/lit/ - Literature

>>17598465
Interesting question

>>17598465
Bump
Notice me please

>>17598465
The irony is Japan is far too noble to publish self glorification and the West is far too ignoble to write anything which appreciates its nobler aspects.

>>17598465
even Lafcadio Hearn advised foreigners not to commit 'love-suicide' he did with japanesism

>>17598677
lol japanese think they're unique and like to write about how unique they are.

>>17598681
I didn’t know about this guy. What do you mean he advised against “love-suicide” though?

>>17598687
Oh really? Give an example.

>>17598681
I don't understand what you're trying to say

>>17598677
>nobler aspects

such as?

>>17598708
>No matter how well a foreigner speaks the language, the Japanese have determined that it is against nature for him to master this subtler idiom. Should he actually do so, the Japanese, whether consciously or unconsciously, will spurn him. I must warn those foreigners who wish to commit love suicide with Japan: this is a country in which a non-Japanese may stay only for a time, where he will never be more than a foreign guest. Anyone who attempts to violate this unseen principle will be spiritually and psychologically crushed.

i was mistaken that this quote was from hearn.

>>17598811
Love of arts, distance, and value placed on how one comports oneself, even if only for oneself.

>>17598841
Distance?

>>17598838
I’m sure a lot of this have heard this. I will admit as someone with a love for Japanese literature who aspires to one day publish in Japanese, this is disappointing. I have to say though, you will only ever hear this come out of the mouths of Westerners. Meanwhile, Western born writers have gained literary fame and been nominated for recognitions such as the Akutagawa prize. How true is this really? Apparently, Hearn didn’t say it. If it were true, would be he have?

>>17598851
You can see Nietzsche’s Liebe der Ferne, literally a love for what is distant rather than what is close. Also, the maintenance of interior distance. The starry night sky was exhilarating to Immanuel Kant precisely because of its seemingly immeasurable distance. Seneca said there is no more detestable pride than humble pride. There might be an outward espousal for what is close (the crowd, the people, the relationships, the market) but inwardly is a love for what is far, has a feeling of not being reached. You see this in how concerned even juvenile Japanese media is with the existential, principles such as justice, etc. Even some of the “darker” under bellies to Japan allude to this reality.

>>17598858
>Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), the great British admirer of Japan, took his wife's name, Koizumi, and became a Japanese, but citizenship never brought the solace he had hoped for. One of the first things that happened to him was logical but unexpected: His university salary was sharply reduced from that of a visiting foreign professor to that of a Japanese. Koizumi later realized that as a foreigner he had always been treated as a guest. As a Japanese he was a misfit, a perpetual outcast; he ended his days in self-pity.

>>17598920
He was treated as an outcast because he received the same treatment as native Japanese? What am I missing? It’s not a secret that foreigners are treated better than Japanese. That’s not exactly a matter of alienation but actually the opposite.

James Clavell’s Asian Saga

For escapism, consider Michener’s Hawaii.

>>17598920
Japan is the best modern society for sure, both from the point of day-to-day life and from culture. The quiteness, the natural beauty, the wisdom and absence of fear of death. Yet, as a foreigner, you'll only be able to experience a shallow glimpse of this life.

>>17598942
Unironically thank you

>>17598465

>>17598465
lafacadio hearn

>>17599075
His bibliography size is... impressive. Any good place to start?

I used to believe Japan was heaven when I was 15, but while that has changed with acquisition of knowledge about certain things, Japan and Tokyo in particular still bring about giggly feelings in my heart. I honestly still do romanticize Tokyo often and think all my problems would be solved if I lived there

>>17599104
I’m the opposite. I used to look at Japan as bizarre and undesirable. As an adult I appreciate it much more especially after having lived there.

>>17599104
I dislike Tokyo and all this heaviness of concrete.
The dim lights of a traditional inn in a late autumn forest is the way.

>>17598938
He wasn't considered a functioning citizen, if I understand correctly

>>17599231
I still don’t understand. Well, I’ve just heard of this guy so maybe I’ll get it when I read his books.

>>17599139
I sincerely feel that Tokyo is the best and really only bearable modern metropolis in the world but there’s something about it which still makes it perfectly clear that it would be totally uninhabitable in the case of relatively minor breakdown, for example. Other cities, not so much.

>>17599275
Japanese people feel very awkward around non-Japanese, or even Japanese people who grew outside of Japan. They can feel it in the first seconds of interaction

>>17599286
who cares how those stupid bug people feel? im there to enjoy the country, fuck their women, and steal their jobs and homes

>>17599281
I'd rather live in Kyoto. Still relatively modern, but much more beautiful with those hills and curvy roads

>Japanese are literal workaholics, the nation is saturated in busywork, the Japanese man spends half his days pretending to work at the office, and has an hour or two of recreation a day spent on some consumerist pursuit chosen to him by what’s in vogue.

But the actual worst nation is South Korea. It’s almost hard to adequately describe how inhuman Koreans are, but let’s just settle for describing K-Pop. The Koreans require their music to be made by corporations and dehumanized professionals. The professionals are trained since they are children to sing and dance, twelve hours a day, never their own songs and never their own dances. The Korean, every single one, gets conspicuous plastic surgery to make himself look more European. All of their songs and all of their dances and all of their personalities and all of their aesthetics are chosen by large corporations in board meetings based on trends. The corporations then outsource the actual music to Scandinavia where
a Norwegian or a Swede will spend an afternoon writing a song, because Korea is devoid of anything even approaching the possession of a soul. The corporation then spends hundreds of millions on advertising and psychologically manipulative music videos in the hope that they receive money from the autistic high school girl who falls for their gigantic ruse.

We should unironically nuke South Korea

>>17599367

Hey OP, this should be a start:
>>17598677

>>17599353
Kyoto is beautiful but it’s partly a tourist trap. Real Japan is in the countryside but my personal favorite cities are Yokohama and Nagano.

>>17599367
>work bad
What time to live in

>>17600116
Agree wholeheartedly

Where to start with Lafcadio Hearn?