About
Content
Store
Forum

Rebirth of Reason
War
People
Archives
Objectivism

Post to this threadMark all messages in this thread as readMark all messages in this thread as unread


Post 0

Tuesday, July 20, 2004 - 12:05pmSanction this postReply
Bookmark
Link
Edit
I'm glad about this! Knowing some Japanese and having traveled there, I know something about the culture. It has occured to me that they might be very receptive to Objectivism. Hierarchy is extremely important (Confucian influence) but achievement is also highly valued. It will be interesting to see if Objectivism presents a counter-influence of individualism there in the future. Also, check out Shinto-- one of the least evil religions. Christianity is very unpopular there, despite 150 years of zealous missionary work.

Meg Townsend


Sanction: 6, No Sanction: 0
Sanction: 6, No Sanction: 0
Post 1

Tuesday, July 20, 2004 - 9:58pmSanction this postReply
Bookmark
Link
Edit
I agree to Meg's view that Japanese people can accept Objectivism.
Meg is insightful about the ethos of the Japanese.Though they seem so collectivism-oriented under the long influence of China, they are actually individualistic, pragmatic and  pro-capitalistic. That's why I translated The Fountainhead with the great help of Chris.

Kayoko Fujimori


Post 2

Wednesday, July 21, 2004 - 10:08pmSanction this postReply
Bookmark
Link
Edit
Kayoko, I want to salute you!

The Fountainhead is my favourite book. And I trust that your efforts and publishing venture result in maximum success - and maximum inspiration for the lucky readers!

Sanction: 3, No Sanction: 0
Sanction: 3, No Sanction: 0
Post 3

Thursday, July 22, 2004 - 12:42pmSanction this postReply
Bookmark
Link
Edit
Congradulations to Kayoko Fujimori for the great effort, and to Chris Sciabarra for lending a hand in the advancement of Ayn Rand and Objectivism in the world. In the 70's and 80's in New York, I dabbled a bit in Japanese culture, martial arts, health clubs, restaurants, conversations and friendships with Japanese of many different callings. At that time, I thought it was a fresh island of sanity in counterposition to a rapidly disintegrating American culture that seemed to be lost and floundering. Although I am an outsider and far from expert on the culture, what impressed me was the high standard of life and the harmonious transition between group and individual pursuits, although in my experience the group always predominated. In regards to the Japanese translation of The Fountainhead, I think the most interesting development will be how the individualism of Howard Roark and Ayn Rand's writings, impact on a society that generally favors group approval over Howard Roark-like individualism.
 
Also, I hope someone is taking notes so that a history can be written about the "ascendency" of Objectivism in the world. I read Chris Sciabarra's interview on the internet in regard to Ayn Rand's ascendency and I recommend it to anyone, although a much more extensive historical documentation, outlining the reception of Objectivism by the established world, would be a fascinating contribution to the mounting pile of literature about the world of Ayn Rand.
 
Alan Tucker


Post 4

Friday, July 23, 2004 - 3:09amSanction this postReply
Bookmark
Link
Edit
Fujimorisan, arigato gozaimasu! Watashi ga juunenmae ni Nihon ni sunde kara Nihonjin ni wa Rand wa kyomi ni nareru ka to omoimashita.

You might be interested in my comments on the Japanese (and other nationalities) in the following, rather whimsical article printed a few years back in the World's Best Libertarian Magazine, The Free Radical:

http://www.freeradical.co.nz/content/40/40bertelsen.html

Honto ni... omedeto... arigato... yoku shimashita!


Sanction: 3, No Sanction: 0
Sanction: 3, No Sanction: 0
Post 5

Friday, July 23, 2004 - 3:47amSanction this postReply
Bookmark
Link
Edit
Congratulations to both of you Chris and Kayoko ...
... it's the personal efforts of individuals (Big Thanx to Kayoko) that make such books possible ...
... Chris' joy in life and pride in his work shines through in all his articles ... they are worth reading even if I do not have any personal interests in Japanese ... please keep writing :-)


Sanction: 4, No Sanction: 0
Sanction: 4, No Sanction: 0
Post 6

Friday, July 23, 2004 - 5:35amSanction this postReply
Bookmark
Link
Edit
Thanks to all for your comments here, especially Kayo---the translator!  How wonderful to see you.

