Nov. 12, 1996 (a)

Jan. 28, 1997 (a)

Column Index - Nov. 12, 1996

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Stéphane Mallarmé, sonnet, Club des Poetes (in French) http://www.franceweb.fr/ poesie/mallarm1.htm Keio University Home Page http://www.keio.ac.jp/ Deleuze & Guattari page http://jefferson.village. Virginia.EDU/~spoons/ d-g_html/maind-g.html

Recommending Anti-"escapism" - The Strenth of Being "Slow" Takaaki KUMAKURA Pecking at the "dojyou" pot (pot of cooked loaches) with a gourmet acquaintance In this column, I am asked to write about the latest trends of the medium of physical expression, mainly dance. However, because our means of reporting is on the Internet, and the articles are written in two languages, it is not meaningful to write about the Japanese performances of foreign dance companies. Therefore, I had been speaking about dance and other physcial expressions created in "Japan", which is one of the unique social and cultural environments which brings forth unique forms of the above art form. Since the genre of performing arts is highly event-oriented, there are times when there are no major performances for one month, or times when I cannot see any due to my personal circumstancs. It may sound a little like an excuse, but since there were no productions which excited me to write about them, I would like to introduce an interesting conversation I had with my acquaintance yesterday during dinner. This acquaintance mainly teaches French at a famous private university, but is originally an expert on Stéphane Mallarmé. He is quite an eccentric man - lately, probably due to studying "literature" too profoundly, he seems to have become tired of it, and to be interested in contemporary art, writing critiques related to this genre, and participating in mysterious artist groups' performances. Moreover, his hobby is "cooking" ( - it is said that his food is quite delicious). This private university where he teaches, was founded by the man whose portrait we find on the ten thousand yen note. The protrayed man was the person who advocated "departing from Asia, and discovering Europe". From this university, people such as Kafu NAGAI and Junzaburo NISHIWAKI also graduated, so maybe eccentrics like my acquaintance are not so unusual. The following is a story which he told while pecking at a "dojyou" pot at a restaurant in Takahashi, in downtown Tokyo (NB: In Japan, a small, eel-like fish are cooked whole in a pot.) Fatigue from being chained to the media "Recently, I feel strangely tired. Even when I'm at home, there's the telephone, fax, e-mail, the Internet...the brain and the body seem to be hooked onto the media all the time. I feel strangely busy even being at home. I also have a constant headache. Paul Virilio talks about 'information contamination', and it certainly feels like it. The brain and the body seem to be soaked in information from cell to cell. Above all, living in a city called 'Tokyo', the speed (of contamination) seems to be extremely fast. 'Tokyo' is probably the city where information distribution is the fastest in the world. Everyone, not only myself, is feeling overheated from information that rushes towards us at mesmerizing speed. I become worried what would happen to us if it becomes even faster. Akira ASADA (NB: A critic representing post-modernism in Japan) had written about the tiger which turned into butter, but when we realize, we might be like that tiger, saturated and melted. The strength of being "slow" Akira ASADA wrote a book titled 'Toso-ron' (Escapism). I feel this book worked to prepare this terminal situation in which we are in. Or, rather than ASADA himself, it may be due to the semiotics of 'escapism' created by journalism. It's like the image of running, running, and running away, faster than the information that pursues us. This, however, accelerates the speed of information even more. If it were the country of Deleuze and Guattari, the country of the origin of this idea, the rhythm of information is much slower than Japan, so the speed of 'escaping' can create a destructive force. However, in Tokyo, where it is fast in the first place, even if one were to compete in performative speed - excluding superior people like Akira ASADA - there is no means of winning. Therefore, in the environment called 'Japan', what creates 'power' is not to be 'fast', but to be 'slow'.I think it is the 'strength of being slow'. HIJIKATA, a dancer, stated that when he tried to grasp something in his hand, the memory of the hand revived continuously inside the hand, incapacitating him in the gesture of grasping. What I am talking about is a strength similar to that feeling. When I come to think of it, Deleuze and Guattari also stated the following - 'the biggest journey is found in the act of sitting down'." [Takaaki KUMAKURA/ French Literature, Contemporary Art]

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Nov. 12, 1996 (b)

Jan. 28, 1997 (a)