
114. Benjamin Péret, From the Hidden Storehouse (trans. Keith Hollaman, Oberlin College P)
115. チョン・ソンイル『キム・ギドクの世界 野生もしくは贖罪の山羊』（秋那・南裕恵訳、白夜書房）
116. 桜庭一樹『青年のための読書クラブ』（新潮社）
My Sakuraba frenzy continues... H.D. along with Marianne Moore are somewhat like a homework to me. But February really slows me down...
110. Charlotte Gray, Alexander Graham Bell and the Passion for Invention (Arcade)
111. Elizabeth MacLeod, Alexander Graham Bell (Nelvana)
112. H.D., Collected Poems: 1912-1944 (New Directions)
113. H.D., Trilogy: The Walls Do Not Fall, Tribute to the Angels, The Flowering of the Rod (New Directions)
114. Benjamin Péret, From the Hidden Storehouse (trans. Keith Hollaman, Oberlin College P)
115. チョン・ソンイル『キム・ギドクの世界 野生もしくは贖罪の山羊』（秋那・南裕恵訳、白夜書房）
116. 桜庭一樹『青年のための読書クラブ』（新潮社）
My Sakuraba frenzy continues... H.D. along with Marianne Moore are somewhat like a homework to me. But February really slows me down...
Think North
Snow prodded me into buying a copy of this:
109. 太宰治『津軽』（新潮文庫）
But it feels so funny to read it in this regular pocket book edition, as for me Dazai existed as texts written in "kyu kana" (old orthography). The whole atmosphere look different.
Still, with this snow outside the window, it does feel like Tsugaru in winter (my imaginary topos).
109. 太宰治『津軽』（新潮文庫）
But it feels so funny to read it in this regular pocket book edition, as for me Dazai existed as texts written in "kyu kana" (old orthography). The whole atmosphere look different.
Still, with this snow outside the window, it does feel like Tsugaru in winter (my imaginary topos).
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Lives under the snow
Tokyo today is covered with snow... my dog was so apprehensive. Her first exposure in life to a serious snowfall.
Received a great gift from Shun'ichi Mamura, one of our foremost book designers:
108. 間村俊一画集『ジョバンニ』（洋々社）
This is FASCINATING. A series of drawings inspired by Kenji Miyazawa's stories, and surrealistic collages deftly done. As a latter-day surrealist, I think Mamura (b. 1954) is as good as anybody in the world; or simply the BEST.
In the accompanying booklet, Yasuki Fukushima writes Mamura's biography in tankas. This is also unforgattable; an incredible tour de force. I'll probably write somebody's biography as a series of four-line poems... but of whom? Moe Norman? I'd love to.
Dark already; Joyce's The Dead kind of evening. Ainsi soit-il.
Received a great gift from Shun'ichi Mamura, one of our foremost book designers:
108. 間村俊一画集『ジョバンニ』（洋々社）
This is FASCINATING. A series of drawings inspired by Kenji Miyazawa's stories, and surrealistic collages deftly done. As a latter-day surrealist, I think Mamura (b. 1954) is as good as anybody in the world; or simply the BEST.
In the accompanying booklet, Yasuki Fukushima writes Mamura's biography in tankas. This is also unforgattable; an incredible tour de force. I'll probably write somebody's biography as a series of four-line poems... but of whom? Moe Norman? I'd love to.
Dark already; Joyce's The Dead kind of evening. Ainsi soit-il.
City Electric
There is a full-scale supermarket by our station and beginning 1 Feb it extended its business hours to 20 hours/day. Now it's open from 5 am to 1 am next day. This is outrageous. Do we ever need such a long shopping day? Some would say "Yes," followed by "It's so convenient!"
I'd say: "Let's just give up our labour-based time chart altogether and retire into the tranquility of NIGHT."
Just by limiting the business hours of such stores we can save huge amount of electricity. And the night would be quiet, dark, beautiful, dangerous.
I am often scared to enter into a builiding where every structural function is electric/electronic. Our Liberty Tower in Ochanomizu, e.g. It's lit like a candle, and once the power is out it's nothing more than a huge tomb stone.
What bugs me about those who preach "convenience" is that such convenience is but another side of our VERY alienated labour. Let's NOT work that way!
But then I did drop in at the store at 12 midnight to buy myself a can of beer and a bag of oranges...
I'd say: "Let's just give up our labour-based time chart altogether and retire into the tranquility of NIGHT."
Just by limiting the business hours of such stores we can save huge amount of electricity. And the night would be quiet, dark, beautiful, dangerous.
I am often scared to enter into a builiding where every structural function is electric/electronic. Our Liberty Tower in Ochanomizu, e.g. It's lit like a candle, and once the power is out it's nothing more than a huge tomb stone.
What bugs me about those who preach "convenience" is that such convenience is but another side of our VERY alienated labour. Let's NOT work that way!
But then I did drop in at the store at 12 midnight to buy myself a can of beer and a bag of oranges...
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