It's been a while.
I hope to be blogging again this semester, but I had to take a break for the last month or so to attend to school work that was driving me mad.
Today's just a test:
I think most of you will find this completely useless, as you have no need for simultaneously searching multiple Japanese dictionaries and reference sources. But for me, it's part of my ongoing interest in customizing my search experience to make it more relevant and efficient.
（もうすでに新しくもない）新春のお喜びをぬけぬけと申し上げます。
遅くなりまして、申し訳のしようもありません。する気持ちもそもそもありませんし。な～んてね。
本当にスイマセンです。
上記の検索バーで、複数のオンライン辞典・参考資料を同時に調べられます。これからも改良を重ねていきますが、まぁ、とりあえずお試しあれ。
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Saturday, November 10, 2007
The biodiesel of academia
Rant alert...
I've written about this a little before, but I'm more and more convinced that cultural studies is the biodiesel of academia.
Biodiesel is, simply put, a wolf in sheep's clothing. Though it purports to be an environmentally friendly, homegrown alternative to Middle East oil, it's nothing more than a plot to burn food to support agribusiness and keep the world starving. The point is not "environmentally friendly," it's "homegrown." America is the world's largest food exporter, and produces so much surplus of food that there needn't be a single starving person on this planet. To decide that we should use that most precious of resources to line the pockets of oversubsidized corporate farming is so offensive it makes me ill just to think of it.
So, what about cultural studies? In the guise of a thoroughgoing left-liberal project to examine power relationships and problematize hegemonies by studying lived culture, cultural studies distracts us from the problems of economic injustice and the increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of inherently totalitarian transnationals and other nodes of private power.
Pluralism is about recognition, not redistribution (Nancy Fraser). And even redistribution is not restructuring or revolution—it doesn't necessarily reject out of hand the immanent injustices of capitalism. The reason pluralism (recognition) has advanced in the US over the past several decades is that it is the unimportant debate. Who cares whether we problematize the exclusion of minorities from history, so long as we (or at least most of us) submit to increasing economic injustice, the strengthening of the nanny state, and isolation and control by consumerist technologies? Who cares? Well, clearly not the folks at the top. If they did, we'd be talking about something else.
Cultural studies may be right in many of the things it claims, but it's still got it all wrong. Morons who can't see that removing both class and a polemical political element from discourse on power relations are just capitalist fanboys. The irruption of class into academic discourse got too close to the problems of truly lived cultures (real economic and political conditions), so it's been slowly erased.
Not to say that class is what it's all about. Class is an element of the problem, but certainly not the whole issue at stake. What's at stake is "the fact...that mass culture has won; there is nothing else." (Denning, in Modernity and Mass Culture, 257) Or, more pointedly, that a cultural studies scholar like Denning can offhandedly make that statement and miss its significance entirely in the rest of his article. He fails to see that mass culture itself is the ideology of the ruling class, and does so to our detriment and the rulers' great benefit. Subsuming everyone, including most of the wealthy and powerful, in a system of mass culture modalities that foreclose the imagination of a non-capitalist, non-consumerist society is the goal of contemporary mass culture.
Naturalizing capitalism, naturalizing a dysfunctional political system, naturalizing consumerism, etc. while simultaneously precluding the imagination of anything else.
Penetrating deeper and deeper through technologies of mass production and mass dissemination.
Witness television and advertising for infants, conscious of indoctrination from the day of birth. If they could wire the womb for inculcation, they would.
Cultural studies glorifies oppositional and resitant readings of social texts, but doesn't understand that the problem is the texts themselves. The power is not the message of the text. The power is the text. The production of the text, the proliferation and distribution of the text, and the ability of the text to be replaced endlessly by a litany of other recycled and recyclable texts that all delineate meaningless message. The success of message is no longer in its content, but in its omnipresence. In its form. In its production.
I've written about this a little before, but I'm more and more convinced that cultural studies is the biodiesel of academia.
