jakuren's Xanga

A short piece about the elephant that stepped on empty Heineken beer cans

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:57:27 GMT

When the zoo was shut down, the people of the town pooled money together to obtain the elephant. It was a worthless zoo, one where it wouldn’t be odd were it to go bankrupt at any time; and the ele-phant was old and tired. It was so old and tired that no other zoo would even consider taking it in. The elephant didn’t look like it would live that much longer, and there were no eccentric zoos that would go to the time and trouble to take in an elephant that seemed to have one foot in the grave.

Even the wildlife dealer didn’t know what to do with the elephant, and extended an offer to the town—I’ll give it to you for free, so won’t you take it in? The dealer said, “It’s old so it won’t eat that much food. It won’t cause a disturbance or anything, either. Nor will it trumpet loudly and be a nuisance to the neighborhood. All it needs is a place. It’s quite a bargain, you know. After all, it is for free.”

After about a month of heated discussion at the town council, it was decided that the town would take in the elephant after all. You could search the entire world, but there just wouldn’t be a town that owned its own elephant. Of course, there’d be a number of such towns in India or Africa, but in the northern hemisphere, at least, there wouldn’t be that many.

A farmer who possessed woodlands offered a place for the elephant to live, and a decrepit ele-mentary school gym that was scheduled to be torn down was relocated as the elephant shack. For food, leftovers from school lunches were sufficient. A retired town hall employee looked after the elephant as the elephant keeper. The town’s coffers were quite full, so they were able to put together easily a budget of this extent.

Besides, it wasn’t as if the elephant was totally useless.

The job that the town gave to the elephant was empty-can crushing. First, a concrete pipe was made in the shape of the elephant’s foot, and it was trained to stick its foot into it when the whistle sounded. On Friday every week, the empty cans throughout the town were collected and delivered to the elephant shack by truck. All kinds of cans—beer cans, soups cans, seaweed cans—were piled up in front of the elephant shack. The elephant keeper tossed into this concrete pipe three-buckets worth of empty cans, and blew the whistle. When the whistle sounded, the elephant stuck one foot into it, and with a loud crunch crushed the empty cans flat, changing them into a single flat piece of metal.

I’m not really sure why the town came up with such a troublesome way to deal with empty cans. If they took care of the cans with a compressor, some-thing like this would finish in an instant. They didn’t have to go so far as to employ an elephant.

Ultimately, I suppose the town wanted to estab-lish a raison d’etre for the elephant in some shape or form. That’s the only thing I can think of. This has to be precisely why the town went to all the trouble of creating a job no one could consider effi-cient for the elephant.

However, at those moments when the elephant and the elephant keeper were crushing cans, they looked very happy. When the elephant keeper blew his whistle, the elephant would promptly put his foot into the pipe and flatten the cans.

Sometimes, I would forget to throw away my empty cans on Friday, and on those occasions I would always take the empty cans to the elephant shack on my own. On Mondays and Tuesdays, both the elephant and the elephant keeper were idle, so they would crush only my empty cans just for me. Once, I had the elephant crush a dozen empty Hei-neken beer cans all together. At the sound of the elephant keeper’s whistle, the twelve Heineken cans turned into one spectacular green sheet. That green sheet shined brilliantly with a glitter like the plains of Africa seen from the sky beneath the sun in May.

By Murakami Haruki

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 06:14:43 GMT

Wow, I haven't written anything here in two years.... What gives?

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Tue, 02 May 2006 11:08:58 GMT

Summer Session to Begin

I know its been a while for this class to actually have a session. Been kinda busy. but I have been thinking about the story Snow Country by Kawabata quite a bit lately, and wondered if any of my former students would like to participate in a discussion. If you're interested, read the book--it's easily available at any bookstore and library--and let me know. Class begins around the middle of May...

How to read: Snow Country is a story about how modernization and urbanization has dulled Japan's national spirit and identity, and one man's subconscious effort to try to restore it within himself. As you read it, pay attention to how the main character, Shimamura views the snow country and its inhabitants. Be extra careful of the imagery that might suggest Japan, particularly its flag, and how these images relate to national spirit and rejuvenation.

Former Students
Sei Shonagon (Sleeping Cutie)	Kamo no Chomei (Sammy Storm)	Ono no Komachi (Detachable)	Murasaki Shikibu (Bane Vixen)	Fujiwara Kinto (Ddsb 2000)
Izumi Shikibu (Japblkgrl)	Ex-Emperor Gotoba (Barb Eric_Bojo)	Sugawara Michizane (Ca1boy)	Minamoto Toshiyori (Takunishi79)	Fujiwara Ietaka (Guest)
Michitsuna no haha (Jerjonji)

Monday, April 24, 2006

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 09:58:32 GMT

To all my students, current and former

Hope all of you are fine. Life in DC and at school is the same. Students come, students go. Ho hum... But you should know that the number of Japanese majors has increased dramatically. Last year we had 10 graduating majors, this year we have eight seniors, eight juniors and nine sophomores. I think we do pretty well for just two full-time faculty. Of course, we are exhausted most of the time.

