Our George Orwell comic book is on a half price sale now, at the publisher’s website. Just until Dec 1st. Nice!
Some pages from our graphic novel THE MANY NOT THE FEW are in the May 2022 newsletter of REAL UTOPIA.
And who are they?
“We are an open, participatory, international network with members from all walks of life.We are all committed to self-management and participatory organizing and run our projects and teams along these lines.
We welcome anyone who wants to learn about and maybe even help to advocate for a participatory society. We aim to “plant the seeds of the future in the present”, by organizing ourselves using the methods we believe in.”
The newsletter can be seen here for free, with lots of interesting info in it:
Our book ‘The Minamata Story: An Eco Tragedy’ is the focus of this piece that has just come out in the ‘Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics’.
From two smart academics in India, Sathyaraj Venkatesan & Revathy Krishnan (2022):
‘On drawing graphic industrial disasters: an interview with Sean Michael Wilson’
ABSTRACT
“Of late there have been a plethora of graphic narratives which deal with industrial disasters—for instance, Adam Stone’s The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (2010), Nick Hayes’s Rime of the Modern Mariner (2011), Pablo Fajardo and Sophie Tardy Jouber’s Crude: A Memoir (2021), Helen Bate’s The Lost Child of Chernobyl: A Graphic Novel (2021) among others. These graphic narratives while remembering the industrial disasters also invoke issues related to social accountability, stir the erased chapters of ecological violence, and more importantly, tease out the tensions between the State records/archives and the testimonies/ memories of the affected community. In so doing, these graphic narratives, at once function as memorials that document, commemorate and globalize the sufferings of the victims. Published in 2021 and drawn in Manga style, The Minamata Story: An Eco Tragedy is one such graphic narrative that recounts the Minamata industrial disaster in Japan. Minamata industrial disaster (1956) was caused by the continual release of methylmercury to waterbodies from the factories owned by Chisso Corporation. In this context, Sean Michael Wilson, the author of The Minamata Story: An Eco Tragedy, in an email interview shares his views on graphic narratives on industrial disasters, Manga, and implications and social stigma associated with the Minamata disease.”
This is my first time in an academic text book. I have a chapter in this book coming out in May:
Cross-Cultural Studies: Newest Developments in Japan and the UK
Edited By: Prof Yumiko Hada (Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts, Japan)
My chapter is in the Culture section:
Some Characteristics of Comic Books in the UK and Japan
For the super cheap price of $118 (ha!, incredible how expensive academic books are)
“This book brings together contributions from leading authors in a range of fields related to Japan and the United Kingdom. Adopting a comparative perspective, it tackles topics ranging from the politics of opposition, democracy, immigration and citizenship, to education, sportsmanship and popular culture, as well as issues of immigration and identity. Each chapter presents and clarifies the differences, similarities and exchanges between the two countries to emphasise that, though little exists in isolation in this global age, in-depth knowledge of particular regions remains vital. This book argues for a deeper understanding of the UK and Japan in pursuit of hope, and casts a reflection on the self and one’s own sense of place and identity. It will be an invaluable resource for anyone interested in cross-cultural theory and comparisons between Japan and the United Kingdom.”
The publisher:
A little known bit of history: the murderous Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia in the 1970s was ended not by the USA or any sanctions from the west…but by the Vietnamese COMMUNISTS.
Yes, their communist neighbours invaded, pushed out the Khmer Rouge and ended their horrendous system, that had killed millions of Cambodians, and replaced it with a far better system, a communist system which stabilised the country. This has been credited with saving the lives further millions of people who may have been killed in the 1980s had the Khmer Rouge remained in power. Not only was this the achievement of a communist country, it was opposed by the US and most western countries (and by China!). They preferred the murderous Khmer Rouge to stay in power.
So the world then was in a very odd situation of having one so called communist system (actually a brutal dictatorship with almost no genuine communism to it) overthrown by another so called communist country (with serious flaws but far better than the Khmer Rouge). And the so called western democracies (actually capitalist oligarchies with far less democracy than they pretend to have) SUPPORTING the brutal pretend communist tyranny. The only consistent attitude then seemed to be of China, being a pretend communist tyranny supporting another pretend communist tyranny.
And we think we are in a complicated world now!
It should also be noted that 10 years after the Vietnamese communists liberated Cambodia they peacefully withdrew their troops, and 4 years later an election, overseen by the UN, took place, in which a non-communist govt was freely elected. Then, unlike the actions of the USA in various central American countries that elect a govt they don’t agree with, the Vietnamese communists did not invade to overthrow this freely elected govt. They just let them get on with it.
What a better world we would be in now if the USA, Russia and China let their neighbours democratically decide things for themselves.
