Pure Invention
How Japan Made the Modern World
(Sprache: Englisch)
"The untold story of how Japan became a cultural superpower through the fantastic inventions that captured-and transformed-the world's imagination. The Walkman. Karaoke. Pikachu. Pac-Man. Akira. Emoji. We've all fallen in love with one or another of Japan's...
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"The untold story of how Japan became a cultural superpower through the fantastic inventions that captured-and transformed-the world's imagination. The Walkman. Karaoke. Pikachu. Pac-Man. Akira. Emoji. We've all fallen in love with one or another of Japan's pop-culture creations, from the techy to the wild to the super-kawaii. But as Japanese media veteran Matt Alt proves in this brilliant investigation of Tokyo's pop-fantasy complex, we don't know the half of it. Japan's toys, gadgets, and fantasy worlds didn't merely entertain. They profoundly transformed the way we live. In the 1970s and '80s, Japan seemed to exist in some near future, soaring on the superior technology of Sony and Toyota while the West struggled to catch up. Then a catastrophic 1990 stock-market crash ushered in the "lost decades" of deep recession and social dysfunction. The end of the boom times should have plunged Japan into irrelevance, but that's precisely when its cultural clout soared-when, once again, Japan got to the future a little ahead of the rest of us. Hello Kitty, the Nintendo Entertainment System, and entertainment empires like Pokâemon and Dragon Ball Z were more than marketing hits. Artfully packaged, dangerously cute, and dizzyingly fun, these products made Japan the forge of the world's fantasies, and gave us new tools for coping with trying times. They also transformed us as we consumed them-connecting as well as isolating us in new ways, opening vistas of imagination and pathways to revolution. Through the stories of an indelible group of artists, geniuses, and oddballs, Pure Invention reveals how Japanese ingenuity remade global culture and may have created modern life as we know it. It's Japan's world; we're just gaming, texting, singing, and dreaming in it"--
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Chapter 1Tin Men
In the toy-shops of Japan one may see the microcosm of Japanese life. William Elliot Griffis, 1876
Toys are not really as innocent as they look. Toys and games are the prelude to serious ideas. Charles Eames, 1961
Riding chariots built in Detroit, American conquerors surveyed the nation they had brought to its knees. The devastation wrought by months of firebombing was almost beyond imagination. Prior to the outbreak of war in the Pacific in 1941, Tokyo was the planet s third-largest city, home to nearly seven million people. Through military conscription, civilian casualties, and mass evacuations, by the fall of 1945 fewer than half remained. The same could be said of the city itself. Skeletons of railway cars and locomotives remained untouched on the tracks, wrote the war correspondent Mark Gayn of his first drive into the fallen metropolis. Streetcars stood where the flames had caught up with them, twisting the metal, snapping the wires overhead, and bending the supporting iron poles as if they were made of wax. Gutted buses and automobiles lay abandoned by the roadside. This was all a man-made desert, ugly and desolate and hazy in the dust that rose from the crushed brick and mortar. Charred bodies still lay beneath the rubble, filling silent streets with their stench. The only sound of industrial civilization in this grim landscape was the rumble of the American jeep.
The U.S. Army Truck, ¼-ton, 4×4, Command Reconnaissance, as it was officially designated, was designed for hauling things around and nothing else. Mass-produced to military specifications by the automakers Willys Overland and Ford, the jeep offered little in the way of amenities save the promise of near indestructibility. It was boxy, open to the elements, and painful to ride in for any length of time. The drab yet dependable vehicle was somehow down-to-earth and larger-than-life; even the Americans knew it. General Eisenhower went so far as to credit the jeep as
... mehr
one of the four things that won the war for the Allies, right alongside the Douglas C-47 transport plane, the bazooka, and the atomic bomb.
Japan spent the rest of the decade occupied by a foreign military power, literally picking up the pieces of its major cities. Jeeps zipped freely through the streets all the while. For Japanese adults, the jeep stirred complicated feelings of loss and longing an unavoidable symbol of capitulation and powerlessness. To children, they represented thrillingly loud and fast candy dispensers, dishing out tastes of American culture in the form of Hershey s bars, Bazooka gum, and Lucky Strike cigarettes. And they did radiate a sort of charm; bug-eyed headlights and a seven-slotted grill evoking a toothy grin, as though the jeep were a cartoon of a car. The iconic nickname, in fact, likely came from a Popeye comic book. The sailorman s sidekick Eugene the Jeep first appeared in 1936. He emerged as the Pikachu of his era, a fuzzy yellow fantasy creature whose utterances were limited to the monosyllable jeep which sounded a lot like GP, as in General Purpose, another designation for the vehicle.