Anyway, please get in touch with me by clicking on the email link on this Jakuren site. Since our school discontinued the e-mails of all graduates, I feel as though I have lost contact with most of you. If you're a current student and you have a non-school e-mail account, contact me too, so I will not lose you after you graduate. Please get in touch. And I will contact you from my special, super-secret, non-school sensei e-mail account.

XXOO Your sensei

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Tue, 15 Nov 2005 16:43:47 GMT

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Monday, October 31, 2005

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 20:21:19 GMT

「フリオ・イグレシアス」

ぎょ！もっと早くポストするつもりだったけど、色々忙しくて遅れた。ごめん、ごめん。

さて、「フリオ」の話はちょっと変だっただろう。人ひと食ぐい海亀なんて、変な話しだろう。しかし、この話の中では海亀はカメじゃないかもしれない。

かも、かも...

はい、質問だ：海亀はカメじゃなかったら、何だと思う？話の中の海亀のすることを考えるように...　たとえば、昼寝する。夜中に出かける。蚊取り線香がきらい。フリオもきらい。

フムフム、簡単すぎるかな？

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Tue, 20 Sep 2005 21:30:08 GMT

「エレベータ」

村上春樹の超短編ちょうたんぺん小説、「エレベーター」の主人公しゅじんこうはエレベーターに乗ったら、靴下を忘れて、困こっていたが、脚の綺麗きれいな若い「女の子」が彼を自分の所へ連つれて行って、ソックスを上げた。さて、春樹はどうして言葉を変かえたと思いますか？つまり、「靴下」という言葉ことばはどうして「ソックス」になった？

Vocab: 超:super　短編:short (edition)　言葉:word　変える:change　つまり:in short.　

「エレベーター」
村上春樹、『夢で会いましょう』（講談社、1986）より

「御利用階数をおしらせ下さい」とエレベーター・ガールが言った。

「一七六階」と中年の男が言った。

「一七六階、かしこまりました」

「三二八階」と若い女の子が言った。とても綺麗な脚をしている。

「三二八階、かしこまりました」

「四一三階」と僕は言った。

「申し訳ございません」とエレベーター・ガールは本当に申し訳なさそうに言った。

「このエレベーターは三九〇階どまりなんです」

「弱ったな」と僕は言った。「四一三階に靴下を三足忘れてきたんだよ」

「それでは私のところにいらっしゃいな」と綺麗な足をした若い女が甘い声で囁いた。「三二八階だけど、靴下くらいならあるわよ」

　望むところだった。

　彼女の部屋はとても素敵だった。照明も家具の好みもＢＧＭもエア・コンディショナーのきき具合もカーペットのやわらかさも、全てが理想的だった。まるで僕の好みを前もって調べあげていたみたいに、何もかもが僕にぴったりだ。もし僕がジェームズ・ボンドであったとしたら、これは何かあるなと疑うところだけれど、幸いなことに僕はジエームズ・ボンドではなかった。マイク・ハマーでもリュー・アーチャーでもフィリップ・マーロウでもマット・ヘルムでもない。平凡な市民であるというのはなんと素晴らしいことであろうか。

　我々はよく冷えたシャンパンをすすりながら、音楽やら文学やらスポーツやら熱帯魚の飼い方やらについて何時間も語りあった。彼女の好みと僕の好みは奇跡的と言ってもいいくらいぴったり合っていた。ただ四一三階に残してきた三足の靴下だけが僕を少々苛立たせていた。

「そうだ、靴下だったわね」彼女はそう言うと僕の手を引いて別室に案内し、マホガニーの大きな洋服ダンスのひきだしを音もなくするりと開いた。そこには二百足に近い色とりどりのソックスがきちんとまるめられてまるで宝石のように並べられていた。

「お気に召して？」

「素敵だ」と僕はため息をついた。「なんて素晴らしいんだろう」

「もしお望みなら、これはみんなあなたのものよ」

　僕は彼女をひきよせ、唇をかさねた。彼女のナイトガウンがはらりと床に落ちた。

　そんなわけで、今僕は二百足の靴下を持っている。

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Thu, 08 Sep 2005 16:44:56 GMT

最初さいしょの質問しつもん

「コーヒー」という話のなかで、主人公しゅじんこう (hero/main character) がおもしろい看板を見た。畳六枚くらいの大きな看板で、おまけにちょっと上を向いていたのだ。

さて、質問です。あなたが見た、一番おもしろい看板は何ですか。

僕が見た、一番おもしろい看板は、ラス・ベガスで見た。あるカジノの看板だと思うけど、大きなネオンのカウボーイがヒッチハイクをしているように上から僕たちを呼よんでいる。

If you want to read this same entry vertically, go here. To view it correcctly, you must use Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher.

