| Subject: | VN's image of the Japanese "Running Man" |
|---|---|
| Date: | Wed, 21 Jun 2006 08:59:03 -0700 (PDT) |
| From: | Henry Hanada <henry.hanada@yahoo.com> |
| To: | nabokv-l@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU |
Dear List, Thank you for all the help regarding VN on Japan. I also found a letter commenting on "gemuetlich little Japan" on Page 90 of VN: American Years. After reading these comments by Western intellectuals, I take some solace in the result of a recent international poll http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/home_page/168.php?nid=&id=&pnt=168&lb=hmpg1 which found that "Japan is the country most widely viewed as having a positive influence." The dream of the Japanese "Running Man" http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0606&L=nabokv-l&T=0&P=5915 was apparently transformed into a scene (already mentioned by Mr. Nikita Danilov) in Ada, Page 548: "... as if arriving at my own funeral, the brilliantly lighted windows of Counterstone Hall and the small figure of a Japanese student who, being also late, overtook me at a wild scurry, and disappeared in the doorway long before I reached its semicircular steps." The image of the Japanese "running man" who is in a hurry in vain is something the Japanese themselves often make fun of. An example of this is the decades-old haiku-like slogan: "Semai Nippon (nihon), sonnani isoide doko-ni (doko-e) iku?" (In this small Japan, where are you (we) going in such a hurry [while driving]?) I think Japan is actually bigger than the UK. My favorite essayist Juzo Itami wrote a short satire entitled Hashiru Otoko (The Running Man), poking fun at a man's behavior during air travel, and also at himself. The "running man" is the quintessential embarrassing Japanese tourist: he can't help running to his plane in an airport. Itami's film Tampopo http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092048/ contains a Running man, but this man is in a hurry for a good reason. If VN could see Tampopo, or read Maruya, his opinion about contribution from "little Japan" may have been slightly higher. Henry.Hanada __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
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