Beauty and discipline
08/30/2006 @ 9:00 pm
Salon.com are producing a series of ‘literary guides to’ and the latest is Japan, by Kyoko Mori. It’s all to do with a national “obsession with beauty and discipline”, apparently. Curiously she focuses on Kazuo Ishiguro for this trait, though she does at least acknowledge his English upbringing.
Yes, for somebody who produced Remains of the Day and who has commented extensively on his experience’s in England..(plus a clipped brit. accent)…it seems curious that she even bothers to include him.
My wife had never even heard of him until I showed her a copy of A Pale View of Hills.
His wife is also a Scot…(whatever that means.)
August 31st, 2006 at 7:34 amKazuo Ishiguro is about as Japanese as Charlie Chaplin was “British.” Less so, actually:
Kazuo Ishiguro (カズオ・イシグロ Kazuo Ishiguro, originally 石黒一雄 Ishiguro Kazuo, born November 8, 1954) is a British author of Japanese origin. He was born in Nagasaki, Japan, and his family moved to England in 1960. Ishiguro obtained his Bachelor’s degree from University of Kent in 1978 and his Master’s from the University of East Anglia in 1980. He now lives in London with his wife and daughter. (from Wikipedia:
August 31st, 2006 at 10:34 amhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazuo_Ishiguro)
World Guide to Japanese Literature
Maybe I’m asking too much of Salon.com, but I hoped for something more in their literary guide to Japan. I shouldn’t have been surprised, really, to find the entire article consisting of cliches:
“Fr…
September 1st, 2006 at 1:51 am