kenzaburo oe & other japanese authors, an e-mail

i had received e-mails... apart from that CAN update (gracias beto! that was freaking smooth nice loud) here posted the best on japanese literature so far my friend (whose name i shall keep secret, as in any good suspense plot) is a beautiful girl from japan, and a rather sweet one she gave me for my birthday a copy of kenzaburo oe's 'teach us to outgrow our madness' since she knows (and actually thanks to her) that my admiration for japanese authors has been growing as i type, even if with typos, ha!

anyway, enough of my stupidity and to her lovely words
tomorrow i will add links to the books she mentions in her informatively charming e-mail...

Hi, Bere. I wanted to tell you little bit about the author of the book I gave you as a birthday present.

He is sort of rebel like Mishima Yukio who wrote Spring Snow. And of course that is why I bought you that book by Kenzaburo Oe. I am not sure if the book I gave you was a novel or not. (It seems like it is a novel... but not sure) I am not sure if you enjoy reading essays but I hope you will enjoy reading his book if it is not a novel. He also write novels and essays.

Kenzaburo Oe was the second Japanese person who got nobel prize for literature after the very first Japanese writer, Yasunari Kawabata who wrote very beautiful novels. I didn't buy books by Yasunari Kawabata because it can be too simple for you. hahaha :-) But I thought Kawabata's novels are sort of like the ones from Yukio Mishima.

Kenzo Oe used to say things like, "I don't want to get any prizes from Japanese governement.", "We should abandon The Japan Art Academy." and so on, which is very radical. Doesn't it sort of remind of Yukio Mishima? He wasn't political radicals like Mishima but he says what he believes in public in radical way.

The book I bought for you was the most popular one in his books among Americans. When I checked Japanese website, another his book was #1. So as you said about translations in movies, translations and cultures we live affect what we like.

I hope you will enjoy the book.

I am glad to hear that you enjoy Kurosawa movies. It is too bad that we don't have great directors from Japan. I never seen his movies except one you showed me, Dreams. I also want to introduce some Japanese movies but it is hard because DVDs from Japan doesn't work here in USA and vice versa.

Regarding to translation, yes, I think there are a lot of things are lost in translation. One of reasons I won't see "Memories of Geisha" is that Kyoto diarect is so different and itself is culture. Even in Japanese, Kyoto accecent is necessary to feel Geisha. I don't know how this movie can show special things about Kyoto in English. When I was watching "Dirty Dancing" last night, I wished to speak Spanish but I don't have enough time for that. Sucks that I have to go to school and I am old... Because I don't see Japanese movies, I am not sure how Japanese movies are translated but I assume it is different.

Oh, besides Kurosawa, Hayao Miyazaki films are good but those are animation but really good.

How do you think about Mexican or Latina movies? I think they are good at Sex movies and Comedies. :-)

Mishima Yukio directed only one movie. He was actor too in several movies. You might be interested in his movies. Or maybe it disappoint you. :-) His novels became movies too. They just made Spring Snow movie last year.

I mentioned Yasunari Kawabata, the very first Japanese novel prize winner for literature. I just learned that Mishima wanted to married his daughter but he didn't care and he was cold to Mishima. So he didn't like him, I guess. Kawabata also commited suicide and people believe that the fact he saw the death of Mishima affected him and it led to him to commit suicide.

Takeshi Kitano is also famous director but I am not sure if you like his movies. He is younger. So his movies are not old at all but most of the time, violent.

and this my friend and her e-mail...
she sends more
i am a lucky mexican after all

tomorrow will try to finally make up a way to tribute
that parrot, the flaubert's one, i am almost done with the book
not sure if tonight but by the end of this week for sure

julian barnes 'flaubert's parrot' and a guinness at the ould sod
to close the UK chapter

to open the japanese again?
or shall my next book be... mexican?

i have an eye on El Orgasmógrafo (love the name)
by Enrique Serna
futuristic cruel tales 'exploring the imaginary erotic prisons of the man in a perverse future where humans must have a quote of orgasms to be part of an ideal society', interesting concept indeed.... can't wait for some fresh mexican narrative

for tonight back to beloved barnes.... ah what a freaking delight of a writer...

sleeping in the enemy's patio

It is just outrageous what Bush is doing now
Troops at the Mexican border?
What is he going to do next?
Blame Mexico for his stupidity
Long list of them he has
way longer than mine

distracting the nation's attention from a useless war
to a display of militar totalism?
attempts that after all
red necks like him fall for...

here the news click on it

And the Venezuela issue
As Venezuelan president said
Bush is the terrorist himself!
don't you see?
but then rednecks like this huh?
power and weapons and rifles and power eh?
“A totalitarian regime crushes all autonomous institutions in its drive to seize the human soul” (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.).

