Comments on: Furyu Mutan!!!

By: Tokyo Damage Report » What is SEVENTEEN?

Tokyo Damage Report » What is SEVENTEEN? — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 01:10:57 +0000

[...] pleasure. Let me back up a second: Last year, I posted my translation of Furyuu Mutan (The Dream Of An Elegant Family), a Japanese short-story from 1960 that it set off a huge shit-storm [...]

By: AnokPanda

AnokPanda — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:56:50 +0000

opps I broke something. sorry

By: AnokPanda

AnokPanda — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:55:30 +0000

Thoreau was a bitch and a chronic Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} masturbator

By: Kakanian

Kakanian — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:00:23 +0000

Is that better or worse than the World Series?
>After all the crappy subcultures we’ve dropped on the world?
Not like I care about that stuff. What happened in Japan happened everywhere else too – it mutated into strange new forms. I just sorta found it funny how many kooks name Thoreau as their spiritual guide and how everyone thinks that's awesome…from Beats to violent Anarchists who would not mind killing 2/3 of humanity to rather flat "special" youth novel characters.

By: admin

admin — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 09:55:48 +0000

@kakanian-with-the-german-email-address: and if I was in Der Vaterland, what would I write about? Football players hitting turks with pretzels??? Plus, “thoreauan hermits?” is that the best you could do for america? After all the crappy subcultures we’ve dropped on the world? And you come to my page and write about me like I’m not here? “He does this he does that.” I’m IN THE ROOM, HANS. I mean, damn. I’m not going to take any attitude from a damn German. You guys are so wack, you host the World Breakdancing Championship every year AND HAVE NEVER WON IT.

By: Kakanian

Kakanian — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 07:35:38 +0000

>TDR hits the voice that no one else does: INFORMED Contempt of Japanese Culture.

Huh? The blog belongs squarely to the "Those kooky Japanese!"-group, only that the author does not bother us with stories about porn and HA-HA-stuff.
If he was in Europe, he'd be wirting about youth extremism through its connection to music, if he was in the states he'd probably rant about how he did not find too many Thoreauan hermits and how the ones he found threatened to shoot him. IMO.

By: adam

adam — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 01:10:14 +0000

crossing my fingers no english-fluent yakuza keep regular tabs on your site! although, let's face it, they are pussies compared to the russian…or mexican mafias…
TDR rocks

By: T.S.B. Voidmare

T.S.B. Voidmare — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:49:11 +0000

I am an idiot, the comic's name is Umezology (ウメゾロジ)! Oops

By: admin

admin — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 05:29:46 +0000

@anok: about the “meaning”, there’s an interesting scholarly article here:
http://www.jpri.org/publications/occasionalpapers/op17.html
where Herbert Bix (author of a rad biography of Hirohito) says that Furyu Mutan’s meaning is, Japanese people forgive the emperor for his part in the war because it makes it easier for them (the average people) to forgive themselves for their own part in the war. He points to the stopped watch and – improbably – the bald spots – as metaphors for this. But he seems to miss the humor of the story, so I take his interpretation with a grain of salt.

By: AnokPanda

AnokPanda — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 02:28:39 +0000

I find it hard to place a meaning that isn't perverted by my own perspectives on, and prejudices of, Japanese culture and history. Although I feel knowledgeable about plenty of aspects of Japanese culture, I believe the extremely Japanese nature of the sentiments make any conclusion I draw, come out unbelievably skewed to the point of offensively retarded. But I will say, I think the authors intentions and allegiance lies somewhere in the middle (which sounds indecisive and douchey on my part), or maybe he's saying the masses of Japan are "in the middle" and easily swayed. I think somewhere in there he's saying that one is Japanese no matter what one does, or weather or not they want to be.

Other half thoughts:
There's something about appreciating some things true value along with the virtues of utilizing opportunity… A weird emphasis on appearance and cleanliness…The uncontrollable or unforecastable nature of history…True social/political power and unwarranted authority…The world moves even if your not watching it…Did you take notice of were you've been, and will you know where you are when you get where you're going?…Politeness is cheap and leisure time is for the rich…

IDK, I'll get off the soap box know; either way, I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the translation. Thank you.

Ever seen Rampo jigoku or have read anything by Ranpos Edogawa? That movie was wacky (and good) as fuck.