This is a book about all the weird words and phrases that the creators of Japanese Sci-Fi have made up over the years. What is a "Specium Beam?" Why is Godzilla's rival called "Rodan" in English and "Radon" in Japanese? Is there a precedent, in the English idiom, for naming cyborg grasshopper-people? All of these questions and more are answered in this, my first attempt at a Japanese book.
- by Matthew Fargo (Media Factory, 07/2003)
This book, along with "Dirty Italian," will be the first two books in Ulysses' "Dirty" series of slang books. I've done everything I can to include all the dirtiest slang and still make it useful.
- by Matthew Fargo and Seigo Nakao (Ulysses Press, 10/2006)
The great Terada Katsuya discovers the simple trick of symmetricizing digital photographs, the turns it into a whole new aesthetic. Along with Ito Gabin and Sutapa Saito, Terada quickly turned John Symmetry into an internet phenomenon.
- by Terada Katsuya, translated by Matthew Fargo (Raputa, 06/2004)
Essays on Japanese literature (DOC format)
Essay: Professor Zephyr and Doctor Octopus
Sakaguchi Ango's story "Professor Zephyr and Doctor Octopus" is an allegory of Socratic irony. Or at least, that's what this essay suggests, in an ironic tone of voice. Kierkegaard is turning over in his grave.Master's Thesis: Oda Sakunosuke and Sasskay the Flying Chimp
Toward the end of World War Two, when all of Tokyo and Osaka were ablaze from American firebombings, a mathamphetamine addict with chronic TB named Oda Sakunosuke wrote a radio drama called "Sasskay the Flying Chimp." Even though the broadcast was interrupted by airraids, it was a hit with the audience, and was later published as a novel. It's still one of the funnies pieces of writing in all Japanese literature. But why in the middle of a war? Are puns somehow related to real violence? This essay attempts to answer these questions, while bombarding you with a lot of corny jokes.