A while back I started, again, to read a book that I had fallen away from due to other concerns. I try to be in the act of reading some book all the time. It may take a while, but I eventually finish reading these works.  The Age of American Unreason, authored by Susan Jacoby, seeks to analyze the historical decline in intellectual thought through our recent history spanning mostly the years of the author’s life. Moreover, it chronicles the progression of American society from a great respect for intellectualism to a distrust of intellectuals. In the book she recounts personal stories about her interaction with the intellectually inclined during her formative years.  These personal moments are interspersed amongst the larger analysis of society during her time at university and as a writer for media such as newspapers and magazines.

The book is temporally linear. Towards the end of it we begin to see references about television and the internet. In particular, she mentioned that the promise of the internet (the information super highway) was never achieved and was curbed by popular media. That promise being a more informed and intelligent public. That is hardly the case, now.

We have Wikipedia and Google, combined they are two of the most useful tools to ever grace the hands of the human species. The internet has given us more information than we could possibly digest in a lifetime. Yet, most people don’t even use it.

Media culture has degraded the level of discourse in society. Attention spans are woefully short. Among the most popular websites on the internet are Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter. If you don’t fear for your sanity, read the comments on any Youtube video. Facebook needs less face and more book. Twitter only lets its users post messages of 140 characters or less. The saddest part about this is that 140 characters seems to be enough.  However, I cannot be too sure about that length. They may have expanded it to fit in more “omg”, “LOL”, and “refudiate.”

One could argue that Google and Wikipedia are also among the top visited websites in the world. One could also argue that people go to Google to search for Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter. The number of people who go to Google to search for Yahoo keeps going up every year. These are not indicators of a newly emerging class of a well informed and intelligent peoples.

New media is killing your brain cells. Mostly, it’s video that is the problem. Short, irrelevant, and easily digested video is destroying our thoughts.

Watching most video is, for the most part, a mindless pursuit. The reason video is so much more popular that literature is because it is very much a direct line to our minds. Seeing and hearing are functions of the brain that are hardwired to work whether we want them to or not. Viewing a video is about as taxing as breathing. It takes effort to understand the meaning behind the video, but how often do we do that? For that matter how much is present there to take in? When the people producing the videos understand that anything more complex that something blowing up or something cute flashing on screen every few minutes will engender a change of the channel, we get what we deserve.

Many blogs focus almost exclusively on the negative aspects of anime series. They fixate on how bad a show is, from their prospective. In the best cases, we see praise being given to a show for individual aspects. It may be a single episode or character. Almost never is a show wholly praised as a masterful work or even a great animation.

The initial volley of arguments are leveled on the creators. It’s the creators who missed the mark. They are the ones who took the story in the wrong direction. They made the story too simple or dull. For who was it made? If it were a question of simply art, then we would know that the artist rarely creates for the audience. But, it is not a simple question of art. It’s a question of commerce. Money is the driving force for our media economy. In the new media, simple equals larger audiences and more money.

The chicken begot the egg, and the egg was rotten because the chicken was vapid and stupid.

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On another note, I’ve got a few shows to watch before I go to bed.

There is a reoccurring theme in the Code Geass series. It’s Lelouch and the game of chess. We see Lelouch playing chess in the first episode of the first season as an early display of his intelligence. Lelouch playing chess comes up sporadically throughout the season, but a similar chess scene to that in season 1 episode 1 is shown at the start of the second season, reaffirming that the game is not to be over looked.

The most resounding play with this coupling is during battles. The Black Knights are incapable of fighting strategically without orders from their “king” piece Zero. The show goes out of its way to show Lelouch as the chess master moving both soldiers and the pieces of revolution. In this manner Lelouch is seen by his Black Knights and the Elevens (Japanese) as the leader that will free the them from oppression.

However, the viewer has a fuller picture of what’s happening in the background. We know that in reality the goals of the revolutionaries and Lelouch are very different. Lelouch is very much motivated by revenge and providing a future for Nunnally, while the Black Knights are interested in freedom from Britannia.

Here is where we come to one of the problems with revolution. Often the revolutionaries have their own motives for revolution; those motives being different and often divergent from those they claim to represent. The Founding Fathers of the United States draped their work in the ideals of The Enlightenment, with talk of freedom and equality, but still allowed slavery and voting rights for only a few select citizens. Leaders such as Mao, Mugabe, Obiang, and Hitler amongst many others have often come to power carrying the banner of revolution. As a particularly relevant side note, the French. Even if the revolutionary at first works for the people, human nature and power will inevitably corrupt them, but it is important to note that not all revolutions are violent or swift.

