Knowing the Australian sense of humour I can believe it.
(I recall the young Aussie nurse in new Guinea being herdeEveryone says this book is FUNNY????
Knowing the Australian sense of humour I can believe it.
(I recall the young Aussie nurse in new Guinea being herded off with her co-workers to be shot, saying in that laconic offhanded manner: "Trust my Luck to be finished off by a bloody Jap!!")
But at the moment I am having a National Self-Crisis, one of those "Oh-ye-of-little-faith" moments, and wonder how Russell is going to DO it!!! Why??? I know only too too well the horrific treatment the Japanese dished out in Asia to the civilian populations and to captive soldiers and nurses - Australian, Indian, New Zealand, British and American. It is NOT Politically Correct to talk about it now. HOWEVER the problem is that the Japanese have NEVER apologised, even admitted to their gruesome savagery the massacres, death marches, etc unlike the Germans who have had a National and Public struggle to face up to the Holocaust. Unfortunately the civilian population has been kept in ignorance of the ferocity with which their soldiers behaved in Asia. The so-called Rape of Nanking when an entire Chinese city was practically slaughtered has still not been acknowledged by any Japanese government. Only recently elderly Dutch ,English, Korean ,Chinese women were presenting their cases of being forcibly used as comfort women in army brothels for Japanese soldiers in World War Two. They were young women then. A Dutch girl who complained to the Japanese doctor at her brothel was immediately raped by him. She was one of the speakers at the hearing and I have read her autobiography. Come on Russell, make me laugh! Or at least grin.
PS. (added 1/1/2015) I fail to mention TV documentaries of recent years, interviews with elderly Japanese, those involved in rape, murder and massacre at infamous sites as young soldiers, telling how their superiors brutalised and threatened them into barbaric acts ...their guilt and relief at at last speaking out. Their sadness.Tremendously moving. Governments might deny. The man and woman in the street is another matter entirely. Russell Braddon loathed the Japanese well after the war. It was in writing his biographies of Nancy Wake and Cheshire V.C that he found himself able to forgive.
SEE my review of "Proud Australian Boy" by Nigel Starck, a very recent biography of Russell, and an excellent one!!...more
While reading this book I noted the deaths of three survivors of Changi CI'm just eating up this book.
POST-READ:
Totally consumed and happily digested.
While reading this book I noted the deaths of three survivors of Changi Camp as well as the notorious Burma Railway, both run by the Japanese with a sickening brutality justified utterly in their eyes and culture, by their contempt for soldiers who surrendered. One death was that of Ronald Searle, creator of those savage St Trinian's Schoolgirls, whose vicious mischiefs were often based on the cruelties of his Japanese torturers on the building of the aforementioned railway. It is ALL relative. One Japanese guard actually wrote to Russell asking if he could play himself if ever a film were to be made of Russell's best-seller account of his captivity in "The Naked Island", so proud was he of his contribution to the construction of the railway on which tens of thousands of Asian, British, Indian and Dutch prisoners died through starvation,disease and physical brutality. More relativity.
The list of Russell Braddon's achievements, one of which was his surviving the slave-construction of the Burma Railway as a young man in his early 20's, are listed on the back cover of this wonderful book. But it is ultimately hollow, this list, except for its last line: "This biography investigates those many challenges and achievements."
Those challenges were surviving his captivity through detachment from himself and his surroundings, through compassionate involvement with his fellow prisoners, his sense of humour and hatred for his captors. The latter, his understandable hatred, became a liability when he had to survive surviving. And he also had to survive living in an intolerant heterosexual world. In the camp it was totally ignored.
It wasn't easy but he did it very well. He tried suicide first and then a stint in a psychiatric ward where he had to survive captivity all over again. But his personality, belief in himself and his creativity were to gain him entry to a star-studded world. But these celebrities were solid and realistic people who had just come out of a dreadful war.
Finally freed, he left Sydney for London, and immediately almost, found himself with n Ausie Changi mate and his wife on the London stage doing the Mind-Reading act they had worked up in Changi. It travelled the world,English-speaking bits. A book about the act led him to "The Naked Island" still in print after 60 years and 2 million copies sold. And solid fame. Ronald Searle contributed powerful illustrations to this memoir.
