When all you need is a knife

Taro Aso, current finance minister and deputy prime minister of Japan, has spoken of his annoyance with what he perceives as the negative impact of certain sections of Japan’s elderly population. His opinions chime with those of a significant body of commentators who feel that the allowances made for some older members of Japanese society are excessively generous and forgiving.

“The problem won’t be solved unless you let them hurry up and die,” said the 72-year-old former prime minister.

Credit where it's due.

Channel SK1N

Jeff Noon, 2012

(January 2013)

I loved Jeff Noon’s books when I was younger. Late teens, early twenties: Vurt, Pollen, Automated Alice. In all honesty I can’t remember much about the actual stories themselves; just the realization of how weird stuff could be if someone really let their imaginations go was startling enough, added to the cracked distortions possible in making the Manchester I kind of half knew as a hum-drum Northern city into this shifted, liminal zone where the future really was possible. And not just possible, but cool.

Johnny Come Lately

My supplies are running low. Pretty soon I’ll be calling up my bro to arrange another shipment. It’s not something I like doing. It’s awkward for him and I’m always worried about exactly how customs will react, but needs must. There just aren’t any decent local suppliers and anyway, I’m really not sure about the quality of the locally available product.

Light

M. John Harrison, 2002

(December, 2012)

I have no idea how to start talking about this. While I was reading it, my wife and I had a conversation. What happened was this:

  

A Town Called Pandemonium

Anne C. Perry and Jared Shurin (eds), 2012

(December 2012)

Well, it was inevitable really. The 21^st Century has finally clawed its way into Kamo Manors and I ended up with a kindle for christmas. I promptly downloaded half a dozen books in various promotions and giveaways. So not a problem cashwise, but I’m not exactly short of stuff waiting to be read as it is. This can only end badly.

This Little Piggy…

I have chilblains. How the hell do I have chilblains? I’m almost certain it’s chilblains. It’s either that or gout.

All You Need is Kill

Hiroshi Sakurazaka, 2004 [Alexander O. Smith, 2009]

(December 2012)

A poignant, deftly wrought meditation on the tenderness of loss and the fragility of the human spirit, following four generations of the Hoshizaki clan as they progress from humble basket-weavers in rural Aomori through personal tragedies and triumphs to a tentative acceptance of modernity and the implacable inevitability of social change and personal evolution. A character is called the Full Metal Bitch.

Snakes and Earrings

Hitomi Kanehara, 2004 [David James Karashima, 2005]

(December 2012)

You remember when you were in school and had to write an essay, but knew you really had nothing to say? How you’d try to make it seem like it was longer by writing really big, double spacing, and leaving even more space after the margin than there was before it (I know, handwritten essays, how terribly 20^th century)? Well, that’s exactly what the publishers have done with this book.

TV Tarento I Don’t Hate

This will be short.

The Cold Commands

Richard Morgan, 2011

(December 2012)

              ‘Do I look like a fucking slave to you?’ he asked them.

              And though, finally, they would bring him down with sheer weight of numbers, none who heard him ask that question lived to see the dawn.