New Books

Peter Grilli grilli
Wed Jul 25 15:58:32 EDT 2007


Markus,

Many thanks for your useful pointers on interesting new books -- something
that is always hard to keep up with unless you're right on the spot or
unless you're an institutional librarian constantly receiving catalogs and
postings from publishers and distributors.

The Kinema to Bungakushi sounds particularly interesting.  Virtually every
Japanese intellectual who grew up in the 20th century talks about how
important movies were to his or her education -- "education" in the broadest
sense -- and I'll be interested to see what many such people wrote in this
collection of essays.

I'm not so surprised as you are about the fascination with subtitling.
People in Japan sometimes seem obsessed with how different their language is
from all others -- and what better window could there be on the subjects of
comparative linguistics and comparative cultures than movie subtitling?

Peter

  -----Original Message-----
  From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu]On Behalf Of Mark Nornes
  Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 3:16 PM
  To: KineJapan
  Subject: New Books


  Just in Japan, a few books caught my eye and made my bags that much
heavier. I thought I'd note them for the list (sort of hoping those in Japan
would post messages like this for those of us far from the bookstores).


  Bunka to Toso: Toho Sogi 1946-1948 (Tokyo: Shinyosha, 2007) is written by
Inoue Masao. The author is an economist at Rikkyo and has previously written
about labor history. His first foray into film is something else---500 pages
of close history concerning the three waves of the strike, drawing on a
treasure trove of primary materials. Aside from the unusually careful use of
primary materials, one thing that sets this book far, far apart is that he
tells you where you yourself might find these materials in the 100, count
'em, 100 pages of small-type footnotes. ISBN: 978-4-7885-1037-1


  Kinema no Bungakushi (Tokyo: Shin'yasoshosha, 2006), edited by Saito
Shinji, is a nice collection of essays on film by all the famous, and many
not-so-famous, literary figures. There must be a hundred short pieces, from
1908 to 2000. I've been jumping around the text and so far, the book offers
many pleasures.


  Two more books on subtitling, which always amazes me. One is a bunko-ban
and fairly interesting: Ota Naoko's Jimakuya wa Ginmaku no Katasumi de
Nihongo ga Hen Da to Sakebu (Kobunsha, 2007). The other is the latest from
Toda Natsuko, Screen no Mukogawa. I realize I may be the only person on the
list interested in these two, but I mention them simply out of amazement. A
woodworker could count the number of subtitling books in English on one
hand. In Japan they keep coming. And the Toda book, a slight effort if there
ever was one, is a hardback on beautiful paper and with full color
throughout!


  Finally, I bought the Otona no Kagaku Magazine book on paper projectors,
which was thick but thankfully light. I highly recommend this to anyone with
jet lag problems. Upon return to the states, my son and I spent hours
putting the intricate projector together to avoid falling asleep
early....and when we finally got it together, the movies promptly put us to
sleep. My 7 year old opted for the Yamamura animation rather than Aoyama's
piece. I look forward to watching the other short films included, but you've
got to extract each and every sprocket hole. Whoever thought of that either
wasn't thinking, has a real mean streak, or is simply anal and enjoys that
kind of thing.


  Oh, and the Roppa catalog from Waseda's exhibition is wonderful. You can
pick it up at the Banpaku when you see the exhibit itself, which is well
worth it. The exhibition has been extended to 8/5, so time is running out.


  Markus








  A. M. Nornes
  Professor
  Department of Asian Languages and Cultures
  Department of Screen Arts and Cultures
  University of Michigan



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