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和英特許翻訳メモ

便利そうな表現、疑問、謎、その他メモ書き。思いつきで書いてます。
拾った用例は必ずしも典型例、模範例ではありません。

Verses Frodo heard in a dream in Rivendell (Chapter 1: Many Meetings)

2025-05-28 21:49:37 | 読書日記
The following is a portion of verses from The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien:
 
"A ship then new they built for him
of mithril and of elven-glass
with shining prow; no shaven oar
nor sail she bore on silver mast:
the Silmaril as lantern light
and banner bright with living flame
to gleam thereon by Elbereth
herself was set, who thither came
and wings immortal made for him,
and laid on him undying doom,
to sail the shoreless skies and come
behind the Sun and light of Moon."
 
Translate it into easier, everyday English.
ChatGPT:

Sure! Here’s a simplified version of the passage in everyday English, while trying to keep the beauty and spirit of the original:


They built him a brand-new ship,
made from shining silver metal and magical glass,
with a bright front. It didn’t need oars
or sails on a silver mast.
It had the Silmaril as a glowing light,
and a banner like a real, living flame.
Elbereth herself came there and placed it on the ship.
She also gave him wings that would never fade,
and a fate that would never end—
to sail through the endless skies,
beyond the Sun and the light of the Moon.


Let me know if you'd like this made even simpler, or if you want background on who "him" and "Elbereth" are!

あなた:
What is "the Silmaril"?
ChatGPT:

The Silmarils are three legendary, magical jewels in Tolkien’s mythology, described in The Silmarillion, a book that tells the deep backstory behind The Lord of the Rings. They were crafted by the Elven smith Fëanor, and each one contained a portion of the light of the Two Trees of Valinor, which shone before the Sun and Moon existed.

They are incredibly beautiful and powerful, and because of their beauty, they caused great conflict, tragedy, and war. Many of the events in The Silmarillion revolve around the desire to possess them.

In the verse you quoted, “the Silmaril” refers to one of the three Silmarils, which Eärendil, a great half-elven mariner and hero, wears on his brow as he sails through the sky in a star-ship. The light of the Silmaril shines brightly and becomes a symbol of hope for the people of Middle-earth. In Tolkien’s world, this is essentially the evening star, which we know today as Venus.

So in short:

The Silmaril is a magical gem, shining with the ancient light of a lost world, carried by a hero who now sails the skies as a star.

Let me know if you'd like to hear the story of Eärendil or the making of the Silmarils!

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The Lord of the Rings: A Shadow

2025-04-01 22:51:00 | 読書日記
The following is a passage from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: A shadow now lay round the edge of sight, a dark haze above which the upper sky was like a blue cap, hot and heavy." I can tell that the "shadow" is the "dark haze" but cannot have a mental image of it "lying around the edge of sight". Is the "sight" the entire view one is able to see? What does "the edge of sight" mean? Is it the upper portion of what one is seeing?
ChatGPT:

In this passage from The Lord of the Rings, "sight" refers to the range or extent of what one can see — essentially, the entire field of vision. The phrase "the edge of sight" refers to the outermost boundary of this visible area, the farthest point one can see before the view becomes obscured or fades into the distance. It's not necessarily the upper portion of what one is seeing, but rather the periphery or outer limits of the visual field.

So, "a shadow now lay round the edge of sight" suggests that the shadow is present at the outermost edges of the observer's vision, almost like it is creeping into view from the farthest reaches, possibly starting to obscure the scene as it approaches. It's a poetic way of indicating that something dark is encroaching on the visible world.

Can you show me a visual representation of the passage?
 
ChatGPT:

 
Here is a visual representation inspired by the passage. It captures the contrast between the dark clouds and the clear blue sky, with a sense of something dark creeping into the edge of the view.
 
 
 
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Tranquil Ferry Lane: Turn Down the Lane

2025-03-17 19:14:44 | 読書日記

Frodo, Pippin, and Sam, after being served supper at Farmer Maggot's house, have been given a ride to the Ferry.   