Officially, the occupation lasted until 1952, when much of Japan regained independence under a new constitution authored by American framers. (Okinawa would remain under American control for another two decades.) Even still the jeeps remained, for sovereignty hinged on the adoption of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security Between the United States and Japan, better known as Anpo an abbreviation of its Japanese name. Grossly inequitable and hugely unpopular among a war-weary citizenry from its very inception, the treaty obligated Japan to host a series of American military bases along its entire length, operating independently and beyond the reach of Japanese
Japan spent the rest of the decade occupied by a foreign military power, literally picking up the pieces of its major cities. Jeeps zipped freely through the streets all the while. For Japanese adults, the jeep stirred complicated feelings of loss and longing an unavoidable symbol of capitulation and powerlessness. To children, they represented thrillingly loud and fast candy dispensers, dishing out tastes of American culture in the form of Hershey s bars, Bazooka gum, and Lucky Strike cigarettes. And they did radiate a sort of charm; bug-eyed headlights and a seven-slotted grill evoking a toothy grin, as though the jeep were a cartoon of a car. The iconic nickname, in fact, likely came from a Popeye comic book. The sailorman s sidekick Eugene the Jeep first appeared in 1936. He emerged as the Pikachu of his era, a fuzzy yellow fantasy creature whose utterances were limited to the monosyllable jeep which sounded a lot like GP, as in General Purpose, another designation for the vehicle.
Officially, the occupation lasted until 1952, when much of Japan regained independence under a new constitution authored by American framers. (Okinawa would remain under American control for another two decades.) Even still the jeeps remained, for sovereignty hinged on the adoption of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security Between the United States and Japan, better known as Anpo an abbreviation of its Japanese name. Grossly inequitable and hugely unpopular among a war-weary citizenry from its very inception, the treaty obligated Japan to host a series of American military bases along its entire length, operating independently and beyond the reach of Japanese
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Autoren-Porträt von Matt Alt
Matt Alt
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Matt Alt
- 2021, 368 Seiten, 30 Schwarz-Weiss-Abbildungen, Masse: 13 x 20,1 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: Crown
- ISBN-10: 1984826719
- ISBN-13: 9781984826718
- Erscheinungsdatum: 17.07.2021
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
Fascinating . . . Alt s choice of interviewees and attention to detail marks Pure Invention as one of the best of its kind. If you re a curious reader looking for an accessible (and recent!) popular history, I highly recommend this book. CrunchyrollA kinetic canter through the social history of globalizsed Japanese culture. Peter Guest, Mekong Review
From karaoke to manga, emoji to Pokémon, the creations of modern Japanese style have transformed that country and daily life around the world. Pure Invention is a delightful and highly informed view of the people, ideas, and insights behind this pop-cultural revolution. James Fallows, author of China Airborne
Pure Invention is part careful ethnography, part insightful cultural history of the creative men and women who reimagined Japan in the postwar period. It s difficult to imagine a more instructive or entertaining account of a fascinating place, people, and period. Stephen Snyder, professor of Japanese studies at Middlebury College and translator of Yoko Ogawa s The Memory Police
Hello Kitty and Pikachu didn t just wander into your house by accident. Maybe they snuck in while you were out crooning karaoke with Super Mario? Intriguing and insightful, Pure Invention hands readers a backdoor key to Japan s culture trend factory, whose offbeat creators remixed and reimagined the world right under our noses. Alfred Birnbaum, translator of Haruki Murakami s Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
As startlingly original as the inventions that it describes . . . Required reading for Japanophiles, this book reads like your most interesting anthropology textbook, weaving together interviews, anecdotes, and primary source material about some of Japan s most iconic creations. . . . People often ask me why, as an American, I'm so interested in Japanese culture. This book finally provides me with an answer.
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Lauren Orsini, Forbes
The rise of Japanese popular culture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries is an incredible story. Alt tells this story with verve and panache, giving a comprehensive overview of Japan s soft power that is informative, enlightening, and always entertaining. Susan Napier, professor of Japanese studies at Tufts University and author of Miyazakiworld
A masterful exploration of a history, a people and a culture that have shaped our use of technology, our conception of storytelling, and our fascination with Kitties named Hello. The Irish Times
A brilliant cultural survey . . . Alt s careful history is a reminder of [Japan s] spirited creativity. Booklist (starred review)
Deep, engaging . . . A savvy study of Japan s wide influence in ways both subtle and profound. Kirkus Reviews
The rise of Japanese popular culture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries is an incredible story. Alt tells this story with verve and panache, giving a comprehensive overview of Japan s soft power that is informative, enlightening, and always entertaining. Susan Napier, professor of Japanese studies at Tufts University and author of Miyazakiworld
A masterful exploration of a history, a people and a culture that have shaped our use of technology, our conception of storytelling, and our fascination with Kitties named Hello. The Irish Times
A brilliant cultural survey . . . Alt s careful history is a reminder of [Japan s] spirited creativity. Booklist (starred review)
Deep, engaging . . . A savvy study of Japan s wide influence in ways both subtle and profound. Kirkus Reviews
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