The Sunshine Blogger Award Challenge Part 3: Revenge of the Sunshine Blogger

Thanks to Pete Davison of MoeGamer for my third nomination for this prestigious award!  If you don’t follow MoeGamer, you’re missing out: Pete posts a lot more than I do (well, that’s true of most bloggers around here, but never mind) and he’s not afraid to write about all kinds of games, including lewd ones the big sites won’t even mention except to pump out ill-informed hit pieces.

Here are the rules of the game as usual:

• Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to their blog.
• Answer the 11 questions the blogger asked you.
• Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions.
• List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog.

And now Pete’s questions:

• What’s your favourite piece of media (game, book, anime etc) that you think goes underappreciated, and why do you like it so much?

Gregory Peck as Ahab in the best-known film adaptation. I don’t think it’s really possible to adapt Moby-Dick into movie form that well, but Peck killed as Ahab.

Moby-Dick.  I don’t know about using that as an example because it’s one of the biggest, best-known classic English-language novels.  However, it was famously a flop when it was released.  And even though it achieved wild success after Herman Melville’s death, Moby-Dick is now used as one of the go-to examples of a classic novel that’s actually a big ponderous boring piece of shit, which I think could not be further from the truth.  Sure, Melville goes on a bunch of tangents about the shapes of different whales and how much butter Dutch whaling ships packed into their holds in the 1600s, but the novel’s plot and characters are amazing.  There’s a good reason Captain Ahab and the White Whale are so well known and so commonly used as metaphors now, even by people who have never read the novel.

For all the talk about whether Moby-Dick is an allegory, it’s at the very least a story about a man driven so insane by his personal cause of revenge that he ends up dragging a crew full of men along with him who originally joined only to kill some whales for their oil and get their cut of the profits at the end of the journey.  And Ahab’s revenge is not against another human, but against a monster whale who destroys entire giant whaling ships by ramming them into splinters.  It features action, suspense, conspiracy, philosophy, and what some people argue is a gay marriage 150 years before it was legal in Massachusetts (see Chapter X, though you could also interpret it as a sort of “sworn brother” situation that 21st century readers are seeing too much in a modern light.)  I really recommend checking the novel out, even if you have some preconceived notions about it being too difficult or boring.

• How long have you been creating things online, and how did you start?

If any kind of writing counts, I’ve been creating for almost ten years now, when I took work as a freelance writer through a site creating website copy for small business clients.  This blog is my longest-running project by far.  I started it as something non-law-related to do while I attended law school, and I’ve kept it going far longer than I ever thought I would.

• Do you share your creative work with your “real life” friends and family? If so, how do they respond? If not, why not?

I’ve written on this blog and in a couple of other places under pseudonyms for the last six years now, and I’ve never shared any of it with any real-life friends or family.  The biggest reason is that I want the freedom to write whatever I like, and if certain of my friends or relatives knew I kept this blog, I’d feel the need not only to censor myself but to delete some of the old stuff I’ve written.  Honestly, with my close friends it wouldn’t be such a problem if they knew.  With almost my entire family, though, I have to maintain a persona, and one that I wouldn’t be able to keep up if they read some of the stuff I’ve written here (like say my recent review of Nekopara — I don’t need to deal with the questions that might raise among the relatives.)  And once you’ve told even a single person, even one you trust, that you write a blog, that information can easily leak out in all kinds of ways.  It’s not worth the risk.

I don’t need them thinking I’m a horny pastry puffer, even if it’s the truth

To put it in a more positive way, I want to be completely open and honest with my readers, and I wouldn’t be able to do that if my real life family/friends knew about it.  I’m not really happy about that, but it’s just part of life.

• Social media: helpful or harmful? Why do you feel that way?

I’m a bitter misanthropic weirdo, so probably not the best person to ask about social media.  My own highly skewed opinion is that it’s generally harmful, at least if we’re talking about Facebook. It creates an expectation that everyone should share every aspect of their lives, even the private ones, if they want to be part of society.  As much as Mr. Zuckerberg and his underlings might insist that they value user privacy before House and Senate panels and in press releases, they don’t.  Of course they don’t — destroying the concept of privacy is their greatest purpose.  How else can they sell user data to third parties?

