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Wrong About Japan: A Father's Journey with His Son
The recipient of two Booker Prizes, Peter Carey expands his extraordinary achievement with each new novel–and now gives us something entirely different.
When famously shy Charley becomes obsessed with Japanese manga and anime, Peter is not only delighted for his son but also entranced himself. Thus begins a journey, with a father sharing his twelve-year-old’s exotic comic books, that ultimately leads them to Tokyo, where a strange Japanese boy will become both their guide and judge. Quickly the visitors plunge deep into the lanes of Shitimachi–into the “weird stuff” of modern Japan–meeting manga artists and anime directors; painstaking impersonators called “visualists,” who adopt a remarkable variety of personae; and solitary otakus, whose existence is thoroughly computerized. What emerges from these encounters is a far-ranging study of history and of culture both high and low–from samurai to salaryman, from Kabuki theater to the postwar robot craze. Peter Carey’s observations are always provocative, even when his hosts point out, politely, that he is once again wrong about Japan. And his adventures with Charley are at once comic, surprising, and deeply moving, as father and son cope with and learn from each other in a strange place far from home.
This is, in the end, a remarkable portrait of a culture–whether Japan or adolescence–that looks eerily familiar but remains tantalizingly closed to outsiders.
When famously shy Charley becomes obsessed with Japanese manga and anime, Peter is not only delighted for his son but also entranced himself. Thus begins a journey, with a father sharing his twelve-year-old’s exotic comic books, that ultimately leads them to Tokyo, where a strange Japanese boy will become both their guide and judge. Quickly the visitors plunge deep into the lanes of Shitimachi–into the “weird stuff” of modern Japan–meeting manga artists and anime directors; painstaking impersonators called “visualists,” who adopt a remarkable variety of personae; and solitary otakus, whose existence is thoroughly computerized. What emerges from these encounters is a far-ranging study of history and of culture both high and low–from samurai to salaryman, from Kabuki theater to the postwar robot craze. Peter Carey’s observations are always provocative, even when his hosts point out, politely, that he is once again wrong about Japan. And his adventures with Charley are at once comic, surprising, and deeply moving, as father and son cope with and learn from each other in a strange place far from home.
This is, in the end, a remarkable portrait of a culture–whether Japan or adolescence–that looks eerily familiar but remains tantalizingly closed to outsiders.
176 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
68 people are currently reading
1154 people want to read
About the author
Peter Carey
102 books1,033 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. Not all books on this profile are by the same author. See this thread for more information.
Peter Carey was born in Australia in 1943.
He was educated at the local state school until the age of eleven and then became a boarder at Geelong Grammar School. He was a student there between 1954 and 1960 — after Rupert Murdoch had graduated and before Prince Charles arrived.
In 1961 he studied science for a single unsuccessful year at Monash University. He was then employed by an advertising agency where he began to receive his literary education, meeting Faulkner, Joyce, Kerouac and other writers he had previously been unaware of. He was nineteen.
For the next thirteen years he wrote fiction at night and weekends, working in many advertising agencies in Melbourne, London and Sydney.
After four novels had been written and rejected The Fat Man in History — a short story collection — was published in 1974. This slim book made him an overnight success.
From 1976 Carey worked one week a month for Grey Advertising, then, in 1981 he established a small business where his generous partner required him to work only two afternoons a week. Thus between 1976 and 1990, he was able to pursue literature obsessively. It was during this period that he wrote War Crimes, Bliss, Illywhacker, Oscar and Lucinda. Illywhacker was short listed for the Booker Prize. Oscar and Lucinda won it. Uncomfortable with this success he began work on The Tax Inspector.
In 1990 he moved to New York where he completed The Tax Inspector. He taught at NYU one night a week. Later he would have similar jobs at Princeton, The New School and Barnard College. During these years he wrote The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith, Jack Maggs, and True History of the Kelly Gang for which he won his second Booker Prize.
He collaborated on the screenplay of the film Until the End of the World with Wim Wenders.
In 2003 he joined Hunter College as the Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing. In the years since he has written My Life as a Fake, Theft, His Illegal Self and Parrot and Oliver in America (shortlisted for 2010 Man Booker Prize).
Peter Carey was born in Australia in 1943.
He was educated at the local state school until the age of eleven and then became a boarder at Geelong Grammar School. He was a student there between 1954 and 1960 — after Rupert Murdoch had graduated and before Prince Charles arrived.
In 1961 he studied science for a single unsuccessful year at Monash University. He was then employed by an advertising agency where he began to receive his literary education, meeting Faulkner, Joyce, Kerouac and other writers he had previously been unaware of. He was nineteen.
For the next thirteen years he wrote fiction at night and weekends, working in many advertising agencies in Melbourne, London and Sydney.
After four novels had been written and rejected The Fat Man in History — a short story collection — was published in 1974. This slim book made him an overnight success.
From 1976 Carey worked one week a month for Grey Advertising, then, in 1981 he established a small business where his generous partner required him to work only two afternoons a week. Thus between 1976 and 1990, he was able to pursue literature obsessively. It was during this period that he wrote War Crimes, Bliss, Illywhacker, Oscar and Lucinda. Illywhacker was short listed for the Booker Prize. Oscar and Lucinda won it. Uncomfortable with this success he began work on The Tax Inspector.
In 1990 he moved to New York where he completed The Tax Inspector. He taught at NYU one night a week. Later he would have similar jobs at Princeton, The New School and Barnard College. During these years he wrote The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith, Jack Maggs, and True History of the Kelly Gang for which he won his second Booker Prize.
He collaborated on the screenplay of the film Until the End of the World with Wim Wenders.
In 2003 he joined Hunter College as the Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing. In the years since he has written My Life as a Fake, Theft, His Illegal Self and Parrot and Oliver in America (shortlisted for 2010 Man Booker Prize).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 286 reviews
October 31, 2007
an account of peter carey's trip to japan with his 12-year-old son to explore the world of japanese anime and manga.
it seems that all peter carey found in japan is disappointment and irritation. this would be fine, if he could turn those findings into an interesting book with any sort of insight. when i wasn't waiting for him to really get into it, i was busy being irritated and offended. (also annoyed with the translation/transliteration errors.)
it seems to me that all of his disappointment comes not from japan itself, but from being told that all of his show-offy theories of the effects of WWII, Commodore Perry, and Hiroshima on anime are all incorrect. he randomly injects long blocks of text from other sources about japan, presumably to give the book some sort of historical depth.
carey admits that he was wrong about japan, as the title suggests, but he also does not take seriously any of the explanations he receives from the japanese he interviews. i got the sense that once he knew he was wrong, he wasn't interested in learning more so he could be right. if he spent less time talking about his theories and examining, or even just depicting, what was actually there, it would have made for a much more interesting book.
i wonder why and how he decided his obviously unfulfilling and disappointing trip would be a topic with enough meat for a 100-something page book.
it seems that all peter carey found in japan is disappointment and irritation. this would be fine, if he could turn those findings into an interesting book with any sort of insight. when i wasn't waiting for him to really get into it, i was busy being irritated and offended. (also annoyed with the translation/transliteration errors.)
it seems to me that all of his disappointment comes not from japan itself, but from being told that all of his show-offy theories of the effects of WWII, Commodore Perry, and Hiroshima on anime are all incorrect. he randomly injects long blocks of text from other sources about japan, presumably to give the book some sort of historical depth.
carey admits that he was wrong about japan, as the title suggests, but he also does not take seriously any of the explanations he receives from the japanese he interviews. i got the sense that once he knew he was wrong, he wasn't interested in learning more so he could be right. if he spent less time talking about his theories and examining, or even just depicting, what was actually there, it would have made for a much more interesting book.
i wonder why and how he decided his obviously unfulfilling and disappointing trip would be a topic with enough meat for a 100-something page book.
