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Yesterday I went to Norihiro Kato's lecture From Godzilla to Hello Kitty with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gelid_cognition and dr_tectonic. The lecture was good, the basic thesis of which addressed two questions: 1. why does godzilla always head for Japan? 2. Why are we sad when the monster dies? Prof. Kato (yes, I couldn't tell if they had arranged the names Western or Japanese style) talks about Godzilla in terms of Japanese War Dead. He said that the loss of face incurred after WWII made grieving impossible, "Soldiers had died not only in vain, but in error." Godzilla, he says, is the Japanese war dead, which returns to the Japan when the war dead cannot, both haunting Japan, and wreaking destruction on it. Nevertheless, we grieve when the monster is destroyed, because, in essence, it is a part of us.
( Read more... )
gelid_cognition and dr_tectonic. The lecture was good, the basic thesis of which addressed two questions: 1. why does godzilla always head for Japan? 2. Why are we sad when the monster dies? Prof. Kato (yes, I couldn't tell if they had arranged the names Western or Japanese style) talks about Godzilla in terms of Japanese War Dead. He said that the loss of face incurred after WWII made grieving impossible, "Soldiers had died not only in vain, but in error." Godzilla, he says, is the Japanese war dead, which returns to the Japan when the war dead cannot, both haunting Japan, and wreaking destruction on it. Nevertheless, we grieve when the monster is destroyed, because, in essence, it is a part of us. ( Read more... )