Prompt: "They turned down the Ferry lane, which was straight and well-kept and edged with large white-washed stones." (The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien, Chapter 5: A Conspiracy Unmasked)

このturned down the Ferry laneの意味がどうもよく分からないのでチャット爺に聞いてみました。

The following is a passage from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien: "They turned down the Ferry lane, which was straight and well-kept and edged with large white-washed stones." What does "turned down the lane" mean? Did they turn after moving along the lane for a while?
ChatGPT:

In the sentence "They turned down the Ferry lane, which was straight and well-kept and edged with large white-washed stones.", the phrase "turned down the lane" means they turned onto the lane and began traveling along it.

It does not mean that they turned after already moving along the lane for a while. Instead, they reached the lane, turned in its direction, and proceeded along it.

The phrase "turn down" in this context is an older or more literary way of saying "turn onto", often used for roads, lanes, or paths.

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NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

2023-08-31 23:11:09 | 読書日記

今読んでいる小説、NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MENで、保安官がコーヒーを一口飲んで、カップをテーブルに戻す場面。

"The sheriff sipped his coffee and set the cup back down in the same ring on the glass desktop that he'd taken it from" (NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, Cormac McCarthy, Vintage International, 2006, Kindle, p.191)

"in the same ring"?  "ring"!??

(テーブルにリング状のフックみたいなのがあって、それにカップを引っ掛けた?いやしかしdesktop・・・分からない・・・)

想像力に長けた皆様方はすぐお分かりかもしれませんが、私はしばらく呻吟しても理解不能でした。

訳書を読んで、ハハァ!なるほど~!う~ん、そうかあ!

体を捩って納得、感動しました。

単語力ではなく、想像力の問題。

映画はまだ見てませんが、この場面はアップで映っていて欲しい。

訳文の工夫にも唸ることしばし。

小説っていうのはやっぱりこういうデテールが大事だよなあ、と改めて思いました。

邦訳:「ノー・カントリー・フォー・オールド・メン」コーマック・マッカーシー著、黒原敏行訳、早川書房、2023年。

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Grammarly (Life of a genius)

2023-04-06 13:55:08 | 読書日記

私の昔のアマゾンレビューのGrammarlyによる校閲(タイトルのLife of a geniousのスペルミスに今頃自分で気付いた;genius)

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The Housemaid:義務教育の英語は選択制でいい

2023-04-05 23:46:14 | 読書日記

I usually take more than a month to finish a novel, but this one, "The Housemaid" by Lisa McFadden, took me less than a week. I can't even imagine how anyone can think of a story like this.  A young woman finds work as a maid at a gorgeous, almost palatial house inhabited by fabulous husband and wife, with an adorable small daughter.  Everything seems perfect at first.  It was a rather slow-start, and initially I was wondering where it was going.  Also, being written in deceivingly simple English throughout, the first several chapters made me even think that perhaps this was not going to be such a roallercoaster ride of a thriller as advertised.  How wrong I was.  The story was exactly what the ads and a lot of people said it was: A page-turner, with jaw-dropping twists.  Rivetting!  Addictive!  Unputdownable!  Mind-blowing!!  I read this almost whenever I could for the past week, my presbyotic eyes literally glued to my Kindle Paperwhite with my glasses sitting on top of my head: on the train to and from work, during lunch break at the nearby Delifrance bakery/restaurant, as well as at home.  At one time during lunch I almost uttered a word out loud, a "Whaaat!?" or something like that.  The author is introduced as a practicing physician.  What a talent.  If you like to be entertained by a fast-paced psychothriller that makes your eyes open like a pair of saucers, this one's for you.

 

The Housemaid: An absolutely addictive psychological thriller with a jaw-dropping twist, Amazon.com.jp

 

上記のグーグル和訳:

