Reading {J}ournal—on Japanese Short Stories—2: Reflect

An autoethnographic look into my previous experience with Japanese literature–Kitchen, Socrates in Love, Norwegian Wood

Warning: Some spoilers ahead (Kitchen—Banana Yoshimoto, Norwegian Wood—Haruki Murakami, Socrates in Love—Kyoichi Katayama)

Analyticality

In my most recent post, I went down a nostalgic memory lane of experiences with Japanese literature, setting up a background for my upcoming Digital Artefact* on Japanese short stories and the culture’s reflection between the lines—the stories are like age rings of a tree, looking at which one can observe the subtle changes in history and culture, especially among the commoners. Now that I have had some time to distance myself from my writing, it is only apt that I practise looking at that narrative with some objectivity, dissecting the emotional with more logic to bring out an autoethnographic aspect. Continue reading “Reading {J}ournal—on Japanese Short Stories—2: Reflect”

Delicately Blunt—on Laura Bates & the Everyday Sexism Project

On a project, a movement, a collection of blunt stories delicately handled.

entry_everdaysexism
A recent entry on the website

Of the 60,000 stories contributed by visitors worldwide on the Everyday Sexism website (Kellaway 2014), such raw, uneasy stories occupy a significant portion. Blunt as they sound, they are handled delicately by the team behind the project. Founded in 2012 by Laura Bates—a British feminist writer frustrated with blatant harassment—it aims to counter societal denial towards existing sexism (Everyday Sexism Project n.d.) through an ever-growing collection of stories, small and large. Visitors are greeted by a textbox asking them to recount any sexist incidents in their daily lives, and they can do so anonymously. Currently, the website comes in 25 country-versions and roughly 20 languages, including Russian, Chinese, Portuguese, and many more. Continue reading “Delicately Blunt—on Laura Bates & the Everyday Sexism Project”

On ‘Gojira’ (Godzilla) 1954—A Natural Embodiment of a Man-Made Disaster

My takeaways from the 1954 iconic Japanese sci-fi Kaiju film Gojira (Godzilla)

“To say that this Oriental monster is fantastic is to state but half the case. Godzilla, produced in a Japanese studio, is an incredibly awful film … the whole thing is in the cheap cinematic-horror stuff … ” (Crowther 1956).

Continue reading “On ‘Gojira’ (Godzilla) 1954—A Natural Embodiment of a Man-Made Disaster”

#BCM325 Live-Tweeting a.k.a. the (Joyful) Trials and Tribulations of Multitasking

A reflection on my live-tweeting of our weekly BCM325 screenings. Warning: Spoilers.

*Spoilers ahead; you might not want to read this post if you have yet to watch one of the following films: Ghost in the Shell (1995), WestWorld (1973), The Matrix (1999), Be Right Back (Black Mirror S2E1, 2013), Robot & Frank (2012), Hated in the Nation (Black Mirror S3E6, 2016).

This session, I have sailed (waddled, more like) into uncharted waters, thanks to BCM325’s live-Tweeting requirement. Throughout the first eight weeks of this subject, Future Cultures, eight films were screened and analysed/commented on in real time by us students. Continue reading “#BCM325 Live-Tweeting a.k.a. the (Joyful) Trials and Tribulations of Multitasking”