I do have dual citizenship
American and Mexican
Naturally born American
But raised in Mexico

And every day lately
I feel like Julia Roberts in that
Film “Sleeping with the Enemy”
Wondering if I am after all in the right side
Of the fence
Maybe ethically, morally, I am NOT anymore

I moved to USA 5 years ago
Being sick of corrupted Mexican politics
And the violence in my other ways lovely Mexico City
I live a peaceful laid back life in San Diego
Yet many days I do feel like a sold-out
Supporting (somehow since like it or not that mofo is my president)
This country which boundaries and lack of respect for other countries
Had gone so far
North american people, the real people, my friends, my co-workers, the every day citizens
are great people, and i don't think, feel, or agree that some one like Bush
represents them, and myself
he is not USA, as Carlos Salinas de Gortari was never Mexico

so much for totalitarianism then
National guard in Iraq
National guard in Mexican borders
So much for arrogance & stepping all over the world
National guard should take over that lunatic guy!
Yes over Bush the most disrespectful president ever
a truly cuello rojo, red neck
just a bit of common sense
not 'cause Mexico have had troops in the border for a while
but the impact of the external politics
as all the world is watching
I feel sorry for this such amazing country and myself here
since it is my country now
Being victim of this awful leader

Really really sad
Hope the Americans recover democracy one day
Such a great nation coming down into violent pieces
A paranoid greedy man building a white fence around
Violence brings isolation
sad white fence below


sometimes I think I should just pack and go back to Mexico
poverty yet warmth and not a lunatic guy as president
yet Vicente Fox sucks too (at least we got rid of over 70 years of PRI)
Damn where to move now???
I am running out of countries where to go now?

have to say I do miss the mexican charm
as much as one could in San Diego, heh heh...

agggrrrr politics rub me wrong
i hate them!

The Power of Language: vindication of the slop

I got a verbal comment on my blog a couple of days ago. The commenter pointed my some-times sloppiness detected throughout the curse of reading the many stupidities posted below, of course I excused myself with poor allegations such as ‘they are just simple notes that I write on the run’ and, the saddest one ‘oh, English is not my first language, remember? Thus, I can be a little off/wrong sometimes, nobody will make a big deal, you know?’. Yet, the commenter knows me well enough, and knows that those mistakes and my lack of care on my writing are a sign of just being that: sloppy and lazy. He was quite disappointed since once I was well-known for my carefulness, somehow dissipated these days among, well, I don’t really know among what, or how it got dissipated at all. Anyway, here and while following his gracious advice, which accordingly will bring me some ‘against-sloppiness vindication’, I am posting some pieces that I wrote in a serious mode. The first official document written in proper English that has come out of many-times taps on an American keyboard, has to be my final essay/test for my English 101 class. The Power of Language was the central theme of the piece. The only guidelines given were the use of 3 quotations from authors we had read through the class, and to follow a regular descriptive essay form; the rest was all my mexican 'imaginación'. Here from August 2004, fresh, below…

Berenice Weber
English 101 | The Power of Language
Professor Richard Peters
August 5, 2004

The Power of Language

Language is knowledge, and as the German saying goes “knowledge is power.” So, power is implied in language. Susanne K. Langer in her essay Language and Thought explains that “language is the highest and most amazing achievement of the symbolic human mind.” Language is an inherent characteristic to human kind and civilization. Language conveys individual and social implications. The way we exercise language can determine whether its delivery is nocive or advantageous.

Language has personal connotations since we use it as a tool to originate thoughts and sensations. Our consciences talk to us in words. Our hearts arrange our feelings in sentences. Our minds bombard us with wordy images. Our daily worries and long-term goals are debated every morning, in our minds and souls, in the form of a soliloquy. Researchers affirm that the human perception of reality is defined by language. Therefore, regardless of our personal use of language—and whether we are able to speak it, write it, understand it, and communicate with it properly—it will always be our companion, since it is intrinsic to the human nature. Language empowers or undermines us depending on how we use it.

Civilization, by definition, is a state of intellectual, cultural, and material development in human society. Probably the most relevant instrument of amalgamation in society, and good indicator of the advancement of civilization, is language. An example that helps demonstrating the importance of language in society is that one of the largest systems of categorization of human groups is according to their language. The use of a common language confers a group the condition of unity and cohesion. Language is present in each and all of the social matters of a collectivity: economical exchanges, cultural interactions, political concerns, and arts and entertainment. As exposed in the text Exploring Language by Gary Goshgarian in the introduction to the case study: English Only or Bilingualism, “language is probably the most important element of our cultural heritage.” Without language, what we call society would be very different: an indecipherable concept, indeed.