Biodiesel is, simply put, a wolf in sheep's clothing. Though it purports to be an environmentally friendly, homegrown alternative to Middle East oil, it's nothing more than a plot to burn food to support agribusiness and keep the world starving. The point is not "environmentally friendly," it's "homegrown." America is the world's largest food exporter, and produces so much surplus of food that there needn't be a single starving person on this planet. To decide that we should use that most precious of resources to line the pockets of oversubsidized corporate farming is so offensive it makes me ill just to think of it.
So, what about cultural studies? In the guise of a thoroughgoing left-liberal project to examine power relationships and problematize hegemonies by studying lived culture, cultural studies distracts us from the problems of economic injustice and the increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of inherently totalitarian transnationals and other nodes of private power.
Pluralism is about recognition, not redistribution (Nancy Fraser). And even redistribution is not restructuring or revolution—it doesn't necessarily reject out of hand the immanent injustices of capitalism. The reason pluralism (recognition) has advanced in the US over the past several decades is that it is the unimportant debate. Who cares whether we problematize the exclusion of minorities from history, so long as we (or at least most of us) submit to increasing economic injustice, the strengthening of the nanny state, and isolation and control by consumerist technologies? Who cares? Well, clearly not the folks at the top. If they did, we'd be talking about something else.
Cultural studies may be right in many of the things it claims, but it's still got it all wrong. Morons who can't see that removing both class and a polemical political element from discourse on power relations are just capitalist fanboys. The irruption of class into academic discourse got too close to the problems of truly lived cultures (real economic and political conditions), so it's been slowly erased.
Not to say that class is what it's all about. Class is an element of the problem, but certainly not the whole issue at stake. What's at stake is "the fact...that mass culture has won; there is nothing else." (Denning, in Modernity and Mass Culture, 257) Or, more pointedly, that a cultural studies scholar like Denning can offhandedly make that statement and miss its significance entirely in the rest of his article. He fails to see that mass culture itself is the ideology of the ruling class, and does so to our detriment and the rulers' great benefit. Subsuming everyone, including most of the wealthy and powerful, in a system of mass culture modalities that foreclose the imagination of a non-capitalist, non-consumerist society is the goal of contemporary mass culture.
Naturalizing capitalism, naturalizing a dysfunctional political system, naturalizing consumerism, etc. while simultaneously precluding the imagination of anything else.
Penetrating deeper and deeper through technologies of mass production and mass dissemination.
Witness television and advertising for infants, conscious of indoctrination from the day of birth. If they could wire the womb for inculcation, they would.
Cultural studies glorifies oppositional and resitant readings of social texts, but doesn't understand that the problem is the texts themselves. The power is not the message of the text. The power is the text. The production of the text, the proliferation and distribution of the text, and the ability of the text to be replaced endlessly by a litany of other recycled and recyclable texts that all delineate meaningless message. The success of message is no longer in its content, but in its omnipresence. In its form. In its production.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
License to Ill
Tomomi's international driver's permit finally arrived in the mail yesterday!
So she's a free woman!
Free to take Noah to and from daycare!
Free to run errands!
Free to shuttle the kids to and from the library!
Free to load them into the car and head to the park!
Free as a bird!
Yay?
永らくお待ち申し上げておりました妻の国際免許たるもの、昨日無事到着した次第。国際免許万歳！誠に喜ばしき出来事じゃ。
早川友美、自由の國にきて早2年。やっと自由なり。
めでたし、めでたし。
どんどはれ。
So she's a free woman!
Free to take Noah to and from daycare!
Free to run errands!
Free to shuttle the kids to and from the library!
Free to load them into the car and head to the park!
Free as a bird!
Yay?
永らくお待ち申し上げておりました妻の国際免許たるもの、昨日無事到着した次第。国際免許万歳！誠に喜ばしき出来事じゃ。
早川友美、自由の國にきて早2年。やっと自由なり。
めでたし、めでたし。
どんどはれ。
The Pillage People
Oh, a plundering they went.
Noah reprised his Sunday role as Batman. Minami debuted her bumblebee costume. Much fun was had by all.
They both walked until they were exhausted, but Noah is still having a little trouble settling in for the night. The excitement and sugar rush (small though it is, mind you) are taking their toll, I guess.