December 5, 2021
Numa banca da Feira da Ladra, encontrei um exemplar deste livro. Apesar de novo e ainda embalado em plástico, tinha sofrido um qualquer misterioso acidente. A capa estava irremediavelmente danificada nos cantos inferiores! "Que pena'" pensei..."Um livro novo, de capa dura e logo destas edições lindíssimas da Tinta da China!..." Mesmo não sendo um livro que eu desejasse, o meu coração apertou-se e chamei a atenção da vendedora para o triste estado deste livro. Depois de também ela se admirar e interrogar sobre o que poderia ter acontecido, eis que me propõe comprar-lho pelo valor simbólico de cinquenta cêntimos...e o resultado foi este 😃
Foi assim que acabei por ler este livro, que provavelmente não leria se não se tivesse atravessado desta forma no meu caminho 😊
Trata-se de um livro de não ficção, sobre a viagem que o autor fez ao Japão na companhia do seu filho, na altura com doze anos.
Movia-o a curiosidade de melhor entender a paixão do filho pela nova cultura pop japonesa bem como a sua própria curiosidade sobre o Japão "antigo", pela história e evolução da cultura japonesa. A relação entre o antigo e o moderno, numa busca por encontrar e compreender melhor o "verdadeiro Japão".
Para mim foi uma leitura com momentos bastante interessantes, pois apesar de não apreciar literatura de viagem, partilho alguma da curiosidade do autor sobre o Japão e sobre este fenómeno manga e anime junto das gerações mais jovens (e nao só!). Eu mesma comecei há relativamente pouco tempo a descobrir alguns mangas e a me encantar com eles para além de ter uma sobrinha e uma prima que os estão também agora a descobrir (e a adorar, claro) 😊.
Foi uma leitura agradável que me trouxe algumas aprendizagens e que deixou a vontade de ler mais não ficção sobre o Japão e descobrir a ficção deste autor (gostei muito da sua escrita!).
Mas o que mais me ficou deste livro foi o relembrar-me de algo muito importante: de quão necessárias são a humildade, o abandono de ideias preconcebidas, a delicadeza e o cuidado de não impormos a nossa "verdade" aos outros. Isto se quisermos verdadeiramente aprender, conhecer, entender seja o que for, seja um país ou um lugar, um género literário ou um livro, uma sociedade ou uma pessoa.
nota: Li que Peter Carey terá assumido numa entrevista que Takashi (o jovem japonês amigo do seu filho) é uma personagem ficcional. Para mim, a ser verdade, isso mancha bastante a memória que guardo do livro e esta "não-ficção" fica mais estranha que o Japão 😂
Foi assim que acabei por ler este livro, que provavelmente não leria se não se tivesse atravessado desta forma no meu caminho 😊
Trata-se de um livro de não ficção, sobre a viagem que o autor fez ao Japão na companhia do seu filho, na altura com doze anos.
Movia-o a curiosidade de melhor entender a paixão do filho pela nova cultura pop japonesa bem como a sua própria curiosidade sobre o Japão "antigo", pela história e evolução da cultura japonesa. A relação entre o antigo e o moderno, numa busca por encontrar e compreender melhor o "verdadeiro Japão".
Para mim foi uma leitura com momentos bastante interessantes, pois apesar de não apreciar literatura de viagem, partilho alguma da curiosidade do autor sobre o Japão e sobre este fenómeno manga e anime junto das gerações mais jovens (e nao só!). Eu mesma comecei há relativamente pouco tempo a descobrir alguns mangas e a me encantar com eles para além de ter uma sobrinha e uma prima que os estão também agora a descobrir (e a adorar, claro) 😊.
Foi uma leitura agradável que me trouxe algumas aprendizagens e que deixou a vontade de ler mais não ficção sobre o Japão e descobrir a ficção deste autor (gostei muito da sua escrita!).
Mas o que mais me ficou deste livro foi o relembrar-me de algo muito importante: de quão necessárias são a humildade, o abandono de ideias preconcebidas, a delicadeza e o cuidado de não impormos a nossa "verdade" aos outros. Isto se quisermos verdadeiramente aprender, conhecer, entender seja o que for, seja um país ou um lugar, um género literário ou um livro, uma sociedade ou uma pessoa.
nota: Li que Peter Carey terá assumido numa entrevista que Takashi (o jovem japonês amigo do seu filho) é uma personagem ficcional. Para mim, a ser verdade, isso mancha bastante a memória que guardo do livro e esta "não-ficção" fica mais estranha que o Japão 😂
January 27, 2016
As a Japanese, I have certain (high) expectations reading a book about Japan. When the book started off with the size of rooms and heights of ceilings in ryokan (traditional Japanese hotels), Washlet high-tech toilets and the son's mysterious internet friend who dresses like a character from Gundam, I have to admit, I almost lost interest. However, because of author's smooth and gripping way of writing (and let's face it, it is a very short book) I kept going. And I am glad I did, because I enjoyed it a lot from midway on all the way to the end.
The book got significantly more interesting when Mr. Yasaki shared his childhood stories of WW2 (probably less familiar to the Western audience), followed by Mr. Tomino, the creator of Gundam, talks about the relationship between Gundam and WW2 and why he thinks it is not unnatural that children are the ones who are fighting in the inter-galaxy war. I myself grew up watching Gundam, and what he revealed was not something I had ever thought about. It was an eye opening moment.
And, the book ends really really nicely. Almost like an ending for a novella. Perfect. I love books with nice endings.
I recommend it to those who are interested in Japanese popular culture, manga and anime, those who has traveled to Japan, thinking of traveling to Japan, and those of you who are fantasizing about visiting there, but you either don't have time or money to go. This books takes you to a quick trip deep into contemporary Tokyo and its contemporary culture.
The book got significantly more interesting when Mr. Yasaki shared his childhood stories of WW2 (probably less familiar to the Western audience), followed by Mr. Tomino, the creator of Gundam, talks about the relationship between Gundam and WW2 and why he thinks it is not unnatural that children are the ones who are fighting in the inter-galaxy war. I myself grew up watching Gundam, and what he revealed was not something I had ever thought about. It was an eye opening moment.
And, the book ends really really nicely. Almost like an ending for a novella. Perfect. I love books with nice endings.
I recommend it to those who are interested in Japanese popular culture, manga and anime, those who has traveled to Japan, thinking of traveling to Japan, and those of you who are fantasizing about visiting there, but you either don't have time or money to go. This books takes you to a quick trip deep into contemporary Tokyo and its contemporary culture.
November 24, 2009
I have to say that the more I read, the less I liked Peter Carey. He is clearly not much of a people person—his interactions with others are uniformly awkward and I was rather appalled by the way he treated his son’s friend, Takashi. He seemed more intent on rushing around, trying to achieve some purpose that wasn’t even clear to himself. He came across as being distinctly snobbish.
