What Book Are You Reading?

I have read Kon Tiki and Aku Aku, and saw the movie on his Ra expedition back in the 70's.

 

Its snowing pretty heavily so Its a great day to stay inside and read.

Occasionally I will read Japanese books in part because I want to keep my Japanese from getting rusty, because they can be interesting, and because I can.

One of the first books I bought in a bookstore in Japan was called Nihingo no Kigen (The origin of the Japanese language) by Susumu Ohno. Let me clarify--that was one of the first books, that wasn't a comic book---a friend of mine was reading Doraemon comics to help him study Japanese.

(Doraemon was a robot cat sent from the future to help a grade school kid, who would rather screw around than do his studies or do well in school, and of course always wants the easy way out, probably by this kid's future self. Doraemon is a very popular franchise targeting children, and has a long running cartoon on tv, in addition to the popular comic books. There are even several full length movies. (If you google a picture of Doraemon, you have probably seen him somewhere, though the actual character is not very well known here in the US.) I thought it was silly to read children's comic books, but I looked at one of his, and realized that I could actually read it. Then I discovered that it was a good examination of different personalities much like Charlie Brown provided to the West, and the humor was along the lines of Charlie Brown. I ended up buying the whole set of Doraemon comic books to study Japanese. Then I bought another one---Makoto-chan which is a hilarious series about Makoto--a kindergarten aged kid living in a family that is a cross between the family in National Lampoon's Christmas/Vacation and the Addam's Family---not as spooky as the Addam's Family, just strangely different. It is deranged humor directed at kids. I don't know how else to explain it----its funny and odd.)

Anyway, I bought this book, Nihongo no kigen, and it was very interesting. In fact it inspired me to, years later, write a book on what I argue is the oldest word in the human language. (the book was never finished because I started writing philosophy, which was connected to that book in various ways, but has turned into other books). Unfortunately in the course of moving here and there and living an exciting life, I lost the book. About 2 years ago, realized I could try to get it on Amazon, but any time I try it is not in stock anywhere. As I recall, Ohno argued that Japanese originated in Southern India, but was connected to the Turkish language family and so it had roots in Central Asia. The Japanese ancestors moved across South East Asia spreading the culture of rice harvesting, turned north and settled in Japan. There is definitely philosophical and cultural themes that tie Japanese culture to indigenous Central and even East Asian cultures. I am convinced, for example, that the archaic animistic belief system that gave rise to Taoism also gave rise to Shinto. I have wanted very much to read that book again to see how he connected Japanese all to these cultures.

While I haven't been able to locate that book, I did find this one on Amazon, also written by Susmu Ohno, about 15 years after his other book. The title of this one is Nihongo wa doko kara kitaka (From where did the Japanese language come from). When I first got it, I was disappointed to see that some of the things he covered in his first book, he did not cover in this one, or at least I haven't found it. So it has sat on a shelf in my library for about a year now. But with the heavy snow falling outside, and no place to go, its a good time to sit back and read this.



Scholars have struggled for a long time to find where Japanese has come from. When I first started learning Japanese over 40 years ago, we were taught that the closest languages to Japanese were the language of the Lapplanders in Finland, and to Hungarian. These are both languages of the Ural-Altaic language family which are languages with Turkish roots. Japanese grammar is definitely of the Turkish family. In fact, one time I realized that if I learn the vocabulary of Turkoman, an indigneous language in Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. that because I understand Japanese grammar, I would be able to speak and understand Turkoman. Cultures like that of the Turkoman, the Tungusic people and others in Central Asia, are the cultures of the Shamans. Mongollian is another Turkish language, and then you start to make the connections with Chinese which has a largely different grammar. There is definitely an interesting connection between these languages. (On a side note---the Mongolian Yenisaian languages, which are dying out, are related to Dine' (Navajo). This may have been the language of Ghengis Khan.)

In this book, Ohno makes a strong argument for a connection between the ancient Yayoi people of Japan and the Tamil of Southern India. Tamil is recognized as one of the oldest languages in the world. There is an older culture in Japan, the Jomon, which were different enough from the Yayoi to suggest that they may not have been related. There is a lot of debate around this, but I think it is generally accepted that, at least, the Yayoi were the ancestors of the Japanese. It will be interesting to see if, and how, he discusses that. So far I am only up to Chapter 3 in the book.

 

In the picture on the left, Ohno is comparing vases from the ancientTamil cultures in Southern India (lower left page) with the Yayoi vases, upper left page, and the picture on the right page is a Jomon piece. The picture on the right shows burial urns that were used for the Tamil and the Yayoi. The picture on the top of the left page shows a Yayoi burial urn, and on the bottom shows how they have been found in graves. The top and bottom on the right of that page shows the Tamil burial urn and how it has been found in graves. The picture on the right shows an actual urn that had been found in a Yayoi dig.

 

"The Heart of Buddha's Teaching"; Thich Nhat Hanh.

 

Voyage to the bottom of the sea..