The camera batteries died, so it'll be at least tomorrow before I can have any pictures up, but I promise to do so before the weekend.
ハロウィーン。ノアはバットマン、ミナミは蜜蜂。すごい可愛かった。
まぁ、いっぱいもらったんだね、チョコやらアメやらなにやら。
2人ともけっこう歩いたせいで、帰ってきたらぐったりでした。とはいえ、ノアはやはり落ち着くまでちょっと時間かかったけど。
写真は、カメラの電池を充電したらアルバムにアップします。
Noah reprised his Sunday role as Batman. Minami debuted her bumblebee costume. Much fun was had by all.
They both walked until they were exhausted, but Noah is still having a little trouble settling in for the night. The excitement and sugar rush (small though it is, mind you) are taking their toll, I guess.
The camera batteries died, so it'll be at least tomorrow before I can have any pictures up, but I promise to do so before the weekend.
ハロウィーン。ノアはバットマン、ミナミは蜜蜂。すごい可愛かった。
まぁ、いっぱいもらったんだね、チョコやらアメやらなにやら。
2人ともけっこう歩いたせいで、帰ってきたらぐったりでした。とはいえ、ノアはやはり落ち着くまでちょっと時間かかったけど。
写真は、カメラの電池を充電したらアルバムにアップします。
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Halloween in Glenside
Sunday was the neighborhood association Halloween party, complete with lots of sugar and a hayride. Mom and Emily came up from Lancaster, and we all enjoyed the party a great deal. Noah and Minami were adorable (pictures to come this week, I promise) and really enjoyed the whole experience. I was a little surprised that they were content to march in the costume parade, but I guess I shouldn't have been.
It was great to spend time with Emily, who we don't see a lot of even when we're in Lancaster.
And speaking of which, we'll be headed to LanCo to see Mom's new place next weekend. Looking forward to that a great deal. Mom seems very happy with the house, and it'll be great for the kids to have their own place in Lancaster so we don't have to be telling them, "Don't touch that!" and "Careful!" every ten seconds. It should make the whole experience much more pleasant for everyone, but especially for Noah and Tomomi.
Now that Tomomi has her permit, she's been practicing driving whenever we go somewhere. After an initial day or two of getting used to driving on the right side of the road, things are looking up. Granted, she's not ready for a cross-country trip, but since her international license should arrive today she'll soon be able to take Noah to and from school. This will make life a lot easier for everyone: I won't have to be tied to Noah's school schedule, Noah will get into a routine at daycare, and Tomomi will have a great deal more independence. Next we'll see about getting Minami in—not optimistic since they really only do 2+ days a week, but maybe they'll make an exception.
So, all in all things are looking up.
That said, we'll probably be marooned in Glenside for the remainder of the school year. Originally, Tomomi was planning to go to Japan in December or January, and I was going to find an apartment in University City during that time. But now she's really looking to go in April or May, so it'll be too hard to move around and unsettle the kids in January then again in spring. I'm not happy about that because of the continued long commute, but it really is the best choice for everyone else, so I'm going to bite the bullet and try to make the best of it.
Well, I have to go print out my paper on the role of the gods in the Tale of the Heike, aptly (I think) entitled, The Gods Must be Crazy."
I love academia...
It was great to spend time with Emily, who we don't see a lot of even when we're in Lancaster.
And speaking of which, we'll be headed to LanCo to see Mom's new place next weekend. Looking forward to that a great deal. Mom seems very happy with the house, and it'll be great for the kids to have their own place in Lancaster so we don't have to be telling them, "Don't touch that!" and "Careful!" every ten seconds. It should make the whole experience much more pleasant for everyone, but especially for Noah and Tomomi.
Now that Tomomi has her permit, she's been practicing driving whenever we go somewhere. After an initial day or two of getting used to driving on the right side of the road, things are looking up. Granted, she's not ready for a cross-country trip, but since her international license should arrive today she'll soon be able to take Noah to and from school. This will make life a lot easier for everyone: I won't have to be tied to Noah's school schedule, Noah will get into a routine at daycare, and Tomomi will have a great deal more independence. Next we'll see about getting Minami in—not optimistic since they really only do 2+ days a week, but maybe they'll make an exception.