My latest article about a large problem which is almost totally unknown outside of Japan, but very much needs to be tackled: the large decrease in trees in cities in Japan, which is bad for both the environment and beauty of Japan.
This time on the excellent website of FAIR PLANET:
“We produce relevant independent journalism on human rights and our natural habitat, support journalists, humanitarian projects, activists and involve our readers from all over the world for a good cause.”
https://www.fairplanet.org/op-ed/tree-destruction-in-japan-a-no-win-situation/
UKはイギリスだけではありません Rather ironic. The Japanese translation of the phrase ‘England is not the only place in the UK’ is translated to mean ‘England is not the only place in England.’
イギリス comes from a 16thC Portuguese word which meant England and was used in Japan for 150 years before the UK was formed. So it’s simply not acceptable to extend it to mean the whole UK, as if all the non-English in the UK are of no importance. Anymore than it’s acceptable to extend the word China to mean the whole of east Asia, or the word Germany to mean the whole of central Europe.
Weight of usage and length of usage are important aspects in how we decide A, B, C words are valid or not, but those are not enough in themselves. The words ‘gypsy’ or ‘eskimo’ or ‘indian’ were in almost universal use for a long time in several places, but that is not considered sufficient for them to be used now.
Likewise the word イギリス is not acceptable merely because most Japanese use it. Especially since the vast majority do so without knowing its inaccurate and insulting. I, as a Scottish person of Irish descent, dont accept it, no more than I accept being called English (which also happens very often).
This kind of linguistic airbrushing of the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish out of existence by calling the UK just England is, to put it politely, not a positive thing. And for anyone to defend it, as far too many do, is shameful. It’s also shameful to dismiss it as being over sensitive (which used to be a very common way to dismiss racism and sexism in the past, and thankfully is far less common now). It seems to be the last acceptable discrimination.
What I mean by that is nowadays almost every knows its not ok to say racist things or belittle the disabled or be antisemitic or make people feel bad about being gay. Some aggressive people still do all that, of course – but even they know its considered by most people to be unacceptable, to be ‘beyond the pale’ (to use an expression from Irish history, which is rooted in an English/Celtic divide of 100s of years ago). But to call the UK just England is, its seems from my experience, something that the vast majority of people in the world don’t even know is negative.
A person online, who I will not mention because their abusive behaviour has put them very much beyond the pale for me, has made the point several times in the past that words always change their meaning. Of course they do. That does not mean we have to accept the meaning or the change if it is considered inaccurate, confusing or insulting. Especially if the change is rooted in general ignorance of the negative elements involved. We can, at least, voice our dislike of the word and point out the problems. The decent thing to do is then to adjust to something better, more accurate, less insulting. Certainly not defend the problematic word.
For example, if Putin’s military overruns Ukraine and at the end of this year declares “The word ‘Ukraine’ will no longer be used. From now on this is all just ‘Russia’. That’s it.” Are people going to respond with the same silly and nasty arguments about the case of England/UK and say “Well, when they say Russia they include Ukraine, and Crimea, and several other places…that’s what everyone means…anyway, words always change their meaning. The word Russia has now been changed to include all the areas you come from…You are being oversensitive.” Because that is what you are doing now in connection to the word イギリス.
Just say ‘UK’, please folks.
邪魔しないでください。Very common thing In Japan: School students completely using up the whole pavement and getting in the way of everyone else. Not good.
Its selfishness, lack of awareness, mixed with ‘diffused responsibility’ as psychologists say, meaning that each person is only a little bit in the way so dont feel they are behaving badly, but the total adds up to a 99% blocked path. The schools should teach them that they HAVE to put themselves on the left side of a path and make room for others on the right side. Simple and polite.
Wider point is that the road/bike/walking system in Japan is very poor. Totally car dominated. Its in need of major reform to make it more safe, but very little is being done, it seems.
By chance after, two minutes after took this photo there was an accident in which a car hit a young student on their bicycle, driving out of a petrol station – which is a whole other big problem we are not facing up to.
Nowadays, rather than focusing on me trying to persuade folk how great socialism/anarchism is or could be, my stance is:
“I’m against capitalism…lets hear you try to win me over”
…and watch them fail hopelessly, since 90% of folk come out with 4 or 5 pathetic cliches that can be knocked down in 2 minutes.
That in itself is a good position to be in and something that is a thorn in the side of capitalism: you have no good arguments that can win me over. None that i have heard so far, anyway. You have power and wealth and sarcasm and violence, yes…but no good arguments.
We had an excellent webinar about George Orwell, with more than 300 people attending across various platforms, at Mahatma Gandhi University in India, based in Orwell’s birthplace.
The writer David Taylor made some excellent points there also.
Please check out our Orwell graphic novel folks, ‘Such, such where the joys’, as we always need good sales. Dhanyavaad!
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Sean Michael Wilson 