In general we can separate the differing factions of political or social controlling entities into two parties, the opposition and the conservative. The conservative party is defined as the group that has effective control of the society. The opposition party often places itself as truly representing the people best interests. History has shown us that eventually the opposition will become the conservative and the conservative will become the opposition.  When a party takes control, their goal will invariably shift from their original stated goals to simply staying in power, hence the need for revolution.

A conservative candidate who should present himself to his electors by declaring to them that he did not regard them as capable of playing an active part in influencing the destinies of the country, and should tell them that for this reason they ought to be deprived of the suffrage, would be a man of incomparable sincerity, but politically insane.

- Robert Michels in Political Parties

In 1911, Robert Michels a German sociologist wrote Political Parties. The work is most noted for introducing the “iron law of oligarchy.” The book focused on the power structures of political groups and how invariably they lead to a concentration of power into a select elite who hold the majority of influence.

…is a form of government where political power effectively rests with a small elite segment of society (whether distinguished by wealth, family, military powers or spiritual hegemony). The word oligarchy is translated into “rule by few.” Compare with autocracy (rule by one person) and democracy (rule by the majority).

- Oligarchy article on Wikipedia

Michels argued that this phenomenon could not be helped, owing to it being an inherent trait of organization and human nature. People naturally seek out a leader, and an organization is simply more efficient if decisions can be make by proxy.  It is the fault of human’s inherent instinctive urge to follow, to group, and to lead.

Lelouch’s rebellion, in a way, had already failed before it started. They are already ruled by Zero. No matter the outcome, the Japanese/Elevens will be ruled by some elite group of bureaucrats or aristocrats. To many people choosing their overlords by not revolting is possibly the only real freedom they have in choosing the course of their society. The point here is that the vast majority of the people are simply a tool utilized by the elite in their quest for power. The people’s concerns are only the concerns of those in power when necessary (e.g. Lelouch forming the Black Knights).

This is not a pessimistic assertion. If anything, it is an optimistic and pragmatic view. What this means is that in no society, at any time, through out the world will you find a perfect freedom. There are no free rides in this game. The oligarchy at the top of society would see itself as the chess master. The only way for the people to disturb their strategy is to change the game. Freedom is a work in progress, it always will be, and revolution a necessity.

Viva la Revolucion!

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• Michels, Robert. Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy. Trans by Eden Paul. Hearst’s International Library Co. 1915.

Often I wonder about how well these types of post will be taken. In the past, my method of choice was to produce something with labyrinthine logic, as if to hold back some quotient of the meaning. These types of writings were on the order of On Perspective and Interpretation and ef – a tale of memories – more than the sum of our parts.

I’ve mentioned many times that writing in that manner is very freeing. Perhaps, they come off as a bit pretentious. More often than not, those appear nonsensical. Maybe they are nonsensical. Could I be enjoying myself too much? Then again, maybe I simply fear flying too high. After all, the sun has a way of melting wax wings.

I see what you did there:

No matter what is written or who is writing it the author of any work expects their readers to already hold a certain subset of knowledge. This knowledge is acquired from simply living in their shared culture. If an author of a blog were to make reference to Greek mythology at the beginning of a post, without explanation, the implication is that the reader will understand the references. Utilizing those references allows the author to borrow the already derived meaning. It exist, so the author uses it to express thoughts and emotions in fewer words but with much more impact. It goes without saying that all of this does not work if the reader does not share the knowledge necessary to decipher the meaning.

There is an excellent–inadvertently accurate–quote, with respect to cultural literacy, from Eisner Award judge Robin Brenner in “Understanding Manga: An Interview with Robin Brenner.”

To my mind manga cannot be separated from their country and culture of origin. Everything about them, from the way creators tell stories to the symbols and gestures involved are created with a Japanese audience in mind. Those outside Japan can learn all of the sound effects and references, but most readers will not instinctively understand every joke or implied meaning simply because the story comes from an environment we didn’t grow up in.

The obvious question is, “What do we see?” It is natural for a human to draw conclusions from the apparent evidence. For that matter, most people’s world view is very centric. After all, the only information we have about the world is what can be gained from our senses. It is largely our first leap-of-faith to believe that what we see, hear, smell, touch, and taste is, in a word, real. The individual only knows what it has been taught, and we see the world through the colored lenses of our own cultures.

Example:

It seems appropriate that Shin Seiki Evangelion should be used for this example because I believe many if not most of those reading this will have viewed it. If there exist a body of anime that can be consider canon then this series would be one of them.