私は通常、小説を完成させるのに 1 か月以上かかりますが、このリサ マクファーデンの「The Housemaid」は 1 週間もかかりませんでした。このような物語を誰がどのように考えることができるのか、私には想像もつきません。若い女性は、素敵な夫と妻が住んでいる豪華な、ほとんど宮殿のような家で、愛らしい小さな娘と一緒にメイドとしての仕事を見つけました。最初はすべてが完璧に見えます。かなりスロースタートだったので、最初はどこに行くのだろうと思っていました。また、全体を通して非常に簡単な英語で書かれているため、最初の数章では、宣伝されているようなスリラーのジェットコースターに乗ることはないのではないかとさえ思いました。私がどれほど間違っていたか。ストーリーはまさに広告と多くの人が言った通りでした。リベット!やみつき!計り知れない!驚くべき!!この 1 週間、ほとんどいつでもこれを読んでいました。眼鏡を頭の上に乗せた状態で、私の老眼の目​​は文字どおり Kindle Paperwhite にくぎ付けになりました。通勤の行き帰りの電車の中で、近くの Delifrance ベーカリー / レストランでの昼休み中、家でも。ある時、私は昼食時に「えっ!?」と大声で言いそうになりました。またはそのようなもの。著者は開業医として紹介されています。なんて才能でしょう。円盤のように目を見開いてしまうペースの速いサイコスリラーで楽しまれるのが好きなら、これはあなたのためです.

上記和訳のグーグル英訳:

It usually takes me over a month to finish a novel, but this Lisa McFadden's The Housemaid took less than a week. I can't imagine how anyone could think of a story like this. A young woman finds a job as a maid in a gorgeous, almost palatial house inhabited by a lovely husband and wife, with a lovely little daughter. Everything looks perfect at first. It was a pretty slow start, so at first I was wondering where I was going. It's also written in very simple English throughout, which even made me wonder if the first few chapters wouldn't take the thriller roller coaster ride that was advertised. how wrong i was. The story was exactly as advertised and many said. rivet! Addictive! unfathomable! AMAZING!! I've been reading this almost all the time this past week. With my glasses on my head, my presbyopic eyes were literally glued to the Kindle Paperwhite. On the train to and from work, during your lunch break at the nearby Delifrance bakery/restaurant, or even at home. At one point, I almost yelled, "Huh!?" at lunch. Or something like that. The author is presented as a medical practitioner. What a talent! If you like being entertained by a fast-paced psychological thriller that will make your eyes wide open like a saucer, then this is for you.

最早、最初から英語で書かなくても、日本語をGさん連中に英訳してもらって結果を手直しすれば良い。こんな便利な時代に、今更英語を勉強する必要があるのか?すでに音声翻訳もほとんどリアルタイムで可能らしいし、高い正確性が必要な場合のみ気を使って、英語のできる人が修正すればいい。義務教育で日本人全員雁首揃えて英語の勉強とか、もう不要だと思います。本当にやりたい人、必要のある人だけ熱心にやればいい。英語は独学も可能だし、教材は溢れている。義務教育の英語は選択制にすればいいと思う。

その代わり、選んだ人には集中レッスン、中学の文法内容は最初の半年で終了、あとはとにかく大量のインプットとアウトプット。去る者は追わず来る者は拒まず、いつでもドロップインアウト可。評価は外注。

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関係代名詞の省略(小説等)

2023-03-25 13:47:46 | 読書日記

会話体?

The Bone Collector, Jeffery Deaver, 1997, Hodder&Stoughton

"Yeah, but it was Polling [who] put the bug in his ear in the first place" (p. 225)

"Wasn't he the one [who] opened up traffic on the spot" (p. 209)

 

The Vanished Man, Jeffery Deaver, 2003, Simon & Schuster

"She was the one [who] let us in" (p. 91)

"I'm the one [who] called nine-one-one" (p. 129)

"It was the name [that] ruined it" (p. 194)

"He was the one [who] cleaned up the Eighteen" (p. 375)

 

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kotoba

2022-09-19 22:36:12 | 読書日記

kotobaという季刊誌を先日新聞広告で初めて目にし、NHK英会話で有名な大杉正明氏、杉田敏氏、遠山顕氏の鼎談があったので買って読んでみました。

大杉正明先生には大学生の時、大学主催の英語弁論大会において講演していただいた思い出があります。当時私はESS(英語会)に所属しており、渉外担当として大会の運営に携わっていました。先生には依頼の手紙を送ったり、駅から大学までの送り迎えなど行いましたが、案内の途上で先生が雑談混じりに「色々と苦労がありましてねえ・・・分かりますぅ~?」と言われたので、(松本亨先生、東後勝明先生の系譜を継ぐ立場としてのプレッシャーもあるだろうし、忙しいんだろうなあ)と思い、私はつい「はあ、分かると思います」と言ってしまい、「ああ、そうですか」と苦笑されました。

