Modern Individual

The world has become more individual-oriented than ever. There has never been a period in the past where we have cast so much attention on our “selves”. Until the 19th century, religion and community dominated people’s lives. Being a good person meant being religious or a good citizen. For a woman, being a good human [...]

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Virginia Woolf “Haunted House”

When I took my dog to a behavior correction class, an instructor told me that dogs think about only two things: what will give them a chance to eat food and whether they are safe or not.
The house in the story, “Haunted House” keeps whispering, “safe, safe, safe,” as if it’s a dog assuring itself [...]

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Rick London “The Materialist”

Reading my writing in English is somewhat depressing. To someone who is reading this: I write way more beautifully in Japanese.
 
I should not lose heart, though. Some day… some day… if I keep writing…
——————–
This morning I read The Materialist, a book of poems by Rick London, which my husband ordered. The poet came to [...]

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What We Should Learn From Obama

Despite his praise to Obama about his prudent way of choosing words, Mr. Aso, the Prime Minister of Japan, has not learned the most important lesson he should learn from the new American President. He still insists that the Liberal Democratic Party is the ONLY party which can change Japan. He often makes hostile comments [...]

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Protected: Proposition 8

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

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Knowing a part of our body dies

 
If the meaning of existentialism is about knowing how to live in the process of dying, Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” shows the extremity of life in the process in which parts of our bodies gradually die.
 
It is the second time for me to read this well known short story. In my memory, [...]

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Truth in Invisibility (2/2)

(continued from Nov 3)
 
The Bible says that we should have faith without looking. There is a well-known episode where Jesus shows a hole in his hand and has Thomas put his finger in it saying, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John [...]

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Truth in Invisibility (1/2)

Edith Hamilton’s “Mythology,” which has been in print over six decades, compiles wide ranges of mythology and epic poetry in the classic period and is arranged in a stream-lined manner so that we can look at multiple writers’ works from various view points.
 
I especially liked chapter 6, The Eight Brief Tales of Lovers. The common [...]

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