Now came biographies of the Famous and most Humble and most Down-to-Earth Celebrities - Fellow-Aussie Joan Sutherland - La Stupenda of the Opera World but always a Mate to all; New Zealander/Aussie Nancy Wake, French resistance leader, a killer who hated violence and harboured no hatred for the Germans as also did Leonard Cheshire VC. Russell learned from all of these encounters. Russell was always a private person, as homosexuals of this era had to be, but his two partners can now speak openly, which they do with honesty and with gratitude for a good friend.
This is just the beginning of a happy, extraordinary and tortured life, as all good lives should be; and all resolved finally, as all good lives hopefully are.
Russell died in Sydney in 1995 in his early 70's. He refused treatment for his cancer, choosing a Slow Euthanasia, free of pharmacists. He was over familiar with death and accepted it as a reality of life.
FUTURE READING: This biography may be difficult to get, but Russell's biographies of Joan Sutherland and Nancy Wake, and his best selling memoir, "The Naked Island" are still in print.All together he wrote 15 novels and 14 non/fiction works. Russell's great-great aunt was Mary Elizabeth Braddon, author of the famous and infamous "Lady Audley's Secret" which is also STILL in print, a Victorian potboiler if ever there was one!!!
Began asking myself why WHY WHY had I just bought myself yet ANOTHER BLOODY BOOK ???????
I think it is this: What is BEHIND it ALL ?????? ?? And by that Began asking myself why WHY WHY had I just bought myself yet ANOTHER BLOODY BOOK ???????
I think it is this: What is BEHIND it ALL ?????? ?? And by that I mean, what informs the Human Mind to do what it does? It began long long ago with : Why the Final Solution ? So extreme , so callous , so UNcaring?
Robert Jay Lifton may be able to provide a discussion for me to partake in, although by now I have come up with reasons too.
I inherited this book because it, and most of Virginia Haviland's "Told In..." books, were being chucked OUT of our School Library. I had witnessed theI inherited this book because it, and most of Virginia Haviland's "Told In..." books, were being chucked OUT of our School Library. I had witnessed the loss of so many Gems, mostly when I went to the library to borrow them. GONE !!! Fait Accompli !!!
Simply told and beautifully and amply illustrated. Great for less advanced readers. Great for me, who loves old tales, and where you can also get a look at early myths, early explanations of how the earth was made and where we came from etc. We now call it "Science" now, and it is no less, perhaps more, entertaining and wondrous.
Stories like these give you a Magic Portal into the minds and customs and beliefs of different peoples. So original and sometimes so familiar or resonant.
Having been introduced to the netsuke via "The Hare With Amber Eyes" by Edmund De Waal a couple of years ago, I stumbled across a collection of these netsukes in the Japanese Section of the Asian Collection at Sydney's State Art Gallery last year...2012.
Netsukes are small ivory or ebony carvings, used in Japanese dress as a toggle to prevent a pouch or other article, to which it is attached by a cord, from slipping through the girdle. My younger sister had visited Japan not long after the dreadful tsunami there, and had purchased a netsuke from an elderly vendor, and her choice of a dog and the price agreed upon had brought nodding approval from all the elderly gentlemen who had gathered to watch the sale. She too had read Edmund de Waal's wonderful book.
At the Gallery.... What a Thrill this was!!! They were laid out in neat rows...animals, people in various roles, seeds etc ...a Feast for the Eyes and Imagination. I was caught by one which I was sure must have had a story behind it: a small naked baby boy who was emerging from a peach, obviously just cut open. I read the story this morning, courtesy of Virginia Haviland, "Momotaro or Son of a Peach. The following and final story ...there are only Five...was titled "The Hare".
Animals are often a feature of Japanese Folk Tales. When the Peach Boy at 15 goes to fight an island of Devils, he is assisted by a dog, a monkey and a pheasant. Another "The Good Fortune Kettle" is about a badger, who turns himself into a beautiful magic kettle to reward the pedlar who has set him free from a trap. Kurosawa, the Great Japanese Film Director, made a beautiful and enchanting film of tales, which included many animals. One of a boy, who, although forbidden,went into the forest and witnessed the Wedding Parade of the Foxes. What a magic scene this was !!!
