Satoshi Itoh - Harmony

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What Came Before

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« on: May 14, 2013, 09:54:31 pm »
Quote from: jamesA01


In one of the ThreePoundBrain threads I raved about this book and encouraged Bakker and everyone else to read it.

Instead of spoiling it, I'll just assure you that it's both a great piece of fiction and incredibly relevant to the concerns of the ThreePoundBrain crowd.

It's basically an elaboration of BBT, only it's not Bakker writing it, it's a Japanese SF author who died in 2009 and had likely never read Bakker. The novel was finished as Itoh lay dying in a hospital ward from cancer. It was the last work of a young talent that sadly left us too soon. 

I really really want to get some discussion going on this book. It presents a real challenge, not to BBT per se, but to the pre existing cultural metaphysical defaults that unconsciously affect our interpretation of it.

To be blunt - Harmony is how the other side of the planet grapples with the same reality that Bakker stumbles across. There's no 'heroic lone overman grapples with the cursed knowledge" shtick, there's no weeping for our precious souls. Instead there's a more, shall we say, practical engagement with the problem.

And this is what you'd expect from a culture that never believed in the self in the first place. Isn't the delusion of the self one of BBTs main findings? How come we never talk about the fact that eastern metaphysics, while being no match for science, at least never fell for many of the impoverishing delusions that we in the west are crying over losing?

I might be being a bit rude here, and maybe I've made a fool of myself and there is something about BBT that I don't understand and so this is a false equivalence. Either way, it's still a great novel that's worth discussing. I'm excited to see what you all, and hopefully Bakker, will make of it!

The kindle edition is on Amazon.

What Came Before

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« Reply #1 on: May 14, 2013, 09:54:38 pm »
Quote from: Callan S.
I'll put it onto my list of looking into's.

The TV show 'QI' suggested eastern culture would have gotten alot further if they hadn't had such awesome pottery - if they hadn't, they'd have to have worked with glass alot more - made glasses - made microscopes - etc. They were so far ahead that if their china wasn't so great, they'd be even further ahead.

What Came Before

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« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2013, 09:54:43 pm »
Quote from: Madness
I'll also work to pick it up. I remember reading your comment and it being harder for me to find here.

Quote from: jamesAO1
And this is what you'd expect from a culture that never believed in the self in the first place. Isn't the delusion of the self one of BBTs main findings? How come we never talk about the fact that eastern metaphysics, while being no match for science, at least never fell for many of the impoverishing delusions that we in the west are crying over losing?

I think you tread many of your own connotations here, james. People maintain a variety of conscious states the world over, both imposed on them by their culture and their history and come to by self-practice. I've noticed Buddhist states get mentioned regularly at TPB. Still curious as to what you were alluding to outside of Harmony?

What Came Before

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« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2013, 09:54:50 pm »
Quote from: jamesA01
Well there is an undeniable trend in western culture over the past few decades towards eastern ways of thinking. Many scientists, quantum physicists for example, say that the Buddhist view of reality is closer to their findings than anything else.

Buddhists were always suspicious about the self, they knew it was a fiction from day one. They are also less trusting of the sense data of consciousness. It's ironic that it was the West, with its blind faith in the self and empiricism, that came to create the science that undid its own previous religious assumptions.

I think the reason that BBT is so hard on us is because we grow up in a culture that doesn't even need to prohibit discussion of the impermanence and falsehood of the self because it can't imagine it. We view our selves as on a progressive path towards greater and greater maturity and enlightenment, yet BBT implies this is crap. We thought we were special, transcendent beings who step outside nature, and for whom external reality is an instrument to be shaped by our will. Yet if I read BBT right, these processes are all due to external causes.

Even if you're not a creationist, you still likely believe in the religious concept of creation without knowing it. Think of all the secularists who extort the beauty of art and culture, the way we mythologize the imagined selves who produce it. Yet BBT implies that our notions of authoring anything are a load of crap. There is no originality, and our thoughts are not our own, they are in fact sourced from our brains and the network of language and memes that circulate. We are deluded all the way down. It just seems obvious that for Buddhists and other eastern traditions, these pompous follies that we cherish were not there in the first place. That's why I think it's so humiliating for us, because we think of ourselves as superior to the rest of the world, yet our greatest accomplishments in science and technics are now undoing our very identities. It's like developing the worlds greatest pistol then shooting yourself in the foot with it.

As further proof of this here's a post that Graham Harman made:

A blog reader claims to have found this in a Japanese travel guide to the United States:

Popular “Polite Fictions” in the U.S.
– We’re all equals.
- You are interesting.
- You and I are individuals.
- We’re having fun.

Not only is that hilarious, it's further evidence that our culture is based on assumptions that are unique to us, not universal, and frankly bullshit. Obviously, I am not saying that Buddhism is the truth or any match for scientific inquiry. But it does prove that humanity can and has lived without so many of the culturally specific quirks that BBT does away with.

We can bend over backwards trying to prove that science is now telling us how to be interesting happy equal individuals but it's utter crap. Our culture developed the tools that humiliate and destroy its most cherished narcissistic fallacies! I think this is delightful and just want to rub salt in the wound!

What Came Before

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« Reply #4 on: May 14, 2013, 09:54:57 pm »
Quote from: Meyna
Well said, James. The crushing blow for me is that, even with the illusion laid bare in front of me, I cannot hope to own my thoughts.

Quote
'You cannot see the darkness that precedes your thoughts, but unlike most souls you know it exists. You appreciate how rarely you are the author of what you say and do…' He raised his shackled hands for a clap that never came. 'I'm impressed, Mother. You understand this trick the world calls a soul.'

