History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Black Rain: A Novel (Japan's Modern Writers)

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When subtlety means reservation and what people had for dinner
The Rest of the Story
Relentless
A masterpiece of all times
A Must Read

Black Rain: A Novel (Japan's Modern Writers)
Masuji Ibuse
Manufacturer: Kodansha International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 087011364X

Book Description

|Black Rain is centered around the story of a young woman who was caught in the radioactive "black rain" that fell after the bombing of Hiroshima. lbuse bases his tale on real-life diaries and interviews with victims of the holocaust; the result is a book that is free from sentimentality yet
manages to reveal the magnitude of the human suffering caused by the atom bomb. The life of Yasuko, on whom the black rain fell, is changed forever by periodic bouts of radiation sickness and the suspicion that her future children, too, may be affected.

lbuse tempers the horror of his subject with the gentle humor for which he is famous. His sensitivity to the complex web of emotions in a traditional community torn asunder by this historical event has made Black Rain one of the most acclaimed treatments of the Hiroshima story.

Customer Reviews:

When subtlety means reservation and what people had for dinner.......2007-07-25

The beauty in this kinds of books comes from the unfathomable suffering of very normal people, but the traditional Japanese culture is just so shy and reserved about itself that it's hard to see any normal people behind it. Sure, this goes as a cultural study and there's a lot of subtlety involved too, but for me it didn't present anything new about traditional Japan or made me appreciate the way of life in any more than I did before it. The way of experiencing an atomic bombing is very universal after all. The real, interesting culture lays in social relationships, not in terror.

I know I should rate it higher because of the horrors of war and how it's totally offensive not to appreciate a book like this, but... The whole genre is a bit too sacred in my opinion. People always give books like this five stars yet they read something completely different most of the time. These aren't their actual favorites. They just feel like they should be appreciated, must be appreciated, so they have to rate them highly.

But my two stars is directed for the reading experience, this is not a review of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Rest of the Story.......2007-07-24

Having read The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes some years ago, I found my self wishing I had known about "Black Rain" at that time. "Black Rain" would have been the ideal book to read immediately after finishing Rhodes' book.

Although this is historical fiction and not a strictly historical account, the impact of this book clearly comes from Mr. Ibuse's primary research and interviewing of bomb survivors. The image that I will never forget was that of the toddler attempting to suckle from her dead mother; but other scenes in the book hold power as well.

Not only does "Black Rain" examine the impact of "Little Boy" on people of Hiroshima, but it also provides glimpses of the day-to-day hardships (such as starvation rations) and mistreatment that Japanese militarism brought its own civilians leading up to the bombing to the uncertainty that the survivors would have to carry with them for the rest of their lives regarding the long term health effects of their exposure.

At times, it reads as a very matter-of-fact account; but, at others, it provides a window on the thoughts, and emotions of the ordinary people of Hiroshima. Included are the feelings of resentments towards the Japanese Imperial Military (especially those that dared not be spoken during the war) to the understandable pondering of those effected by the bomb who wonder why it had to happen.

I can't say that there are not other books that would add to one's understanding of the history of this event, but The Making of the Atomic Bomb paired with "Black Rain" provide as clear an understanding as any two books could, at least for someone born over 20 years after the End of World War II.

Relentless.......2007-05-06

Masuji Ibuse's "Black Rain" is rightly considered a classic in Japanese literature, and perhaps "the" classic of literature about the atomic bombs dropped on Japan.

Shigematsu and his wife, Shigeko, arranged for a relative, Yasuko, to move to Hiroshima in order to avoid the draft for the war effort. Shigematsu worked for the government and could arrange things. After the bombing, persistent rumours about Yasuko suffering from radiation sickness made it impossible to find her a suitor for marriage. This problem prompted Shigematsu to write his own account of August the 6th, 1945, to show that Yasuko was exceptionally healthy. His logic was that he had been exposed to much more and his own life was relatively normal. He is a man of pride and dignity, as well as one with a keen sense of his own obligations to others around him.

Shigematsu's account is a catalogue of a plethora of horrors that people suffered during and immediately after the bombing. The injuries, the sights and Shigematsu's descriptions of them left this reader feeling less than pleasant. Shigematsu does not hold back on the details, nor does he attempt to overwell the reader with cheap shock tactics.

Shigematsu neither asks for nor expects the reader's sympathy. It is almost as if the bomb has to fit within his life and everyday routine. In the midst of the horror, for example, Shigematsu has business to attend to, and sees that he has done it to the extent possible. He comes across as a forthright and straight up person with a deep sense of trying to maintain some air of normality in the midst of terrible circumstances.

Ibuse based his novel on accounts written by survivors who were there and saw what happened. Ibuse neither justifies the bombing nor blames anyone for it, but focuses on the tragedy itself from a very human viewpoint. His relentless journey through the aftermath of the bomb is indeed a statement for life and dignity. Shigematsu and those around him somehow maintain a deep sense of value and dignity for human life and experience, which especially shine through in the days after the bombing itself.

