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Wrong About Japan [Signed 1st Australian Ed] A Father Journey with His Son Peter Carey 9781740513258 Books

Download As PDF : Wrong About Japan [Signed 1st Australian Ed] A Father Journey with His Son Peter Carey 9781740513258 Books

Wrong About Japan [Signed 1st Australian Ed] A Father Journey with His Son Peter Carey 9781740513258 Books

I love Shogun and books about ancient Japan. I have never read manga, but was intrigued by the idea of a father and son visit because I want to go myself. The author gives such good details and uses self-deprecating humor to allow us to know what it feels like to be a foreigner in a land where social rules are so different, even in modern times, to westerners. I related to raising a child in the digital age when I almost hate my smart phone.

I didn't like some of the repetitive information and the author at times was a little harsh about the supposed superiority of the Japanese. However, the interview with a man who talked about living through the bombing during WWII was of great value and I will never forget it.

This is a fun, quick read with precious nuggets throughout.


Tags : Wrong About Japan [Signed 1st Australian Ed.] A Father's Journey with His Son [Peter Carey] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. For Peter Carey, a trip to Japan with his twelve-year-old son Charley would be a unique opportunity to share and learn something about his son's passion for Japanese comics and animated film,Peter Carey,Wrong About Japan [Signed 1st Australian Ed.] A Father's Journey with His Son,Random House - Australia,1740513258

Wrong About Japan [Signed 1st Australian Ed] A Father Journey with His Son Peter Carey 9781740513258 Books Reviews

a brief memoir by a novelist. a vacation in more than one sense of the word. a vacation in the sense that carey and his son travel to a foreign country, and a vacation from novel writing—here irony enters in the guise of the tools which make carey a novelist of note, observation and writing style, as they are put to use in writing the factual Wrong About Japan. and along with observation and writing style, if carey's remarks about a person within his memoir actually being a fictional character made-up by the author, well, keep in mind the writers who mixed fiction with non-fiction. carey seemed to want to know if his powers were up to the task of creating a character different from his experience. rather than letting the reader in on what he was doing from the start, he waited until the early reviews were in to see if the character passed the readers' test of believability.

keeping in mind that it was gertrude stein who, while in france, said that there is no there there in reference to a city in california. that her comment fits the western writer’s conception of japan in a way so varied no two writers come back from a visit to japan with the same impression was not lost on roland barthes. roland barthes returned from his trip to japan to put together a book of photos from his trip, his tourist experiences, and historical and geographical facts described as a lecture on signs, images and objects.

like barthes’ Empire of Signs, carey’s book is illustrated. but for inspiration, carey follows the lead of his twelve year old son, his interest, the imaginary world manga, japanese comic books.

being a novelist of note has its perks. once father and son are into their journey among the hi-tech mish mash of eclectic, electronic tokyo, carey’s connections link them to the creators of manga, the famous and the historical legends, while young carey hooks up with a japanese fan his own age, making for a trip of impressions from the youth cultural viewpoint of an adolescent and a glimpse into the world of professionals, the working adults, often boring to the young, and for a book both young and older readers can enjoy.
I thought the concept was interesting and many of Mr. Carey's impressions were good but lacked any depth. Way too short to bring in any real analysis of anime, manga or Japan. He says he is searching for "real Japan" but everything in Japan is "real Japan." Not just temples, samauri swords and rock gardens but otaku, anime, Mister Doughnut and KFC are all a part of "real Japan." You can't separate real from affectation. He also spends an inordinate amount of time debating the meaning of otaku. Simply it is nerd or geek, no other meaning needed. Now if he wanted to be more fashionable he should have brought up the term "moe" which is a new word being used to describe anime lovers who want to indulge their fantasies about certain characters. All in all, I thought it was just a sort of bragging about all the cool Japanese directors and manga artists he could meet because of his status as an author. And also a way to get his son some celebrity exposure. If you are interested in Japan, read it.
Many of the book's reviewers seem almost hyperbolically disappointed in what Carey accomplishes in "Wrong About Japan." They accuse him of superficiality in his approach to manga and anime. Pow! They accuse him of being unable to see past his own cultural assumptions. Bam! However, the book isn't primarily about any of that. It's about perception and mis-perception, about the divide between a father who loves books (and high culture) and a son who loves manga (and pop culture). It's about the mysteries of taste and how it's formed. It's about the difficulties almost everyone in the book, Japanese and non-Japanese, has in understanding what someone else is trying to express, whether the barrier is language or ideas or culture. In Carey's book, manga represents this distance between two people about what is worth knowing about and what is not. The subject could as easily be music or some other art where there's little communication between high and pop culture. By its conclusion, Carey understands his son's interests better (although he doesn't come to really share them) and his son reluctantly absorbs something of what his father is trying to tell him. This fragile little island of shared appreciation is what the book's all about.
This is a very enjoyable book. It affords a good look at Japanese culture and anime and manga.
I love Shogun and books about ancient Japan. I have never read manga, but was intrigued by the idea of a father and son visit because I want to go myself. The author gives such good details and uses self-deprecating humor to allow us to know what it feels like to be a foreigner in a land where social rules are so different, even in modern times, to westerners. I related to raising a child in the digital age when I almost hate my smart phone.

I didn't like some of the repetitive information and the author at times was a little harsh about the supposed superiority of the Japanese. However, the interview with a man who talked about living through the bombing during WWII was of great value and I will never forget it.

This is a fun, quick read with precious nuggets throughout.