直前まで講演のタイトルが決まっておらず、当日になって「では、タイトルはLearning English the Hard Wayにしましょう」と言われ、即興で英語でご自身の英語学習体験などを語られました。

私が英語学習で最も影響を受けたのは大杉先生より大分前に活躍されていた松本亨氏の著作ですが、大杉先生のNHKラジオ講座もしょっちゅう聴いては暗記していました。番組冒頭の「Here with me are...」等、先生の上品な発音の響きが未だに明確に思い出されます。杉田敏氏の「やさしいビジネス英語」もよく聴いていました。「バーソンマーステラ」という、聞いたことのない明らかに外資系のなんだか凄そうな会社の社長という肩書と、「ビニェット」(vignette)という、「寸劇」(short literary sketch: Merriam-Webster Unabridged)を指す言葉が印象的でした。遠山氏の番組も時々聴いていて、少し高めの声を思い出すことができます。

あれから30年とは。

で、上記の雑誌ですが、大変興味深いもので、鼎談はもちろんのこと、他にも幼児の言語能力獲得についてや、私も瞬間的に参加していた多言語学習組織「ヒッポファミリークラブ」が少しですが紹介されていたり、「アイデンティティー」なる日本語は背骨が何カ所も折れ曲がった蛇みたいで気持ち悪いとか、漫画文化を知るならフランス語が一番とか、25以上の言語を学んだ楽しそうな作家さんの話など、面白い話が満載。「複数の言語を習得するほど新たな言語を習得し易くなる」との説もあるらしく、一度齧ったドイツ語やフランス語をやってみたくなりました。

kotoba、2022年秋号

 

日本の英語教育を変えるキーパーソン  石渡誠(上)東洋経済オンライン

日本の英語教育を変えるキーパーソン 石渡誠(中)

日本の英語教育を変えるキーパーソン 石渡誠(下)

安河内哲也、東洋経済オンライン

 

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Life of a genious

2017-04-08 08:19:11 | 読書日記

When I hold my iPhone, iPod, or iPad in my hands it occurs to me that it wouldn't feel so odd if I found the letters "SONY" on their back instead of the partially eaten apple logo. The "minimalism", "simplicity", "intuition over reasoning", etc., all sound familiar to me and probably to many others who grew up seeing and owning Sony's Walkman, CD players, headphones, speakers, and so on which, as I remember them, all seemed to prize those traits.

Many people have asked why couldn't Sony make those i-devices? The answers may be divisionism, bureaucratic organization, the company being run by great salesmen but not men of the product; but most would agree it's because of the genius and charisma of Steve Jobs himself.


Steve Jobs attributes "his ability to focus and his love of simplicity" to his training in Zen in his youth. His interest in spirituality and enlightenment may have partially been the product of the times: the Vietnam War coming to an end, winding-down of political activism at colleges, and increased desire for personal fulfillment --- the "enlightenment-seeking campus sub-culture of the era". But I guess he was born temperamental, focused, and with the gift of his now famous "Reality Distortion Field"; Zen training merely brought those traits into sharper focus and greater intensity.

The author of this well-balanced, highly readable biography laments his Zen training did not make a calm and serene person out of him. But I wonder, is that what Zen does to you? It seems to me that Zen, or its systems of mind-concentration training, is in a sense like the Dolby Noise Reduction system: it reduces noise while preserving the original sound; it makes you more like you truly are. In Steve's case, this may have resulted in his "nasty edge to his personality" which often wounded people around him.


In this 600 page-long volume exploring the life of a rare individual, Walter Isaacson gives us a sense of what it was like to be around Steve Jobs: His pain of having been abandoned at birth; his love of music; his legendary product launch events; his rivalry with Bill Gates; his compulsion for control; his eating habits ("Eating dinner at Steve's is a great experience, as long as ..."); and his passion for great design and obsession for perfection.

