It was in a movie theater where I spent the last few hours in Seoul. I was watching the movie "태극기 휘날리며"("Waving Taeguk Flag"), a movie which has got rave reviews that it challenges squarely one of the most sensitive subjects in Korean modern history: the Korean war. Put in one word, it does not or fails to do. Focusing on the two brothers thrown amid the war, the movie is trying to depict how the nation or ideology force people apart and make them crazy. Coupled with the familiar content, endless fighting scenes reminiscent of Hollywood war films make the movie a Korean version of "Saving Private Ryan." Perhaps my expectation was too high, and the issue, the Korean war, might be too heavy to be placed on a 'small dish,' the brotherhood. But if this movie is reviewed as the one representing Korean movie's new stage(as many movie critics are actually saying), I would be really skeptical of its future.
偶然手に取った夏目の散文集でいいものを見つけた。これは夏目が大学の講演会で自分の将来に希望と不安を抱く学生たちに語ったものである。
“もしあなた方のうちで、すでに自力で切り開いた道を持っている方は例外であり、もしそうでないとしたならば、どうしても、自分の鶴嘴で掘り当てるところまで進んでいかなくてはいけないでしょう。ああ、ここに俺の進むべき道があった、ようやく掘り当てた、こうした感嘆詞を心の底から叫びだされるとき、あなた方ははじめて心を安んずることができるでしょう。”(『私の個人主義』）
“自分の鶴嘴で掘り当てるところまで進んで”いって、“自分の底からの感嘆詞”に耳を傾ける。フム、響き深いなあ。
これも。
“私が文学を職業とするのは、己のためにする結果が偶然人のためになって人の気に入った分だけの報酬が物質的に自分に反響して来たのだと見るのが本当だろうと思います。もしこれが天から人のためばかりの職業であって、根本的に己を曲げて存在しなければならない場合には、私は断然文学をやめなければならないかも知れぬ。”
----From the Japan Times
"...China for the first time made available to the public a portion of materials from its diplomatic archives for the period between the founding of the People's Republic in 1949 and 1955. ...The roughly 3,000 files that have been made available account for about 30 percent of the 10,000 diplomatic files for the six-year period, or only 1 percent of the total of 330,000 files in the archives. ...Sensitive documents whose disclosure might impair the national interest or hamper China's relations with other countries are not being opened to the public. Thus, documents on the Korean War more than 50 years ago are still classified. Nevertheless, the partial opening is a step in the right direction and should be encouraged. It marks another move by China toward becoming a normal country."
Wow, this is definitely a great news to students who are studying Chinese contemporary history and its relations with neighboring countries. And maybe the mere possibility that documents on the Korean war COULD be opened might cost many Korean war historians thier sleep. I really hope that they won't stop at the first step.
高原先生の授業(現代中国の政治)で、良いことを聞いた。
“分からないっていうものほど気持ち悪いことはないんですと。そういう人いますよね。
だから勉強が大好きなんですみたいな発言があったんですけども。でもね、わかることがすごいことじゃないんですよね。世の中、わからないことに耐えることがすごいことなんですね。わからないことだらけなんですよ。だけども、それに耐えてね。自分としては、ま、今日の段階ではこのように考えていますよと。そういう感じじゃないんでしょうかね。”
ナルホド。。
from IHT ------
It was during a panel on narcissism at the World Economic Forum last week that a Yale University assistant clinical professor of psychiatry, Dr. Bandy Xenobia Lee, quoted the standard medical description of narcissistic personality disorder from the Diagnostic Statistical Manual.
A sufferer of this disorder is defined as someone who:
1)Has a "grandiose sense of self importance, e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements
2)Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance
3)Requires excessive admiration
4)Has a sense of entitlement, i.e. unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
5)Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes
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Conclusively he adds, "in light of current events, the diagnosis might at times be applicable to nations as well as individuals."