Alan mentions my "Cultural Ascendancy of Ayn Rand" essay, which appears at The Atlasphere.  Here's some follow-up:  that article has been expanded considerably for publication as the introduction to the forthcoming Fall 2004 (September thru December for all you folks down under :) ) Journal of Ayn Rand Studies.   That issue is the first of two major symposia to mark the Ayn Rand Centenary (the second issue, which will be out in Spring 2005, focuses on "Ayn Rand Among the Austrians").

The Fall 2004 issue also includes major essays by novelists Erika Holzer and Alexandra York, literary theorists Stephen Cox and Kirsti Minsaas, literary critic Jeff Riggenbach, historian Bernice Rosenthal, as well as Cathy Young and Matthew Stoloff.  Each discusses another aspect of the cultural and literary impact---ranging from literary method to the Russian cultural connection.

I should also recommend in the current JARS, an essay by Nicholas Dykes that examines Rand's impact in England.  Many more such articles are in the works for the journal, which begins its sixth year of publication this fall.

Cheers!


Sanction: 4, No Sanction: 0
Sanction: 4, No Sanction: 0
Post 7

Friday, July 23, 2004 - 10:35amSanction this postReply
Bookmark
Link
Edit
Well, we have Japan and Chris mentions England and Austria in regards to the ascendancy of Ayn Rand. I can also report that Atlas Shrugged or La Rebelión de Atlas as it is known in its new Spanish-language version is a bestseller in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I recently returned from there and saw it with my own eyes, the book prominently displayed in many of the major bookstores of the city, listed at number seven under the best-seller list at El Ateneo, the Barnes and Noble of Buenos Aires. As an ironic sidebar to this, in Montevideo, Uruguay, Atlas was displayed right next to Michael Moore's books, standing tall and proud next to his clownish portrait.

Post 8

Saturday, July 24, 2004 - 10:53amSanction this postReply
Bookmark
Link
Edit
Chris, I also like the interview you did from the World Trade Center, where you describe AR's rise in academia as inexorable. Never thought for a New York second you sounded Marxist. Excellent choice of words. I had been thinking more along the line of the word predetermined until I read your interview. Of course, predetermined has a mystical, non-rational tone to it, but I used it in the sense of planting the seed, watering the ground, caressing the seedling, and knowing that it will sprout. But inexorable, to my ear, sounds much better...much stronger...like the boulder rolling down the mountain.


Post 9

Saturday, July 24, 2004 - 10:04pmSanction this postReply
Bookmark
Link
Edit
OH MAN! OH MAN! I WANT A COPY! I have been obsessed with Japanese culture since the age of 12 when I was first introduced to "Anime". I am beginning my first course in Japanese August 23, and am definetly going to have to get a Japanese copy of The Fountainhead. Thanks for the info Chris.
    One thing I am curious about is how they write Chris' name in Katakana. Is it "Keriisa Sekiabara"? I'm going to have to look at that sample page again and figure it out.

------------Tom Blackstone

http://tomsphilosophy.tripod.com


Sanction: 4, No Sanction: 0
Sanction: 4, No Sanction: 0
Post 10

Monday, July 26, 2004 - 4:53amSanction this postReply
Bookmark
Link
Edit
Thanks Alan... and, Tom.. I have no idea how to pronounce my name in Japanese... but a poor scan of the page on which my name appears is at the bottom of my little essay on the Japanese printing.

Post 11

Monday, July 26, 2004 - 10:09pmSanction this postReply
Bookmark
Link
Edit
Hmmmm, I looked at the scanned page. That's definetly Katakana, which is what they would use to write a foreigner's name. Unfortunately though, the scanned image is not zoomed in enough for me to make out what it says.

------------------Tom Blackstone

http://tomsphilosophy.tripod.com


Post to this thread


User ID Password or create a free account.