io9 
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San Francisco, 8:04 AM
Thu Dec 17
24 posts in the last 24 hours
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04:37 AM
People want to have something they can point to as wacky and futuristic. If they don't examine Japanese culture closely, not only does it fill this niche, it also involves way less effort than understanding Japanese culture.
Win/win!
They already understand their own culture, relegating it's wackiness to boring/annoying/loathsome.
-Kle.
01:37 AM
"Why do so many love to gawk at this mysterious, foreign [Other?]... There are plenty of strange things going on [in My Crazy-Ass Culture,] but when it happens [in Your Crazy-Ass Culture,] it's suddenly incomprehensible, despicable, awesome, and crazy... Over the last couple of decades, it has spawned a huge industry of magazines, blogs, and products themed around [Your Crazy-Ass Culture, by those of My Crazy-Ass Culture that think Your Crazy-Ass Culture is The Bomb] . . . [But the fact is] that none of this is meant to be taken seriously. One important premise [of Our Crazy-Ass Culture] is the commitment to have fun and not take offense [, because the Ultimate Sin of any Crazy Culture is to be Taken Too Seriously]. [Our Crazy-Ass Culture's] humor works on many different levels and its nuances can be hard to explain to people who didn't grow up with it."
I'm reminded of the One, the Only, Douglas Adams, who said:
"Listen, bud," said Ford, "if I had one Altairian dollar for every time I heard one bit of the Universe look at another bit of the Universe and say 'That's terrible [or fucked up, or strange, or weird, or whatever],' I would be sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin. But I haven't and I am."
So: In the words of my forefathers -- who wouldn't recognize me if they saw me -- Hoist a fucking pint, already.
12:21 AM
Pretty sure The Sprawl was modeled on Beijing as well, although I can't find a specific reference to back that up at the moment.
12/16/09
It would be naive to insist that the "otherness" of Japanese culture isn't one of the appeals, dating all the way back to the Japonisme movement even, but like people have said it works both ways. One Canadian author who lived in Japan for a while speculated that the reason Canadians and Japanese people are so fascinated by one another is that were opposites in almost everything, from geography to work ethic. That fascination doesn't automatically assume a negative comparison.
Though, that said, something I found quite interesting when I did go to Japan this past November (another life's ambition knocked down!) was how familiar it was. I had been fed on such a diet of Japanese media that I found it very easy to adjust. The only thing I found particularly difficult was the lack of communication, because I'm lousy at languages and could only speak one-word caveman-Japanese.
It may be that we're not in on the joke and that the entire Japanese robotics industry and rail system is a big lark. But something rings odd about the thesis, insofar as it picks up on the xenophobic dregs who can't even understand their 3rd generation American or Canadian neighbours let alone a truly foreign culture. I'm not sure that this is entirely useful for people who are actually interested in and informed about Japanese culture.
12/16/09
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12/16/09
I don't think that Japanese culture is strange. I think it's fascinating and different and interesting, but I'm probably not supposed to think that. I should just accept it as perfectly normal and not try to appreciate it for how it's different from my own. At least, that's what I got from the article...which, by the way, seemed awfully "majime" itself...
12/16/09
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12/16/09
I, of course, DO think Japanese culture is strange. But then I would, wouldn't I? I grew up in America, where everything is different.
I also think a lot of Americans are strange, though, and there's no reason at all for that.
12/16/09
12/16/09
Most of them get it via catalog, the way any sensible person would.
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12/16/09
Actually, to be REALLY fair I think all cultures are weird as hell.
12/16/09
[img.exegersis.com]
12/16/09
I mean, I say it at least as often when I think about major aspects of American culture, or even my own Canadian culture. Hell, I even say "WTF?!" about quite a lot of my own behaviour.
People are strange, and really the only motivations we truly understand are our own--and often not even then. I think it's okay to express a little shock and disbelief, as long as it's not sustained, and as long as it's not hostile.
02:38 AM
12/16/09
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12/16/09
I once stopped a girl at a university in Japan who had FUCK written multiple times all over the bag she was carrying to ask her if she knew what the word on her bag meant. She didn't and was shocked to find out.
Many times in Japan I would have people stare or point or even out and out make comments 'Look a foreigner! Cool!'. Actually the word they use, gaijin, more literally translates to outsider. Gaikokujin ('other country person') is more polite but no one ever uses it.
I had one friend on the subway once doze off and her head accidentally hit the shoulder of the guy next to her so she said excuse me IN JAPANESE. Then the guy immediately turns to his friend and says 'That foreigner just spoke to me!' and the friend excitedly replied 'Really? What did she say?!'
I'm of course not saying all Japanese are like this and I made some great friends and contacts when I lived there, but fetishism of all Western people and culture is very common.
12/16/09
I'd hate to see it become a cliche that the future is either Japanese (crowded and dystopian) or African (barren and exploited by corporations). But what other visions are there out there? I recall a recent book suggesting that Mexico and Poland will be superpowers in the future. Should we be looking to Eastern Europe or down South for our future visions?
12/16/09
And that means I'm somehow racist? I literally don't get it. People think it's cool because it IS cool. They built a life-size Gundam for crying out loud. Me admiring it means I'm not "getting it"?
Why is acknowledging that it is creative and cool a bad thing?
Are they fearing gentrification or something? Last I heard rents in Tokyo are $$$$$$$.
12/16/09
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12/16/09
"I believe that the Odaiba Gundam will serve the same purpose as the Statue of Liberty — something to instill hope and inspiration in people."
Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino thinks it's like the statue of liberty or something.
ooooh japan~
Honestly though, I know nothing of Japan outside of what I've been told by others and what I've read in their exported movies, games, cartoons, and comics. From my experience, Japanese science fiction seems to do a lot of the same things we do to their culture with German culture.
You want to make something look cool or imposing? Slap a German aesthetic on it.
That's how we've come to have those lovely Zeon from Mobile Suit Gundam and the Galactic Empire from Legend of the Galactic Heroes and to a lesser extent, nearly every prosecutor in the Phoenix Wright games. They're the de facto cool foreigners, much like how the Asian aesthetic was used to bring future cool to Bladerunner.
As for Katayama, after reading her piece on the guys who carry around body pillows, I think it kind of conflicts with what she's saying here. There are a lot of instances in that article where she mentions some of the odd looks the body pillow/2D love guys get when they go out in public but here it sounds like she's trying to say 2D love is some kind of joke or alternative lifestyle in Japan. As I said earlier, I have no real experience with Japanese culture. So, is she trying to say this sort of thing is socially acceptable there and people are being culturally insensitive, or is she trying to shatter social stigmas 2D love all over the world?
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12/13/09
Anyway, I'm becoming convinced that it's impossible to know what space battles will really look like. Maybe it will be ships of the line pounding away at one another broadsides. (Cool!) Or fighters doing high-G dogfights while firing guns at one another. (Awesome!) Or moon-sized space stations with planet-destroying anti-proton beams in an x-ray containment laser. (Yeah, baby!)
Bring it on.
12/13/09