This is not a pleasant book to read, but it is a great book and should be counted with the greats of literature from around the world. This book is a touching and penetrating journey into a Japanese family's experiences of the Hiroshima bombing. I absolutely recommend it to all.

A masterpiece of all times.......2007-05-01

Ibuse is one of the few masters of historical novels in the world. This is considered by many the summit of his career. Be as it may, having been written after many other historical works (by the time he wote this he had been 40 years at the metier), it is technically very well accomplished.

In this book, Ibuse controls very ably the flow of time and events, going back and forth betweena bitter present from which the disenchanted narrator sees the absurdity of the events which led to the atrocity of the bomb and the mad times where the facts took place. This construction does in fact add perspective and depth to the book. More important, it is performed flawlessly, so that the reader follows along with interest and doesn't loose track.

Lastly, the vividness and proximity with which it conveys an incredible extent of human suffering is just unbelievable. If only for this, this book is a must read for anyone interested in literature.

But of course, there is more to this book than just literature. It offers a cold and neutral stare on the madness of totalitarian goverments, on the stupidity of human beings when acting collectively and a subjective point of view on what probably is the worst war crime of all times. More people might have died at consecutive incendiary raids in different Japanes cities during the war, but the brutality of the tool used here is something to behold.

A Must Read.......2006-04-18

I waited six months to get my hands on a copy of this book, eager to read it because it is supposed to be one of the best in the genre. The anticipation made me a little hesitant when beginning it, putting it off for another few weeks because I had high hopes- hopes that were fulfilled.
Ibuse bases his story on interviews and diaries of survivors, using real many authentic incidents. But this is also the partially fictional tale of Yasuko and her family as they struggle with life and acceptance following the bombing of Hiroshima. Though not in the direct line of the bomb and suffering no noticeable injury or illness but having been caught in the `black rain' that fell after, Yasuko has to worry about the future of not only herself but any children that she may have. This is one of the reasons that though of marrying age she has as of yet succeeded in securing a husband and the cause for both her and her Uncle Shizuma to begin copying their diaries from the day of the bombing and the days following. The novel goes backwards and forwards in time, giving the reader a sense of what it is like for the people who lived through the atrocity, as well as horror that was the bombing itself and the aftermath.
It's all matter of fact, never shying away from the gory detail to appease the reader, never adding drama where it isn't needed but still manages to convey the suffering.
As an Australian reading this some fifty years plus after Hiroshima you could assume that it would be difficult to understand many of the emotions and customs that come up in the book (as I did with On The Beach, feeling as though the characters were cold and lacking certain emotions or attachments, but realizing that this was because of the generational gap), but Ibuse still managed to convey an image that crosses generations and cultures.
You become involved with Shizuma's and any other's plight, the predicament that Yasuko finds herself and the desperate fight for survival during wartime. You want it to turn out to the best for them, knowing full well the horror that is nuclear warfare. It's impossible not to see how indiscriminate it is and wonder why anyone would ever use such horrific force then, and especially now when we know how awful the truth is.
It is such a superb book that should be on anyone's must read list (and sent to every leader who has nuclear capabilities).

Translating Mount Fuji: Modern Japanese Fiction and the Ethics of Identity

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Lost in Mount Fuji's Translation

Translating Mount Fuji: Modern Japanese Fiction and the Ethics of Identity
Dennis Washburn
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 023113892X

Book Description

Dennis Washburn traces the changing character of Japanese national identity in the works of six major authors: Ueda Akinari, Natsume S?seki, Mori ?gai, Yokomitsu Riichi, ?oka Shohei, and Mishima Yukio. By focusing on certain interconnected themes, Washburn illuminates the contradictory desires of a nation trapped between emulating the West and preserving the traditions of Asia.

Washburn begins with Ueda's Ugetsu monogatari ( Tales of Moonlight and Rain) and its preoccupation with the distant past, a sense of loss, and the connection between values and identity. He then considers the use of narrative realism and the metaphor of translation in Soseki's Sanshiro; the relationship between ideology and selfhood in Ogai's Seinen; Yokomitsu Riichi's attempt to synthesize the national and the cosmopolitan; Ooka Shohei's post-World War II representations of the ethical and spiritual crises confronting his age; and Mishima's innovative play with the aesthetics of the inauthentic and the artistry of kitsch.

Washburn's brilliant analysis teases out common themes concerning the illustration of moral and aesthetic values, the crucial role of autonomy and authenticity in defining notions of culture, the impact of cultural translation on ideas of nation and subjectivity, the ethics of identity, and the hybrid quality of modern Japanese society. He pinpoints the persistent anxiety that influenced these authors' writings, a struggle to translate rhetorical forms of Western literature while preserving elements of the pre-Meiji tradition.

