I don't know what it is about momus' writings on Japan that makes me foam at the mouth, but something sure does. You'll see me commenting like the guy killed my father on that post.
The big irony is that I don't really think he's so far off base. He mentions that the girl reminds him of his "non-diaspora" J-girlfriends, and I believe him... to an extent. I don't think he's ever really known very well a Japanese person who speaks no english. I also can't help but think that that one constant in all of his relationships, "momus", is such an acquired taste that it's hard to take any girlfriend of his as "run-of-the-mill". That is to say, I think he's a priori excluded from Japan for Japanese people. Not the most fair way to think of him, I know.
Someone, in a fashion I think is truly american, comments that I'm so vitriolic because I'm "jealous of all the hot babes [momus has] probably nailed, while still remaining in the avant garde." Too right, but I've got another reason for being frustrated with him too. He's like a michael moore. He's fighting the good fight, and he's one of the heros on my side, but he's incautious and a bragadoccio, which makes him interesting, but also so easy to dismiss as an unscrupulous fabulist. While he convinces the choir, he sounds worthy of derision to the congregation.
That said, if I were momus in 15 years, I wouldn't feel too bad about what I'd made of myself.
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Ha ha, thank you for that last comment!
I dated this girl once upon a time, despite the fact that neither of us really spoke each other's language to any significant degree. The girl in the film reminded me of her. Now, whether I "really knew her very well" is another matter. Also, it wouldn't be fair to call her "run of the mill". But read her blog and you'll get a sense that her concerns aren't so very different from many young Japanese womens' concerns. Her dog, the beauty salon, and so on. And I did get a real sense, whenever I went to visit her, that I was, for once, in "the real Japan", not the invisible diaspora that tends to follow me around wherever I go.
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