The book reminded me a bit of Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel. That too is about a foreigner in Japan struggling to come to terms with the culture through some particular aspect. I felt that Herrigel did it with far more grace, though to be fair Herrigel was actually living in Japan at the time rather than just there for a quick visit. Herrigal didn’t demand answers in the way that Carey did or seek to extract the essence of a culture by interrogating its forms.
The non-answer to Carey’s interview questions by those in the anime and manga industry reminded me a lot of Zen and Buddhism—the teacher isn’t there to give you the answers, you must arrive at your own.
Despite my dislike of Carey, it was quite a fascinating book. I loved that he highlighted the generational gap in Japan as well as between himself and his son. That in turn resonated with the culture gap.
Hearing about the bombing of Japan was quite eye-opening and made me realise that there is indeed a focus on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, when the devestation was really more widespread. There were other facts scattered throughout that made me stop and think as well (13 year-old samurai being one). Miyazaki came across to me as being as much a breath of fresh air as I’m sure he did to Carey. And being quite an anime fan, I appreciated the references.
All in all, an interesting book, but not one I particularly enjoyed.
The book reminded me a bit of Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel. That too is about a foreigner in Japan struggling to come to terms with the culture through some particular aspect. I felt that Herrigel did it with far more grace, though to be fair Herrigel was actually living in Japan at the time rather than just there for a quick visit. Herrigal didn’t demand answers in the way that Carey did or seek to extract the essence of a culture by interrogating its forms.
The non-answer to Carey’s interview questions by those in the anime and manga industry reminded me a lot of Zen and Buddhism—the teacher isn’t there to give you the answers, you must arrive at your own.
Despite my dislike of Carey, it was quite a fascinating book. I loved that he highlighted the generational gap in Japan as well as between himself and his son. That in turn resonated with the culture gap.
Hearing about the bombing of Japan was quite eye-opening and made me realise that there is indeed a focus on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, when the devestation was really more widespread. There were other facts scattered throughout that made me stop and think as well (13 year-old samurai being one). Miyazaki came across to me as being as much a breath of fresh air as I’m sure he did to Carey. And being quite an anime fan, I appreciated the references.
All in all, an interesting book, but not one I particularly enjoyed.
April 6, 2008
This little book is surprising because it is about so much, and everything it is about is covered so effectively. Here are some things that it is about:
-It is about Japan, and a Westerner in Japan, and then it is about cultural misunderstanding.
-It is about fathers and sons, and how they want to connect, and how hard that can be.
-It is about Manga and Anime, and it is about art and culture and how cultures consume art.
-It is about war, and children of war. And about how those children become post-war adults and that effects everything they see.
Carey says and does a lot in this impressive little book.
-It is about Japan, and a Westerner in Japan, and then it is about cultural misunderstanding.
-It is about fathers and sons, and how they want to connect, and how hard that can be.
-It is about Manga and Anime, and it is about art and culture and how cultures consume art.
-It is about war, and children of war. And about how those children become post-war adults and that effects everything they see.
Carey says and does a lot in this impressive little book.
February 27, 2019
When I started reading this book, the words that popped into my mind were “Japan, anime, manga, cosplay”. The book indeed talks about all these things, but it goes more further than just that.
In a journey to Japan, Peter takes his son Charley, a fan of anime and manga, to discover the beauties of the country. Peter tries to “open his son’s eyes” for the Japanese culture and history, but he’s too focused on entertainment and technology.
This takes us to a matter that people should think about: why does most of Japan’s fans travel just because of anime and manga? In my opinion, when travelling to a different country with a different culture, people should search for the beauty which that country provides. I’m a Japan’s fan as well and I think it’s “jealous” to visit a country and learn only over 20% about it. There so many things to visit, such as monuments, museums, churches, restaurants, etc.
At the end of the book, I felt happiness and inner peace. Even though the book was too centered on manga and anime (also on Akihabara (秋葉原), an otaku cultural center and a shopping district for video games, anime, manga, and computer goods), I was able to learn a little bit more about Japan and its culture, traditions and customs. I recommend it to everyone who enjoy reading about different cultures and also about Japan.
In a journey to Japan, Peter takes his son Charley, a fan of anime and manga, to discover the beauties of the country. Peter tries to “open his son’s eyes” for the Japanese culture and history, but he’s too focused on entertainment and technology.
This takes us to a matter that people should think about: why does most of Japan’s fans travel just because of anime and manga? In my opinion, when travelling to a different country with a different culture, people should search for the beauty which that country provides. I’m a Japan’s fan as well and I think it’s “jealous” to visit a country and learn only over 20% about it. There so many things to visit, such as monuments, museums, churches, restaurants, etc.
At the end of the book, I felt happiness and inner peace. Even though the book was too centered on manga and anime (also on Akihabara (秋葉原), an otaku cultural center and a shopping district for video games, anime, manga, and computer goods), I was able to learn a little bit more about Japan and its culture, traditions and customs. I recommend it to everyone who enjoy reading about different cultures and also about Japan.
December 3, 2014
Carey-san may have been wrong about Japan, but at least I'm still not wrong about Carey. Ugh, one of the English language's most overrated and self-aggrandized authors currently writing. In a moment that should have suggested self-clarity, Peter Carey tells this story: 'I remember being seated next to a pugnacious New York celebrity at dinner. When I asked him a question, he glowered at me and said, "Are you interviewing me?" "You better hope not," I told him. "I'm a terrible reporter." (129). Truer words were never spoken.
Carey's interviews in this book seem one-sided, that when he's being told he's wrong about Japanese culture and rationales for aesthetic design, he responds that his subject is wrong and that his understanding is right. There is a huge, unfortunate disconnect that doesn't allow for the Carey's mind to experience what he's told and thus report back to the reader such discoveries in an interested, curious light. This is best exemplified with his dealings of his son and his friend Takashi, who is mysterious and awkward, but helps them around a version of Tokyo. They seem beneath him. And thus Carey seems just like an arsehole.
The best part was when miraculously Carey meets the holy grail, Hayao Miyazaki. Even the hairs of my skin went up, as I thought: my god, what an honour, how fortunate! And how wasted on this man! It's a mostly silent scene that perhaps produces the most interesting conclusion:
'[Miyazaki] said that he thinks one of the most important of man's abilities is the imagination, so that the purpose of his creative abilities is to develop the imagination of children, the coming generations. Imagination can create a totally different world, depending on its use. It can give birth to virtue, or destructive weapons which threaten the whole world. He mentioned being afraid of the potential risk' (153).
Carey's interviews in this book seem one-sided, that when he's being told he's wrong about Japanese culture and rationales for aesthetic design, he responds that his subject is wrong and that his understanding is right. There is a huge, unfortunate disconnect that doesn't allow for the Carey's mind to experience what he's told and thus report back to the reader such discoveries in an interested, curious light. This is best exemplified with his dealings of his son and his friend Takashi, who is mysterious and awkward, but helps them around a version of Tokyo. They seem beneath him. And thus Carey seems just like an arsehole.
The best part was when miraculously Carey meets the holy grail, Hayao Miyazaki. Even the hairs of my skin went up, as I thought: my god, what an honour, how fortunate! And how wasted on this man! It's a mostly silent scene that perhaps produces the most interesting conclusion:
'[Miyazaki] said that he thinks one of the most important of man's abilities is the imagination, so that the purpose of his creative abilities is to develop the imagination of children, the coming generations. Imagination can create a totally different world, depending on its use. It can give birth to virtue, or destructive weapons which threaten the whole world. He mentioned being afraid of the potential risk' (153).