A unique combination of intellectual history and critical literary analysis, Translating Mount Fuji recounts the evolution of a conflict that inspired remarkable literary experimentation and achievement.

Customer Reviews:

Lost in Mount Fuji's Translation.......2007-03-15

Whew. You might feel like you've actually climbed Mount Fuji after reading this book. It is an extremely dense exercise in literary criticism, written by Dennis Washburn primarily (or so it seems) for the appreciation, edification, and enjoyment of his peers, i.e. other professors of Japanese literature. Very little about this book is user-friendly, and it probably takes itself a little too seriously. And whole paragraphs are loaded down with rather turgid abstractions about identity, ideology, authenticity, modernity, and other boogaboos that keep folks in academia awake at night.

Still, for all that, there's much that's of interest in these chapters. I'm a bit biased, of course, for Washburn discusses some of my favorite authors (Ueda Akinari and Natsume Soseki) as well as ones I follow regularly (Mori Ogai and Yokomitsu Riichi), along with one I'm not so familiar with (Ooka Shohei) and one I generally love to hate (Mishima Yukio). He even gets a word in edgewise about Murakami Haruki in the epilogue, which is all fine and well, if a bit rushed and sudden--like he's changing the subject rather than bringing the book to a satisfying conclusion. The parts in each chapter where Washburn analyzes the specific novels of these particular writers in detail are more or less full of intriguing and convincing analysis--these were the meaty bits, as far as I was concerned. As a whole, though, the book doesn't cohere quite so well, giving the sense of a bunch of good independent articles rather sloppily wielded together with vague invocations of common themes and issues tacked on after the fact--at least that was my impression, though I'll admit it's quite possible that I just didn't "get it" upon a single read-through. Often the intended referents in the abstract bits framing each chapter remained fuzzy and unclear to me, and the relation to the chapter's main focus tenuous or else abrupt though never, I must say, completely arbitrary. As a nitpick, too, it seems that any book that hopes to address issues of cultural identity and its political and ethical reverberations should probably include some mention of Kawabata Yasunari at least if not Tanizaki Jun'ichiro as well ("In Praise of Shadows" especially)--no book can include everything, of course, but these seem like glaring omissions for any adequate consideration of the subject at hand. But so it goes; perhaps they were too "obvious" to be included.

In any case, "Translating Mount Fuji" is alternately fascinating and frustrating if consistently heavy-going and just a tad overwrought, but overall it's well worth wading through if you are seriously studying modern Japanese literature.

Sirens of the Western Shore: Westernesque Women and Translation in Modern Japanese Literature

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Sirens of the Western Shore: Westernesque Women and Translation in Modern Japanese Literature
Indra Levy
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0231137869

Book Description

Indra Levy introduces a new archetype in the study of modern Japanese literature: the "Westernesque femme fatale," an alluring figure who is ethnically Japanese but evokes the West in her physical appearance, lifestyle, behavior, and, most important, her use of language. She played conspicuous roles in landmark works of modern Japanese fiction and theater.

Levy traces the lineage of the Westernesque femme fatale from her first appearance in the vernacularist fiction of the late 1880s to her development in Naturalist fiction of the mid-1900s and, finally, to her spectacular embodiment by the modern Japanese actress in the early 1910s with the advent of Naturalist theater. In all cases the Westernesque femme fatale both attracts and confounds the self-consciously modern male intellectual through a convention-defying use of language.

What does this sirenlike figure reveal about the central concerns of modern Japanese literature? Levy proposes that the Westernesque femme fatale be viewed as the hallmark of an intertextual exoticism that prizes the strange beauty of modern Western writing.

By illuminating the exoticist impulses that gave rise to this archetype, Levy offers a new understanding of the relationships between vernacular style and translation, original and imitation, and writing and performance within a cross-cultural context. A seamless blend of narrative, performance, translation, and gender studies, this work will have a profound impact on the critical discourse on this formative period of modern Japanese literature.

Long Ago In France: The Years In Dijon (Destinations)

Average customer rating:

Dijon du Jour
Enjoyable, tantalizing
Excellent Memoir and Writing, but not her best
One of the best from America's 1st literary foodie
A Reader's Feast

Long Ago In France: The Years In Dijon (Destinations)
M.F.K. Fisher
Manufacturer: Touchstone
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0671755145

Customer Reviews:

Dijon du Jour.......2006-06-30

With her usual wit and style, MFK Fisher brings the food and atmosphere of Dijon alive. It is a fun book, perfect as an introduction to a way of life that is both foreign and dated. The delights of the table set by an eccentric landlady and shared with a variety of characters from the building, are extravegant. Fisher also draws a picture of the town's restaurants, markets, and life.

A good read.