As I went through the major events of his life, from LSD to computer to animation to phones to music, from his childhood to marriage to being Apple CEO, and finally, to his illness, I was struck by his brutally honest nature; not only we see him abusing people around him, but we also see him crying and weeping quite often over professional matters as well as private ones.

The final pages where Steve talks about death was particularly moving. Does something survive after one dies? We all know that something do survive, that his passion, honesty, and genius manifest themselves around us daily and his legacy will live on in many of us.

A riveting book.

("Steve Jobs", Walter Isaacson; the review originally posted on Amazon Review in July 29, 2012)

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Lose some weight, Yngwie!

2017-04-08 08:12:33 | 読書日記

As in everywhere, when he made his debut in Japan in the early 80's, Yngwie was a phenomenon. He was admired, revered and copied by many, and he was also derided by many for lack of feel, labeled as an emotionless technique-monger, and hated by press for his arrogance; I guess that must also have been the same everywhere. And I agree with most of the other reviewers' opinions, like this is him at his best, an epoch-making album in the history of rock guitar, a gem, what he used to be, and so on.

What I want to say here is, Look at this album jacket! A guitar held up by an arm with the background of furiously rising flames!? I've never seen anything like it; its simplicity, unabashed demonstration of what he is and who he is, it just makes me admire him. The image unmistakably shows his pride as a guitarist who left his own country, Sweden, the land of Vikings, to the U.S., the land of freedom and dreams, with nothing but his guitar, in pursuit of his dreams and ambitions...this is Yngwie. I love him, and hate him.



His music on this album is just exquisite. The sound of his Strat, that dry and yet somehow rich, lustrous and even erotic tone, combined with his trademark flowing phrasing, is terrific. The dramatic songs, particularly Icarus' Dream, are simply amazing. You have to remember he made this 20 years ago, when he was 20 or so.

I just wish he would have the fortune of meeting someone who destroys his too-big an ego once and for all, so that he would come out as a born-again true hero for those of us who love him but cannot help hating him for his nowadays routine, uncontrolled, self-indulgent and sometimes even ugly solos.

(CD "Rising Force" by Yngwie Malmsteen, the review originally posted on Amazon Review in 2003)

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This is OK, but video is better

2017-04-08 08:08:38 | 読書日記

This is surely a great album and a must-have item if you're a Yngwie fan. I just can't believe the video (either VHS or DVD or LD or DVD-R) version is not available or even listed on Amazon.com. Or am I simply missing it? I'm referring to the Alcatrazz live in Japan in '84, entitled "Metallic Live '84". Was I privilaged to have seen the video, which I still own, in the same year in Japan?

I just checked out Amazon.com.jp, and the VHS video (no DVD is listed) is out of stock. Well, if you're a true Yngwie fan, you must see the video somehow: The CD is nothing compared to it. If you do, you'll see the young (20 or so), slim and very cool Yngwie on and off stage. There are several minutes of him practicing backstage and being interviewed. You'll see the (then) incredible fingering and picking; actually, it's far better than watching some of his instruction videos because camera work is great, heavily concentrated on Yngwie. You can see his face full of emotions, passionate, sometimes demonic, sometimes as if dreaming, and even smiling at some points. His play is sincere and terrific, partly due to the fact that, I guess, Japanese audience is relatively quiet in between songs and they don't go crazy and screaming even during songs.

Graham's vocal, much as I like and admire him, is not so good, unfortunately. Must have been tired. But you can listen to him singing Lost In Hollywood, which is not on the CD! But if you don't have access to the video, the CD is highly recommendable nonetheless.

(CD "Alcatrazz Live Sentence", the review originally posted on Amazon Review in 2003)

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Don't miss this gem

2017-04-08 08:02:48 | 読書日記

This is a live performance of the Japanese techno-pop group Perfume. You'll be amazed by the energy the three young ladies bring forth as they dance, and will be thrilled by the intelligent visual effects. They've been performing for more than ten years now.

Their popularity in Japan and abroad has soared to new heights recently after the opening of the movie Cars 2, in which one of their songs was featured. I can't describe the passion and the thrill I get from their performance well enough, particularly the almost sign-language like choreography and the visuals.

Check out their videos on Youtube for Game, Electro World, Secret Secret, Love the World, One Room Disco and, last but not least, Polyrythm, the song in Cars 2.

