The Captain Commandeers his Vessel...err blog...eh whatever.
I sometimes come up with rants in my mind. In fact, sometimes I wonder if I'm at least partly schizophrenic as it can often become quite heated arguing with myself. It turns out I can be pretty stubborn. During one particular “session” I began thinking I ought to write all this down somewhere for future reference, some sort of site or word file. Then I remembered I had a blog. Well actually I run three but two have valid purposes; this ones status as my ongoing novel seems under appreciated given its indefinite hiatus following the loss of all my notes. I'm blaming that and not the fact that I got lazy. So say hello to the new revitalised blog. Thats revitalised in content, I'm not changing the layout or anything. I'm still pretty lazy.I would like to think that this would be general ranting, and whilst I expect a fair amount of the books lore will come out – I managed to get a huge world in my head and most of it is still in there, so it seems natural I should write it down before I'm old and grey and wondering what hair dye product works best. Oh yes, I'm that good at procrastinating – I realise I'm kidding no-one. It's gonna end up focussing on my Japanese interests, at least until the point they wane, which isn't any time soon. Yes, I listen to J-pop. Yes, I have an interest in Japanese cinema (particularly “Pinky Violence.” I tried explaining it to my sister but she didn't get it. Seriously, naked women with swords creating bloodbaths. What's not to like? I <3 Meiko Kaji [Right]).
Sadly people seem to automatically assumes this should place me in the lower echelon's of fanboy society. We even have a moronic word for it now: Weeaboo. I mean, what underachiever coined this for a name? And how is it even an insult? “Lolz u hav interests lol retardz.” A historian suffers no prejudice for having interests in a country they've never visited, during an era they never existed (well, except for the general “my degree is worth more than yours” which is bred out of ignorance. I watched my flatmate translate latin texts. Not pretty), and my interests genuinely aren't that dissimilar. It's not as if I'm under the illusion that the country is filled with school girls with over-sized tits, guys who do nothing but draw cartoon porn all day and stores selling eels instead of dildo's. It's not some mystical world filled with pokemons and dudes with rocket packs – in fact most of it is just like a city, and not a particularly nice looking one (go look up Osaka or Tokyo on streetview. Seriously, its cramped and really dull to look at for the most part).
What does interest me, however, is just how unique the attitudes are over there; from Shintoism, the Japanese-only religion to their bloody warlord past, obsessions with subterfuge and their intent in pushing boundaries in music and cinema, the differences between the Okinawan mountains
and the odd parallels of Tokyo, a city both at the forefront of technological development but with very basic technologies in common use. It's their pride in their independence that has left them very much alone, leaving an odd 'parallel civilization,' familiar and yet alien with both its good and bad points, and its the reason behind their differences – that mindset – that forms the basis for my intrigue, but like this blinking woman on the left of this text, I expect I'll never know why. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
^ You see. That wasn't even my intended rant. That was meant to be my introduction and I ranted throughout all of it. My real rant was intended to vent my frustrations about Japanese loan words. With a little thought its not hard to see how English is a living language; Shakespeare wasn't deviously thinking “and I'll torture school children for years muhahahahaha,” and Lovecraft wasn't specifically being a pompous arse with his use of outdated words, that's simply how the language was spoken back then. Likewise if you went up to Lincoln and said “Wassup my wigger?” he'd probably look at you strangely. New words naturally come into use to explain and describe things that previously had no word, and loan words are just one part of that.
If I said I experienced a feeling of “Deja Vu” or “Je ne sais quoi” you'd know what I meant, but you think these are English words? (If you said yes, you're a moron and should stop reading now). There are Japanese words that also have their uses in the English language seeing as we currently have no way of describing it. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not defending fanboys who yell “Kawaii” at every available opportunity. Odds are if you've used that word in public and
you aren't fluent, you're a gullible moron as the word “cute” fits perfectly. The term “moé” on the other hand, I have on many occasions struggled to not use in description as this three letter word describes what will take me the rest of this paragraph to elaborate on. It's closest literal translation would again be “cute,” but odds are if you called a girl in a bar cute you wouldn't say no if she invited you back to her place. Moé, isn't like that at all, its platonic; an expression for an adorable, tear-shedding, 'I just want to cuddle you like the adorable kitten you are and never let you go' sort of cute. There's no sexual connotations attached whatsoever, and if you're still having difficulty here, say hello to Chiyo, the certifiable Moé Queen [right].But that's not the only word, possibly the most 'accepted' Japanese word that I know of is “yaeba,” and I suspect that's only because people are unaware of where it came from. Essentially all it describes is a protruding – sometimes 'split' – canine as shown below. Whilst more common in Japan its hardly limited to their nation, Kirsten Dunst coming to mind as famously sporting one. Another word that I'd love to use more often is the lesser known 'Meganekko,' which is used to describe a character type (ok, it actually means “girl with glasses” but they're often stereotyped), they're shy, quiet, and nice to the point of being annoying, with an uncharacteristic bossy streak and a total obedience to rules, and they're usually incredibly intelligent to boot. Apart from knowing a few of these types in my life, they work as a quick way to describe someone; if you're familiar with Whedon's work, “Fred” from Angel or “Willow” from Buffy both serve as examples. Ever seen “The Mummy” ? Evy is a meganekko. And to prove im not just picking women, Daniel Jackson from SG-1 began as another perfect example of a Meganekko (technically a "Megane" being male, but Meganekko rolls off the tongue better). I'll always be frustrated to learn words that have no English equivalent and know I'll never be able to use them without being met with either confusion or groaning.