Sorry, I’m getting all conspiratorial here.  I promise I’m not one of those guys who thinks lizard-people run the New World Order or any of that nonsense.  I’m just happy that I’m a loner who doesn’t have a Facebook account.  I do like Twitter, though, since it doesn’t demand you use your real name and encourages drunk people at the bar/club to make stupid comments on their phones they regret in the morning.  Twitter still has some negative effects on society, I think, but those are balanced by the entertainment value it provides.  Facebook, by contrast, is just a pile of shit.  The newer platforms I have no idea about because they came around when I got old (“old” here being past my early 20s, so apologies to my elders.)  Maybe they’re shit too, maybe not.

• You’re presenting an important meeting, and you feel a horrific, probably unavoidable fart brewing. What do you do?

Excuse myself.  If I’m asked why, tell them the truth.  If they would prefer to have some kind of android who doesn’t fart, let them build one.  And if I get into trouble with my boss for it, well, so be it.  I’d rather lose a job like that than keep it.  Hopefully everyone there is understanding.

• Have you done anything that has taken you out of your “comfort zone” recently? How did you handle it?

I recently went to a friend’s party full of people I didn’t know and most of whom I couldn’t talk to much because they 1) weren’t lawyers I could talk shop with and 2) weren’t weird nerds I could talk weird nerd stuff with.  Or if one of them was the latter, I wouldn’t know how to broach that kind of subject on a first meeting.  Basically, I’m socially inept — a lot less inept than I used to be, but still inept.  I was happy to be there for my friend, of course, but I hated it otherwise.  If I could, I’d never leave my comfort zone again; fuck everything outside of it.  Sadly, that’s not an option for me.

I’ll never get my social link ranks up with this attitude.

• How have your tastes in media changed from how they were as a child and/or teen… if they’ve changed at all?

They haven’t really changed that much.  I still like fiction with sci-fi and fantasy elements, I still like anime stylings, I still like the same kinds of video games (even if I no longer have time to play all the 50+ hour RPGs I’d like to), and I still don’t care for most of what’s available on TV aside from sitcoms that are both funny and break the usual sitcom model (like Seinfeld, The Office, and I’d also argue The Simpsons, Futurama, and South Park even though they’re cartoons.)  And my favorite novel is still Moby-Dick.  I guess I haven’t grown much at all in the last two decades.

• Surprise! You have a single “save game” slot, and you somehow managed to trigger it to save right before something from your life that you want to try again. What is the thing you want to try again, what would you do differently and how do you think that might change your current life, if at all?

Can I cheat and say “my whole life?”

Okay, fine.  A real answer.  I guess I would go back to high school and try harder at math.  I have a lot of interest in astronomy, biology, and other sciences, but I can’t understand them on anything higher than the layman’s level.  Sure, I know law well enough, though at this point my knowledge is still much more theory than practice.  But if I could get on that STEM track, maybe I’d be happier now.  I don’t know.  It could also be a case of the grass being greener and all that.

• What are some things you feel comfortable talking about now that you wouldn’t have been able to discuss when you were younger?

The only thing I can think of that I can talk about more openly now is my depression, and then not even with certain people (some of my relatives who don’t believe depression is a real thing come to mind.)  I used to just hate myself and think that was normal, but when I realized that it wasn’t, I understood that I had a problem.  Even then, for a long time I couldn’t bring myself to talk to anyone about it, but now I see it as more of a mechanical issue than something that’s “my fault” if that makes sense.  There’s no shame in a machine having a broken part, even if that part can’t be replaced.  You just have to keep working as best you can.

• Someone online writes something that you think is irredeemably stupid, and you’re pretty sure you have the specialist knowledge required to dismantle their argument comprehensively and grind it into dust. What do you do? Be honest!

Years ago, I’d have to admit that I would have taken that fucker apart completely.  Today, though, I wouldn’t do it.  I can’t even remember the last internet fight I got into, it was so long ago.  However, that shouldn’t be taken as a sign of maturity so much as a sign of apathy.

• Regrettably, the fart escaped before you were able to leave the meeting room, regardless of your intentions. It was a right old noisy ripper and it stinks. How do you handle the situation?