(CD "Perfume Global Compilation LOVE THE WORLD", the review originally posted on Amazon Review in 2012)

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Fascinating story of forgiveness

2017-04-08 07:55:37 | 読書日記

I usually don't like to read books or watch movies that are extremely highly praised because the hype raises the bar and I can't help approaching it with expectations. Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel for instance, as critically acclaimed as it was, was so long-drawn and flat to me I slogged through two-thirds of it and called it quits; the point of the book seemed so obvious -- that people and civilization flourish where the land is fertile and the weather is temperate -- the rest was details and the details were boring.

So I started this book by Laura Hillenbrand, author of Seabiscuit, with much trepidation. I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, this is about war and people in it and not as academic as the Guns, so maybe the two cannot be compared and perhaps I should not be surprised. But the difference was refreshing, and now I am one of the thousands of Amazon reviewers giving it five stars.

It's a story of Louie Zamperini, who ran in the Berlin Olympics in 1936, and who as a boy "wanted nothing to do with airplanes" found himself becoming the bombardier aboard a B-24, which crashes into the Pacific Ocean. He and two of his crewmen drifts on a raft, fighting death: thirst, starvation, burning sun, sharks, a strafing Japanese bomber, a typhoon, etc.

The book was written in short, crisp and powerful sentences and easy to read, even for a non-native English speaker like me. The story seems to be backed up by a great deal of research, interviews, and records. Virtually every detail seems to be referenced at the end of the book, page by page and line by line.

At some points, though, I couldn't help but stop and question some of the passages, like those referring to the Rape of Nanjing, or the circumstances surrounding the comfort women. I'm not a historian and I can't point out any errors in the book; I would just say that these issues are controversial.


The cruelty of the guards at the POW camps depicted here is staggering. The level of abuse, humiliation, and violence to which Zamperini and other captives were subjected is horrendous. They are beaten and clubbed daily, denied full Red Cross rations and clean water.

I could only feel sorry for them. But I feel like defending my own country and my own anscestors by saying these guards were and are not typical or representative of the Japanese, then or now: they were "the dregs of the Japanese military" and "quite a few were deranged," as Hillenbrand so impartially writes. And you must remember that in the wartime Japan, hitting and clubbing were an everyday occurrence in the military. Especially new military recruits were routinely beaten for minimal transgressions or mistakes.

Even to this day newspapers sometimes carry letters from WWII veterans and survivors, telling stories about the abuses inflicted on them by their own countrymen. It was a time of war, and corporal punishment was the norm. I just hope that the readers of this book, restrained as it is, will not jump to conclusions about the nature of Japanese as a people. By the same token, I tell myself not to hasten to generalize other nations' character by the acts of only a few of their folks.


After the book, I watched a CBS interview of The Bird, Zamperini's once arch-enemy prison guard, on Youtube.  He came across as an unhappy man not at peace with himself. His words and demeanor appeared to show a sad man who couldn't or wouldn't get it all over with. But then again, how would I have treated Zamperini and other POWs had I been one of the guards at any of the POW camps? I'm not so sure.

A fascinating and gripping story of forgiveness, and I loved this book.

("Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption", Laura Hillenbrand; the review originally posted on Amazon Review in Nov. 2, 2012)

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Title says it all

2017-04-08 07:43:57 | 読書日記

My interest in Japan's doomsday cult Aum led me to this book. I didn't know anything about religious cults abroad; the only name of a cult I'd heard of was the "Branch Davidians" of the U.S., its leader "David Koresh," and its demise in "Waco, Texas" in the 90's. The image of the group's compound burning was broadcast widely here in Japan too, and it's got stuck in my mind since.

As I started reading the book, which is about another messianic cult called "the Peoples Temple," I immediately began to notice similarities between Aum and this group: their teachings and the psychology of the disciples are very similar and sometimes even almost identical. Of course, that's why they are both called "doomsday cults". But what strikes me is that, even though there is the popular term "cult" and we are all supposed to know what it means, how we never seem to learn; how easily we humans continue to be deceived, made to give up our power of independent thinking, and turned into puppets or robots.