Thursday, April 28, 2005

Thu, 28 Apr 2005 02:30:25 GMT

Kokoro

So we're talking about Kokoro. What happened in the Meiji period? Chomei?

(Sammy) The Meiji period was a period of social upheaval in Japan, as old traditions and systems faded away and more "Western" styles took their place.

Indeed, Meiji was Westernizing But was Sensei truly modernized? Did he want to be be? Ietaka?

(Grom) Perhaps there is some sort of relationship between the Meiji-period westernization and Sensei's half-traditional, half-modern kind of way? Modernization brings with it individualism and a disconnect from old style community/strong families ties in life?

Are you asking us or telling us? Just kidding? Haha. Anyway, I think you're onto something. What might the individualism you speak of do to Sensei?

Sensei is lonely because he has lost something comfortable. That "something" is the familiar society and culture of the pre-Meiji era. Sensei is capable of adapting but ultimately chooses not to because he cannot really accept the changes and still remain true to who he is.

Sensei "chooses" not to adapt? So you're saying that his true self is actually traditional Japan and not the evolving Japan? Michitsuna's Mom.

(Jerjonji) The polarization of the choices between modern and traditional life meant that the loss he was feeling was very real. The world was changing and he no longer found himself comfortable in it.

So how is this modern changing world related to the lonliness he expresses?

Walking around in a big city you are surrounded by people, all of them strangers, and that is the loneliness of modern life.

So just by living in the big modern city made him lonely? Mom?

Isolated by the choices he made and the loneliness of the modern life, the sensei makes an effort to adapt, but emotionally, he is lost in the past! imho...

I guess the isolation he felt made him lonely. And quit talking in acronyms... (imho, sheesh!) Anyway, is there a difference in the way the characters act in the city and in the country?Chomei?

The narrator seems more passive when he is away from Tokyo, as if he is just going along with the "antiquated" way of life around him. In Tokyo, he is more active and shows a tendency to distance himself from the old world.

Indeed. I think he held Sensei in high esteem because he saw him as representing the modern world of Meiji. And he wanted so badly to become the modern man. But in a way, the narrator seemed blase as well. Why would he look up to Sensei when Sensei was so obvioiusly ambivalent to all the trappings of the modern world: money, status. Anyway, before we continue, any last thoughts? Ietaka?

It is kind of strange how when sensei is first introduced, it is mentioned that he is with a foreigner. What is the significance of that!

Isn't that at the heart of the novel? The Japanese male trying to be modern? And back then, being modern meant being Wester. So to be seen with him--especially in a casual setting like the beach, instead of a formal setting like a school or government office--meant that he was truly modern, rubbing elbows with the representative of modernization, a Westerner...

Okay, for the next class, consider the following questions.

In his letter, Sensei seems to have expected to become modern, studying at the university. But he was deceived by his uncle--perhaps a bad representative of how Japan was trying to moderninze, one who focused on prestige, money and social advancement. Did Sensei change and how?
How does K fit in? What kind of family did he come from? Why was he sent to college? What did he actually study? Remember: Think modernization (West) versus tradition (Japan).
Think of what happened between Sensei and K. What did Sensei's actions represent? And what did K's ultimate demise mean?

See you next class! (It's time for me to get back to my real work.)

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Tue, 26 Apr 2005 02:06:05 GMT

Kokoro ‚±‚±‚ë

So who read Kokoro? The story was in three parts and the theme of the story, I think, is the sorrow of seeing Japan modernize at the expense of traditional Japan. Sensei seems to represent the spirit of Meiji. Maybe some of you can tell me what that spirit is.

What happened during the Meiji period?
Sensei seems to mention loneliness and modernization in the same breath more that a few times. What might this suggest?
How does the narrator act when he's in Tokyo (modern) as opposed to when he is back home (traditional)?

Anyway, if you read the book, leave your thoughts of concerning these specific questions. We will turn to Sensei's letter later. And I will return here and consider detachable's and jerjonji's comments--htey left them quite a while ago--as soon as possible.