Own up to it.  I don’t think there’s anything else you can do in that situation.  Blaming it on someone else will only make things worse for you.  If you’re honest, people will appreciate your honesty at best.  At worst, they’ll think you’re an asshole, but at least an honest one.  And it’s better to be thought an honest asshole than a deceptive nice guy.  Again, years ago I might have given a different answer, but I no longer have the energy to pretend any more than I absolutely have to.

–

These were some very insightful questions.  Thanks for giving me the opportunity to answer them!  Here are my own questions, as the rules require.  However, I couldn’t think of eleven good questions this time.  I’ve already done this twice, after all.  So I cut the number of questions down to seven, but the last question is an extra-long hypothetical to make up for it.

1) Have you played a game that was so immersive and compelling that you ended up feeling disconnected from the real world while playing it?  If so, what was it and what do you think drew you into its world?

2) Is there a game that’s had a profound impact on you, either as a kid or as an adult?  What was that game and what influence do you think it’s had on you?

3) Is there a game that you loved as a kid but that disappointed badly when you revisited it as an adult?  What do you think appealed to you about it then, and why do you think that appeal’s been lost?

4) How do you feel about the use of subtitles in games?  Would you want every game made in a foreign language to be dubbed into your native language if possible, or do you prefer subs?

5) Have you ever sold a game, game console or handheld, accessory, or similar object that you later regretted selling?

6) With the dominance of Amazon and digital game markets, do you think brick-and-mortar game stores will be able to hang on for much longer?  If they can’t, will we lose anything meaningful as a result?

7) Your government approaches you with an offer: join its upcoming first manned mission to Mars.  You’ll receive a large salary, and if you have a family, they’ll be very well compensated.  If the mission is successful, you’ll be away from them for at least three or four years.  However, the mission is so dangerous that there’s a high chance (let’s say for the sake of the hypothetical 70%) that you will never return to Earth.  No matter what happens, you’ll be immortalized in history if you join this mission, and if you end up dead or stranded, your family would continue to receive a large pension.  Would you take them up on the offer?  (Assume also that you have skills that would be essential to such a mission, but that other experts would be equally able to perform the same functions, so the mission would still proceed if you decline to join.)

And the nominees this time are:

Angie of Backlog Crusader

Strange Girl Gaming

The Otaku Judge

Honest Gamer

A Geeky Gal

Best Nerd Life

One More Level

The Dragon’s Tea Party

gamergal.exe

Geek. Sleep. Rinse. Repeat

Sega Does

And also Red Metal and Lost to the Aether — apologies for throwing this tag at you again after answering my last set of questions so thoroughly.

Online book translation review: Seventeen Parts 1 and 2 by Kenzaburo Oe

[Edit: thanks to a commenter below for pointing out that the link to this translation of Oe’s works is dead. In fact, it looks like Tokyo Damage Report, the blog it was originally hosted on, is dead, which is a damn shame. 

Edit pt. 2: I posted links through web.archive.org to the original posts down in the comments below. This seems to be the best I can do. If someone can find a more organized (or better? No idea about that) translation please post a comment, because these really are interesting works.]

Seventeen Part 1, the first part of a short two-part novel by Kenzaburo Oe, stirred up so much trouble in his home country of Japan that the publisher was threatened with death by far-right political groups (uyoku dantai) if the second part were brought out.  Thankfully, both Seventeen and Death of a Political Youth, the second part of the tale (renamed and published almost in secret to avoid a violent backlash) have been translated into English and posted on the blog Tokyo Damage Report.  Oe’s work taken as a whole is funny, sad, and horribly depressing all at once and is well worth a read, assuming the reader has a strong stomach.

Before we look at Seventeen, though, we need to travel back to the year 1960. Japan was still in the process of rebuilding after the destruction of World War II and hosted (as it still does) a large US military presence. The constitutional monarchy re-established by the Allies after the war ended allowed various parties, both on the right and the left, to get back into the game of politics and to openly debate the role of Japan in the world. Many of these debates reflected the capitalist/nationalist vs. socialist/communist divide of the Cold War, and naturally, this stirred up a lot of student political activity, both on the left and right.

On October 12, 1960, in the midst of this tension, a 17 year-old nationalist student activist named Otoya Yamaguchi rushed the stage of a televised speech in a lecture hall in Tokyo and ran a traditional samurai sword through the speaker, Socialist Party chairman and Diet representative Inejiro Asanuma, killing him almost instantly.