Enjoyable, tantalizing.......2006-01-04

This is an enjoyable, tantalizing book, with some dull spots in the earlier chapters. It is an account of Fisher's 3 years in Dijon, where she moved in 1929 so that her new husband could pursue a doctorate. She was 20 years old, bright, pretty, charming, in love, and most of all, enthusiastic. The reader gets caught up in all this, so as to overlook the book's serious drawback. Fisher can write very nicely, but you learn much more about her landladies than her husband. Fisher says of her sister Norah, "she TOO speaks always with reserve" (caps mine). The book is written as if you are already acquainted with Fisher, as no doubt many readers are, but for the rest I would recommend, before starting the book, that they look up M.F.K. Fisher in Google and thereby get to the site about Fisher sponsored by Les Dames d'Escoffier International.

Excellent Memoir and Writing, but not her best.......2005-01-25

`Long Ago in France' by premier American food writer M.F.K. Fisher was one of her last autobiographical memoirs of life in France. She may not have invented the `American in Europe' memoir exemplified by Peter Mayle's `My Year in Provence' and Frances Mayes `Under the Tuscan Sun', but she certainly helped define the genre with this work as well as `Map of Another Town', `A Considerable Town', and parts of many of her other autobiographical works such as `The Gastronomical Me'.

The events in this book, covering much of the first three years of Ms. Fisher's life with her first husband, Al Fisher, spent in a private boarding house in Dijon while hubby Fisher was completing his doctoral dissertation at the University in Dijon. The period of this book occupies a scant seven pages in `Poet of the Appetites', the biography of Ms. Fisher by Joan Reardon, yet the original book reveals practically nothing about the life of husband and wife Fisher. It certainly does not give any clue to why they ended up in Dijon, since their original intention was to study at the more prestigious university in Strasbourg.

This is the first complete work of M.F.K. Fisher's I have read and I feel just a little disappointment. The word pictures of living and eating in Dijon are certainly illuminating, but there is practically none of the humor you find in the books from Mayles and Mayes. There is also less of the scintillating writing I have sampled in some of her more famous pieces. By the author's own admission, much of this material is also a reworking of material from earlier published works as much as it is new stuff mined from her journals of this period.

The most obvious omission is a sense of the troubling times in which these events take place. The three years covered in the narrative are from 1929 through 1931, yet there is virtually no mention of the great depression as it affects Dijon, let alone how it affects the writer and her husband. Oddly, the same is true of Fisher's life as described by her biographer. Fisher's father was the editor, publisher, and owner of a small newspaper in California who did much to subsidize the student life of the young Fishers and of Mary Frances through several difficult years between marriages. Yet, there is practically no mention of this in the writings by and about Fisher.

This book is essential reading for anyone interested in Ms. Fisher's life and the influences on her writing, as she is easily, in the twentieth century American culinary world, the Wittgenstein to Julia Child's Einstein. That is the much lesser known theorist of culinary desire matched with the incomparable practitioner of culinary technique, both of whom got their inspiration from the food and cooking of France.

Yet, compared to similar works by probably less talented writers, this book is just a bit flat and dusty, befitting its recollections of events over sixty years before in the author's life. The stories of life are illuminating. The stories of people are a little empty, as all characters other than Mary Frances herself are long gone from the stage.

One of the best from America's 1st literary foodie.......2003-07-24

MFK Fisher holds a special place in the hearts of all `foodie' Americans. She was perhaps the 1st person to see the sense of writing food-based literary books and articles, and of course it's now a genre unto itself. But few have rivaled her beautiful prose, and I recall reading that she once said she considered it a day well-lived if she'd managed to compose one perfect sentence. To consider her just a food writer is to do her an injustice; she is a writer, first and foremost, who happens, sometimes, to write about food.
Long Ago in France is a memoir of her years in Dijon in the 30s, a book full of rich wine, rich ideas, character portraits filled with rich detail. It's about Life, a life filled with joy, experience, food, travel, and memorable people. This book is a paean to a lost era.
Highest recommendation.

A Reader's Feast.......2002-11-16

Between 1929 and 1932, young M.F.K. Fisher (later a famed chef and memoirist) and her husband Al Fisher lived and studied in Dijon, France. Here she discovered the people and the food of Burgundy, and she describes both with warmth, sensuality, and humor (without becoming overly sentimental: "It was there, I now understand, that I started to grow up, to study, to make love, to eat and drink, to be me and not what I was expected to be."

Her writing is crisp and evocative. "He took the apple slices from the bowl one by one, almost faster than we could see, and shook off the wine and laid them in a great, beautiful whorl, from the outside to the center, as perfect as a snail shell. We said not a word. The music trembled in the room." Fisher helps the reader discover the beauty of our appetites. She writes of an old soldier who offers her chocolate: "The chocolate broke at first like gravel into many separate, disagreeable bits...Then they grew soft, and melted voluptuously." Then a doctor offers her bread, admonishing, "Never eat chocolate without bread, young lady!" There is a delicious denouement: "...in two minutes my mouth was full of fresh bread, and melting chocolate, and as we sat gingerly, the three of us, on the frozen hill...we peered shyly and silently at each other and chewed at one of the most satisfying things I have ever eaten..."

