I have always been attracted to the primitive starkness of Native American cultures, even from the days of my childhood, even before I became interested in the traditions and culture of Japan. I remember visiting the Sunwatch Indian Village outside of Dayton, Ohio, an archaeological reconstruction of a Fort Ancient village, containing several mud ( Read more... )

When dealing with a book about which it has been said not only that is it an "intensely brilliant chronicle of humankind's comedies and tragedies" and contains "all the many varieties of life", but also that it "is the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race," and that its author ( Read more... )

Books I own that I have yet to read:

• Hellboy: Unnatural Selection, by Tim Lebbon
  
• The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, by Howard Pyle
  
• The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, by Washington Irving
  
• Shrub, by Molly Ivins
  
• The Interpretation of Fairy Tales, by Marie-Louise von Franz
  
• Beowulf and Grendel, by John Grigsby
  
• Snake Moon, by Ray Manzarek
  
• The Secret ( Read more... )

Driving around West Ashley yesterday, stuck at an intersection, I was suddenly hit by an inspiration. I happened to have my camera with me, so I pulled it out of my bag and took a picture. Not at anything specific; I just aimed it out the car window and pushed the buttom. That photo became Random Photo of West Ashley #01 ( Read more... )

Reading Haruki Murakami is an experience; not like your usual fiction, which in most cases logically progresses according to the established structures of storytelling. In his works, the unexpected things that happen, (or expected things that happen in unforeseen ways) add not to the buildup of the plot, but to the strangeness of the characters' ( Read more... )

I originally wrote this post as a comment in alostcommunity. But after I wrote it I realized it nicely summed up my thoughts on last night's episode. There are a lot of spoilers in this post, so don't read if you haven't seen the season 3 finale, "Through The Looking Glass". Also I must apologize for breaking from the theme of this LiveJournal, books and ( Read more... )

Books I own that I have yet to read:

• Hellboy: Unnatural Selection, by Tim Lebbon
  
• The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, by Howard Pyle
  
• The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, by Washington Irving
  
• Shrub, by Molly Ivins
  
• The Interpretation of Fairy Tales, by Marie-Louise von Franz
  
• Beowulf and Grendel, by John Grigsby
  
• Snake Moon, by Ray Manzarek
  
• The Secret ( Read more... )

Today the library called while I was at work, to inform me that my interlibrary loan item had arrived. It was none other than Takatsuka's translation of Yanagita Kunio's Studies in Mountain Village Life. And let me tell you something: this book is huge ( Read more... )

Books I own that I have yet to read:

• Hellboy: Unnatural Selection, by Tim Lebbon
  
• The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, by Howard Pyle
  
• The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, by Washington Irving
  
• Shrub, by Molly Ivins
  
• The Interpretation of Fairy Tales, by Marie-Louise von Franz
  
• Beowulf and Grendel, by John Grigsby
  
• Snake Moon, by Ray Manzarek
  
• The Secret ( Read more... )

Well, I seem to have encountered a stone wall in trying to obtain a research item. The book is Studies in Mountain Village Life, written by Yanagita Kunio. Yanagita was, as has been elsewhere noted in this LiveJournal and in other places I frequent, the most well-known pioneer of the field of Japanese folklore studies. The book was originally ( Read more... )