Talk:Roger Poidatz/Comments

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Talk Roger Poidatz/Çomment Thomas Raucat

I don't mean to attempt a formal correction or rewrite of the article on "Thomas Raucat," but I do want to point out two mistakes or misunderstandings. First, "The Honorable Picnic" is certainly not just "a stylised travelogue account of his experiences and observations in Japan." It's a very funny and poignant narrative, told in the voices of various participants, in which a lecherous foreigner in Japan invites a young Japanese girl, whom he meets in a park in Tokyo, to go to Kamakura with him, for (he hopes) purposes of seduction. She believes she is being invited on a genuine, innocent outing by this distinguished foreigner. The ending, telling of her disillusionment and its aftermath, is moving and sad. The other mistake is in rendering the Japanese phrase "tomarô-ka," which is a phonetic approximation of the pseudonym Thomas Raucat. The rendering you give, "Will I not stay here?" misses the joke completely. It is a rough way of asking, as one might ask a low-class woman, "Shall we stay overnight?" i.e. a rude way of propositioning her.

An added note: this book became an embarrassment for Japan experts during the war, when enthusiasts for it were claiming that it should be read by everybody because it revealed more about the Japanese national character than serious works such as, for instance, Ruth Benedict's The Chrysanthemum and the Sword. Perceptive as it is, it isn't a deep analysis of the Japanese psyche.