耳をすませば 📚 | Week 6 Discussion

I’m sorry, but I think that misses my point. What you’re describing is that the person in question, was actually good. Or am I misunderstanding?

Continuing off-topic conversation

Disney’s animated films traditionally have had a clear distinction between the “good guys” and the “bad guys”. Ursula from The Little Mermaid? Bad. Scar from The Lion King? Bad. Gaston from Beauty and the Beast? Bad. Jafar from Aladdin? Bad.

Studio Ghibli movies often leave it more up to interpretation. Everyone has their own motive. Are the pirates in Castle in the Sky bad or good? What about the American pilot in Porco Rosso? Is Eboshi in Princess Mononoke an evil person? Yubaba from Spirited Away?

Considering such a dichotomy, as a fun exercise (nothing serious), I like to imagine those Disney movies as if the bad guys weren’t really all that bad.

Here’s Aladdin as an example: The sultan is a child-like buffoon. There’s no way he’s running Agrabah without Jafar’s help. But the sultan gets all the praise while Jafar does all the work. When he finally gets his hands on Genie’s lamp, Jafar’s first wish is simply to take over as sultan. To finally get some recognition. But he went about things the wrong way and that caused the sultan and Jasmine to lose trust in him, so Jafar goes a bit overboard with his revenge.

Is it serious reasoning? Not at all. Just fun imagining.

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エンゲルス
シイマ

誰が意味を知っていますか

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I would need to double check context to be completely certain since I read ahead here and it’s not as fresh in my memory, but I think it’s just a name, think of a business?:

Engels-Zimmer

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It helps if you give a page number, by the way – makes it easier to find the text you’re talking about.

page 129 physical

You didn’t quite get the transcription right: it’s a tsu, not shi, and small-katakana-i, and a long vowel mark : エンゲルス ツィマー. Here the old man is giving a term in German (“engel’s zimmer”, i.e. “angel’s room”) before translating it into Japanese for Shizuku: 天使の部屋 .

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I’ve been stuck on this page for at least a week. :joy: Thanks for the explanation of エンゲルス ツィマー!

I’m still confused by that entire panel though. I think basically understand the words, I just don’t understand how it fits into the conversation or what the actual meaning is. :sweat_smile: Can someone help me with this one or provide some clues?

人形師が布張りの時に 誤ってキズをつけてしまって
偶然にできたもの らしいがの

photo of the panel in question for quick reference

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My reading of that was “apparently it [the ‘angel’s room’ phenomenon] is created by accident when the doll-maker makes a mistake and scratches [the eyes] when they’re putting the fabric on”. My assumption is that when they’re putting the fabric for the skin in around the painted glass eyeballs, if their tool slips it can slightly scratch the paint on the side/back of the eyeball and make a path where tiny amounts of light can pass through the doll’s head and into the back of the eyeball so you can see it looking in the front of the eye (though the text doesn’t say any of that, of course).

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I was pretty careful here, and (although I don’t know anything about doll making), also got the same impression. The angel room was created by a scratch made by mistake.

It is rather interesting, because I once heard that native Americans always put a flaw in their work, so the spirits can escape. I’m going to be very clear here. I believe there were a lot of American cultures, and what I heard (when I was younger), is probably related to some group of Americans - but who knows at this point.

I do find that some of these stories repeat in different cultures. I feel like this is kind of the same idea. I like the idea of feeling comfortable, or even welcoming our mistakes, to create a new thing.

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Yes. Well, I guess you’re kind of speaking to my point. I feel like I was raised with a dichotomy. Good and evil. One OR the other.

In the article, I feel like it was more like, both exist withing each person and character. More of a ying/yang idea. We have the capacity within us for all.

I used to have a subscription to the NYT, but at this point, I can’t open the article. (Hopefully some of you can?) I thought they said Princess Mononoke was an example. She does both in the movie. Neither action negates the other. We need to come to an understanding about all the aspects of ourselves.

And we are definitely off topic, so I’m sorry. My experience with Japan is that in their language, they have less of a need to clearly define, and it allows the reader to interpret.

For example, Tofugu (same group as Wanikani), writes about Haiku. Haiku: Understanding Japan's Most Famous Poetic Form

There is a famous haiku about a frog. (If you’re interested, you can read the article which starts out with this haiku). They reference a page which has a TON of different interpretations in English of the famous Japanese haiku. It isn’t a mistake. Haiku forces you to make certain decisions, and it very rule oriented. It is made for interpretation. It’s wonderful.

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