The results of the use language are as vast as the humankind itself. Each of us can exercise language in a unique way. Language is organic, flexible, and it is always in constant renovation. Language has been transforming and adjusting its values and meanings since its appearance, according to the society’s demands. Even though we have created very specific semantical and grammatical rules, the use of language is still susceptible to adaptation. Depending particularly of the circumstances and context where it takes place, the delivery of language can either denigrate or praise a person. “Words themselves are innocuous; it is the consensus that gives them true power,” writes Gloria Naylor in her essay ‘Nigger’: The Meaning of a Word.

As individuals, language defines us internally. As collectivity, language helps us communicating with others and to identify as a group. It is in us as human beings, and members of a society, to use language in a responsible way. Because language is the base that supports the structure of who we are: our inner selves, our personalities, our dreams, our every-day issues, our identities, and our bonds with family and friends, are all regulated by language. As John Simon writes in his delightful essay Why Good English Is Good for You: “ You are going to be judged, whether you like it or not, by the correctness of your English as much as by the correctness of your thinking.”

monday's web-disillusion

disillusion
on a phone-call superstar had
disillusion
everyone is speaking to a line
disillusion
except my illusions
why not me? because i hate cell-phones?
and those sites full of fake happiness
let's share online!
will you find a real friend there again? ha!

i talked to a man on the streets
he was stretching his hand
disillusion disillusion disillusion
stretching it for food
for compasion
for a sign...
not to look nice
disillusion

he taught me more in 2 minutes
the disillusion of mine/his life
than all the online sites
at least he was alive
nor an url to click at

disillusion
he lives in the streets
while you think what to wear to the bar

disillusion
he can be my friend
you fashion if too hype: you are a fake or a clam
worried again for the outside
the 'cool' man...

disillusion
or any technology that seems that get you closer
yet
disillusion
they cause
guess maybe wrote all my words out?
disillusion
guess exhausted my lines?
disillusion
is a monday anyway anyhow

disillusion

you look for play-friends
disillusion
friendly-people yet not friends
disillusion
ideas of warmth on a comment/reply
yet who cares if you die? just a few
and probably they are not online
guess i am on the nothingness-side
disillusion
money investments
cool friends and all that

& now even so as to is all right
oh my!
disillusion
not in me
not in life
but in the youth disconnected connected
saturday morning at the restaurant
disillusion
4 beautiful girls sat on the same table
each one holding a cell phone
disillusion
talking to someone who wasn't there

an on-going excavation in my heart
disillusion yet hasn't shown
not in hope
disillusion yet
gratitude, my style

disillusion
rather be disillusioned
than
disillusion
of haven’t through it

with a smile
overlooked
disillusion yet
doesn’t bring something flipside

empty breakfast empty cranium empty start
oh and these are the days that i am happy
however i hate 'in vogue' ways to full-fill ones lives

yet i post on the web
what a shame... on my side
is making sick somehow all the thoughts

as human kind makes me sick
but a few and some times
not all the times
not when disillusion
makes you humble and
not when people really
truly
without fashion or money
smiles...

narnia, nueve vidas, match point

i watched nine lives last night
a powerful movie that details precise and decisive fragments of the life of 9 different women
here a review of nine lives from the new york times
i rated it 3 stars (out of 5 ala nytimes style's scale)


thanks to netflix and my lazyness i have seen many movies lately
among the very high recommendations i would say

The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
an excellent movie! i haven't read c.s. lewis originals, i have just read his 'alice in wonderland' both in Spanish when i was 12 and recently in English, however, even if not sure how close the movie is to the film, i did enjoy it as i haven't with an adult film in years
my favorite characters of course the adorable mr. tumnus, the faun,

and aslan the lion
(if i could have a kitty i would like to have one like this one)
i gave the chronicles of narnia 4 stars (out of 5)
here the review of the nytimes as well

as a quick note and to complete later don't miss the superb thriller, different treatment yet keeping many of the best elements in his movies, woody allen's match point , superb indeed is the word
i would give it 4 and 1/3's stars (out of 5)

also many other great movies but these for now...

