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A_DREAM_OF_JAPAN

                                             February 27, 2011

  In trying to write half-way
  intelligently about Japanese      LOLITA_MOE
  culture, I'm aware of being
  on thin ice.

  My speculations about how things
  are taken Over There is suspect.
  There's an obvious disconnect
  between me and the the things I'm
  commenting on...

  But this is what makes the material
  interesting, there's a sense of         HETEROPHILLIA
  strangenesss about it that keeps it
  from being as tedious as American
  pop-culture.

     There's a certain, let us say
     "irony" about all this, because
     I'm aware that a lot of the tropes       You might suppose that
     I find so strange in Japanese            it's all a matter of
     culture are variations of things         unreasoning prejudice
     they found in American culture and       on my part, or we might
     that I ignored out of habit (if          speculate that the
     not quite "on general principle").       Japanese version of
                                              these things has a
                                              certain subtle additional
                                              touch about it that
                                              genuinely enlivens it.

                                                    BLEACHED_SOUND

                          The most interesting possibility:
                          both sides benefit from this cultural
                          exchange through an imperfect conduit.

        Japan and America can use each
        other as a distorting mirror,
        bouncing ideas back and forth.
                                                POTENTIAL_DIFFERENCE
  Connected, but not
  too tightly connected.


             CONNECTIVITY
             CONTROL



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