First, it must be said that I’ve met far fewer people who find living here annoying than I found in, for example, Spain. What I am wondering about instead how books that start off quite interesting and coherent but then just turn into an unconnected list of true and made up negatives about Japan like “Dogs and Demons” and “Shutting Out the Sun” get made:
After much pondering and some amateur psychoanalysis of the authors of these two books, I have decided that they are both subconsciously thinking “How can the country work/how can most people be happy when Japan goes against everything I believe in?”
Btw, despite its random nature and numerous self-contradictions, I found the polemic that is Dogs and Demons very readable. Shutting Out the Sun, however, is by far the worst of the hundred or so books connected to Japan I have read
Michael said,
May 26, 2009 at 11:57 am
I have a lot of respect for Dogs and Demons and find it makes sense to me, seems to have many real examples and well footnoted. I respect the way Mr. Kerr debates Debito on Debito’s blog. I also respect that Debito footnotes everything and posts comments about him both positive and negative. That doesn’t mean that I agree with Debito’s career choice as activist but am sometimes thankful for some of the work he has done so we know what to do if we get arrested in Japan, etc.