It may not be a bad idea if I post a bit more of my Japanese writings. Such is the idea that came to me. For this publication, I’ll though skip literary or analytical ones of mine. So, what would be? came newly to me as a wondering question. Let me begin with the page “About” which I’ve recently been working on.
On “About” (which is overly assertive in its redundancy, so sorry), I’ve been making different sections for clauses as my statements. One of them found in the section “Freedom and Rights” is:
As a private citizen of the US, I have my rights not to be an object of infantile thematization online, initiated by those who are sponsored by the perpetrators and who self-claim as friends of mine.
We’ll review it by dissections of the beginning part.
As a private citizen of the US: No problem. I’m a private citizen of the US. Legitimate and genuine.
I have my rights [for]: No problem as well.
not to be an object of: Okay. what’s next?
infantile thematization: Oh, wow, what’s this??
(my meal sculpture with its shadow: photo is reframed & rotated with 45 degrees)
**
Infantile thematization is not meant to be infants held by arms of parents with baby themes around as thematic. Neither is true for anything associable with real infants nor with gatherings of children, but only what I meant. When I said “real infants”, that suggests real infants as opposed to adults mimicking infantile behaviors. My “About” page on Juliette Masch Writes has an elaboration of “perpetrators” over my rights as the author of Juliette Masch Writes. How those and that “infantile thematization” carry relevancies to perpetrators will be understood or at least sensed if you go through the “About” section in the relevancy to it.
Below is the copy-paste of my electronic letter to my older sister. The style is quasi-formal that is very close to formal, which is not unusual for written communications in Japanese between two adults-siblings. Thematically, there appears the topic of infantile mimicries as social manners for unguarded interactions in emphasis, which could be a generational trait for Japanese women according to me.
Date: Sat, Oct 21, 2023 at 10:03 AM
Subject: 追記
To: [ 1 ]
さらに追記です。
[ 2 ] の [ 3 ] とは、勤務後に二人で食事をしたりなどの交友がありましたが、1992年頃の葉書を最後にその後の交流はありません。
私の年代とそれ以後の世代には、お姉さん達の世代の持つ真摯な切迫感がなく、むしろ幼児性疑似を社交潤滑油として通用させる傾向まであります。時には必須として。
[ 4 ] は根本的に幼児的でありながらも、老猾した計算的な粘着性をも持つ、見方によっては気味の悪い女性でした。
最後になった彼女の葉書には、“私は愛らしい”、という自己表現が赤裸々で、[ 5 ]と [ 6 ] の間の相互引力としてのただならぬ深い友情の理由が、私には即時に理解できました。
別信を続けます。
[ 7 ]
**
[1] : My sister’s email address
[2] : Proper noun indicating the francophone office in Tokyo where I worked.
[3] : Proper noun indicating the name of my female co-worker in the office.
[4] : the same as [3]
[5] : the same as [3]
[6] : Proper nouns indicating the name of another female co-worker of mine in the office.
[7] : My saying of another letter which will follow.
**
After the line “PS” preceded by the date, subject, address, the very first paragraph is to introduce [3] with whom I had friendly interactions after working hours. However, since the year 1992, I’ve had no contact with her and the last communication was a postcard I received from her is the ending line of this paragraph.
The second paragraph is my observation regarding the generational differences between my sister’s and mine. It could be, in other words, described as that being how far from the end of WWII when one is born.
The third paragraph is about [3]. Re-reading it today, I would change the adjectives for her, but I decided not to edit. [3] was, to me, fundamentally a woman with contrived infantile behaviors while being capable of conducting acts in manipulative calculations. So thus she could be said as freaky for me is what I wrote to end the paragraph.
The fourth paragraph is about the postcard I received from [3] in 1992 (or 1991). It is a brief paragraph, but saying a lot to my sister. Basically, [3] sent me her “I’m lovely, truly a lovely woman” statement, which newly made me realize that there is nothing common between her and me (this is unwritten in this way in the letter).