I am on chapter 2

 

Is that an old novel or is it the old TV show with the submarine the Sea View? I loved that show!

 

Yes its an older novel....... (There are newer ones now)

 

A reworking of the Canterbury Tales by Peter Akroyd. I am a big family of Andy McDermotts Wilde and Chase series and will start the 16th volume, Temple of Skulls, shortly.

 

Re-REading THe Venus Prime Series. Written by Paul Preuss under Arthur C. Clarke's label.
I re-read all of my books every couple of years.

 

THE HAUNTED LAND, Facing Europe's ghosts after communism. By Tina Rosenberg

This book was copyrighted in 1995. I picked this up with the idea that, if America were to fall into the death grip of totalitarianism, then once that government collapses, we would have to reckon with the wrongs perpetrated by Fascism, as described about what Europe was going through in this book. In fact, even if we were to save democracy we would still have to deal with the far right in America so far. We would have to address their intentions, their lies, their crimes, and so forth.

As Tina wrote in the introduction, "How did communism win the complicity of ordinary, well-intentioned, even idealistic people to horrible crimes? How did it acquire power? How did it manipulate ordinary people to maintain its power? Perhaps if East Germans had asked these questions about the Third Reich, they would have been more likely to resist the imposition of the Communist dictatorship that followed."

She explains, "Preventing dictatorship's return requires a full understanding of the mechanisms of dictatorship." This book is so relevant to the times when you realize that the Far Right has gained ground in Europe in just the last weekend. But why did she speak in terms of a 'dictatorship's return' rather than refer to preventing a dictatorship? I think we can easily conclude that it is because the places where dictatorship was an issue in 1995, were the same places that had a history of totalitarianism, and after all, that is what the book was about----how these nations were dealing with the ghosts of that totalitarian past. The only place in 1995 that I can think of that didn't have any totalitarian history, was the US, Australia, and England if we ignore some of the harsher history of the monarchy. And back then we were snug in, and felt safe in, the assumption that it couldn't happen here.

Today we can no longer rely on such an idea. This book may not be the answer to our dilemna, but it certainly provides insight and a refreshed perspective on what is happening. For example, we see on the Right this sweeping push to revise the past. Christian Nationalists are trying to say that there was no separation of church and state, activists are trying to deny our racist past and take it out of school curriculums, then there are the many false narratives over the 2020 election. January 6th, and so forth. Tina Rosenberg quotes George Orwell: "Whoever controls the past controls the future.

Outside of that, the book seems to be an interesting look at the way totalitarianism has impacted people's lives, and made them do things that would not be normally acceptable, and the ethical, and existential dilemna of dealing with these things. I have just started it and enjoy it so far. The introduction is especially important to our situation and what is happening now in Europe. I'm now in Chapter 1.

 

So I have been extremely busy for months with all that is going on, politics, my wife's oldest sister tried to take over the ancestral property in the Philippines and we had to prepare documents to prevent that, and all kinds of other things. So I really have not had much chance to just sit down and relax, that is, until today. I thought I would just sit and relax and maybe put some CD's of Persian Hammered Dulcimer music. But when I started digging out the music, I found a CD of Chinese lute music, and immediately thought of a perfect way to relax.

The CD is titled, An Overall Ambush, which is a translation of the name of the third track. I prefer Ambush from Ten Sides, as a translation because that is what the Chinese actually says (or more literally--10 Sides Ambush:




There is probably a good hour of music of Chinese Lute, a 4-stringed instrument, and other instruments such as the flute and others in various songs. The title track is a bit high paced, a bit like Japanese tsugaru shamisen music, but most tracks are typical tradional Chinese music that might call to mind mountains and ponds and birds and so forth.

Now I should point out that the fall and winter are a very special time for me---I become more philosophical and artistic. I especially love to turn to Japanese haiku in the fall and through the winter. Fall is coming, but it doesn't really feel like it---85 degree days, and what all, but I decided I should start getting into the mindset. So I put on this music, went downstairs to my library to dig out some collections of Chinese poetry that I haven't read for nearly a decade, And then made some nice Jasmine tea from China.

The first book I found was a collection of the poetry of Li Po (AD 701 - 62) and Tu Fu (AD 712 - 70). It has a real good introduction to Chinese poetry and discusses some of the myths and folktales that these poets referred to.



This book mentions my favorite Chinese poem (As does the next one I found) by Chia Tao:

Under a pine
I asked his pupil
Who said: Masters
gone gathering balm

Only somewhere
about the mountain;
clouds so thick
I don't know where

(Or as I prefer the last verse:
Somewhere up in the mountains
Cloud hidden
Whereabouts unknown.)

Alan Watts included that last translation in his book which used the last lines for the title. Visiting a hermit and not finding him was a common theme in Chinese poetry. An, example of Li Po's in this theme is a poem about walking through the deep woods in the moutains and ends with:

No one here knows
which way you have gone
Two, now three pines,
I have leant against!

