Historically, oppressive regimes imprisoning poets, artists, and intellectuals has not been unusual, but rather has tended to be the norms of such regimes. Given the rigidity of Japanese hierarchical systems and the deference given (even today) to such rigidity, I'm not surprised to hear that in the past Japanese poets have been imprisoned by reigning forces. However, I was surprised to learn that it happened as recently as 1940, and that in at least one case it was over the failure of experimental haikuist Saito Sanki to include a season word (kigo) in his haiku. I shouldn't have been surprised, wouldn't have been if I'd ever thought about it...the forms in Japanese poetry were as rigidly imposed as other forms in Japanese arts and lifestyle, and thus the breaking away from such poetic forms would certainly have been viewed by the militarist government as evidence of threatening westerning forces insidiously invading the minds of the people.
I learned about Saito's imprisonment and that of other Japanese writers during the war when researching for the Japanese poetic forms class I'm going to be teaching this spring. From the article "The Landscape of Identity: Poetry and the Modern in Japan" (first published in Aufgabe issue #4 in 2004, edited by Sawako Nakayasu, and made available online at the website The New Modernism), comes the following :
"In 1940, Saito Sanki, an experimental haikuist, was imprisoned for the crime of writing haiku without any seasonal reference. Kitasono Katue was arrested in the same year and subjected to a grueling three-day interrogation by Japan’s infamous Thought Police. Virtually all of Japan’s Modernists were arrested, sent to the Manchurian front, or silenced. Nishiwaki Junzaburo, whose first book of poems was composed originally in English and then translated into Japanese, and who introduced the technique of Surrealist estrangement to Japan, found it wisest to retreat to his home town with his British wife, where he began research on the Japanese classics (a much safer pursuit during those times). The careers of many writers and artists were completely destroyed by the events of the war era. Not even the restoration of political freedom after the war could recover all of what was lost."
Read the entire article for a look at the modernist movement in Japan, and the role of women writers in propelling this movement.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
Recent Discoveries
Unbelievable Facts is a great name to follow on Twitter. Yesterday UnBFacts posted something I will never forget: "swims" upside down is still "swims." Actually, in all caps it looks even more flippable: "SWIMS".
Also, friend and poet Mari recommended the poetry of Cynthia Cruz last week when discussing books received for Christmas, and by chance I happened upon an interview with Cynthia Cruz in the Prosody archives (Prosody is a now-defunct literary talk show hosted by poet Jan Beatty and writer Ellen Wadey, which can still be accessed on iTunes--scroll down to March 20, 2007.) You can also listen to the interview here (no scrolling required). It's an old interview, but you can hear Cruz read from her first book, and she and Beatty also discuss some of her themes, including veiled violence in childhood.
Also, friend and poet Mari recommended the poetry of Cynthia Cruz last week when discussing books received for Christmas, and by chance I happened upon an interview with Cynthia Cruz in the Prosody archives (Prosody is a now-defunct literary talk show hosted by poet Jan Beatty and writer Ellen Wadey, which can still be accessed on iTunes--scroll down to March 20, 2007.) You can also listen to the interview here (no scrolling required). It's an old interview, but you can hear Cruz read from her first book, and she and Beatty also discuss some of her themes, including veiled violence in childhood.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Your Recipe in Space!
Maybe you'll never go to space, but your secret family recipe for meatballs could.
Listening to the Science Friday Podcast yesterday, I learned that for the Mars program, freeze-dried space rations will be a thing of the past. Instead Dr. Kim Binsted is organizing a space pantry of foods with long-enough shelf lives for astronauts to cook themselves meals, adding variety to what will be a long mission. To this end, there is even a recipe contest for meals in space at HI-SEAS (Binsted's Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation program). Enter and win a T-shirt and a chance for your recipe to make it to Mars.
The rules state that you can only use ingredients from the list of long-shelf-life food items that will be included in the mission. This list includes salmon, cornmeal, and maramalade, along with ethnic items such as the Japanese furikake, sushi rice, wasabi, and shiitake mushrooms. Thai curry is on the list, which gives me one more incentive to become an astronaut. It's a longer list than I would have guessed at; take a look! (And you can suggest ingredients to be added to the list--scroll to the bottom if you've got a must-have item to propose.)
The deadline is March 8th. Finalist recipes will actually be tested during a simulation mission. So get cooking, cosmonauts.
