by Debaser » Wed Jun 28, 2006 11:15 am
From,
Jian by Eric Van Lustbader, a book I picked up for fifty cents used, and stopped reading 3 pages into the prologue.
Eric Van Lustbader wrote:Eventually he came to a fusuma, a sliding door. Removing his wooden clogs, he knelt before sliding back the door and, bowing formally, entered.
Inside was a nine-tatami room furnished only with a low balck lacquer table. To his left sat Kisan, in the place of power. He was the owner of this establishment, and oyabun - chief - of Tokyo's most powerful yakuza clan.
Yakuza were gangsters. But, as in all things, the Japanese underworld was different from its counterparts in other countries. For instance, the yakuza clans were rigidly fixed, bound by a moral code of giri - duty - as stringent as that of bushido, the way of the samurai.
I could go on to type up the last of the page (right up to the point where Kisan opens the conversation with "Domo arigato...", after which all the dialogue is in English), but by this point even authors of Klingon-centric Star Trek fan fiction are noting that way too much of the narrative is italicized. Granted this book came out in 1985, three years after Blade Runner and three years before Akira, so getting caught up in the dawn of America's yellow fever is somewhat forgivable. Still, I don't think the story would have lost it's authentic Japanese flavor if Dan had just said "sliding door".
From, [i]Jian[/i] by Eric Van Lustbader, a book I picked up for fifty cents used, and stopped reading 3 pages into the prologue.
[quote="Eric Van Lustbader"]Eventually he came to a [i]fusuma[/i], a sliding door. Removing his wooden clogs, he knelt before sliding back the door and, bowing formally, entered.
Inside was a nine-[i]tatami[/i] room furnished only with a low balck lacquer table. To his left sat Kisan, in the place of power. He was the owner of this establishment, and [i]oyabun[/i] - chief - of Tokyo's most powerful [i]yakuza[/i] clan.
[i]Yakuza[/i] were gangsters. But, as in all things, the Japanese underworld was different from its counterparts in other countries. For instance, the [i]yakuza[/i] clans were rigidly fixed, bound by a moral code of [i]giri[/i] - duty - as stringent as that of [i]bushido[/i], the way of the [i]samurai[/i].[/quote]
I could go on to type up the last of the page (right up to the point where Kisan opens the conversation with "Domo arigato...", after which all the dialogue is in English), but by this point even authors of Klingon-centric Star Trek fan fiction are noting that way too much of the narrative is italicized. Granted this book came out in 1985, three years after Blade Runner and three years before Akira, so getting caught up in the dawn of America's yellow fever is somewhat forgivable. Still, I don't think the story would have lost it's authentic Japanese flavor if Dan had just said "sliding door".