You make Japan sound like they're the only country who takes pride in their independence, and the only country who has lent words to English, and the only language which has words that can't be translated fully into English.
ReplyDeleteJapan is nothing but a weird fucking group of islands with no real culture. All they do is invent weird shit. That's it. And their women for the most part are objectively ugly. Yes, I'm qualified enough to make that statement. What you have is a fetish, not a preference. If it is a category on porn websites, it's a fetish. Trust me.
How many people actually use those Japanese loan words? Anime fans? Exactly. Japan has had ZERO influence on the West apart from Anime and technology. Quit obsessing over a useless country.
Maybe you're forgetting Arabia. You use their numerals, you use their words. They invented/innovated optics (camera and telescope), music, restaurants, chemistry, and Google knows what. They knew our world was heliocentric one thousand years before Catholics banned Galileo for saying so. That's real intelligence. Are the people proud of their history and culture? You bet your obsessive ass they are. Maybe you're forgetting Britain and all that they've given to the world. The rest of Europe for the printing press etc, Persia for their great history, art, and poetry, Egypt for written language, and many other countries who've accomplished way more than Japan could even dream of.
When all you've got is technology and people trying to out-do each other in movies, you know the culture is long gone and forgotten. The fact that Japan has one of the highest suicide rates should say something. Even starving African people suffering from AIDS, famine, and poverty don't feel empty enough to kill themselves.
BTW, I'm just trying to out-do your rant. But yeah, take that, weirdo.
ReplyDeleteActually I specifically mentioned two French phrases, and theres a LOT that came from Greek (as well as the obvious Latin foundations). I never said it was the only nation with pride in their country, but Japan is the only country I can think of that has enough of a fierce desire for independence as to intentionally and willingly isolate themselves from the rest of the world. Most countries are either prevented by their government, prevented by a lack of technology or are indeed a part of said 'internationalism.' I'm saying precisely that their impact has been limited, NOT that that other countries haven't advanced us in some manner.
ReplyDeleteIts not just Japanese loan words either, these are just the words I know. Bulgaria for example has about a dozen words to describe facial hair. how useful would that be for describing what someone looks like? But again I expect it'd never find use in English because they'll never become commonplace enough.
Maybe its a mistake on my part for not emphasising it enough, I'm in no way putting the country on a pedestal of brilliance. In truth much of the nations policies I find quite frightening. Apart from the suicide rate which is high but often overstated, the leading cause for this suicide is actually public demands, which largely stems from their tradition of suicide as a form of apology. Entire families in the media can be asked to ritually kill themselves in public apology for a single persons actions. There's no 'identity protection' for children either, and another horrifying attitude has resulted in rape practically becoming legalised. I'm sure I'll return to these in another rant at some point.
"When all you've got is technology and people trying to out-do each other in movies"
Actually, this is a very westernised interpretation. Most of the nation is very much traditionally focussed, a strong culture of family unity, many households without computers or internet and no desire for it, under-table heaters are commonly used to heat an entire house (luckily heat-proofing is awful apparently, so it travels from room to room fairly well), etc, etc. Same goes for films, a lot of drama's and the like emerge. In fact, just about film entered for international competition is a drama; "Departures," "Dolls," "Nobody to Watch Over Me," "Woman in the Dunes" and so on. And this is completely ignoring the actual culture; Okinawa is a recent interest, the northern islands of Japan that is even more isolated from the world than the populous north, speaking Okinawan (not Japanese) and with an odd mish-mash of influences from Thailand and China. Its odd because Japan and China have been at loggerheads for most of their existence.