Solution 214-238: The Book of Japans

by Momus

Yet another archly funny fantasy in Ingo Niermann's endlessly inventive Solution Series, this nippophile tale is written by Scottish-born, Japan-based creative genius Momus, otherwise known as songwriter Nick Currie. Following the success of the pair's The Book of Scotlands (shortlisted for the Scottish Arts Council's First Book prize), this book makes a case for the rehabilitation of the idea of the "far." We live in a time when difference and distance have been eroded and eradicated by globalization, the Internet, and cheap jet travel. The Book of Japan restores a sense of wonder - along with a plethora of imagination triggering inaccuracies - by taking the reader on a trip not just through space but also time.

Genres: Japan, Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 28, 2011

About the author

Nick Currie, more popularly known under the artist name Momus (after the Greek god of mockery), is a prolific songwriter, blogger and former journalist for Wired. Most of his songs are self-referential and many could be classified as postmodern.

For more than twenty-five years he has been releasing, to marginal commercial and critical success, albums on labels in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan. In his lyrics and his other writing he makes seemingly random use of decontextualized pieces of continental (mostly French) philosophy, and has built up a personal world he says is "dominated by values like diversity, orientalism, and a respect for otherness." He is fascinated by identity, Japan, Rome, the avant-garde, time travel and sex.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momus_%2...

Reviews

[Jesse Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

12 Scottish idiots time-travel to various points in Japan's future (or do they?) via entering the wombs of calving Shetland cows. A symposium is quickly set-up, comprised of 12 'self-identified' Japan experts, one per idiot, with the twin goals of investigating the veracity of the idiots' stories and gleaning any useful information they might contain. All this is rather irrelevant; a thread loosely connecting Momus' various meditations, speculations and preoccupations with Japan and how one constructs knowledge about a place (especially the creation of notions of the 'exotic' by foreigners). The central conceit is to explore the idea of Japan entirely filtered through the biased perceptions of outsiders, serving as a critique of any claims to a hegemonic monopoly on meaning and history (Japaneseness). The book covers a wide breath of disparate topics relating to Japanese history, pop culture, society and speculations on its future with seemingly little care to organisation. The book is a hodge-podge and feels as if various blog posts and essays have been collated (not altogether bad as its mostly fascinating and the random weirdness of it continuously surprises). Throughout Momus touches on themes of contradiction, exoticism, truth and relativism. The prose is crisp and clear making the book a delight to read. It goes along at a good clip, without any flab, finishing without overstaying its welcome. Weaknesses mostly lurk in the framing plot, which is merely there to give the narrative structure and forward momentum. Additionally the book is leaden (overburdened?) with references to books, people and other cultural items to point of approaching a academic text at times. Some background in Momus' work and Japan will serve one well here (why else would you be reading?) Good read.

[acb · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining picaresque in the style of Flann O'Brien, concerning twelve "idiots" from a Scottish island who claim to have travelled to the future of Japan, and a committee of "experts" who investigate their claims. The Book of Japans serves as an exposition onto the way that people project their own preconceptions onto an exotic country such as Japan (a theme familiar to anyone who has read Momus' blog).