Globalization and the yankifying of the world...

Yesterday I went to a really interesting conference about Japanese author Haruki Murakami in translation. Now I have no sustainable interest in actually reading his work (especially after hearing the East Asian dept. professors bash him) but the phenomenon of his translation into languages other than English was truly fascinating. It seems that he authorizes an English version and then subsequent western translations are re-translated from there. The polemic was that he is of the most exportable literary commodities from Japan and in his role as emblem of Japanese culture it is highly offensive that his work has nothing whatsoever to do with Japanes culture but he is rather an American wannabe... now, I could be wrong, and I certainly didn't venture this thought in a room full of intellectuals, but isn't that status of wannabe just a little bit indicative of a whole Japanese sub-culture? I mean, the American kitsch seems to be a fascination of many young... I think what is most offensive to the old school is (I was informed) that his work was initially published in journals that had him pigeon-holed as high-art and that this status requires from him a certain dignity. They seem offended that he should want his work available for consumption with a sense of global simultaneity, fuck accuracy. I don't know. There are arguments for purity of language for sure, but the idea of accuracy or perfection of language in translation is really only as good as your translator, and even then, it is a totally different piece of work...

More thoughts on the rule of international morality... (ok, not yet) it is funny how basic human sentiment is not so far removed despite the barriers of mutually unintelligible languages. Daily I am astounded (and humbled) by the existence of people far more brilliant than I whose knowledge is unfathomable to me. For example, I came across an author whose original novels are written in Spanish, Catalan and Italian. Imagine that, to be able to create something as complex as a novel 1, and to be able to do so in multiple languages 2. Of course, some stories need to be born by virtue of the language that tells them. I suppose I am just in awe of people who can do things of which I can't even conceive. Then, of course I am in awe of people whose knowledge of computer language enables them to create hidden structures in their web pages, things that allow them to know who has visited them and from whence they come. I would be happy if I could just figure out basic things, but I am decidedly not an autodidactic sort of person. I thrive upon human interaction, and I am not the only one. In spite of the gubernators budget cuts and his devaluation of the state education system, I don't think that we will ever become an exclusively on-line learning society. After all what is the point of learning. No, it is not to get a better job which in turn will give us more money (and less leisure time to spend it), it is, in my humble opinion. to make us better, happier people. We learn to make connections with others, to understand the inner workings of our psyches, to decipher the great questions of our times. We learn because we can and because it feels good to encounter others that see the world in similar ways to our own, or in ways that we never imagined but that still strike a chord.

So, in some ways the transformation of literary (or other) art in terms of americanization is problematic and worrisome, I firmly believe that it is just an appropriation that will serve, perhaps to transform the very culture that it intends to immitate, just like a translation can enrich the language into which the original has been rendered new.

Of course it is much more complex than that, and I don't claim to have an answer, but sometimes we should all just take ourselves a little less seriously. Sometimes a man is just a man, and his choices and desires are his - they are not emblematic of some sinister complot, or impending doom. But then, there are people much more qualified to opine than I, who might find my analisis lacking.