ENTRY 16

The death of the author, photographer, hearing, white men, etc.

9月13日 (日\月) 1:00am JST

T--- majored in English at Cambridge. So, on Friday I asked her if she could deconstruct the student speech contest entries. Sadly, she says Cambridge isn’t big on theory. As a result, the implicitly patriarchal meta-narratives of the speeches will have to remain untransgressed for now. One thing we could say though is that the author really is dead. We’ve put enough corrections into the texts that intentionality is no longer a plausible tool for attributing “meaning.” Instead all their thoughts about Avril Lavigne, unresponsive fathers, betrayed classmates, and tightly gripped pencils are filtered through an author function in which 田中恵子 becomes Keiko Tanaka. Though “Keiko Tanaka” exists only in the context of the speech, nevertheless it is to her that credit for the performance must be given, since she is the compositing function by which 田中恵子’s thoughts combine with all the influences on the text from the classroom to centuries of Japanese history to old speeches they heard in past contests to social expectations to the input of teachers and ALTs alike.

Meanwhile, lazy Sunday. Bought milk. Took a public bath. More Zelda. Worked on a handout for Deaf School.

9月14日 (月\日) 1:00am JST

A relatively busy day at school. C--- has begun looking up swear words in another student’s electronic dictionary. I taught an OC class with the teacher in training. I worked some more on my handout for deaf school.

After school, I finished using up the remaining film on a disposable camera left by my predecessor and had it developed. Apparently, they’re of him climbing a mountain or mountains. My suspicion is that it’s of both Fuji and Taté. The sunrise must be Fuji, but the lake and withered moor look like Taté. My additions to the camera include a picture of my messy bed and the view from my balcony. The photographer joins the author in death.

On Glossary/{{SMAP}} tonight, a game show pitting A-blood types against O-blood types. That they dressed like vampires, almost goes without saying.

I just wrote a rough history of Shinto for http://en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia on a whim. I wish I had internet at my apartment… Meanwhile, an autumn shower has just started outside my window.

9月16日 (水\木) 2:24am JST

Yesterday, there was a regional meeting in the afternoon, so we had to rush together all our classes that morning. After the long, boring meeting, I came home to a package slip in my mailbox. I called the number on the slip and a few hours later, I had the internet. How liberating! Finally, I can phone and IM Los Estados!

Today, I got to the deaf school on time. Having time made it somewhat less rushed, but there’s always something harried about the experience. S-sensei seems near the edge of exhaustion at all times. I really like her though. Her English is probably the best of any of the English teachers I work with. On the other hand, she peppers her speech with Japanese, since she knows I can understand it. I personally enjoy using a pigdin, so it’s fine with me.

The student/teacher ratio at the deaf school is nearly 1:1, and the class size tops at around 2, so it’s very different from F* High.

9月17日 (木\金) 1:26am JST

Today, T--- had chalk dust on the side of her face when we were leaving school. I didn’t say anything about it, but it made me think of how S-sensei had a dot of dust on her face Wednesday. Somehow, that details seems to sum up her character in a single stroke. She just so harried! She’s also a beautiful woman, but I’m sure that she’s single. (I just realized I can check later by looking for a ring. I’m still young enough, that I don’t think to look for wedding rings automatically.) I asked her how she got into the whole teaching the deaf thing, and she said it was a long story and left it at that. Work clearly is her life…

I went to a yaki-tori place tonight. I overheard people saying 日本語, so I was like, yeah I’m hep to yer jive, ya turkeys. Soon enough, a certain Mr. Kobayashi buys me a couple shots of saké, even after I protest that it’s a school night. Before this, he asks me if I’m part Indian. (In Japanese, the term means Asian-Indian unambiguously.)

Ah, Japan! The more I know you, the less you know me.