By simply making a correspondence of characters we can present a stunningly plausible association of plot to the biblical narratives describing the final days of Jesus Christ, commonly call The Passion.

• Shinji / Jesus
• Unit 01 / Virgin Mary
• Asuka / Mary Magdalene
• Gendo / Judas Iscariot
• Kaworu / Satan (but not in a bad way)
• Kensuke and Toji / Apostles
• Rei / knowledge or The Word

Is this what was intended? No, it was most likely not. For one thing, there are simply too many events and characters that prevent this from being intentional. It was mentioned in Cultural Literacy: Part 1 that sometimes a person sees things in a story because of cultural conditioning.

However, there are blatant allusions and symbolisms in NEG that cannot be coincidence. These are the result of cultural diffusion of ideas, myths, and history. This can largely be attributed to European colonization and exploration of the world, with regard to the spread of religious ideas. More recently, it can be attributed to the spread of various forms of pop culture.

To be, or not to be…an otaku:

I’m forced to ask myself if the average non-Japanese anime viewer is being cheated. Perhaps, we should simply give up. Does our lack of historical and literary knowledge of the Japanese variety make us a second class of anime fan? It is clear that there are some things that anime fans of our ilk will never truly understand.

The problem is that the level of misunderstanding or simply not understanding is unquantifiable. We don’t know how much we don’t understand. Moreover, we don’t know how much there is for us to not understand. The odd thing is that this makes us unique. We have become a seperate and distinct class of fans. Obvious though it may be, the results are that we have derived our own unique cultures.

My personal view on these issues is that the meaning we derive is valid in the sense that it makes sense to us. This does leave me in the odd position of implying that the author’s intended meaning is not important. This is an implication and not an outright point; I don’t believe that. There is a message that the creator of any work of art wishes to convey. That message is often lost in translation. The parts of a story that either cause misinterpretation or are simply not understood have to be accounted. How we account for the missing information is what makes the story unique for each of us.

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I suppose that wraps things up. It took a while to get this last one out, been a busy week.

In the last installment I introduced the basic concept of what I will be more formally presenting here. Basically, there exist a difference in understanding between cultures. This is also the case even within sub-cultures or divided groups amongst geographically close peoples. This much is plainly understood. We know there are differences between people in all manners of ethics, morality, religion, and history among other differing factors. Often these factors are interwoven into the mythos of a people.

E. D. Hirsch, Jr:

As some reading this are, no doubt, aware the term “cultural literacy” has a very specific meaning and use with regard to reading comprehension. The term was coined by Eric Hirsch, a former educator and critic of the United States educational system. He happened upon the concept while giving test on reading comprehension to two groups of students. One group of attended the University of Virgina, and the other group was from a community college. For the most part the two groups scored about the same on comprehension of the material. Specific differences existed between the understanding of specific passages of text. He noticed that there were passages of text that the group at the University seemingly had little trouble comprehending while the community college students struggled with the text’s meaning.

These particular writings dealt with the American Civil War. Hirsch attributed the discrepancy to a basic lack of historical knowledge. They simply didn’t possess the information necessary about those historical figures or events to understand the writing. For Hirsch, it was not that these students were inferior. Their inability to understanding the material was explainable through poor education. In his eyes, it was their prior education that had failed to teach them this basic information.

The historical people and events in those passages showed up as allusion, metaphor, and reference in American literature. In no small way, these things were essential to the mythos of their culture. Yet, they were not given this knowledge. In his own words, “These students had been cheated.”

They may have been cheated out of historical knowledge but there is another type of knowledge that is built into the language. This knowledge may be used or abused by speakers of the language without their realization. Moreover, the use of myth or legend in storytelling is an important part of the way a story conveys its meaning. Authors readily use cultural myths to compress or stylize ideas.

…It isn’t clear whether the myth of George WASHINGTON AND THE CHERRY TREE belongs in a course on history or one on mythology, but from the standpoint of literacy it doesn’t matter. For purposes of communication and solidarity in a CULTURE, myths are just as important as history. And unless history achieves the vividness and memorableness of myth, it will not be very useful to shared culture. We should indeed try to discriminate between history and myth; but true or false, the stories that we share provide us with our values, goals, and traditions. The tales we tell our children define what kind of people we shall be.