Listening to the Science Friday Podcast yesterday, I learned that for the Mars program, freeze-dried space rations will be a thing of the past. Instead Dr. Kim Binsted is organizing a space pantry of foods with long-enough shelf lives for astronauts to cook themselves meals, adding variety to what will be a long mission. To this end, there is even a recipe contest for meals in space at HI-SEAS (Binsted's Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation program). Enter and win a T-shirt and a chance for your recipe to make it to Mars.
The rules state that you can only use ingredients from the list of long-shelf-life food items that will be included in the mission. This list includes salmon, cornmeal, and maramalade, along with ethnic items such as the Japanese furikake, sushi rice, wasabi, and shiitake mushrooms. Thai curry is on the list, which gives me one more incentive to become an astronaut. It's a longer list than I would have guessed at; take a look! (And you can suggest ingredients to be added to the list--scroll to the bottom if you've got a must-have item to propose.)
The deadline is March 8th. Finalist recipes will actually be tested during a simulation mission. So get cooking, cosmonauts.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Sleepy Brain
Today I read Roxana Robinson's essay in the New Yorker about how she writes in the morning, maintaining part of her dreamstate from the night before by avoiding noise (even a coffee grinder's noise), news, and conversation prior to writing. She's trained her husband to limit conversation in the morning. She doesn't appear to have kids or she'd know how futile it would be to try and train them to silence.
Yesterday I read the blog by Ellie Robins at Melville House advising writers not to go to sleep till the wee hours as "sleepy brains think more freely" (which she admits, is true of brains still sleepy after waking up).
Would I like to access this sleepy brain? I would. But I already get up at 5 or 5:30 just to get on with the day and so does the rest of my family. I've tried getting up earlier than that to have some quiet creative time, only to have my husband and kids decide that since I'm up, they'll join me. I try to stay up late at night, but I'm exhausted from being up so early and on the go all day, and I end up falling asleep wherever I am. I do get writing in--in the early afternoon, which no one has ever advised anywhere. But that's when the people in my life are off doing their own things and I can be alone. I'm making it work, but without the bonus of the sleepy brain. (If I use caffeine to stay up late, does that count as sleepy brain?)
Some time in my life I'll have the luxury of trying out the effect of sleepy brain on creativity. It just isn't now.
Yesterday I read the blog by Ellie Robins at Melville House advising writers not to go to sleep till the wee hours as "sleepy brains think more freely" (which she admits, is true of brains still sleepy after waking up).
Would I like to access this sleepy brain? I would. But I already get up at 5 or 5:30 just to get on with the day and so does the rest of my family. I've tried getting up earlier than that to have some quiet creative time, only to have my husband and kids decide that since I'm up, they'll join me. I try to stay up late at night, but I'm exhausted from being up so early and on the go all day, and I end up falling asleep wherever I am. I do get writing in--in the early afternoon, which no one has ever advised anywhere. But that's when the people in my life are off doing their own things and I can be alone. I'm making it work, but without the bonus of the sleepy brain. (If I use caffeine to stay up late, does that count as sleepy brain?)
Some time in my life I'll have the luxury of trying out the effect of sleepy brain on creativity. It just isn't now.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Today's Tiny Drama
There is a charter school we'd like our older son to go to starting next April (new school year here starts in April). We've been preparing our application for months now, and it had to be submitted today. In person. By a parent or guardian. So I got dressed in a suit, a severe gray suit, put on all my makeup (not just a quick powder and eyeliner job), and even used hair spray. I took off the extra rings I usually bedazzle the world with. I was going for the conservative, conformist, not-going-to-cause-a-ruckus-even-if-she-is-a-foreigner mom image.
On the way to the school I stopped by the shrine to drop off our New Year's decorations for burning. In Japan, New Year's decorations, even the chopsticks used for the three days of the New Year's, are sacred and cannot be thrown away, but must be burned by a priest at the shrine. I also made a small donation towards the burning, though I didn't pray as I'm not a believer.
