JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

drbeastly's past comments

• 

  0

  drbeastlyJun. 11, 2010 - 04:05AM JST

  To tkoind2, you certainly have not read the book. Azuma uses the Otaku culture to explain contemporary transformations of the present postmodern society and show possibilities of where this will take us. I suggest you read it. It is one of the best books I've read on Japanese subculture sociology. He explains the concept of database and how we have moved from consuming narratives to consuming data elements that we can customize, using the otaku as an example to explain something that is happening globally in our consumer culture. He even says so in this article:

  "I didn’t go into 'Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals' wanting to analyze 'otaku' culture. Rather than using a theoretical paradigm to analyze culture, I tried to change theory by using subculture on it. I also hoped to build a common language for discussion. Therefore, it would be a misconstrual to read this book as an analysis of 'otaku' culture using postmodern theory."

  I find it amusing how people skid over text in order to look for fragments of things that call their attention and end up ignoring the argument as a whole. What people are doing here with the "otaku as intellectuals" quote is precisely that. The article is NOT about Otaku being intellectual. Its not even about Otaku. This is also an effect of what Azuma talks about in his book: taking fragments and repositioning them as we see fit, an effect of postmodernity.

  People should read more, enough said. Not to hear their own discourse fight with the text, but to hear out the discourse and then converse with it. I am a firm believer that people should educate their perspective before socializing it.

  Posted in: Hiroki Azuma: The philosopher of 'otaku' speaks

Follow us