I recently read a larger volume of 30 tales titled "Japanese Fairy Tales" by Grace James from 1923 which included a longer version of this Magic Kettle Tale. And some Tales from this book had also turned up in a book of Japanese tales, again a little altered, retold by Lafcadio Hearne, the Greek/Irish writer/teacher, who finally lived in Japan, married and had children and is buried there. He is claimed as an American,as he briefly visited his brothers who had settled there.
P.S. By the way, I also salvaged "Told in ...England, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Russia" !!! Yes, Santa Claus...there IS a Virginia !!!...more
WORDS AND PICTURES: Reading these Japanese ghostly/magical stories has made me reflect on books without pictures, whether on the page or in the mind of WORDS AND PICTURES: Reading these Japanese ghostly/magical stories has made me reflect on books without pictures, whether on the page or in the mind of the reader.
Two extremes crossed my mind.
When I was in Year 6 of Primary School, part of our homework was to illustrate the Battle of Trafalgar. We had read a text without illustrations. I had also read my older sister's Brooks Social Studies which used illustrations of famous paintings. I was the only student who drew flaming 18th Century galleons. All the others had drawn on World War Two movies of sea battles with aircraft support. I remember thinking that the teacher was a bit dumb.
Many years later,running a reading group for a Year 4 Primary class, I noticed that some of my students were reading Tolkien's "Lord Of The Rings". I knew this was way beyond their reading level, and was curious about how they were managing.They had all been watching the films as they came out and also had the DVDs. "I've watched it 24 times", exclaimed one enthusiastically. What great support they got for their pictureless text. They knew all the names of the characters and places as well as having accompanying visuals. I remember thinking smart kids, lucky kids.
How was I coping with Lafcadio Hearn's stories which had only one introductory illustration ?
Luckily I had been to a series of eight Japanese films in 2010 largely depicting the Floating World of the 17th century, films that had been made from 1946 through to 2006, a range of 60 years. One of the best out of this superior crop had won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 1964 and been nominated in 1965 as a Best Foreign Language Film at the notorious Academy Awards. It was titled "KWAIDAN" and based on four Japanese ghost tales retold by Lafcadio Hearn, two of which came from that specific book, two of the best. (Go to You Tube to pick up the trailer and more.) Surprisingly this was the film in which I became conscious of a number of people walking out. And to me it seemed that this film was the MOST Japanese of all. Japanese music played on alien instruments and sung in an alien style featured. The sets were extremely stylised, being obviously 'fake',outlandish,lavish and beautiful. And it lasted for over three hours. Enough said???
So how have I coped with my one picture text ??? Very,very well INDEED, thank you.
Americans are as bad as Australians at claiming foreigners as their own.
Lafcadio was born of a Greek mother and an Irish father...in Greece. He was sent with his brothers to live in Ireland which he loathed. He went to America at 19 and left about twenty years later for Japan where he finally felt 'at home', marrying a Japanese, adopting a Japanese name and nationality, had two sons, wrote extensively of his new home, taught there, died and was buried there and has Japanese relations still...in Japan, NOT America, which was a mere stopover.(Although I think you could claim his brothers!!) The Japanese LOVE him. Mmmm...america seems insignificant ??? ...to Lafcadio, that is.
While reading this book I noted the deaths of three survivors of Changi CI'm just eating up this book.
POST-READ:
Totally consumed and happily digested.
While reading this book I noted the deaths of three survivors of Changi Camp as well as the notorious Burma Railway, both run by the Japanese with a sickening brutality justified utterly in their eyes and culture, by their contempt for soldiers who surrendered. One death was that of Ronald Searle, creator of those savage St Trinian's Schoolgirls, whose vicious mischiefs were often based on the cruelties of his Japanese torturers on the building of the aforementioned railway. It is ALL relative. One Japanese guard actually wrote to Russell asking if he could play himself if ever a film were to be made of Russell's best-seller account of his captivity in "The Naked Island", so proud was he of his contribution to the construction of the railway on which tens of thousands of Asian, British, Indian and Dutch prisoners died through starvation,disease and physical brutality. More relativity.