**
The second paragraph has a relevancy to this post mostly. The background should be understood as that WWII was the national catastrophe for Japan in many aspects. The more years one is born after WWII, the less one feels the intensity and urgency of generational dismay. Namely modern Japanese as gen post-war or gen even faraway post-war, for women in particular, childish loveliness, whether as self-mockerie partly or utterly serious entirely, became occasional social skills. In my knowledge, even women heading to their certain age range continue to adapt the infantile behaviors as a theme to themselves in Japan.
*****************
There is another email letter to my sister, in which several Japanese are mentioned.
Date: Fri, Oct 20, 2023 at 2:12 PM
Subject:
To: [ 1 ]
先の内容につき、追記です。お時間のある時にお読みください。
列記名の中に[ a ]という人がいますが、[ a ]とは過去数回会ったのみです。この人は[ b ]の親友で、明晰で美しい人でもあり、一時女優として短編映画の主演であったことも。その後、[ a ]の実兄だか義兄が、中国人に日本国籍を密売する犯罪[組織 ]に関わっていたこともありました。 [ b ]と[ a ]は私の同級ではありませんが、[ b ]とは日本風な表現によると、縁、があり、友人になりました。
[ b ]と[ a ]、そしてその友人連は、私に友達がいないと笑っていたようですが、[ b ]は悪い人ではありません。
彼女の亡父は東大出身の物理学者で、実家は飯田橋、本人は社交的な明るい女性。私は好んで付き合っていました。
良い機会なので更に書きます。
日本で男性との関係は、回想すると恋人と呼べる人は一人しかいません。[ c ]は当時早大生で私より一歳年少でした。とても短い恋でした。
お姉さんは[ d ]を高く評価していたようですが、あれは狡猾な悪い男で、別れることができたことは神の天命のような気がします。自分を誠実そうに見せる術にたけており、でもそれも地方から夢を抱いて東京に住む間、驚くべき速度で心が荒れてしまったからなのかもしれません。[ d ]に比べると[ e ]はすべての点で例外なく混乱状態にある人でしたが、優しい心と幸福を探しているような人でした。
これらの事柄についての返信はお気遣いなく、
いろいろと書いてしまいましたが。
*
[ 1 ] : My sister’s email address
[ a ] : Proper name indicating the best friend of [ b ]. Both are women.
[ b ] : with whom I was friendly.
[ c ] [ d ] [ e ] : Proper nouns indicating those who had known me. They are men.
**
After the first line, the reason for my inserting this email copy-paste into this space is read in the subsequent three paragraphs. [ a ] has been the best friend of [ b ] who regarded me as her friend for years despite my eccentricity. [ a ] and [ b ] have been truly close friends since their visual art high school which I also went to, whereas I was one year junior of their class; so, I did not know them at that time except I heard the name of [ a ] often and glanced at her at school several times, I believe, and I also heard the name of [ b ] because she was the best friend of [ a ]. [ a ] was a super star at this high school for grils. It was in Tokyo. I became a friend of [ b ] much later by chance.
In my whole life in Japan, I had met [ a ] only a few times. She was beautiful, intelligent, tall, and played in a short film as a leading actress when she was in her 20’s. I believe she later earned an architect qualification of the first rank. Also, her biological brother or her brother in law was involved with a criminal group selling Japanese nationalities to Chinese.
I further continued to write about [ a ] and [ b } to my sister. They seemed to have been laughing at me for my asocial life. Nevertheless, I liked [ b ] for her bright sociability and for her consistency of no matter what, I’m not pretentious nor snob at all down into the earth to be her attitude.
The last two paragraphs before the apologetic closing are about three Japanese men. I was in fact debating to myself whether I omit those paragraphs or not, but there have been so many talks, lies, rumors, and slanders about me that I came to realize it shouldn’t matter so much anymore. If any of you holds an interest to read about it, please bother yourself to translate the paragraphs in English or whatever language of yours.
****************************
In the beginning, I reposted a clause from my “About” page. In the end, I do the same.
*
Women, Japanese women in particular, who hold social media accounts containing my information as theirs with their voiceover as if mine are parts of the perpetrators’ organized crimes over me.
*
Women will save me, other women will. Women push me into a pit-fall, the same women. I extend my hands to them for a help. It may work. It may not.
“On ‘About’ and Mail” by Juliette Masch (5/27)
(I very slightly edited on 5/28)