August 9, 2008
Author Peter Carey takes his 12 year-old son to Japan when he realizes that the boy is fascinated with anime and manga. The story that unfolds is one westerner's complete miunderstanding of Japanese culture, often reaching points of being cringe-worthy. It does end triumphantly, though, and it is overall a cute read.
I'd have liked it a lot more if it weren't written in such a Booker Prize Winner/snob/father-knows-best condescending tone. Carey is the typical kind of annoying dad that doesn't understand his son, and therefore has to adopt and intellectualize the child's interests so that he can feel that he's connecting with his kid. Why does he have to interview at the anime directors, admittedly boring his child out of his mind while dad makes one cultural gaff after another, when all the kid wants to do is interact with locals, check out the video games, and read comics? It's all because Carey believes his own world of novels and NY Times best-sellers and the NYC elite to is a higher form of culture than that of comic books. What an asshole. Comic books are art forms, they're creative, they're fun, and some of the most successful business people -- and even some of the most prized comic writers today -- grew up reading comics and still read them. And what's with all this "We didn't come all the way to Japan to play video games, son"? UH. What? You take your kid to one of the world capitals of technology and don't want him to play the newest, sleekest, most modern video games because it's not part of your little cultural journey? GAH!!!
What Carey eventually learns (after having made an ass of himself multiple times and grossly offending his son's Japanese friend) is that the Japanese are xenophobic, mistrustful of Americans, and that we can likely never understand their culture. Time to write a book about it.
Wow. What an insight. What deep, profound, shocking, and surprising news. This guy really is a douche. I feel sorry for the kid. If that was my dad, I'd want to slap him.
Two stars for the happy ending.
I'd have liked it a lot more if it weren't written in such a Booker Prize Winner/snob/father-knows-best condescending tone. Carey is the typical kind of annoying dad that doesn't understand his son, and therefore has to adopt and intellectualize the child's interests so that he can feel that he's connecting with his kid. Why does he have to interview at the anime directors, admittedly boring his child out of his mind while dad makes one cultural gaff after another, when all the kid wants to do is interact with locals, check out the video games, and read comics? It's all because Carey believes his own world of novels and NY Times best-sellers and the NYC elite to is a higher form of culture than that of comic books. What an asshole. Comic books are art forms, they're creative, they're fun, and some of the most successful business people -- and even some of the most prized comic writers today -- grew up reading comics and still read them. And what's with all this "We didn't come all the way to Japan to play video games, son"? UH. What? You take your kid to one of the world capitals of technology and don't want him to play the newest, sleekest, most modern video games because it's not part of your little cultural journey? GAH!!!
What Carey eventually learns (after having made an ass of himself multiple times and grossly offending his son's Japanese friend) is that the Japanese are xenophobic, mistrustful of Americans, and that we can likely never understand their culture. Time to write a book about it.
Wow. What an insight. What deep, profound, shocking, and surprising news. This guy really is a douche. I feel sorry for the kid. If that was my dad, I'd want to slap him.
Two stars for the happy ending.
September 20, 2017
Wrong About Japan turned out to be a fascinating snapshot of manga and anime obsession as well as a great introduction to the Asakusa area of Tokyo and some of the cultural differences that Westerners often feel when the visit Japan trying to find the 'Real Japan'. I hadn't given much thought to manga or anime, well, ever, but reading about Carey and his son's passion for the art form and it's stories, piqued my interest...a little.
Father's of teenage sons have to find all sorts of ways to stay bonded during this weird and often trying phase. I'm not sure how many dads would spot a trip to Japan to assist in that process, but all power to Carey for doing everything within his means. Having watched Mr Books go through this painful time with both his boys, I found many of the brief comments and asides made by Carey to be very affecting and authentic.
The book was first published in 2004. I would love to know what 26 year old Charley now thinks about this trip with his dad and whether he is still enthralled by manga and if he ever returned to Tokyo. I wonder how they both would describe the 'Real Japan' now?
In this curious little book, I learnt a bit of history about samurai's and sword making, I got a sense of the trains and just how big and complicated the stations can be as well as the hotel rooms and just how small and compact they can be.
Full review here - http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com.au/20...
Father's of teenage sons have to find all sorts of ways to stay bonded during this weird and often trying phase. I'm not sure how many dads would spot a trip to Japan to assist in that process, but all power to Carey for doing everything within his means. Having watched Mr Books go through this painful time with both his boys, I found many of the brief comments and asides made by Carey to be very affecting and authentic.
The book was first published in 2004. I would love to know what 26 year old Charley now thinks about this trip with his dad and whether he is still enthralled by manga and if he ever returned to Tokyo. I wonder how they both would describe the 'Real Japan' now?
In this curious little book, I learnt a bit of history about samurai's and sword making, I got a sense of the trains and just how big and complicated the stations can be as well as the hotel rooms and just how small and compact they can be.
Full review here - http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com.au/20...
November 6, 2011
I feel weird.
Most of the commentary you'll read in the reviews about Carey's personality as it comes across in the book are correct: awkward, stiffly foreign and unable to yield to the current pace of another society. At one point, his son swiftly jabs him underneath the table, which was cathartic for me, as the reader, who was just as often embarrassed by the elder's actions as I was painfully reflected in them. Perhaps it helps that I am in-between old Peter's and young Charley's age - and, respectively, their degree of interest in Japan - and as such, torn between the dogmatic search for meaning in a culture I've obsessed over from abroad and melding seamlessly into it by way of passive experience therein. However, I do find it a very humbling gesture by the author that he allows his stumble through some very unique Japanese experiences as a vector for our own experience. Much like his self-informed but as-yet-ignorant descent into the culture, many readers (myself included) picked up this fairly short book expecting a simple tale of vacation and robots and possibly Harajuku kids. But, as the ominous title, "Wrong About Japan" promises, the reader is pulled along - willingly or otherwise, receptive or otherwise - through a field of simple revelations that rip open those initial assumptions like firebombs.
Personally, as someone who looks forward to extensive travel not only to see the sights but to cross literal and metaphorical boundaries that separate me from other human beings, this book brought some very irksome fears to the surface - fears that naive travelers always carry with them a subtle imperialism, or that it will be difficult to truly reciprocate cultural understanding, and all of the beautiful things that Neon Genesis Evangelion approaches from an individual's perspective as "The Hedgehog's Dilemma". I never should have worried; of course, everyone worries about shortcomings such as these, but, Carey does a good job of digging to the bottom of Pandora's Box and finally lifting up the glimmer of hope found there.
Most of the commentary you'll read in the reviews about Carey's personality as it comes across in the book are correct: awkward, stiffly foreign and unable to yield to the current pace of another society. At one point, his son swiftly jabs him underneath the table, which was cathartic for me, as the reader, who was just as often embarrassed by the elder's actions as I was painfully reflected in them. Perhaps it helps that I am in-between old Peter's and young Charley's age - and, respectively, their degree of interest in Japan - and as such, torn between the dogmatic search for meaning in a culture I've obsessed over from abroad and melding seamlessly into it by way of passive experience therein. However, I do find it a very humbling gesture by the author that he allows his stumble through some very unique Japanese experiences as a vector for our own experience. Much like his self-informed but as-yet-ignorant descent into the culture, many readers (myself included) picked up this fairly short book expecting a simple tale of vacation and robots and possibly Harajuku kids. But, as the ominous title, "Wrong About Japan" promises, the reader is pulled along - willingly or otherwise, receptive or otherwise - through a field of simple revelations that rip open those initial assumptions like firebombs.