What can I do but embrace the illusion and enjoy the ride?  8-)

jamesA01

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« Reply #5 on: June 24, 2013, 12:00:52 am »
So has no one bothered to read this?

Come on people! It's the closet thing to BBT in fiction you'll find that's not written by Bakker himself!

I can't be the only one fucked up enough to secretly cherish the world depicted in this novel as utopian even though it was intended to depict the opposite?


Madness

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« Reply #6 on: June 25, 2013, 02:44:02 pm »
I went looking again yesterday based on your post, james, and I believe I will have to order it online. Also, I discovered that this isn't the only book by Project Itoh?

It still looks interesting.
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jamesA01

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« Reply #7 on: June 27, 2013, 11:56:52 pm »
I don't know why they use the name 'Project' Itoh, his name was Satoshi Itoh. 'Project' I think is in reference to the English translators, but it makes it look like Project was his first name.

He wrote a Metal Gear Solid novel, a novel about the war on terror set in the future called Genocidal Organ and other novels, shorts and essays that have yet to be translated. He died of cancer shortly before completing Harmony.

I hope people aren't put off by it and think its some sort of half serious YA sci fi or something because it is more than that. It is probably the first novel to try and imagine what the state will look like after the technology that coincides with a mass cultural awakening to something like BBT. Obviously it is only a novel and you do get the impression that it was finished more hastily than it might have been had the author not been on his deathbed. I still can't recommend it highly enough!


Callan S.

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« Reply #8 on: June 28, 2013, 02:20:38 am »
I'd have thought the use of the word 'project' is a dehumanising one, in line with the BBT-like theme.

Madness

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« Reply #9 on: July 02, 2013, 03:34:18 pm »
In one review, I read that the </Project Itoh> is an homage to the hypercode (?) within Harmony? True, james?

I find it very interesting that he wrote the novelization of MGS4 - probably my favorite video game series of all time; I actually beat Sons of Liberty in Japan, in Japanese, as I was living there when it first came out. Genocidal Organ sounds interesting as well. I wonder if there is an omnibus version of Satoshi Itoh's works forthcoming?
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jamesA01

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« Reply #10 on: July 02, 2013, 10:38:47 pm »
Yep, there's code interspersed throughout the book. (I don't code so it has less meaning to me).

An excerpt:

<recollection>
I want to dance on the grave of those kind, healthy people
</recollection>

__

As for an omnibus, that depends on how well his books in English are selling. I know there are collections of essays and shorts that have not been translated. Hopefully someday we will get to read them.

If only this guy had read Neuropath or lived long enough to comment on the BBT posts!

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« Reply #11 on: July 03, 2013, 12:38:14 pm »
Lol, or I could just demand that my sister teach me Japanese and read them in the original tongue :). I promise, james, one day I shall find and read his books.
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« Reply #12 on: July 04, 2013, 12:09:15 am »
I don't get what's taking you all so long, it's right there on Amazon! Maybe you all have jobs or something.

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« Reply #13 on: July 04, 2013, 02:00:14 pm »
For years and years, I avoided most kinds of online payment and credit cards as the ease and convenience is addictive. It was only when Bakker started accepting donations that I actually got a paypal account linked to my debit and recently got a Canada Post reloadable Visa to book some plane tickets.

However, I maintain a strict policy of only ordering books that I absolutely cannot find anywhere because otherwise I would literally spend all my money on books (as it was up until a month ago, I was spending almost $100 on books, in person, at bookstores, every couple weeks - I can't afford more than that).

That said, I'm actually going to order it after the weekend. I'll have it soon, james - I can't speak for the rest of these lurkers ;).
« Last Edit: July 04, 2013, 02:02:10 pm by Madness »
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Madness

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« Reply #14 on: July 04, 2013, 10:20:07 pm »
Let me preface this with a Lol: I'm a person who likes to embody and express my emotions.

So I went into Chapters today after my move back to town and found Itoh's MGS4 novelization on the shelf, all alone. I read a few paragraphs (realizing it is a translation) and found myself liking the ad-lib knowledge-drops Itoh had added to the game's story (reflecting real-world history; one the first page he mentions that Hitler instituted the first nationwide tobacco ban in history - though he couldn't keep his soldiery from indulging). In the afterword by Hideo Kojima (the series creator), I learned that, apparently, Itoh and I have a common love for the MGS series: Itoh ran a fansite for MGS, wrote many poignant articles on the games, and, ultimately, met Kojima shortly before the release of MGS2. Kojima is a very private man concerning his fandom yet Itoh seemed to touch his heart and when Itoh was first diagnosed with cancer in 2001, Kojima who'd made a game of following Itoh's fansite to ensure he was satisfying his #1 fan, went to visit him in the hospital.

I won't relate the entire tale (of a few pages) - though it involves Itoh promising Kojima he wouldn't die until MGS2 was released - but as I sat there quietly crying in between the rows of books finishing Kojima's afterword, I realized I'd been introduced to an author, another soul, who will satisfy me in a very specific and personal fashion (Itoh's own afterword simply cemented that feeling).

Needless to say, I left with Itoh's MGS4 novelization and an order confirmation-slip for Harmony. No doubt I will be purchasing Genocidal Organ soon enough.

Thanks for your persistent insistence, james. Cheers.
« Last Edit: July 04, 2013, 10:25:10 pm by Madness »
The Existential Scream
Weaponizing the Warrior Pose - Declare War Inwardly
carnificibus: multus sanguis fluit
Die Better
The Theory-Killer