Book Description

When Mishima committed ritual suicide in November 1970, he was only forty-five. He had written over thirty novels, eighteen plays, and twenty volumes of short stories. During his lifetime, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize three times and had seen almost all of his major novels appear in
English. While the flamboyance of his life and the apparent fanaticism of his death have dominated the public's perception of his achievement, Japanese and Western critics alike are in agreement that his literary gifts were prodigious.

Mishima is arguably at his best in the shorter forms, and it is the flower of these that appears here for the first time in English. Each story has its own distinctive atmosphere and each is brilliantly organized, yielding deeper layers of meaning with repeated readings. The psychological
observation, particularly in what it reveals of the turmoil of adolescence, is meticulous.

The style, with its skillful blending of colors and surfaces, shows Mishima in top form, and no further proof is needed to remind us that he was a consummate writer whose work is an irreplaceable part of world literature.

Customer Reviews:

A Mixed Collection of Writing.......2004-08-03

Contrary to what the translator claims in the introduction, based on this collection of short stories, Mishima Yukio's work as a novelist far exceeds in quality that of the short story writer. While some stories are quite good - "Acts of Worship," "Cigarette," and "Sword" come to mind - and demonstrate not only the thought but also the large amounts of research Mishima put into his writing, others only evince lukewarm sentiments or insights into the author's aesthetic tastes. While this in itself is certainly not enough to merit a "low rating," these same sentiments are more effectively conveyed in his novels.
Another complaint is that these stories are presented largely in an ahistorical way. That is, there is little reference to when Mishima wrote them, what he was experiencing at the time, and what the situation of Japan was like, socioeconomically. Understanding these concepts is crucial to understanding Mishima's motives and writing.

Bespeak the author's rigid mentality.......2002-11-15

Acts Of Worship: Seven Stories is an anthology of short stories by the internationally famous Japanese author Yukio Mishima, who is perhaps most notorious for his dramatic ritual suicide in 1970. Flawlessly translated into English by John Bester, the short stories include: Fountains in the Rain; Raisin Bread; Sword; Sea and Sunset; Cigarette; Martyrdom; and the title piece, Act of Worship, and bespeak the rigid mentality of one born and rigorously raised in the traditions of the samurai caste, long after the era of the samurai. Written with biting insight, sharp ruthlessness and a keen eye for just how much (or how little) human life is worth, Acts Of Worship documents Yukio Mishima as having been an undeniably strong and articulate voice in Japan's modern literary tradition.

Colorful........1998-06-11

This a great collection to get a sense of Mishima's imaginative spectrum of characters and themes. Death and the adolescent psyche are common themes.

Average customer rating:

Interesting but flawed
3 generations of Japanese women

The River Ki (Japan's Women Writers)
Sawako Ariyoshi
Manufacturer: Kodansha America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Japanese | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0870115146

Book Description

The River Ki, short and swift and broad like most Japanese rivers, flows into the sea not far south of Osaka. On its journey seaward, it passes through countryside that has long been at the heart of the Japanese tradition. And it flows too past the mountains and the villages, past the dams, ditches and rice fields that provide such a richly textured backdrop to this novel.

Powerful enough to sweep away people on its banks and placid enough to carry along with its flow a sumptuous wedding procession, the River Ki dominates the lives of the people who live in its fertile valley and imparts a vital strength to the three women, mother, daughter and granddaughter, around whom this novel is built. It provides them with the courage to cope, in their different ways, with the unprecedented changes that occurred in Japan between the last years of the last century and the middle of this century.

Sawako Ariyoshi, one of Japan's most successful modern novelists, describes this social and cultural revolution largely through the eyes of Hana, a woman with the vision and integrity to understand the inevitability of the death of the traditional order in Japan. Ariyoshi writes with a love for detail bound to a broader understanding of the importance of the geographical and biological forces that mold her characters--and the result is a story that flows with all the vitality of the River Ki itself

"... like The Doctors's Wife, examines with compassion the tensions and satisfactions of women in traditional Japan."--J. Thomas Rimer, A Reader's Guide to Japanese Literature.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting but flawed.......2005-05-30

'The River Ki' is an interesting look at Japanese culture before, during and in the immediate aftermath of World War II. Its portrait of that culture is extensive and informative, a true look for foreigners not familiar with the Japanese.

However, despite this strength, the actual plot itself is mediocre. A lot of the characters are not well thought out. The story tends to meander and jump around without a lot of explanation of how characters got from point A to point B. A good read, but not an excellent one.