Personally, as someone who looks forward to extensive travel not only to see the sights but to cross literal and metaphorical boundaries that separate me from other human beings, this book brought some very irksome fears to the surface - fears that naive travelers always carry with them a subtle imperialism, or that it will be difficult to truly reciprocate cultural understanding, and all of the beautiful things that Neon Genesis Evangelion approaches from an individual's perspective as "The Hedgehog's Dilemma". I never should have worried; of course, everyone worries about shortcomings such as these, but, Carey does a good job of digging to the bottom of Pandora's Box and finally lifting up the glimmer of hope found there.
October 31, 2007
I found this slim volume on sale for just a couple of bucks at my local bookstore and picked it up because it looked, at first glance, like a breezy account of the author's visit with his son to Japan, a country I very much hope to visit myself one day. Ultimately, I found the experience of reading the book somewhat frustrating. Peter Carey seems to go through the book in a near-constant state of frustration and embarrassment as his attempts to understand Japanese culture are politely but firmly thwarted time and time again by the Japanese people he interviews. I think part of the problem is that, at least as recounted in the book, it seems that Carey was perhaps looking for answers that may have been overly simplistic; representations in the culture that are direct and specific responses to the experiences of Japanese people in World War II, for instance. And perhaps Carey is right in feeling that some of the people he interviewed simply didn't want to openly discuss their feelings about their culture with a foreigner, though some very graciously do, and these interviews make for some of the book's most interesting and effective sections. Most of all, though, I think that every culture is ultimately something that can only be understood, to whatever degree it can be understood at all, by experiencing it for oneself.
Despite the frustrations, there was enough worthwhile stuff here for me--a moving and harrowing account of one child's experiences during the war, an appreciation of Hayao Miyazaki's wondrous film My Neighbor Totoro--to make this very quick read worthwhile. And if and when I go to Japan, I'll be sure not to ask people about the meaning and symbolism behind Mobile Suit Gundam. I admit I sometimes entertain questions of the sort Carey puts before his subjects here, but mostly, I just think giant robots are cool.
Despite the frustrations, there was enough worthwhile stuff here for me--a moving and harrowing account of one child's experiences during the war, an appreciation of Hayao Miyazaki's wondrous film My Neighbor Totoro--to make this very quick read worthwhile. And if and when I go to Japan, I'll be sure not to ask people about the meaning and symbolism behind Mobile Suit Gundam. I admit I sometimes entertain questions of the sort Carey puts before his subjects here, but mostly, I just think giant robots are cool.
April 24, 2018
Por motivos que não esperava, fui despertada nos últimos tempos para o universo da banda desenhada manga e para os filmes anime. Há dias, na Fnac, encontrei perdido junto da literatura de ficção um livrinho pequenino, em formato de bolso, qualquer coisa do tipo How to draw manga. Folheei-o e achei graça, mas deixei-o lá.
E uma edição da Tinta-da-China para a Sábado trouxe-me entretanto esta maravilha: O Japão é um lugar estranho, de Peter Carey. O pai, Peter Carey, leva o filho, Charlie, numa viagem ao Japão. Não para conhecer o «Verdadeiro Japão», como Charlie faz questão de advertir o pai, mas o Japão dos dias de hoje, o Japão povoado da cultura manga, o Japão em cujas ruas circulam naturalmente visualistas de cabelo no ar e vestuário muito inusitado.
Entrevistam desenhadores e argumentistas de manga e de anime, conhecem outros fãs como Charlie, visitam um fabricante de espadas, percorrem um mega centro comercial de jogos electrónicos...
No fim da viagem, feito o balanço, não será este também o «Verdadeiro Japão»?
E uma edição da Tinta-da-China para a Sábado trouxe-me entretanto esta maravilha: O Japão é um lugar estranho, de Peter Carey. O pai, Peter Carey, leva o filho, Charlie, numa viagem ao Japão. Não para conhecer o «Verdadeiro Japão», como Charlie faz questão de advertir o pai, mas o Japão dos dias de hoje, o Japão povoado da cultura manga, o Japão em cujas ruas circulam naturalmente visualistas de cabelo no ar e vestuário muito inusitado.
Entrevistam desenhadores e argumentistas de manga e de anime, conhecem outros fãs como Charlie, visitam um fabricante de espadas, percorrem um mega centro comercial de jogos electrónicos...
No fim da viagem, feito o balanço, não será este também o «Verdadeiro Japão»?
February 18, 2009
Uh, so basically Peter Carey wanted to take his kid on a vacation to Japan, and he didn't want to pay for it, so he knocked some short crappy book together about it and called it good.
October 7, 2023
Pareidolia
: The tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern.
Apophenia : The tendency to perceive a connection or meaningful pattern between unrelated or random things.
This strange little book is filled with instances of Peter Carey finding meaning where there is none. Luckily (or unfortunately for him) at every stage he has a Japanese master animator or cultural expert to gently tell him to stop jumping at shadows. Sometimes he gets lucky and they do give him some insights but then he's largely disappointed that he didn't think of them himself. It's absolutely incredible the people he gets to interview or talk to, including Miyazaki!
Carey's various interviews reminded me so much of this hilarious NYT interview with Haruki Murakami where the interviewer sees what they think is a supernatural butterfly while Murakami is out of the room.
After a few minutes, a strange creature fluttered into my view of the garden. At first it seemed like some kind of bird — a strange hairy hummingbird, maybe, based on the way it was hovering. But then it started to look more like two birds stuck together: it wobbled more than it flew, and it had all kinds of flaps and extra parts hanging off it. I decided, in the end, that it was a big, black butterfly, the strangest butterfly I had ever seen. It floated there, wiggling like an alien fish, just long enough for me to be confused — to try to resolve it, never quite successfully, into some familiar category of thing. And then it flew away, wiggling, off down the mountain toward the ocean, retracing, roughly, the route Murakami and I had taken on our run.
Moments after the butterfly left, Murakami came down the stairs and sat, quietly, at his dining-room table. I told him I had just seen the weirdest butterfly I had ever seen in my entire life. He took a drink from his plastic water bottle, then looked up at me. “There are many butterflies in Japan,” he said. “It is not strange to see a butterfly.”
There were a few flashes of insight in this little book. Those who've read Murakami will know his obsession with wells. Well, here's a little extract for you. Carey was watching My Neighbour Totoro with a Japanese architect and he was getting the architect to explain all the little bits of the movie that a western audience wouldn't recognise.
"'Also', he said, 'it is a kind of ghost house'
'What makes it a ghost house?'
'Well, as you will see in a moment, there is a well'
'So?'
'The well is a very animistic thing. It is a hole to another world, to ghosts and spirits. A Japanese viewer sees that well and immediately understands that this will be a story about spirits.'
A more infuriating example came when the creator of the Gundam anime franchise Yoshiyuki Tomino talks to Carey about the fact that he created Gundam to sell toys because he just wanted to make a movie but the toys were how money could be made. Carey thought Gundam had all this deep meaning addressing WWII etc and Tomino kept insisting no it was entirely pragmatic. But then suddenly Carey gets something else from Tomino.
