Wow, this guy sounds like a lot of fun!
Yeah, that was 20,000 words of relentless positivity.
Japan: It's Not Funny Anymore
11–20 of 179 posts
Re: Japan: It's Not Funny Anymore
#12Good article, but about 3 or 4 times longer than it should have been.
Re: Japan: It's Not Funny Anymore
#13Did anyone actually read this novel?
Re: Japan: It's Not Funny Anymore
#14Did anyone actually read this novel?
Started out reading, then scanning, finally skimming for section heads and interesting topics.
The problem is that the author didn't make a cogent point and back it up. Instead he started off with a lot of excuse-making, then went into a list, but kept deviating from the list to talk about video games (which, I guess, should have been the topic?)
It had the feeling of a long list of grievances strewn together, ranted about, and then tacked on to a couple of other conversations.
The strength of the article was in the negative first-person impressions of Japanese culture. He should have stuck with that, cut out the apologizing and made that just a sentence or two at the end. Then he should have tightened the hell out of the prose and tried to make some kind of thesis that his stories supported.
Other that that, the first-person stuff was good. But damn -- this guy is an editor? The structure is a mess.
At one point he even admits how bad it is -- and then continues on in the death march towards the end.
Re: Japan: It's Not Funny Anymore
#15Did anyone actually read this novel?
Started out reading, then scanning, finally skimming for section heads and interesting topics. The problem is that the author didn't make a cogent point and back it up. Instead he started off with a lot of excuse-making, then went into a list, but kept deviating from the list to talk about video games (which, I guess, should have been the topic?) It had the feeling of a long list of grievances strewn together, ranted…
this guy is an editor? The structure is a mess.
Aha it makes a little more sense now. Editors are usually poor writers/reporters - their skill set is different (which doesn't excuse the fact he clearly never copy-edited what he wrote)
Re: Japan: It's Not Funny Anymore
#16Tim Rogers is a nutjob. But he's got a few interesting points buried in there regarding language.
Re: Japan: It's Not Funny Anymore
#17I only read about half that article before losing interest, but one argument jumped out at me: the mandatory office parties and drinking outings. This, IMO, is not a Japan-only phenomenon, although I'm sure the Japanese put their own cultural twists on this lovely concept.
After college, I went to work in a bank in New York. The in-crowd in my group went out for drinks, together, at least three times a week. I never saw any appeal in $10 martinis or $6 beers — especially with a bunch of people with whom I just spent 10 working hours. Needless to say, it did not take long before I was considered "not a team player." (My bosses liked me, so I did well enough before I realized I loathe corporate life and left, but my peers were not fans and caused considerable trouble.)
Re: Japan: It's Not Funny Anymore
#18I can't imagine living in Japan as a vegetarian teetotaler. There's nothing wrong with that lifestyle but, man, pick your battles. Those things—the working, drinking, and meat eating—are part of the culture and it's not exactly a well kept secret. I know that I love booze and meat so I'm not going to relocate to Bangalore any time soon.
Add nonsmoker to the list.
Re: Japan: It's Not Funny Anymore
#19"When you buy Super Famicom games in used game shops, the gray plastic is very often stained deep, ugly yellow from existing in houses packed to bursting with cigarette smoke. Sometimes, the consoles themselves are so yellow." That's actually due to the plastic used, it's not from smoke. http://vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/189
The plastic goes yellow but there is often a film of brown sludge that stinks of cigarettes... it's not pleasant.
Re: Japan: It's Not Funny Anymore
#20Long ago, manga aspired to be like Dragon Ball Z: graphically iconic, with a story more coherent than it probably needed to be. Now there's the ADHD-addled Dragon-Ball-Z-inspired One Piece, a manga for the Twitter age if there ever was one. Pop culture was best when you, the reader of this sentence, were 12: http://i46.tinypic.com/1625ims.gif I remember watching DBZ after school, and while it is certainly "graphicall…
Reading the article I felt that just like how he is comparing current Anime to DBZ (what he remembers) is the same way he is comparing his current feeling towards Japanese culture to what he thought it would be.
It feels like reality has settled in and his daily life has some deeper rooted problems than the stickers being placed on the barcode a certain a way.
Regardless he gives a view of the culture that you don't often hear about.