3 generations of Japanese women.......1999-07-02

This is one of the best generational sagas about Japan that I have read. All three women in the book represent a time of change, yet all three are multi-dimensional and understandable characters. It is difficult to find quality Japanese liturature in English by women. This is worthy of the name "classic"

The Showa Anthology: Modern Japanese Short Stories 1929-1984 (Japan's Modern Writers)

Average customer rating:

An Excellent Anthology Spanning the Showa Years
a book to begin with
Highly recommended
Highly recommended

The Showa Anthology: Modern Japanese Short Stories 1929-1984 (Japan's Modern Writers)

Manufacturer: Kodansha International (JPN)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Anthologies | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

British | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Japanese | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 4770017081

Book Description

The Showa Anthology is the first comprehensive collection of Japanese short stories to appear in English translation in over eight years. These twenty-five stories, most of them newly translated, were composed during the six decades of the Showa period (from 1926 to 1989) by some of the finest Japanese writers of this century. The variety and scope of these works attest both to the tenacity of Japanese literary tradition and to the ability of the Japanese writer to absorb and adapt contemporary literary techniques. Most of all, they are vivid artistic responses to what may well be the most turbulent, challenging era in modern Japanese history.

The anthology includes stories by authors whose reputations are already well established in the West--Nobel laureate Kawabata Yasunari, Endo Shusaku, Oe Kenzaburo, Dazai Osamu, Inoue Yasushi, and Abe Kobo. In addition, many authors considered of the first rank in Japan are represented, often for the first time in English--Kajii Motojiro, Shono Junzo, Ishikawa Jun, and Shimao Toshio. Six stories by women writers provide a sampling of fiction by a group of authors who have become a major creative force in postwar literature.

These authors, much like the classical Japanese painter, are seldom at home producing vast, panoramic landscapes of life; rather they are masters at creating rich genre-style vignettes and brief flashes of inspiration. When these small, reverberating scenes are placed one beside another, the scroll that unfolds before the reader's eyes is a subtle and complex portrait of human experience.

In formal literary terms, the works range from the discursive autobiographical sketch to imaginative surrealism; from the gentle lyrical mode to the ultramodern intellectual discourse; from pastoral wistfulness to studies of war and its destructive force. Rendered into English by the leading translators and scholars from the younger generation of Japanologists, these stories will appeal to every literary taste. They clearly demonstrate that literature in Japan over the past half century has been a living, changing entity, responding to and commenting upon the vicissitudes of the society. The Japanese short story, as The Showa Anthology demonstrates, has survived wars and defeats and the advent of high-technology in the present age to evolve into a durable and universal form of literary expression.

Customer Reviews:

An Excellent Anthology Spanning the Showa Years.......2006-06-27

This is a really fine collection of short stories. The focus holding the collection together is of course the Showa Period (1926-1988), but this is such a tumultuous time in history that there is quite a bit of difference in feel between the first story (1929) and the last (1984). The writers are a real mixed bunch, too, so that one gets a pretty good sense of the wide range of literature during this time span. Some of them are little known in English and well deserve the attention they get here, while others are more renowned in translation, and for many of the latter the editors have chosen works uncharacteristic of them (a humorous story by Mishima of all people, for instance). This all being the case, "The Showa Anthology" is great both as an introduction to modern Japanese fiction for the newcomer and as essential reading for the old hand.

The short stories included are: "Kuchisuke's Valley" by Ibuse Masuji, "Mating" by Kajii Motojiro, "Les Joues en Feu" by Hori Tatsuo, "Magic Lantern" by Dazai Osamu, "Moon Gems" by Ishikawa Jun, "The Magic Chalk" by Abe Kobo, "Bad Company" by Yasuoka Shotaro, "Eggs" by Mishima Yukio, "Stars" by Kojima Nobuo, "Are the Trees Green?" by Yoshiyuki Junnosuke, "Still Life" by Shono Junzo, "With Maya" by Shimao Toshio, "The Monastery" by Kurahashi Yumiko, "Under the Shadow of Mount Bandai" by Inoue Yasushi, "Mulberry Child" by Minakami Tsutomu, "One Arm" by Kawabata Yasunari, "The Day Before" by Endo Shusaku, "Friends" by Abe Akira, "Ripples" by Shibaki Yoshiko, "The Pale Fox" by Oba Minako, "Iron Fish" by Kono Taeko, "Platonic Love" by Kanai Mieko, "The Crushed Pellet" by Kaiko Takeshi, "The Clever Rain Tree" by Oe Kenzaburo, "The Silent Traders" by Tsushima Yuko, and "The Immortal" by Nakagami Kenji.

a book to begin with.......2006-02-18

if you have any interest in Japnaese literature check this one out with greats like Kobo Abe and Mishiman there are other treasures in this great collection.

Highly recommended.......2001-07-04

I bought this book a few years ago and I loved it. I gave it to a friend and I miss it enough to buy another copy today.

One of the nice thing about this book is that it is an anthology of short stories. Some anthologies present the reader with cut-down version of the original texts which is always frustrating and this is not the case here. All short stories are of great quality written by prominent Japanese authors.

I also enjoyed the fact that there was an interesting introduction to the volume, as well as a short introduction to each author/contribution.