So, all in all things are looking up.
That said, we'll probably be marooned in Glenside for the remainder of the school year. Originally, Tomomi was planning to go to Japan in December or January, and I was going to find an apartment in University City during that time. But now she's really looking to go in April or May, so it'll be too hard to move around and unsettle the kids in January then again in spring. I'm not happy about that because of the continued long commute, but it really is the best choice for everyone else, so I'm going to bite the bullet and try to make the best of it.
Well, I have to go print out my paper on the role of the gods in the Tale of the Heike, aptly (I think) entitled, The Gods Must be Crazy."
I love academia...
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Marginal canons (again...)
Brainstorming alert! I don't know why I haven't thought to place this caveat in any of my previous rambling posts, but maybe it's because I feel particularly unsure of what I'm driving at here. In any case, this is just a lot of spewage trying to make itself into a paper topic for cultural studies, so be forewarned.
-----
The Japanese radio program "Life" is creating a canon of books for the "cultural" intellectual. I'm getting interested in examining the audience-participative process of canonizing post-War Japanese cultural studies and related social sciences in which the program engages. As an unsponsored show, their main funding appears to come from the Amazon.com advertisements on the site and the book fairs they hold at some of Tokyo's "most storied/prestigious" bookstores (their words, not mine, though it was this desperation for legitimacy that was my eureka moment). More than just a way to pay the bills, creating a textual canon is a process of self-legitimization for 30s-50s (post-War) intellectuals who understand themselves as marginal and somehow adrift in a hard science and technology-driven world that devalues their insights and intellectual pursuits.
I see a potential (or is it inherent?) conflict in this canonization process. Defining a normative canon of texts and knowledge is an authority-forming activity that runs against their professed marginality. Do they seek to remain marginal even with a canon? Or is this a way of legitimizing themselves out of marginality? I guess I'm wondering if a "marginal canon" possible? And if so, what is the point? How does having a canon affect the mainstream?
And what of the audience participating in this project? They are involved in the virtual space of the show by reading the same texts as these on-air heroes, listening to the same music (that's another big part of the show), emailing and being read in the radio debates, listening not just to the live show but also the podcast, and catching the streaming online video. The multiple layers of and opportunities for cyber-intimacy and virtual community are no doubt the result of both conscious and unconscious decisions by the show's staff.
Life is hosted by Suzuki Kensuke, a 31-yo social scientist and former hikikomori. (Explanations of varying value here, here, and here.) Just this makes him a marginal figure, but liminality and marginality are all about power. The further from the center, the greater the leverage per unit.
"Charlie," as he is known on the show, is the "disciple" of Japanese social scientist Miyadai Shinji. More on him later. Anyway, Suzuki's use of "disciple" as opposed to "student" (which he was) to describe his position in relation to Miyadai suggests a return to more traditional master-disciple values—another strategy of legitimation?
The show invites us to view it from the inside out. A good example is the producer, Mr. Hasegawa. Though he is referred to as the kuromaku, he is eminently visible in many ways. Kuromaku was originally a theater term literally meaning "black curtain" but referring to the on-stage performers' assistants and stagehands who wear all black and hide their faces behind a black cloth mask. Though plainly visible on stage, we are to ignore/un-view them so long as their faces are covered. The term has been extended to mean someone pulling the strings from behind the scenes, and it is in this sense that Life describes its producer as such. The paradox here is how visible he is: there is no black curtain anywhere. Often, the whole show (podcasts only—clarification later)is just Hasegawa and Charlie talking about upcoming broadcasts and events. He is often called on during the show, and is never masked.
Streaming video is another good example because we really get to see the sausage being made. Audience emails are another strategy allowing us into the fold and allowing us to influence the content of the show. Though not on equal footing, we are participating in a more meaningful way than Youtube comments—perhaps more analogous to the videos themselves...?
In any case, my point is that creating a sense of physical (visual) connection to the space of the show is an important community-building strategy.
More later. If you (I?) can take it.
