Re: [tlug] (OT) The enigma of Japan (was: UNIX jobs on TLUG)

[Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com>]

2009/6/2 Martin Killmann <martin@example.com>:

> On Tue, 2 Jun 2009 09:12:14 +0100
> Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> I *could* level the worst insult in Computer Science at Japanese
>> Studies (it is non-deterministic), but I won't. ;-P
>
> That's not an insult, it's a fact.

True, but to a Computer Scientist, calling something non-deterministic
is quite insulting all the same. ;)

Anyway, my problem with Japanese Studies, having encountered it on
both sides of the Pacific (or rather, the east side of the Nihon-kai
and the west side of the Atlantic, but you know what I mean), is that
there are all of these cliques that encourage a certain school of
though whilst insulting the rest. e.g. van Wolferen's writings, or the
pro-Nihonjinron and anti-Nihonjinron factions. Why not read it all and
draw your own conclusions?

In Computer Science, we damned well learned Bubble Sort before our
professor laughed and said, "Now that you know how to do this, if you
recognise Bubble Sort in the wild, do all you can do to kill it
(unless it is, of course, the trivial base case for a recursive
divide-and-conquer algorithm such as quicksort or mergesort)!"

If you haven't read bulshytt, how will you recognise it as bulshytt?
[1] And more importantly, how will you recognise bulshytt that is
derived from it, and so on?

In the case of "Enigma", I would have no problem with a Japanese
Studies professor laying out, in a 60-90 minute lecture, exactly what
he feels is wrong about it. I do have a problem with a professor
waving it off as garbage with no discussion of it at all. I mean,
"Enigma" is arguably as influential as "The Chrysanthemum and the
Sword" [2] or "Embracing Defeat" [3] in the perception of the Japanese
in the 20th century. So why not read it?

In my Russian history class in uni, we read a laughable
"autobiography" of Putin. The first lecture after we had read it, the
professor asked, "So, what did you think?" A few people spoke up,
rather cautiously, and then one impetuous youth (let's say for the
sake of argument that it wasn't me) spake: "But it is blatant
propaganda!" The professor laughed and said, "Of course it is! Now
what does that tell you about Putin and the Russian government, viewed
through that lens?"

You see, even stuff that you think is laughable can teach so *something*.

Anyway, as this has nothing to do with Linux, let me just direct you
to the mail headers, which may just contain the user agent of the web
browser I used to type this message. ;)

Cheers,
Josh

[1] http://anathem.wikia.com/wiki/Bulshytt
[2] http://www.amazon.com/dp/0618619593
[3] http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393320278