Reviews for "Out of the East"

The average rating for "Out of the East" based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-06-05 00:00:00 Brian Jensen while it may seem just a collection of stories and remembrances, musings and fascinations of an outsider, sometimes hit and miss, deep down this book is a love story. not hopeless, romantic, platonic, fantasy, or unrequited, but intelligent love. this is love that analyzes, penetrates, compares, studies, digs, and tries to understand the other, physically, psychologically, and spiritually taking into account the differences of that other and, while never releasing his own identity, using it as both mirror and standard by which to question and reflect upon the truth and groundings of his beliefs and pre-conceived systems. i wish more people loved like Hearn... also my copy is a General Electric Company San Francisco office library book, last checked out in 1931 by a Miss Eluasm, printed on letterpress. it feels good in your hands, and may have tainted my view of the book. to borrow, inquire within.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-06-30 00:00:00 Deborah Burnley Lafcadio Hearn was probably as responsible as anyone for opening the Western mind to the ways of the Japanese, having lived and worked there, marrying a Japanese woman and becoming a naturalized citizen. He made his fame through translating Japanese ghost stories, but he also wrote a vast amount of essays and articles, with this being a collection of short, thoughtful pieces. He was a teacher, and he taught young men in conservative Kyushu, where the 'ancient samurai spirit lives on'. He set questions for his students, such as "My first day at school", "What do men remember longest?" and "What is most difficult to understand?". The snippets of answers he includes from their compositions give a fascinating insight into the differences between the Eastern and Western mind. Elsewhere he retells and then contemplates the meaning of a famous Japanese Faerie story over a thousand years old ('Dream of a Summer Day'), that of the fisherman Urashima Taro, who spared a turtle and was given the hand of the Daughter of the King of the Sea Dragon, but longed to see home again just once more. He also tells anecdotes about such things as 'Iki-ryo', ghosts of the living that can emanate from feelings such as anger or sorrow, and of lovers' suicide pacts, or 'joshi'. 'Of the Eternal Feminine' starts out to explain how the Japanese consider English novels "indecent" (it's nothing to do with prudery), then expands the argument to show how fundamentally different their idea of Art and Nature is to the Western norm. Similarly, in another essay he describes jiu jitsu, which literally translates as 'to conquer by yielding', then shows how Japan has used the same technique to assimilate Western ideas without imitating or being overrun by them. Finally, in 'A Wish Fulfilled' he meets a former pupil, now in the military and on the eve of going to the war with Korea. Their discussion reveals the views of a Japanese soldier at such a time, and as the title suggests he goes off to fight with a joyous heart. Often delightful, always illuminating.