When I read Chinese poetry, I want to see the original Chinese, next to the translation. My Chinese is not that good, (I can only read it and not speak it), but the translation don't always do it justice, and in most cases I can read enough to understand the original poem with its subjective implied meanings. This book provides the original CHinese for most of the poems, but not all of them. So on to the second book I pulled out of my library (Next post).

 

Flame Throwers by Rachel Kushner. Too early to say if its good.

 

The other book is simply titled, Chinese Poetry


And not only does it have the original Chinese for each poem, but then a translation of each character (including multiple translations of the same character) so that even if you can't read Chinese, it allows you to still get a feel for the original Chinese, (and its various implications that the linear nature of English diminishes) without the english translation, but it also has the poem translated as it would be done in English.

This book has many poets down through Chinese history, from 600 BC to 1368 AD. And many genres and styles, such as one of a girl, which on the one hand, refers to a simple seduction, yet Confucius later took this poem and used it as a moral statement about the end of the Yin Dynasty when rites and traditions were being broken, and China became wild by Confucian standards. This Poem refers to a dead deer, and at that time, it was common, when seeking marriage, to give a gift of deer meat wrapped in couch-grass which was white to signify purity:

In the wilds, a dead doe,
White reeds to wrap it.
A girl, spring-touched
A fine man to seduce her.
In the woods, bushes,
In the wilds a dead deer.
White reeds in bundles,
A girl like jade.
Slowly, take it easy,
Don't feel my sash!
Don't make the dog bark!

Spring in this case, refers to the age of puberty. I suspect it also might have a connotation of sex as it does in Japan.

Anyway, it was enjoyable, relaxing; I loved the tea, and spent enough time that I prepared a second pot of Kuan Yin Tea (Which is so special that they used to brag that it was untouched by human hands---they had trained monkeys that would pick the leaves).

Typically I'd end such a day with some good Chinese food, maybe pull out a collection or too of Chinese art, I have a number of them, which are mostly in coffee table sized books. I even have several on Chinese erotica. In fact, I even have an antique Chinese pillow book. But for tonight, my wife is back from the Philippines for a week now, and she spent the afternoon cooking a delicious couple of Philippine dishes as her eldest son came for dinner.

Alas, I enjoy Chinese poetry for a while, but I find Japanese haiku to be far more existential and aesthetic. Perhaps, in part, because I am fluent in Japanese. But I feel that the level of aesthetics Chinese poetry tries to achieve, is well accomplished in haiku and then some! Another thing is that I really dig the Japanese aesthetics of wabi, sabi, and yugen. I was tempted to pull out haiku books, including one I saw downstairs of Death Haiku---which I have always really enjoyed. But I will save that for another day, when the leaves have turned and are falling and maybe a heavy snowfall has come. For that I will put on shakuhachi flute, or perhaps Koto music (a Japanese zither), or some tsugaru shamisen.

 

"Happy Place" by Emily Henry – This romance has garnered attention for being more than just a love story. I want to write an essay about this book with a little help of writing service. I often use it to help with term paper because it is reliable one. If you're facing tight deadlines, such writing services can help you submit your proposals fast. They are often equipped to handle urgent requests and deliver high-quality work promptly.

 

I got this book, The Age of Extremes, by Eric Hobsbawm, sometime over the past year. I wanted to read it but was a bit too busy. Finally I am finding some time to read it and I am thoroughly impressed. Eric Hobsbawm is considered one of the leading historians until his death in 2012, though his past is a bit controversial----a son of an English Jewish merchant, born in Egypt, and spent many years of his youth in VIenna and Berlin where he joined the communist party rather than the Nazis. As Hitler came to power his family moved to England. He was quite smart, and of course in those days it was vogue to be an intellectual and a Marxist. However his Marxist connections, despite his often lack of commitment to Marxism, was a ghost that hung over much of his life. MI-6 for example, would not let the BBC hire him for that reason.

This book is part of a tetralogy of histroy books going back to 1789. This one covers 1914 - 1991. I started with Chapter 4.) The Fall of Liberalism. where he discusses the collapse of liberalism in Europe---and the liberal values of democracy, liberty, and personal freedom, by Right Wing conservative forces. It is much like what we are seeing today, and I think it can be illuminating to today's reality. After this chapter I will probably go back to chapter 1 and read through the book. So far it is really good and I will have to go back and get his other books in this series.

One of my first impressions of this book, which I really like is how it appears to tie 20th Century liberalism back to its beginnings as a rebellion against the crown and the monarchy. Freedom and liberty today are really marks of liberalism, and we have just taken conservatives, who have long tried to thwart attempts at liberty and so forth, along for the ride. While the rise of fascism in the early 20th Century was seen as a fight against Marxism, in reality that was more of a label to demonize all liberalism, and instead was a reaction to the rising power of the labor class and their fight for human rights. For example, one of the biggest goals among all European labor parties, whether socialist or not, from 1889 till World War II was not revolution of any kind, but simply an 8-hour work day.