Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things by Lafcadio Hearn      Blog 3

In old western horror stories there is seems to be distinct rules of what is darkness. That the dead is pure evil or blasphemy and only brings misfortune to the living where in eastern culture death is part of life that creates a bond for their ancestral to the living and it is the responsibility of the living to appease the dead. In Japanese culture, the people pay respect to and honor the dead and the supernatural. It is more focus on how one should have virtue and to cleanse the evil that being good and evil are temporally states that people go through. In western horror, it depends on the point of view the readers are given and there are more obvious roles of who is good and who is evil and who will come out as the winner. In Japanese horror literature, it seems that the power or supernatural are channeled through human’s emotions and morality.

Examples in Japanese literature when there is unfinished business or a promise between two lovers or a strong emotion of hatred or love can created almost fairy-tale like stories where unusually and mythological events are taken place because of Karma. In western death is seen as the end of life as tragedy when someone loses a love one or got killed out of hatred or despair examples. Or reminding the living that death is caused by either being old, sick or violently killed. Japanese literature also has similar ways of one look at death as a lost but dying heroically would consider being a happy and honorable way to go and that is more focus on the Japanese stories. Where as the western focus more on the people’s negative take on death and the lost of the love one.

In Eastern culture the words that come out of our mouth are like a binding written contract or any writing or promise or oracle or foreseeing the future has magical forces working on it. That we humans must do what ever we can to appeased the spirit with not violence but with passive ways. That any creature be it human or animal have a spirit or soul that with certain power can will it-self to come back the dead. Playing on the theme on fate and destiny. On the ideals on family traditions on how a human should act and how dying is only another journey that should not be sad but be remember of that person’s good deeds. It is not death that is sad it is how you die and what you die for that it has it’s own meaning other than life ending. Those superstitions are not taken lightly. Duty is taken very seriously and if not kept in check can lead to dire and drastic consequences that may seem extreme to westerns ideals but in the eastern culture it is like an permanent engraved rule set in stones. The humans that start the evil stay evil until death in western horror stories and it is a psychological transformation. The eastern is more of not only the inside is corrupted but there is a physical transformation if one is tainted or impure in mind and spirit. The supernatural can be negotiated between mankind and the supernatural in Japanese lit. Where the western lit. has more of a battle to see who will triumph and be on top of the food chain.

 Eastern literatures express that it is natural for supernatural to exist and intertwine with life on Earth with mankind. But both Western and Eastern literatures agreed that the dead or undead possess great power and should not be taken lightly as it will bring more tragedy and misfortune. Western horror stories are more on human corruption creates monsters. Both moral stories dealing with human corruption of their own interpretation of monster or horror. The western focus more on human corruption and how it reflects on the monster created by its harsh situations. Where in Japanese stories shows what the ideals reflect on the culture of how to be a proper person and how being a good person will be rewarded or if one does a bad deed that person will be punished in a supernatural way, a moral lesson for readers.

The audition 1999 film seems to express that being single in Japan must mean it is unnatural and you are a monster. Abnormality revolves around people who are lonely which means you must be single and you will be cursed. Single young women are dangerous in most movies as a symbol of a temptress or damsel in distress that will burden the male hero. Sexist vibe of how a single woman has to be either a slut, stupid, or crazy and that a single man is honest and doesn’t fool around. This of course is supposed to be irony in that the woman is the predator and the man is the victim. Women get mistreated a lot in the movies have a very sick and twisted life to be a monster when they had people around them acting like monsters hurting them. Overall it was an interesting movie with very specific and obvious gender roles that seem popular in Japanese culture and many around the world  in literature and films.

Lit. of Horror fantasy and sci-fi      MLee