"Being able to fight in a war is an expression of one's citizenship. If you are an adult, you do it as a responsible citizen. But if you are a child - these days, I mean - war makes you either a victim or an accomplice."
This was getting way too Japanese for me. I told Mr Tomino I did not quite get this point.
"'Victim' and 'accomplice' both have to do with crime, but 'citizenship' has to do with public duty and responsibility."
This is frustrating because there are things to learn and Carey has to push to find them but then when he gets there he says stupid things like "This was getting way too Japanese for me."
Do you want the insight or not? He spends most of his time complaining that he made a blundering fool of himself and the meaning he's searching for isn't there and then when he finally does get the insights he complains that they're not how he likes them.
The book does live up to it's title, Carey is definitely wrong about Japan, and he does travel with his son. It's all there it could have been such a good book but ultimately it's too small and unpolished to be considered of any merit. In fact I'm not even sure why it was published. Did he have a commitment to a publisher? The real shame is that Carey is an exceptional writer and a great thinker. He's a titan of Australian writing and arguably global literature. With a bit more effort this could have been a seriously strong book about Japan, fatherhood, travel, culture, life, the universe etc. Instead it reads as a poorly constructed whiny diary.
Apophenia : The tendency to perceive a connection or meaningful pattern between unrelated or random things.
This strange little book is filled with instances of Peter Carey finding meaning where there is none. Luckily (or unfortunately for him) at every stage he has a Japanese master animator or cultural expert to gently tell him to stop jumping at shadows. Sometimes he gets lucky and they do give him some insights but then he's largely disappointed that he didn't think of them himself. It's absolutely incredible the people he gets to interview or talk to, including Miyazaki!
Carey's various interviews reminded me so much of this hilarious NYT interview with Haruki Murakami where the interviewer sees what they think is a supernatural butterfly while Murakami is out of the room.
After a few minutes, a strange creature fluttered into my view of the garden. At first it seemed like some kind of bird — a strange hairy hummingbird, maybe, based on the way it was hovering. But then it started to look more like two birds stuck together: it wobbled more than it flew, and it had all kinds of flaps and extra parts hanging off it. I decided, in the end, that it was a big, black butterfly, the strangest butterfly I had ever seen. It floated there, wiggling like an alien fish, just long enough for me to be confused — to try to resolve it, never quite successfully, into some familiar category of thing. And then it flew away, wiggling, off down the mountain toward the ocean, retracing, roughly, the route Murakami and I had taken on our run.
Moments after the butterfly left, Murakami came down the stairs and sat, quietly, at his dining-room table. I told him I had just seen the weirdest butterfly I had ever seen in my entire life. He took a drink from his plastic water bottle, then looked up at me. “There are many butterflies in Japan,” he said. “It is not strange to see a butterfly.”
There were a few flashes of insight in this little book. Those who've read Murakami will know his obsession with wells. Well, here's a little extract for you. Carey was watching My Neighbour Totoro with a Japanese architect and he was getting the architect to explain all the little bits of the movie that a western audience wouldn't recognise.
"'Also', he said, 'it is a kind of ghost house'
'What makes it a ghost house?'
'Well, as you will see in a moment, there is a well'
'So?'
'The well is a very animistic thing. It is a hole to another world, to ghosts and spirits. A Japanese viewer sees that well and immediately understands that this will be a story about spirits.'
A more infuriating example came when the creator of the Gundam anime franchise Yoshiyuki Tomino talks to Carey about the fact that he created Gundam to sell toys because he just wanted to make a movie but the toys were how money could be made. Carey thought Gundam had all this deep meaning addressing WWII etc and Tomino kept insisting no it was entirely pragmatic. But then suddenly Carey gets something else from Tomino.
"Being able to fight in a war is an expression of one's citizenship. If you are an adult, you do it as a responsible citizen. But if you are a child - these days, I mean - war makes you either a victim or an accomplice."
This was getting way too Japanese for me. I told Mr Tomino I did not quite get this point.
"'Victim' and 'accomplice' both have to do with crime, but 'citizenship' has to do with public duty and responsibility."
This is frustrating because there are things to learn and Carey has to push to find them but then when he gets there he says stupid things like "This was getting way too Japanese for me."
Do you want the insight or not? He spends most of his time complaining that he made a blundering fool of himself and the meaning he's searching for isn't there and then when he finally does get the insights he complains that they're not how he likes them.
The book does live up to it's title, Carey is definitely wrong about Japan, and he does travel with his son. It's all there it could have been such a good book but ultimately it's too small and unpolished to be considered of any merit. In fact I'm not even sure why it was published. Did he have a commitment to a publisher? The real shame is that Carey is an exceptional writer and a great thinker. He's a titan of Australian writing and arguably global literature. With a bit more effort this could have been a seriously strong book about Japan, fatherhood, travel, culture, life, the universe etc. Instead it reads as a poorly constructed whiny diary.
June 10, 2020
Utterly boring, the first-person narrator is extremely conceited about people who are not American, and believes that merely by watching anime and reading manga, he can infer accurate guesses regarding Japanese people's views and perception. I am not a fan of travel narratives to begin with, but this is definitely a book you would want to avoid, filled with prejudices about Japan and blatant displays of "we are better, they are bolder and promote violence, we should talk to them about that, we need to help them, The West > The Orient". I can't believe how books like this get promoted.
August 14, 2009
Peter Carey, you're so wrong about Japan. It feels so wrong reading about your wrongness, that it's right. I really enjoyed the shock Peter Carey had when he found out that Gundam was designed to sell toy robots, but alas, he claimed to know the true meaning of it while knowing nothing at all. Apparently one of the characters in this isn't even real, making this travel book even less reliable.
August 25, 2015
So excruciatingly bad a book I think it actually contaminates the Carey novels I'd previously read and enjoyed.
July 22, 2017
4.5 Estrelas
Conhecer o Japão pelos olhos de um ocidental através dos animes e mangas é simplesmente incrível! Quanto mais aprendo sobre este fascinante país mais ele me cativa.
Conhecer o Japão pelos olhos de um ocidental através dos animes e mangas é simplesmente incrível! Quanto mais aprendo sobre este fascinante país mais ele me cativa.
June 25, 2017
I thought it would be fun to read this right after 1Q84 and I really enjoyed it. It's nothing more than the experience of Peter Carey and his son when they visited Tokyo and it really makes you feel like you are on vacation too, exploring a new city and its culture. Surprisingly even though the book is really short he manages to pack it tons of stuff and information. Carey sometimes comes across as a weird snobbish man who is examining Japan as a white westerner looking into some weird peculiarity, but the fact that he often admits how uptight he can be and the relationship with his son (who is often making fun of him) makes him come across as likeable nonetheless.
March 14, 2017
Este livro foi sem dúvida muito interessante, sou apaixonada pela cultura asiática, tudo começou com o Japão para ser mais exata e sempre que existem livros eu procuro lê-los para conhecer novas curiosidades.
Devo salientar o facto de ter aqui o testemunho de um sobrevivente da guerra.
Vou fazer decididamente uma opinião especial no meu canal.
Devo salientar o facto de ter aqui o testemunho de um sobrevivente da guerra.
Vou fazer decididamente uma opinião especial no meu canal.
