The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
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Yes. I re-read sections of it along with a friend while re-watching the show. It holds up better than I remember, I might re-read it in full. There are parts that might not hold up perfectly, and you can do nit-picky historical accuracy stuff (technically Geishas didn't exist at that exact time, stuff like that), but if you view it primarily from the perspective of Blackthorne (largely as a stand-in for Clavell himself, who was a prisoner of the Japanese in Singapore during WWII) I think it holds up really well. It's very GRRM when it comes to throneroom politics, very Ian Fleming when it comes to swashbuckling omni-competent British hero everyone wants to fuck.
Reading it again in parts, I realized how much the book is a metaphor for the aftermath of WWII. It starts with the Japanese doing unforgivable things to Blackthorne and his men, and asks how can he forgive them? This mirrors the journey of Japan in the second half of the twentieth century: how can Clavell forgive the Japanese for what they did to him, how can the Japanese forgive the Americans for the bombings? Clavell suggests it is possible for people so totally opposed to find human connection, understanding, and love; even if the book is far from utopian in its vision.
Okay, that sounds pretty cool. I like the idea of taking as the narrative of a British man rather than that of an omniscient narrator. I'll pull it off my shelf and give it a read.
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My problem with the praise of the (remade) miniseries is how the ostensible protagonist of Shogun (Blackthorne) is relegated to an ineffectual buffoon, without any real redeeming qualities apart from the fact that Toranaga and Mariko seemingly take to him. I enjoyed the book immensely both times I read it. I am somewhat surprised by your praise of Ta Nehini Coates, who I think is a muddled-thinking fraud.. That said, I haven't read this book you're recommending.
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