Last but not least, I enjoyed the fact that there is a large coverage of past-war Japanese authors who I generally prefer.

Highly recommended.......2001-07-04

I bought this book a few years ago and I loved it. I gave it to a friend and I miss it enough to buy another copy today.

I also enjoyed the fact that there was an interesting introduction to the volume, as well as a short introduction to each author/contribution.

Last but not least, I enjoyed the fact that there is a large coverage of past-war Japanese authors who I generally prefer.

I found that book to be most enjoyable reading as well as a great introduction to Japanese literature. Reading it truly helped me to expand my knowledge of Japanese literature. I read many more novels from authors whose contribution to the volume I liked.

Average customer rating:

Probably not for the general reader.

Props to Mishima, a philosopher who walked his talk

Please, people, PLEASE!

Mishima turns Mishima inside out

Fascinating insights into a mysterious character

Sun & Steel (Japan's Modern Writers)
Yukio Mishima
Manufacturer: Kodansha America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Japanese | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Mishima, Yukio | ( M ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Mishima: A Biography

Patriotism

The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima

Confessions of a Mask (New Directions Paperbook)

Spring Snow

ASIN: 0870114255

Book Description

In this fascinating document, one of Japan's best known--and controversial--writers created what might be termed a new literary form. It is new because it combines elements of many existing types of writing, yet in the end fits into none of them.

At one level, it may be read as an account of how a puny, bookish boy discovered the importance of his own physical being; the "sun and steel" of the title are themselves symbols respectively of the cult of the open air and the weights used in bodybuilding. At another level, it is a discussion by a major novelist of the relation between action and art, and his own highly polished art in particular. More personally, it is an account of one individual's search for identity and self-integration. Or again, the work could be seen as a demonstration of how an intensely individual preoccupation can be developed into a profound philosophy of life.

All these elements are woven together by Mishima's complex yet polished and supple style. The confession and the self-analysis , the philosophy and the poetry combine in the end to create something that is in itself perfect and self-sufficient. It is a piece of literature that is as carefully fashioned as Mishima's novels, and at the same time provides an indispensable key to the understanding of them as art.

The road Mishima took to salvation is a highly personal one. Yet here, ultimately, one detects the unmistakable tones of a self transcending the particular and attaining to a poetic vision of the universal. The book is therefore a moving document, and is highly significant as a pointer to the future development of one of the most interesting novelists of modern times.

Customer Reviews:

Probably not for the general reader........2006-07-09

Sun and Steel is a book-length essay which describes Mishima's effort to recover himself from the "corrosive" nature of words through developing his physical beauty and prowess. On the most superficial level it is about bodybuilding. On another level, it is about a man attempting to reclaim his identity later in life, and doing so with discipline and knowledge of the nature of time.

I am honestly not sure that this book is worth reading unless you are generally familiar with Mishima's biography and work. I would recommend that people interested in this book first read Confessions of a Mask and at least one of the novels.

The exception to this recommendation would be readers looking for specific work on bodybuilding in literature. As I side note, I found it interesting to note the similarities between what Kathy Acker and Mishima had to say on the subject. (Wouldn't Mishima have been horrified by the comparison?)

The essay seems written more quickly than other works in the Mishima canon. I had trouble engaging with it at times, and found it more interesting biographically than as a work in its own right.

The book is bound with an Epilogue called F104 and a poem called Icarus. The Best translation felt competent, although there were some noticable typographic errors which I hope were corrected in later editions of the book.

Props to Mishima, a philosopher who walked his talk.......2005-09-21

This book is a literary type that was once common in Japan, the self-obsessive partial memoir. But Mishima's style, tone, and content are absolutely unique.

He writes about the relation between world and word, body and mind or spirit. But to me, the most interesting aspect of this book, and Mishima's whole outlook is something that's often overlooked. It is this, he could not stand ugliness. He shrank from (his own perception of) ugliness as we would from a rabid rat. So then, how did he define beauty and ugliness? You may call it shallow but no matter, this book makes no apologies: beauty or ugliness lie in physical appearance, body and face.

To most of us there are many kinds of beauty, and maybe that multi-perception keeps us going - we see or imagine the beauty of inner virtue, selfless giving, artistic projection, humility or humor and so on. A wide expansive definition.

But there's room on your bookshelf for somebody who takes an uncompromising view: beauty is the beauty of your body and your appearance. While it can be crafted and guided by external method (who knows what Mishima would have thought of the cosmetic surgery craze now sweeping China), ultimately physical beauty to him is the only important projection of the soul.

The insanely monomaniacal American football coach Vince Lombardi once said "Winning isn't everything - it's the only thing". This book, despite all its meandering and subtle threads, is really saying just that, about beauty - it's the only thing. And Mishima, at mid-life, was losing all illusions about attaining or retaining any personal beauty.

