SOC 3050 - Japanese Society - I would say I am intrigued by the East, but one of the meanings of intrigue is having a clandestine love affair. Love is just too strong of a word, and I am not conducting this interest of mine in secrecy.
For my general education classes I needed to take some non-Western cultural courses. I alloted most of that coursework to the Eastern Hemisphere. Unfortunately, this coursework was not accompanied by a trip to the East. I haven't directly used this knowledge in my life too many times, but on occasion I am able to suprise myself with some material I have retained from lectures. This is doubly surprising. First, I remembered something that I learned in college. Second, I understood my professor's heavily Japanese-accented English. Awesome.
Silly that when I think of this course one specific memory comes to mind. When I saw The Last Samurai I recalled the story of Japan's creation that the narrator was telling. The islands of Japan are said to have sprung up when drops from a sword fell upon the Earth. I also knew on occasion when the movie got Japanese history right and wrong.
The Samurai's Garden is a book I chose to read for this class. I read it after a semester of Japanese studies, which is a drop in the bucket, but it still offered a perspective on Japanese culture and history that had not been provided through the curriculum of the class. Good stuff. Check it out sometime.*
*I feel so stuck up when I suggest movies to watch, or books to read to people for some reason. I guess I just have a hard time believing someone is going to come to this site, actually finish reading one of these blogs, and consider my recommendation at the bottom. I wouldn't be surprised if you wrote the title down on your stack of post-it notes by the side of the keyboard, but there is no effort involved in that compared to the effort involved in seeking this book out upon a friend, or stranger's recommendation, and reading it. I believe in that really small percentage of the population. That is why I say things like this.
No comments:
Post a Comment