The term myth itself implies community. In Greek, it means “what they say.” The origins of most myths are lost in obscurity; they belong to the community. The myths that are shared by literate Americans are worldwide in their origins, and embrace both ancient and modern cultures. The Greek myth of PARIS and the APPLE OF DISCORD belongs to us as much as the myth of Washington and the cherry tree. According to some modern philosophers, notably NIETZSCHE, all stories, even scientific THEORIES and religious teachings, are myths. Nietzsche’s view is probably wrong, but it usefully emphasizes the importance of shared myths in forming our national community and providing us with irreplaceable common points of reference. If we did not inherit myths, we would have to invent them; since we have inherited them, we should learn to use those we have inherited. Our traditional myths are no more true and false, wise and foolish, than those of other cultures. They are not inherently better than those of CHINA or INDIA. But being ours, they are uniquely valuable to us.

–E. D. Hirsch Jr, The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Second Edition

History and myth are important parts of a living language. They change as the times change with the addition of new ideas and events. Of most importance, there exist a canonical set of knowledge that Hirsch argued needed to be known to truly understand American literature. In the same way, all cultures exhibit this aspect to their literature and language.

More on E. D. Hirsch

• Core Knowledge essays by E. D. Hirsch, Jr.
• wiki on E. D. Hirsch, Jr.

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Part 3 will elaborate on how this applies to our anime hobby.

The focus of this post is mostly on the US simply because the research and writing was specifically directed toward US citizens and the United States educational system. The implications and applicability are farther reaching.

As with anything, Hirsch has many critics. If you venture into the wilds of the internet don’t be surprised to find them. Although, mostly, people seem to agree. For the most part, Hirsch’s public career has focused on the educational needs of children. That is building a foundation for growth. However, his popularity can be ascribed to the books his has written, among them, Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know.

I don’t consider myself an expert on his work; so, I’m probably not the best person to ask about specifics.

In the past I was unsure if a particular individual watched anime or not. You can’t exactly pick anime fans out based on physical appearance. Even those who may be found with a Gundam t-shirt or some other form of apparel may not be “fans.” As a corollary of sorts to that theorem we can see the same in Hello Kitty and Spider Man clothing as well. One’s exposure to some-thing is not indicative of that person’s acceptance or understanding of that thing, or it doesn’t suggest that they understand or accept it in the way that you do.

Over the last decade (almost two) we have seen a several fold increase in the popularization of Japanese animation. To that end, it would seem that this is largely the result of digital fan-subbing and file sharing networks.

I have seen an increase in the number of casual viewers that cross my path. It is expected given the steady increase in anime popularity among general audiences. These are individuals that don’t read anime blogs but do watch the occasional dubbed show on television. They may also download the occasional fansub but are more likely to get the files from friends. In short, they don’t have several 200GB hard discs filled with anime files downloaded from the internet.

For example, I was recently speaking with a new acquaintance. He was a guy that just came over from Mississippi. He stated that he watched a lot of anime. My usual response is to ask what one watches when presented with that statement. His response, “Have you seen Bible Black?” Well, yes, I have seen Bible Black to paraphrase my response. My actual first thought was the oddity of someone casually admitting that they watched Bible Black, given the prevalence of futanari-nurse and all.

We could make a point here about the increasing instances of finding people who casually watch hentai versus those who casually watch non-porn anime. Although, non-porn anime sometimes verges on porn with the fan services provided. That’s not to say that my friend only watches hentai. I’m sure that he has broader viewing habits.

That wasn’t my point. Casual fans of anime are drawn to things they can readily identify with. A show like Bible Black, while being carnal in nature, doesn’t require knowledge of niche anime references or Japanese culture. For that matter, the story probably unknowingly holds more cultural references for a western audience than a Japanese audience simply because of the way the witchcraft, magic book, and dark-magic angles are portrayed. This is similar to the way Neon Genesis introduces religious symbolism that more than likely added to its appeal to western audiences.

Cultural diffusion of these ideas makes them understandable to many that are foreign to their origins. Still there are differences in their perceived relevance and impact on the story. It has to do with innate understanding due to cultural history and memory. For me and others who were raise in a Judeo-Christian society the aspects of stories that utilize plot devices like those in Bible Black or NGE carry with them an inherent context. We see them a certain way because of cultural conditioning.

The implications are not that others do not “understand” them truly. That’s not the case. As I’ve been fond of pointing out on occasion, other’s perception of a story is just as valid as any other. The key term is the word “valid” with regard to that statement. Instances of the right way and wrong way to interpret something do not come into play. We are speaking of individual interpretations.

Drunk wolf girl, just because.

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This was Part 1. The astute reader will realize that this concept works in both directions.

I’m writing much of this as I think about it. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get a part two out when I get a chance and have a better idea of what it will be about.

In reference to the 200GB hard drives mentioned in the article. You people, just delete those files. It’s not like you’re ever going to watch those again anyway.