An essay on a travel site, describing the Japanese.
Japan has taken the worst of the West and discarded the best. So it has democracy without individualism. It has freedom of speech but is too frightened to say anything. It makes without creating. And, saddest and most telling, it has emotion without love.
Posted by Owlish at May 1, 2006 10:47 AM | TrackBackWow. That was one of the bitterest, most vitrolic, lopsided, condescending articles I've read in a long while. He best watch that rather wide, tar covered brush - they tend to splatter all over you when you use them.
Posted by: Suzi at May 1, 2006 02:35 PMI think it's a brush he's used to wielding. For instance, his take on California:
LA is a suburb in search of a city, a ramble of stupid, gullible bricks and plaster that got misdirected. Extraordinarily, there is not a single man-made thing that is a recognisable icon of the place, no Eiffel Tower, no Big Ben, no Empire State Building. It is the only major city in the world that doesn’t have a postcard image, except for that cheap billboard saying “HOLLYWOOD”, like a name tape sewn into a pair of school knickers, as if Los Angelenos might from time to time look up to remind themselves where they are.
Posted by: owlish at May 1, 2006 02:54 PM