Cut a B
Oh my god. Just got back from Day 2 of a butoh symposium. I was there from 11AM-9PM, and I missed the opening two speakers >_<. I have lots to tell but let me just say first that during the reception I made the mistake of speaking to this one woman who made me so fucking pissed off I almost totally lost my shit. She was a Geography grad student when I used to go to UCLA so I was excited to connect with her, but she spoke as though she were insane. She raised a point during group discussion that through butoh's dark practices, we have learned lessons through movement about how the body takes in the trauma of war, of pollution, etc. She asked, "how can we use those lessons towards something productive, like working towards peace?" (My most recent interest in art is how to change my feeling that art is simply bourgeois excess, so her question really engaged me)
I was asking her for more about it, expecting it to be about war but she basically was talking about how the only thing that mattered, and that what all American wars right now had to do with, were nuclear power plants, and that Americans don't know this. I said I was not against nuclear power and she said, "THAT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE IGNORANT." Caps because she was so loud that the people around me and I were shocked.
She said, "the Japanese know that nuclear power is bad, because they read the news in Japanese and English and they know" (She's from Tokyo). I said that the majority of Japanese did NOT speak English and that they passively went with the political flow of media, like in other countries. She just kept getting more furious and saying, "No you don't know, like every other American, because you just read the American news and you are ignorant because of it." AHHHH SO MUCH RAGE PULSING THROUGH MY VEINS! I actually read the New York Times, Le Monde and Asahi Shinbun (of course translated since my Japanese is not so great) so I was fucking pissed. There were a lot of considerations.. like the fact that Japan's lack of power has inhibited their reconstruction. Also, in jobs like firefighting, there is a certain necessary risk involved (including increased risk of cancer), but we need firefighters. I also told her that the Japanese reaction is largely reactionary to the immense nuclear crisis.
I said to her, if you think I'm so ignorant, why not explain why?? You know, you kept talking about butoh being used for something productive, like communicating something complicated, so why can't you explain to me? And then in Japanese said, "じゃ説明すれば" She was fucking pissed. (This has happened to me once before where I'm so angry with someone that happens to speak Japanese that I say something rude in their own language. The other time someone entered my room mate and my dorm room in the middle of the night in Japan and I shouted "ANTA DARE")
She was furious but started to realize she was acting like a sociopath, so she started to calm down and talk about how the surrounding areas get radioactive materials leaked, and how those effects are downplayed and/or censored by the government. We both agreed we want our governments to work towards other power forms, such as solar, and that there were other problems out there worth focusing on that don't get attention (which was my original point about why I don't think stopping all nuclear power plants immediately should be the main focus), such as the use of plastics. The main point she wanted to convey was that plastics come from oil, and nuclear power comes from iranium, toxic materials that come from the earth and that politics move towards using. Then ironically she said, "why can't diplomats make decisions with words anymore?" HA HA HA. To which I replied, "did they ever? Every nation always acts in a way that's favorable to their own interests, though they used to couch it in more interesting language" (or something less articulate, but to that effect). It was really fucking tense when we parted ways. She apparently is not affiliated with any school right now and she didn't volunteer what she did right now. I kept thinking back about how she was wearing this weird baggy t-shirt with a very big stain on the front of it.
I will have more to say later.. tomorrow is all dance workshops and they were really welcoming to beginners like myself, so from 9:30-5:30.. dance, dance, dance!!
I was asking her for more about it, expecting it to be about war but she basically was talking about how the only thing that mattered, and that what all American wars right now had to do with, were nuclear power plants, and that Americans don't know this. I said I was not against nuclear power and she said, "THAT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE IGNORANT." Caps because she was so loud that the people around me and I were shocked.
She said, "the Japanese know that nuclear power is bad, because they read the news in Japanese and English and they know" (She's from Tokyo). I said that the majority of Japanese did NOT speak English and that they passively went with the political flow of media, like in other countries. She just kept getting more furious and saying, "No you don't know, like every other American, because you just read the American news and you are ignorant because of it." AHHHH SO MUCH RAGE PULSING THROUGH MY VEINS! I actually read the New York Times, Le Monde and Asahi Shinbun (of course translated since my Japanese is not so great) so I was fucking pissed. There were a lot of considerations.. like the fact that Japan's lack of power has inhibited their reconstruction. Also, in jobs like firefighting, there is a certain necessary risk involved (including increased risk of cancer), but we need firefighters. I also told her that the Japanese reaction is largely reactionary to the immense nuclear crisis.
I said to her, if you think I'm so ignorant, why not explain why?? You know, you kept talking about butoh being used for something productive, like communicating something complicated, so why can't you explain to me? And then in Japanese said, "じゃ説明すれば" She was fucking pissed. (This has happened to me once before where I'm so angry with someone that happens to speak Japanese that I say something rude in their own language. The other time someone entered my room mate and my dorm room in the middle of the night in Japan and I shouted "ANTA DARE")
She was furious but started to realize she was acting like a sociopath, so she started to calm down and talk about how the surrounding areas get radioactive materials leaked, and how those effects are downplayed and/or censored by the government. We both agreed we want our governments to work towards other power forms, such as solar, and that there were other problems out there worth focusing on that don't get attention (which was my original point about why I don't think stopping all nuclear power plants immediately should be the main focus), such as the use of plastics. The main point she wanted to convey was that plastics come from oil, and nuclear power comes from iranium, toxic materials that come from the earth and that politics move towards using. Then ironically she said, "why can't diplomats make decisions with words anymore?" HA HA HA. To which I replied, "did they ever? Every nation always acts in a way that's favorable to their own interests, though they used to couch it in more interesting language" (or something less articulate, but to that effect). It was really fucking tense when we parted ways. She apparently is not affiliated with any school right now and she didn't volunteer what she did right now. I kept thinking back about how she was wearing this weird baggy t-shirt with a very big stain on the front of it.
I will have more to say later.. tomorrow is all dance workshops and they were really welcoming to beginners like myself, so from 9:30-5:30.. dance, dance, dance!!