Peter Carey's "Wrong About Japan"

It seems Peter Carey got it very wrong indeed. However his discoveries through corrected misunderstandings are fascinating. I just finished Wrong About Japan and the revelation that Gundam Wing was merely a tool to sell toy robots, with no deep and meaningful cultural insights (at least none that the creator of the series would admit) was just one of the hilarious parts of the book I enjoyed.

But what I didn't like is how Peter Carey tried to be right about what he thought was the message of Japanese culture rather than learning more about it before making a judgment on what their culture uses to express itself.

Did anybody else feel this way? Or did you have an entirely different reaction to this book?

I Felt The same way It sounded more like he was just judjing like he never even knew anything about their culture!

I mainly just thought the book was hilarious. It isn't really about Japan but rather about all the different types of japanophile and what they project onto Japanese culture. Whether you think temples, neon, or anime represent the "real Japan", you're probably making a fool of yourself. I thought the ending made it clear that he's still wrong, still clueless, and knows it.

Nobody will ever know what the real Japan is, not even a Japanese person. Just like nobody down under knows what the real Australia is even if they are Australian.

Which is probably why Peter Carey failed miserably with this book.

Re: Msg 4

Nobody knows anything; everyone is a failure. In the meantime, surprisingly, we manage to forge on.

-- Gerry

I read a couple reviews re pc's bk including one in the TLS and all i can say is that it is what you get when you favor traditional media reviews.

If it bugs you, try mine!