December 15, 2012
I'd like to say that I really liked this short book, but it wasn't what I'd anticipated. The subject interested me: a writer taking his 12-year old son to Japan for the first time and meeting some of the leaders (stars) of manga and anime. The most impressive thing for me is that Mr. Carey was honest about their experiences. I would not have wanted to write about a child of mine being so disrespectful to me as his son was toward him. At least the son knew how to act in public.
From some reviews, I had thought that the son would be the one to open the father to the world of Japanese 'comics' and animated film. But they discovered some of the printed and filmed works together before they set off on the trip. Mr. Cary suggested the trip to his son and was fortunate in getting writing assignments through networking, so they could finance the trip (this is not explicitly stated, so I'm guessing.)
This wasn't even Mr. Carey's first trip to Japan. I wanted it to be more of a revelation with them discovering the culture together. I thought they would be going there to live, not for a 10-day visit.
The most interesting interview to me was with a man who had survived fire bombings in several cities during WW II.
The comments made regarding the misunderstandings of Japanese culture by Westerners began to annoy me. I think maybe there was too much energy put into analyzing and understanding, rather than experiencing and enjoying. Looking back today, I hope they have good memories.
Lastly, there are images from some of the manga and anime spread throughout the book and one photo of the son with a writer/director. But not the one with Mr. Miyazaki! I want to see THAT one!! :-)
From some reviews, I had thought that the son would be the one to open the father to the world of Japanese 'comics' and animated film. But they discovered some of the printed and filmed works together before they set off on the trip. Mr. Cary suggested the trip to his son and was fortunate in getting writing assignments through networking, so they could finance the trip (this is not explicitly stated, so I'm guessing.)
This wasn't even Mr. Carey's first trip to Japan. I wanted it to be more of a revelation with them discovering the culture together. I thought they would be going there to live, not for a 10-day visit.
The most interesting interview to me was with a man who had survived fire bombings in several cities during WW II.
The comments made regarding the misunderstandings of Japanese culture by Westerners began to annoy me. I think maybe there was too much energy put into analyzing and understanding, rather than experiencing and enjoying. Looking back today, I hope they have good memories.
Lastly, there are images from some of the manga and anime spread throughout the book and one photo of the son with a writer/director. But not the one with Mr. Miyazaki! I want to see THAT one!! :-)
May 28, 2014
I picked up this book for 99p in a charity shop to put aside for a day in which I wanted to read something utterly cringeworthy. There is something oddly satisfying about subjecting yourself to the secondhand embarrassment caused by an anime fan having their expectations and preconceptions of Japan crushed, and in that sense I got exactly what I wanted from this book.
Whilst experiencing that secondhand embarrassment can be entertaining, it was also infuriating so many times during this book. Carey is a highly unlikable narrator, so frequently seeming ungrateful and unwilling to compromise; becoming frustrated when the people he is interviewing disagree with him, or correct him and refuse to be led down the path he wants them to follow.
There are a handful of interesting direct quotes scattered around the book yes, but I think Carey would most definitely benefit from reading Roland Barthes’ Death of the Author if he plans on interviewing artists about their work in the future.
Whilst experiencing that secondhand embarrassment can be entertaining, it was also infuriating so many times during this book. Carey is a highly unlikable narrator, so frequently seeming ungrateful and unwilling to compromise; becoming frustrated when the people he is interviewing disagree with him, or correct him and refuse to be led down the path he wants them to follow.
There are a handful of interesting direct quotes scattered around the book yes, but I think Carey would most definitely benefit from reading Roland Barthes’ Death of the Author if he plans on interviewing artists about their work in the future.
September 27, 2016
52nd book for 2016.
I got into Peter Carey when I first started at university around the time his first novel Bliss came out. I loved his short stories, and for a while read each of his books as they were published. Then somewhere along the way we parted ways and haven't read him further for 20 years. This book has made it unlikely I'll go back to reading him again soon.
Carey comes across as a cringe-worthy snob in this short travelogue to Tokyo with his son. He's so awkward, both with his 12-year-old son and with every Japanese he meets, one wonders if this book is some sort of fiction. Surely no one is so honest or so blind to their own faults.
There is one very interesting interview with a child survivor of the firebombings of Tokyo, but other than that I found the book irritating. The so called happy ending seemed forced to me.
I got into Peter Carey when I first started at university around the time his first novel Bliss came out. I loved his short stories, and for a while read each of his books as they were published. Then somewhere along the way we parted ways and haven't read him further for 20 years. This book has made it unlikely I'll go back to reading him again soon.
Carey comes across as a cringe-worthy snob in this short travelogue to Tokyo with his son. He's so awkward, both with his 12-year-old son and with every Japanese he meets, one wonders if this book is some sort of fiction. Surely no one is so honest or so blind to their own faults.
There is one very interesting interview with a child survivor of the firebombings of Tokyo, but other than that I found the book irritating. The so called happy ending seemed forced to me.
June 24, 2019
Well, I finally finished this -- it sat on the shelf for months. It's actually pretty good. You read the blurb at the top of the page, right? For me, the best parts were the sample manga illustrations. I didn't keep notes, so I'm going to refer you to Tony's nice writeup, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... If you are interested in the status of Japanese pop culture 15 years ago, this is your book. Although I don't think either Peter Carey or his son ever quite figured out what was going on. I didn't, either.
July 11, 2021
A too indulgent father (IMHO), Australian author Peter Carey took his twelve-year-old son Charley to Japan primarily to research manga, anime, and other things of primary interest to teenagers. His interviews with the creators of such works as the Gundam saga lead him to consider his trip a failure -- partly because, as an adult, one cannot please a teenager. Just not possible. Also, the people he interviews in Wrong About Japan: A Father's Journey with His Son keep telling Carey he's drawing the wrong conclusions about Japan. The end result: dissatisfaction on the part of the author and, me, the reader.
August 12, 2024
Não estou muito habituado a ler literatura de viagens e isso também acaba por influenciar bastante a minha opinião.
Gostei do que li, só que em algumas alturas achei que faltava algo e noutras achei que foi muito “viajado” e eu sinto que me perdi lá pelo meio. Mas, apesar de tudo, nota positiva!
Gostei do que li, só que em algumas alturas achei que faltava algo e noutras achei que foi muito “viajado” e eu sinto que me perdi lá pelo meio. Mas, apesar de tudo, nota positiva!
April 19, 2016
Carey-san doesn’t mean that other people are wrong about Japan, but that he is. I like that the state of being, as a foreigner, wrong about Japan, about its high culture, pop culture, people and traditions, over and over and over again, and the awareness of this state, has been made into a book. This is the necessary relationship of the foreigner to Japan. Foreigners want to understand, but to understand it is necessary to be Japanese.
This is a shorthand, meaning, for me, that whatever piece of a gigantic culture-sized or even mind-sized puzzle you come to understand, through laborious research and with much help, life is not long enough for you to understand the whole; you cannot make it your whole being and power of knowing.
Carey-san’s efforts, with the help of his twelve year-old son and numerous Japanese friends and contacts, to understand My Neighbour Totoro, Mobile Suit Gundam and the cultural importance of the sword, are offered here as illuminating failures, iterations towards knowledge that, instead of revealing meaning in those artefacts, often reveal instead a way of approaching cultural practice and the communication of meaning and meta-information.