This photograph looks staged, but it’s not.  The assassination as it happened.  (Source: Yasushi Nagao – © 1960 United Press International)

Shortly after the assassination and Yamaguchi’s jail cell suicide a few weeks later, the novelist Kenzaburo Oe wrote a novel about the whole incident – told from the perspective of the young assassin.  The first half of Seventeen, released in 1961, tells the story of the protagonist, a high school student who has just turned 17 years old.  The main character and narrator of this tale calls himself “Seventeen”, and his age does contribute a lot to the story.  Seventeen is an awkward, perpetually pissed off kid.  His family is generally is cold and distant and his elder sister loathes him (for good reason – he flips out in Chapter 1 and gives her a severe eye injury during an argument.)  After poking his sister’s eye out, Seventeen exiles himself to a shed in his family’s backyard where he sleeps, broods, and mopes about his problems.)  Seventeen’s school life is miserable, and his only friend is a stray cat that stop by his shed sometimes.

So far, with the possible exception of the eye-poking, this sounds like a pretty typical coming of age story about an awkward teenager.  In most of these kinds of stories, the teenage protagonist comes to some kind of revelation about himself and grows as a person (see Catcher In The Rye for the classic example.)  Our protagonist here also comes to a revelation about himself, but it leads him to a bloody end.  Seventeen is a coming of age tragedy.

The first half of Seventeen plays out almost like a teenage comedy, complete with dick jokes.  However, halfway through the first part, Seventeen discovers meaning in an uyoku, or far-right nationalist, group, where he finds like-minded friends.  At this point, the story takes a serious turn for the political.  Seventeen also finds that his new status as a right-wing activist has earned him a degree of fear, if not of respect, from classmates and teachers who previously just despised him.  As a fervent young nationalist, Seventeen soon finds himself at the front line of a street fight with left-wing students during a series of protests in Tokyo against the renewal of a controversial US-Japan security treaty.  The second part of Seventeen, Death of a Political Youth, is far more serious than the first part and pretty much depicts Seventeen’s descent into insanity, his assassination of an unnamed left-wing politician as he makes a televised speech, and his short stay in prison before he kills himself.  (Note that this isn’t really a spoiler – it’s exactly what happened to the real-life politician Asanuma and his assassin Yamaguchi.)

Of course, there’s no way to know exactly what was in Yamaguchi’s mind when he decided to kill Asanuma.  But we do know that he was motivated by nationalist sentiment, and Oe’s work parodies that movement – much of the second part of the novel involves Seventeen obsessing over and seeing visions of “the Emperor” – not the actual living Emperor (then Hirohito) but some kind of idealized figure, more like God than a mere human.  In fact, reading Seventeen in 2016, especially in the West, reminds me of the kind of religious fanaticism that seems to inspire violent acts – both of the jihadi and of the extremist Christian anti-government variety.*  Seventeen’s fanaticism doesn’t seem very different.

An uyoku van.  These vans are driven around by uyoku guys who dress in paramilitary uniforms and shout at people. The writing on the van is right-wing political stuff.

It should be noted that the right wing in Japan also had a literary side to it, and writers like Yukio Mishima did a lot to push the nationalist agenda (he’s a good writer as well and is well worth a read, despite his weird retro views on worshipping the Emperor and all that stuff.  He also tried to overthrow the Japanese government in 1970 with a group of five other guys and committed actual medieval hardcore ritual suicide with a sword when he failed.  Mishima was somewhat nuts.)

Anyway, if all the above stuff sounds interesting to you, here are the links to the translations.  The translator does an interesting job with the writing.  He’s definitely going for the “feeling” of the text more than literal accuracy. I very much doubt that Oe included the phrase “Shake that ass!” in his original work. But I don’t mind. Also, this seems to be the only English translation of Death of a Political Youth around, so if you want to read it and can’t read Japanese, you don’t actually have a choice in the matter.

Seventeen

Death of a Political Youth

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*If you don’t live in the United States, you might not know about this strain of fanaticism – I’m not sure how much it really exists outside of the US.  Eric Rudolph (the 1996 Olympics bomber) was one of these bastards.