It's easy to say that what happened in the subway trains in the heart of Tokyo during the morning rush hour in 1995, and in the "paradise" in the Guyanese jungle of South America in 1978, were both caused by some crazy people. You might say, "Don't put your trust in anybody; think for yourself," or "If you didn't like it there, why didn't you just leave?" But I guess that's where things get tricky, as this book clearly illustrates.

Most of us do not, or do not want to, consider ourselves to be evil, unjust, or inhumane. And when we see evil, injustice, or inhumane realities, we want to change that, and when we see someone trying to do good, help the poor, or "change the world," we tend to want to help him or her, and that seems to have been the case with Deborah Layton, the author of the book.

It was 1970 when she met Jim Jones, the "remarkable pastor" of the People's Temple, a humanitarian self-help church to which her brother belonged. Jim Jones was fighting against prejudice, racial discrimination, and poverty. He was an important man doing important things; he even had a thank-you note signed by Ronald Reagan, then governor of California. So it's no wonder that a 17-year-old young woman, feeling insecure about her own racial origin and having troubles at school, who "wanted to become one with people who showed their anger, the poor, the working class, those who had experienced grief and misfortune," to be mesmerized by the handsome preacher, whom her brother described as living the Jesus' teachings.

She wanted to help, contribute, and find meaning in her life. She may have been a bit rebellious: in a British boarding school where she was "exiled," she throws a desk at a teacher in defense of her best friend accused of cheating. At another time she punches her fist through a window in frustration over being criticized for her American accent and chewing gum in classroom. But she was certainly not crazy. She joins the group after thinking a lot. She keeps asking questions, even after joining the Temple, about what she saw and felt. The independent thinking, however, was against the Temple's socialist doctrines and considered to be the sign of "capitalistic traits," punishable by being put on the "Learning Crew".

And once you join the cult, it's often difficult to get out because of the constant threat of retribution, or the physical location of the church or the temple. The members are obligated to report on one another, so they become suspicious of each other. There is also the "work": downing trees, clearing patches of land, burning debris, constructing log houses, etc., under the scorching sun and surrounded by bugs and mosquitos and what not.

The hard labor, lack of sleep, and meager diet are combined with the constant threat of attack from the CIA, which was often staged by the members themselves, and the followers are soon rendered incapable of thinking for themselves. The gloomy atmosphere is taken advantage of by the leader, whose initial, purported goal of righting the social ills or salvaging humanity, is now turned into maintaining his authority by any means, in the typical "end justifies the means" fashion.


The book was fast-paced and sometimes read like a suspense novel, especially towards the end where Ms. Layton attempts an escape from the jungle. The account is told with such vivid detail, particularly conversations. All in all, the book left me with the impression that this could happen to any of us, anytime, anywhere. People who are deceived, whether by the "it's me!" phone scams, pyramid schemes, or the religious organizations touting enlightenment or social justice, do not imagine they are being deceived until it's too late.

More than nine hundred people, including many elderly and children and babies, perished in the end. I think this is a highly recommendable book for anyone interested in knowing how a cult works, how its leader manipulates the minds of his followers, and how the followers themselves learn to deny their own thinking to conform to the group and please the leader.

("Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the People's Temple" by Deborah Layton; the review originally posted on Amazon Review in 2013)

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Asahara wasn't blind; he drove a car

2017-04-08 07:22:15 | 読書日記
I thought I knew enough about Aum, the doomsday cult led by Shoko Asahara, that bloated, sweaty looking fellow with full-length beard and mustache and long hair, a far cry from the image of a holy man, who was said to be blind (or half-blind):

The sarin gas attack of 1995 on Tokyo's subway system, which killed more than a dozen and injured thousands;
 
The Matsumoto incident, where Aum sprayed sarin to kill the judges handling cases against Aum, but instead killing many innocent residents and, through police incompetence, making a prime suspect out of a hapless man in the neighborhood, even though his wife was put in a coma by the gas and was dying;

T
he forced entry into the apartment of the Sakamotos, the lawyer couple fighting against the cult, killing them and their baby at sleep; and

Aum's bid to enter politics through their bizarre campaigns -- cult members, many surprisingly young and attractive women, singing and dancing, wearing identical Asahara masks. The devotees wearing headgear studded with electrodes -- the device for the "Perfect Salvation Initiation" that sends electric shocks to the wearer's head in tune with the guru's brain waves (which were once said to have indicated that Asahara was brain-dead) -- was a familiar sight on TV and in magazines.