I was reminded of a page I read the other day, and now cannot find, about the practice of cultural refusal. The context was of First Nation people deciding not to explain cultural practices or translate terms into English. Often, I felt that the polite non-explanations Carey-san received were acts of cultural refusal reasoned not, as Anglo people usually assume, on the basis of Japanese chauvinism but in an awareness of the often irreverent and contemptuous manner in which ‘Westerners’ usually treat our own cultural artefacts and even more so the hegemonic, exotifying and exploitative consumption we practise on the cultural artefacts of “others”.
Without entering into any esoteric meta-discussion, Carey-san opens space for reflections on the state of being wrong about Japan by offering his own figure in this narrative as fuel to the flame that reveals how and why the foreigner must be wrong. He is not extraordinarily respectful; his behaviour is not admirable. But his interest is neither starry-eyed nor uninformed. His primary mode of relating to Japan is historical; he attempts to think through his knowledge of Japan’s position in WWII, and uses empathy to imagine how related experiences may have affected people and their cultural practice. He attempts to think through his son Charley’s perspective through his understanding of the boy’s character, interests, and empathic observation of him and his Japanese friend Takashi. He arranges meetings with pop culture creators and a sword-maker, and interviews them to try to develop his understanding of what they produce. Sometimes, he is richly rewarded, for example when Yuka Minakawa, author of Gundam Officials tells him she disagrees with his interpretation of the Mobile Suits as isolating the teens who wear them from the world:
Other culture workers are less forthcoming. Tomino-san, Mobile Suit Gundam’s creator, says that the manga was created simply to sell robot toys, and that it is intended to be culturally ‘universal’, with no reference to the source culture. Sometimes creators refuse to enter any discussion of the meaning of their work. I can wonder why this is – although my surmises will be wrong, of course. Carey-san is often exhausted and humiliated by his efforts, but, transphobia aside, he is a helpful guide, relating an authentic experience that disrupts foreigners’ pat notions of ‘the Real Japan’.
This edition is wonderfully illustrated with diverse images from manga and occasionally classical Japanese sources. These images are not presented for analysis and only rarely contribute to the narrative. Rather, they are decorative, mood-setting, and make the book a satisfying object, a worthy gift.
This is a shorthand, meaning, for me, that whatever piece of a gigantic culture-sized or even mind-sized puzzle you come to understand, through laborious research and with much help, life is not long enough for you to understand the whole; you cannot make it your whole being and power of knowing.
Carey-san’s efforts, with the help of his twelve year-old son and numerous Japanese friends and contacts, to understand My Neighbour Totoro, Mobile Suit Gundam and the cultural importance of the sword, are offered here as illuminating failures, iterations towards knowledge that, instead of revealing meaning in those artefacts, often reveal instead a way of approaching cultural practice and the communication of meaning and meta-information.
I was reminded of a page I read the other day, and now cannot find, about the practice of cultural refusal. The context was of First Nation people deciding not to explain cultural practices or translate terms into English. Often, I felt that the polite non-explanations Carey-san received were acts of cultural refusal reasoned not, as Anglo people usually assume, on the basis of Japanese chauvinism but in an awareness of the often irreverent and contemptuous manner in which ‘Westerners’ usually treat our own cultural artefacts and even more so the hegemonic, exotifying and exploitative consumption we practise on the cultural artefacts of “others”.
Without entering into any esoteric meta-discussion, Carey-san opens space for reflections on the state of being wrong about Japan by offering his own figure in this narrative as fuel to the flame that reveals how and why the foreigner must be wrong. He is not extraordinarily respectful; his behaviour is not admirable. But his interest is neither starry-eyed nor uninformed. His primary mode of relating to Japan is historical; he attempts to think through his knowledge of Japan’s position in WWII, and uses empathy to imagine how related experiences may have affected people and their cultural practice. He attempts to think through his son Charley’s perspective through his understanding of the boy’s character, interests, and empathic observation of him and his Japanese friend Takashi. He arranges meetings with pop culture creators and a sword-maker, and interviews them to try to develop his understanding of what they produce. Sometimes, he is richly rewarded, for example when Yuka Minakawa, author of Gundam Officials tells him she disagrees with his interpretation of the Mobile Suits as isolating the teens who wear them from the world:
When you see these robots being knocked about and hurt, you’ll notice the person operating the robot is also in pain. She says that if you think about that logically, it shouldn’t happen. They should be like guys in a military tank, getting knocked around a little roughly perhaps, but you must understand that these pilots are in a womb. They feel what the mother feels. A manga critic once said that when a person is in the womb of the robot, the robot’s armour becomes that person’s body. This is quite the opposite of your idea […] there’s a Japanese word, gutai, for when two or more things are joined together in some way to become one. The thing about the Gundam Mobile Suits is that it’s not like the tanks, it’s a form of unificationThis just blew my mind. I can’t imagine any Western cultural artefact that involves fighting robots using such a female-connoted bodily image.
Other culture workers are less forthcoming. Tomino-san, Mobile Suit Gundam’s creator, says that the manga was created simply to sell robot toys, and that it is intended to be culturally ‘universal’, with no reference to the source culture. Sometimes creators refuse to enter any discussion of the meaning of their work. I can wonder why this is – although my surmises will be wrong, of course. Carey-san is often exhausted and humiliated by his efforts, but, transphobia aside, he is a helpful guide, relating an authentic experience that disrupts foreigners’ pat notions of ‘the Real Japan’.
This edition is wonderfully illustrated with diverse images from manga and occasionally classical Japanese sources. These images are not presented for analysis and only rarely contribute to the narrative. Rather, they are decorative, mood-setting, and make the book a satisfying object, a worthy gift.
February 10, 2021
Not for everyone, but I quite liked it.
August 19, 2023
Bom livro para ler no aeroporto, sobretudo se estivermos em curso para o Japão. Espécie de Lost in translation em versão de livros de viagens, aposta sobretudo em mostrar a opacidade da cultura japonesa antiga e recente e as voltas que ela dá, entre condescendência e educação ritualizada, para se esconder aos olhos dos Goyin. Bem ordenado, nota-se a escola do romancista, mas é um livro publicado no início do milénio e por isso algo desactualizado. Quem viage hoje pelo metro de Tóquio encontrá mais gente a olhar para telemóveis (americanos ou coreanos, países que acabaram por ganhar esta luta) do que para mangá. As aventura de pai e filho no meio da cidade escrita em letra estranha ficariam hoje resolvidas com internet e algum treino no google maps. Mantém-se correcto, porém , muito do que tem a ver com a intransponibilidade das barreiras sociais e até uma certa desconfiança em relação ao estrangeiro, sobretudo quando ele se afasta da estrita baia turística. Lê-se bem, sobretudo se a ideia fôr uma viagem ao Japão.
August 9, 2011
Meh. But I paid 2$ at Chapters for it at the discount bin. I went to Japan shortly after this with a Japanese gf and this book really over-glamorizes the people and culture. If anyone was wrong about Japan, it's Carey. The people there are not much different from us westerners, and I was not as culture shocked as I thought 'd be. He makes the people out to be mega nerd who dress like comic book heros on a daily basis. Carey also spends too much time over-analyzing the GUNDAM franchise when what he should have been looking up was EVANGELION, far more memorable, inspirational, and successful than GUNDAM. Anyways, dont use this book as a travelogue by any means. Writing this book was basically an excuse to have a paid trip to Japan so his son can check out the anime and manga scene.
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