between barnes, flaubert, and the parrot

it is so hard for me to select what to read these days
not a lack of ideas/suggestions but the contrary is the case
safely going to the safe
finally grabbed that sold-esterline-pounds copy of julian barnes' flaubert's parrot

oh well well, i read barnes' the lemon table
and agreed blindly on a friend's quick reference of it as "missal"; and yes the lemon table was finely fine
a superb collection of stories with no other taste than humane randomness and witt all over the place

oh and the parrot what a trio those three are! flaubert, the parrot, and flaubert again through barnes' eyes

this is not even really what i intended to write
but a reminder to myself to write at least once a day a quote of this amazing book

why do i want to do that? well to come back and read and re-read them every possible minute i have
these words, some images, time, the time of the day and if filled with chords of an instrument like a cello going back and a forth like in making love are full-filled then the time of my life has been worth-living worth!

his ideas (barnes) and of course flaubert's but layered within englishman are a delight
a cradle song for the time
seconds come seconds are gone
but precious if sincronized with the clicking of reading their words!

and well voula here is the first one

"Perhaps this is the advantage of making friends with those already dead: your feelings towards them never cool." -Julian Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot. (Barnes referring to a feeling of friendship, well not Barnes himself but his narrator on the novel, felt as he visited Flaubert's museum)

another one? tomorrow for sure

sorry no spell check! no tools around for that, gotta be confident on my learned English from a book, somehow I know people who learnt a second language have better spelling than on their native language... we'll see when tomorrow i go where i can copy/paste and spell-check

good nights and damn! i wish i could really write like these men...

o i find one now...

"Medicine then must have been such an exciting, desperate, violent business; nowadays it is all pills and bureaucracy." -Julian Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot.
and as i finished the Kaiser Permanente logo materialized mysteriously on the page of the book, formed by the spaces left beetween letters, senteces and rows... see? a magical book, indeed... ha ha hello!

oh and the best one so far, a "literaly" one

"How submerfed dies a reference have to be before it drowns?"

followed in a couple of pages by its daughter (since for sure this second quote was preconceived by the first, therefore its mother it is)

"Did that burst of bubbles announce the gurgling death of another submerged reference?"

these men are just geniuses, well i guess it is clear and i am the only idiot that gets so amazed and happily impressed by julian barnes and gustav flaubert, every one else knows they are geniuses so they expect the best, maybe i am just happily-easily amused and that is very fine with me, no expensive complicated fun for me required at all

just this books and the little things around here in a monday night night ah! barnes...

asthma and hookworms

i was declared officially asthmatic early last year
while roommating with 2 lovely cats
now that i moved out and i don't have a pet
my symptoms have improved
(so sad! since i am an animal lover)
yet if i get too exciting news or spend over half an hour with any cat or dog
i start wheezing like there won't be no air any more
sometimes even out of the blue i wheeze
guess my lungs get constricted for the pleasure of it

today i read this strange news on a cure for asthma related with the hookworms
here the link on a very interesting article
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2006/4/30/91945/8971
hope that if you wheeze, can get the worm...

the octopus project (or the jetsons are back)

the jetsons, i mean, the octopus project are from austin texas (yet again genius sprouting from that city) and they played last night at the casbah in san diego

the jetsons, i mean, the octopus project (this is a different link from the one above, this is the one from myspace) play 'normal' instruments along with 'weirder' instruments, even a theremin (i recommned this site i found) which i have never seen being played before

the 'theremin experience' was like seeing a band from the 'future' playing in the newest jetsons episode (o yes they are not the actual jetsons but...), actually the looks of the only *and lovely* girl in the band are very similar to those of jane jetson! hairdo and all

don't miss them if i have a chance to see them, they are unique and fun to see live
here my favorite movie from last night but i have more more more in my youtube account



here links to the rest of movies (click on them)

movie 1. little movie of the opening track (masks & cute little outfits, tina said)
movie 2. she with theremin instrument of the future
movie 3. another one of her with theremin
movie 4. the last one of theremin
movie 5. an almost complete song (not the best track they played but good enough)

also here the photo of the jetsons so you can find the few differences between above and below

wahrenbrock's book house re-opens

sandiegan palace of used books re-opens its doors to the public after remodelation caused by a mysterious fire, must visit it soon!


as the article here linked affirms that the charm is still there

i have some photos from before the fire click-o here-o

mountain patrol: kekexili

for sure one of the most impressive movies i have seen in my life
honest strong basic human nature and its interaction with our natural environment, all in a perfect nude thriller

notes:
a well structured thriller with a straight-forward plot
inspirational, very in spite of the theme
music, candid
photography, superb!

no matter what kind of cinematography you enjoy
you must see Mountain Patrol: Kekexili
it just takes to be human to relate to understand
many subtle layers in a naked bold thruth of our planet and our souls
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/mountainpatrol/

the only review posted in the new york times is actually of the father of one guys who died during the film, his review is objective and concise, until you read the last lines here below, click on the title
The Reality of Life, April 14, 2006 Reviewer: polymath0