April 5, 2010 I Am A Cat

Well, I have survived another April Fools day without so much trouble and Easter has passed unremarkable in the Country of the Rising Sun. For the last few months I have been lazily making my way through the book "I Am a Cat" by Natsume Souseki (the English version). Souseki is an amazing writer, but sometimes the book gets a little dry, or I can't seem to follow the purpose behind the main character's (who has no name!) digressions.

I am more fond of Kokoro, which is shorter, and really keeps the reader guessing as they go through the book. Kokoro tells the tale of a young man finding his place in the world through an older man who never really could. It speaks of the trials of love and family relations in a rapidly developing 20th century Japan. Throughout both Kokoro and I Am a Cat, the reader can find the hints and subtleties of what could be called Japanese sexism. At points in I Am a Cat, I often find myself irked at how Souseki portrays the wife and servant characters. They often say things like "since I am a woman, I cannot understand what you are saying".

Many Japanese anime lovers might be prone to tell me that I am being racist when I call the Japanese sexist, but they are sexist, unfortunately. It's sort of a "romantic medieval" sexism, where men want to protect their women, but in this modern day women do not need to be protected--we can do it ourselves! Japanese culture has sexism inherent in it, right down to the building blocks of the language. For example: 女 this symbol means "woman". 安 while this symbol (note the smaller version of the symbol for woman) means "cheap" or "inexpensive".

Japanese are also (though it is slowly disappearing) anti-left handed people. It is considered incredibly rude to hold the chopsticks with the left hand. I feel out of place to say these sorts of things, for who am I to say what one culture believes in wrong? Maybe left handed people really are evil! But I don't believe so, and I believe that the Japanese will be forced to change by modernization.

But for those of you who want to discover how the Japanese think (or used to think), I believe that reading Souseki is a good idea, which is why I've included some links in amazon.com to where you may find the books, but there doesn't seem to be many English versions there. Search Amazon.com for natsume souseki if you buy anything at the amazon provided link, I may be rewarded with cash.

the following links are free and do not give me cash!

But, here is the google books English Version http://books.google.ca/books?id=SYkS-Vj-g3wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=I+Am+a+Cat&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false for I Am a Cat, and this way is eco friendly! (though I personally would rather own the book)

Here is the Chapters.com link http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Am-Cat-Three-Volumes-One-Soseki-Natsume-Aiko-Ito/9780804832656-item.html?ref=Books:+Search+Top+Sellers buy it new for 18.44 (Canadian) or buy it used starting from 12.79

Kokoro (Used: 11.34, New 14.06 (CAD) ) http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Penguin-Classics-Kokoro-Natsume-Soseki-Mckinney/9780143106036-item.html?ref=Books:+Search+Top+Sellers

Kokoro (Free) http://books.google.ca/books?id=obTZP1S0aXMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Kokoro&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false

If you would like to learn Japanese Kanji (Kanji - Chinese characters):
http://books.google.ca/books?id=BCGylyOazSYC&pg=PA436&dq=Tuttle+Kanji+Kana+1945&cd=2#v=onepage&q=Tuttle%20Kanji%20Kana%201945&f=false (free)
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/search?keywords=Kanji%20Kana%20Tuttle&pageSize=10 (various different kinds)

Thank you for reading

May the gods bless