The list of Russell Braddon's achievements, one of which was his surviving the slave-construction of the Burma Railway as a young man in his early 20's, are listed on the back cover of this wonderful book. But it is ultimately hollow, this list, except for its last line: "This biography investigates those many challenges and achievements."
Those challenges were surviving his captivity through detachment from himself and his surroundings, through compassionate involvement with his fellow prisoners, his sense of humour and hatred for his captors. The latter, his understandable hatred, became a liability when he had to survive surviving. And he also had to survive living in an intolerant heterosexual world. In the camp it was totally ignored.
It wasn't easy but he did it very well. He tried suicide first and then a stint in a psychiatric ward where he had to survive captivity all over again. But his personality, belief in himself and his creativity were to gain him entry to a star-studded world. But these celebrities were solid and realistic people who had just come out of a dreadful war.
Finally freed, he left Sydney for London, and immediately almost, found himself with n Ausie Changi mate and his wife on the London stage doing the Mind-Reading act they had worked up in Changi. It travelled the world,English-speaking bits. A book about the act led him to "The Naked Island" still in print after 60 years and 2 million copies sold. And solid fame. Ronald Searle contributed powerful illustrations to this memoir.
Now came biographies of the Famous and most Humble and most Down-to-Earth Celebrities - Fellow-Aussie Joan Sutherland - La Stupenda of the Opera World but always a Mate to all; New Zealander/Aussie Nancy Wake, French resistance leader, a killer who hated violence and harboured no hatred for the Germans as also did Leonard Cheshire VC. Russell learned from all of these encounters. Russell was always a private person, as homosexuals of this era had to be, but his two partners can now speak openly, which they do with honesty and with gratitude for a good friend.
This is just the beginning of a happy, extraordinary and tortured life, as all good lives should be; and all resolved finally, as all good lives hopefully are.
Russell died in Sydney in 1995 in his early 70's. He refused treatment for his cancer, choosing a Slow Euthanasia, free of pharmacists. He was over familiar with death and accepted it as a reality of life.
FUTURE READING: This biography may be difficult to get, but Russell's biographies of Joan Sutherland and Nancy Wake, and his best selling memoir, "The Naked Island" are still in print.All together he wrote 15 novels and 14 non/fiction works. Russell's great-great aunt was Mary Elizabeth Braddon, author of the famous and infamous "Lady Audley's Secret" which is also STILL in print, a Victorian potboiler if ever there was one!!!
THE REVIEW: These were great short stories. I wondered how anyone could really enjoy them without the accompanying visuals of 18th Century Japan - the haTHE REVIEW: These were great short stories. I wondered how anyone could really enjoy them without the accompanying visuals of 18th Century Japan - the hair-dos, dress, architecture etc. Knowing enriched them for me. I felt that the two Japanese films I had seen based on these stories were far superior to the stories themselves. The stories often lacked an emotional depth which made the films so moving and beautiful. There were humour and irony in some stories. A range of characters in both age and gender. Novel situations and solutions.
The adage of a picture being worth a thousand words hit home to me in this particular context. Often I prefer the book to the film. I asked myself how I would have treated the stories as a writer to achieve the quality of emotion of the films. Longwindedness and verbosity ?
PRELUDE: I saw a film titled "Twilight Samurai". One of the most real, beautiful, moving and tense films I have ever seen.
A human tale of Seibei, a low ranking samurai and a poor widower caring for his old mother and two young daughters and the butt of office jokes behind his back. His reacquaintance with Tomoe, a childhood friend who also befriends his children, offers opportunity for a new life but he soon realises he is too poor to offer marriage to her. When he is ordered to execute a troublesome samurai barricaded in a house, he sees this as his one chance to win back some semblance of a life for himself and those he loves.
I had an opportunity last year to see this remarkable film again at a series of 8 Japanese films accompanying an exhibition of beautiful prints by the 17th Century artist Utamaro.I learned that the director, Yoji Yamada had made a trilogy of films based on the stories of a popular novelist Shuhei Fujisawa(1927 - 1997).
I picked up my ordered copy of eight of his stories in "The Bamboo Sword", on which some of the films are based, this morning at our local excellent bookshop.
And recently I stumbled across "The Hidden Blade", the second film in Yamada's trilogy, on late night TV. What a find!!!...and yet another wonderful tale possessing all the qualities of the first.
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