On the way to the train station, my shoe felt weird, my special orthopaedic shoe that I've been wearing since injuring my foot 8 months ago. It doesn't call attention to itself by being outrageously ugly, this shoe, but if studied, its extreme utilitarianism will reveal it as orthopaedic. I looked down and saw that the buckle that kept it at the right pressure for my foot had broken. A few steps later, I knew that keeping the shoe on my foot painlessly sans buckle was not an option. So I stopped at a convenience store, bought a box of safety pins, and used one where the buckle had been. It nicely slipped right in both loops the the buckle had held together . Great, I thought. Now I'm no longer conservative, conformist, not-going-to-cause-a-ruckus-even-if-she-is-a-foreigner mom, but punk rock mom, with orthopaedic shoes. Maybe no one will notice this bit of flashing silver on my otherwise black shoes, I thought.
On the train, the other passengers looked down at my shoes, then up at my red hair and blue eyes, then back down at my shoes. So much for no one noticing.
I arrived at the school 45 minutes after it had begun accepting applications. I took a number and sat down. My number was 81. There are only 90 spots available next year in the school, and more parents were streaming in the door behind me. Competition is going to be stiff. Still, I thought it lucky that my number was a perfect square (81 = 9 squared). I studied the people submitting their applications before me (the first 80!), saw who they bowed to, who they greeted, etc. I have to mimic other people's behavior in Japan since I don't have a natural social sense for what is appropriate here. I watched people get to the end of presenting their documents and then reach into their wallets for the application fee. I'd forgotten all about the application fee! It was only the equivalent of $22, but I often (to my husband's consternation) carry very little cash in my purse. I surreptiously peeked into my bag and saw that I had $23. I could pay the application fee, but I wouldn't have enough to buy a $2.30 train ticket home. If only I hadn't bought the safety pins or made a donation towards the sacred bonfire.
After all this going wrong, my presentation of documents went quite smoothly. I answered the questions, paid the fee, and was on my way. Trekking back to the station, I stopped at a convenience store that had an ATM and found that (for an outrageous fee) I could withdraw some money. I was on my way.
Mission accomplished.
Now I'm just wondering whether or not to replace the buckle on my other shoe with a safety pin.
On the way to the school I stopped by the shrine to drop off our New Year's decorations for burning. In Japan, New Year's decorations, even the chopsticks used for the three days of the New Year's, are sacred and cannot be thrown away, but must be burned by a priest at the shrine. I also made a small donation towards the burning, though I didn't pray as I'm not a believer.
On the way to the train station, my shoe felt weird, my special orthopaedic shoe that I've been wearing since injuring my foot 8 months ago. It doesn't call attention to itself by being outrageously ugly, this shoe, but if studied, its extreme utilitarianism will reveal it as orthopaedic. I looked down and saw that the buckle that kept it at the right pressure for my foot had broken. A few steps later, I knew that keeping the shoe on my foot painlessly sans buckle was not an option. So I stopped at a convenience store, bought a box of safety pins, and used one where the buckle had been. It nicely slipped right in both loops the the buckle had held together . Great, I thought. Now I'm no longer conservative, conformist, not-going-to-cause-a-ruckus-even-if-she-is-a-foreigner mom, but punk rock mom, with orthopaedic shoes. Maybe no one will notice this bit of flashing silver on my otherwise black shoes, I thought.
On the train, the other passengers looked down at my shoes, then up at my red hair and blue eyes, then back down at my shoes. So much for no one noticing.
I arrived at the school 45 minutes after it had begun accepting applications. I took a number and sat down. My number was 81. There are only 90 spots available next year in the school, and more parents were streaming in the door behind me. Competition is going to be stiff. Still, I thought it lucky that my number was a perfect square (81 = 9 squared). I studied the people submitting their applications before me (the first 80!), saw who they bowed to, who they greeted, etc. I have to mimic other people's behavior in Japan since I don't have a natural social sense for what is appropriate here. I watched people get to the end of presenting their documents and then reach into their wallets for the application fee. I'd forgotten all about the application fee! It was only the equivalent of $22, but I often (to my husband's consternation) carry very little cash in my purse. I surreptiously peeked into my bag and saw that I had $23. I could pay the application fee, but I wouldn't have enough to buy a $2.30 train ticket home. If only I hadn't bought the safety pins or made a donation towards the sacred bonfire.
After all this going wrong, my presentation of documents went quite smoothly. I answered the questions, paid the fee, and was on my way. Trekking back to the station, I stopped at a convenience store that had an ATM and found that (for an outrageous fee) I could withdraw some money. I was on my way.
Mission accomplished.
Now I'm just wondering whether or not to replace the buckle on my other shoe with a safety pin.
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