-----
The Japanese radio program "Life" is creating a canon of books for the "cultural" intellectual. I'm getting interested in examining the audience-participative process of canonizing post-War Japanese cultural studies and related social sciences in which the program engages. As an unsponsored show, their main funding appears to come from the Amazon.com advertisements on the site and the book fairs they hold at some of Tokyo's "most storied/prestigious" bookstores (their words, not mine, though it was this desperation for legitimacy that was my eureka moment). More than just a way to pay the bills, creating a textual canon is a process of self-legitimization for 30s-50s (post-War) intellectuals who understand themselves as marginal and somehow adrift in a hard science and technology-driven world that devalues their insights and intellectual pursuits.
I see a potential (or is it inherent?) conflict in this canonization process. Defining a normative canon of texts and knowledge is an authority-forming activity that runs against their professed marginality. Do they seek to remain marginal even with a canon? Or is this a way of legitimizing themselves out of marginality? I guess I'm wondering if a "marginal canon" possible? And if so, what is the point? How does having a canon affect the mainstream?
And what of the audience participating in this project? They are involved in the virtual space of the show by reading the same texts as these on-air heroes, listening to the same music (that's another big part of the show), emailing and being read in the radio debates, listening not just to the live show but also the podcast, and catching the streaming online video. The multiple layers of and opportunities for cyber-intimacy and virtual community are no doubt the result of both conscious and unconscious decisions by the show's staff.
Life is hosted by Suzuki Kensuke, a 31-yo social scientist and former hikikomori. (Explanations of varying value here, here, and here.) Just this makes him a marginal figure, but liminality and marginality are all about power. The further from the center, the greater the leverage per unit.
"Charlie," as he is known on the show, is the "disciple" of Japanese social scientist Miyadai Shinji. More on him later. Anyway, Suzuki's use of "disciple" as opposed to "student" (which he was) to describe his position in relation to Miyadai suggests a return to more traditional master-disciple values—another strategy of legitimation?
The show invites us to view it from the inside out. A good example is the producer, Mr. Hasegawa. Though he is referred to as the kuromaku, he is eminently visible in many ways. Kuromaku was originally a theater term literally meaning "black curtain" but referring to the on-stage performers' assistants and stagehands who wear all black and hide their faces behind a black cloth mask. Though plainly visible on stage, we are to ignore/un-view them so long as their faces are covered. The term has been extended to mean someone pulling the strings from behind the scenes, and it is in this sense that Life describes its producer as such. The paradox here is how visible he is: there is no black curtain anywhere. Often, the whole show (podcasts only—clarification later)is just Hasegawa and Charlie talking about upcoming broadcasts and events. He is often called on during the show, and is never masked.
Streaming video is another good example because we really get to see the sausage being made. Audience emails are another strategy allowing us into the fold and allowing us to influence the content of the show. Though not on equal footing, we are participating in a more meaningful way than Youtube comments—perhaps more analogous to the videos themselves...?
In any case, my point is that creating a sense of physical (visual) connection to the space of the show is an important community-building strategy.
More later. If you (I?) can take it.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Maringal canons
Having your own canon is a sign of legitimacy, I suppose. How much more so for the marginalized?
Canonization is often the process of appropriating marginal and liminal power loci, objects, and texts. But if you're marginal, what can you do to create your own canon? And can you be said to be marginal if you have a canon? Do you become a micro-mass, or a subculture? If, as Hebdige argues, style can be a defining metaphor and tool for subculture, how much more so a canon of texts?
And what about the processes chosen to create the canon itself? I'm thinking about participatory, communal "Web 2.0" canonization and what it means. I'll have to come back to this when I'm lucid, which I'm clearly not now...
Canonization is often the process of appropriating marginal and liminal power loci, objects, and texts. But if you're marginal, what can you do to create your own canon? And can you be said to be marginal if you have a canon? Do you become a micro-mass, or a subculture? If, as Hebdige argues, style can be a defining metaphor and tool for subculture, how much more so a canon of texts?
And what about the processes chosen to create the canon itself? I'm thinking about participatory, communal "Web 2.0" canonization and what it means. I'll have to come back to this when I'm lucid, which I'm clearly not now...
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