Of course what sheds the interesting backlight on this book for most readers is Mishima's dramatic seppuku at Ichigaya Japan self-defense force headquarters. (Reminds me of the wit who stated, when informed of Sylvia Plath's suicide, "Good career move".) People read this book to try to unravel the mystery of it.

But in light of what I've said above, about beauty and Mishima's uniquely narrow definition of it, this book leaves no mystery to his action. Just as Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray slashed the ugliness accumulated on his horribly aging portrait, Mishima, lacking a magic painting, did just the same to his own body - sentenced it to death for the crimes of aging and ugliness.

It is entirely summed up by the following single line from 'Sun and Steel':

"I had already lost the morning face that belongs to youth alone."

Please, people, PLEASE!.......2005-01-27

So Mishima finds out through exercise that he's been wasting his time with the writing. He writes all about that. Attention liberal: this review is helpful.

Mishima turns Mishima inside out.......2005-01-15

This isn't Mishima's best work. Mostly because he is too close to the subject. At once a guide book on his beliefs and how he transformed himself from "bookish" into a physical specimen. But you can see his troubled focus shift from the internal Mishima to the external Mishima.

To me this is an explanation of something even Mishima doesnt understand. More of a catharsis of the self than a clearly defined work.

Many of the descriptions of Mishima's internal evaluations sound almost as if he was dealing with aspects of Borderline Personality Disorder. Which would make his style of death even more ironic and symbolic.

Don't get me wrong, this is true Mishima -- makes us think and examine ourselves even as he talks of himself.

Any work by Mishima is worth reading and adding to your collection. It took me years to find a copy, now it is available for everyone -- I wouldn't hesitate to buy or read.

-Mike

Fascinating insights into a mysterious character.......2001-05-09

Every author should write at least one of these books of personal reflection. This is not the only place you can get a glimpse of the inner workings of Mishima's mind ("Confessions of a Mask" and "Patriotism" are good examples).

Of course, this is assuming the book accurately reflects the author's views. If you have read Mishima biographies such as Stokes' "Life and Death of Yukio Mishima" you might agree that "Sun and Steel" is a true reflection of the author's feelings. Otherwise, you might not have a good frame of reference.

It's a good idea not to make this the first of Mishima's works that you read (the aforementioned biography and "Confessions of A Mask" are suitable prerequisites). However, it is an interesting work in its own right.

My main reason for not giving this book 5 stars is that I was longing for more depth into his character than could be provided in so short a work; but maybe that's just because of my fascination with the author's life.

Average customer rating:

Authors put you in the scenes while allowing you to imagine

The Mother of Dreams and Other Short Stories: Portrayals of Women in Modern Japanese Fiction (Japan's Modern Writers)

Manufacturer: Kodansha America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Anthologies | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
British | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories (Oxford Books of Prose)

Modern Japanese Stories: An Anthology (Classics of Japanese Literature)

The Elephant Vanishes: Stories

ASIN: 0870119265

Book Description

To Lafcadio Hearn at the turn of the century, Japan's most priceless objets d'art were not the delicate masterpieces of its fine arts but its women. Today, the women of Japan are viewed with a mixture of old stereotypes and new misconceptions. The Mother of Dreams is an anthology of modern Japanese fiction portraying Japanese women, arranged according to five categories: the maiden, the mistress, the wife, the mother, and the working woman.

These short stories span a period that has seen great changes in the status of Japanese women. There has also been a transformation in women s expectations of themselves and of the people around them. Such changes are manifest in the treatment of the protagonists in this anthology, some of whom adhere to traditional roles while others seek to find new functions and attitudes.

The young maidens in the three short pieces by Nobel laureate Kawabata Yasunari contrast sharply with the contemporary women, such as the ordinary housewife and budding actress portrayed by Mori Yoko. But just as significant as change is continuity. The mistress-turned-stripper-turned-prostitute of Nagai Kafu's immediate postwar world has much in common with Kaiko Takeshi's virgin-whore from the period of the Korean War. Such images are in turn challenged by the middle-aged geisha portrayed by Enchi Fumiko and the young mother who abandons her child in Setouchi Harumi's piece, women whose depth of emotion defies the stereotypes assigned to them by their class and their occupation.

Professor Ueda's anthology presents some of the finest work of Japan's major writers, both male and male, on a subject of truly universal significance. At a time when change and continuity pose problems as well as solutions in the search for identity and meaning in our lives, The Mother of Dreams provides thought-provoking and meaningful material for us all.

Customer Reviews:

Authors put you in the scenes while allowing you to imagine.......1998-06-29

Stories are beautifully written and give you a sense of Asian culture minus the stereotypes. The stories are often poetic. You are right there in the scenes, but authors are not so conscientious that they tell you everything. They sometimes write with a distant eye and allow you to use your imagination. Stories range from thirty-something married women being jelous of twenty-something married women to slick geisha girls. I am not Asian and enjoyed learning about the culture through the talented writers, who gave the stories a soul without having an agenda.

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