But the recent capture of the remaining fugitives, one at the end of 2011 and the other two in June 2012, again put media spotlight on Aum, and I started reading books about them.

This book was full of details I didn't know about Asahara and what the cult was doing to the society and to themselves: Asahara's childhood marked with poverty and defeats; his opening of an acupuncture clinic and arrest in 1982 for medical fraud; his fascination with the spiritual and mysterious; signing up to Agon-shu, another new Buddhist sect, apparently to learn how to run a religious organization; starting of a small yoga school named "the Aum Association of the Mountain Wizards" in 1984, and its later transformation, via Asahara's meeting with the Dalai Lama in India, into "Aum Supreme Truth".

The group with the new name (Aum Shinri-kyo), which, according to another book, was suggested by a business consultant and that Asahara chose because it sounded like another very successful religious group in Japan, "Tenri-kyo", begins to attract an increasing number of followers -- some through coercion but mostly by devotion -- including many graduates of the nation's most prestigious universities. Branches were opened abroad. Aum USA was incorporated in the state of New York. The Russian branch attracted many recruits under the nose of the Kremlin.

The popularity fuels Asahara's megalomania, but the defeat in the election of 1990, in which none of the 25 candidates were elected -- not surprisingly -- is said to have made Asahara change course: from preventing Armageddon by encouraging people to attain enlightenment through the practice of yoga and other "initiations", which were nothing but money-making, LSD-induced hoax, to causing Armageddon to prove that they've been right all along, leading to the subway attack.


The depiction of the attack was vivid; how they prepared the bags of sarin for the morning attack; how the cult members were allocated to several subway lines; how the plan was designed and timed to wreak the deadliest havoc at the Kasumigaseki-station, where many government and police employees get off; and how the bags were held, dropped, and punctured with the ground-tip of an umbrella.

As a patent translator, I was intrigued to learn from this book that Asahara had an invention to his credit. I checked, and what came up was entitled "Fluidized bed type incinerator" (JPH05322145A), which "enable salts within material to be burned to improve durability of a fluidized bed type incinerator". It reads like a legitimate device but when you think about how Asahara's disciples disposed of the bodies of defectors or those who were defiant enough to think for themselves, I would say this is spooky.

Asahara was sentenced to death in 2004. Many of his top lieutenants have also been sentenced to die by hanging. Murai, chief scientist and one of the most trusted by Asahara among the leaders, has been stabbed to death in broad daylight. Asahara's mind is said to have since "completely degenerated": according to an account of a prison worker in another book, he wears diapers.

The crimes committed by Asahara and his cohorts cannot be forgiven, but I cannot help but feel a sense of sadness for the followers because, after all, they all appear to have been serious young men and women searching for meaning in life. Their biographies and autobiographies tell stories of intelligent and philosophical youth, dissatisfied with the material world around them, trying to find something more spiritual and peaceful. In this respect, what's the difference between them and Siddhartha Gautama before he became Buddha, or Christ?

One difference, obviously, is that neither Buddha nor Christ preached the gospel of Armageddon. Buddha preached the "Middle Way," avoiding both self-indulgence and self-mortification, and taught his disciples to respect the "Dharma" and not him personally.


The devotees of Asahara may have made the mistake of choosing the wrong teacher. Zen stresses the crucial importance of selecting the right master. There must have been, and there will be, many Asaharas, maybe not so destructive: religious practitioners turned con men with overblown sense of their worth. I wonder if it might not be helpful if we had more objective education on religion and cults based on history, particularly in view of the survival of Aum in the form of "Aleph" to this day.

("The Cult at the End of the World: The Terrifying Story of the Aum Doomsday Cult, from the Subways of Tokyo to the Nuclear Arsenals of Russia" by David E. Kaplan and Andrew Marshall; the review originally posted on Amazon Review in Aug. 31, 2012)
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