Samurai Crafts

I recently finished reading Helen DeWitt's book The Last Samurai. I've heard about it for a long time, and some reviewers were claiming it to be the best novel published so far in the 21st century. Be that as it may, I kept putting it off. 

Being at home and having time on my hands I finally decided to give it a go. However, it was with some apprehension as I thought it might be a struggle to get into as say Infinite Jest was, which took me at least 50 pages before it started to click, and I required a long break when I was about half through. I was dead wrong about TLS. I was engrossed right from the beginning, and surprised myself that in 6 days I'd finished it. 

I'm not going to get into a detailed discussion about the main themes and plot, just note a couple of sub-themes that hit home: hobbyist magazines, and Kuethe and Chow's textbook Foundations of Aerodynamics.

The story centres around child prodigy, Ludo, and his mother Sibylla.  Part of Sibylla's backstory is that she lost her place at Oxford, then took a job as a secretary at a small publisher to forestall returning to the US, then lost that job when her mentor left the company. Luckily, to further postpone leaving England, Sibylla's mentor provided her an opportunity to type articles from various popular hobby magazines into a database that the publisher was building as part of a project on 20th century language. On the upside, Sibylla could work from home, but on the downside the job only paid £ 5.50 / hour and she's a single mother with a child to support; a child who we'd commonly think of as a prodigy. Although, one of the main themes investigated in the story is whether prodigies are simply children who are given the opportunities they need when they need them, whereas so-called normal children are those who, for whatever reason, are not provided with opportunities or resources they need when they need them that would make them better and happier. Stated a little more crudely, is it nature or nurture that makes the difference.

Throughout the book, Sibylla's work on transcribing articles from hobby magazines is cast as a scathing commentary on what constitutes normal interests and reading material in contrast to her ongoing attempts to continue to live an intellectual life regardless of her situation. We're treated to some wry commentary as she types in articles from mid-20th century magazines with these titles,

Melody Maker

Advanced Angling

Pig Fancier's Monthly

Weaseller's Companion

Mother and Child

You and Your Garden

British Home Decorator

Horn & Hound

The Poodle Breeder

Practical Caravanning

The Modern Knitter

Tropical Fish Hobbyist

Magazine of the Parrot Society

Carpworld

International Cricketer

Sportsboat and Waterski International

British Ostrichkeeper

Are any real? Are they all just made-up? Some are eye-rolling: British Ostrichkeeper, Carpworld, Weaseller's Companion, Pig Fancier's Monthly ! Some have an uncanny reality: International Cricketer, Mother and Child, Tropical Fish Hobbyist. It hardly matters which are real and which aren't as Sibylla's point is that this material - what we'd refer to today as 'content' - is a waste of our precious life compared to spending time with the world's intellectual riches. Throughout she implies that this has happened because our childhood education and development has been squandered, and we don't know any better than to overly concern ourselves with practical diversions as exemplified by our banal recreational reading material. Although, the skewering is funny, and I particularly liked this passage on Practical Caravanning,

PRACTICAL CARAVANNING said Sibylla. What in God's name is practical about caravanning and why in God's name should the word 'Practical' be thought to add appeal to the activity am I yet again in the market of one? Impractical Caravanning. Impractical Boating. Impractical Knitting. I would buy any of the above and I have not the slightest interest in knitting, boating or, God help me, caravanning.

Let me add: Impractical Model Railroading, Impractical Scale Modelling, Impractical Scale Model Streetcars. I have more than a slight interest in them and I'd buy any of those :-)

All this cuts close to home as I spend a lot of time with this type of material, and have even gone as far as suggesting some of it forms a literature, and at one time, and maybe still does, a folk art :-) 

It's interesting to note what sorts of hobby magazines haven't be satirized: those that at one time in the 20th century covered what were then referred to as the mechanical hobbies. Miniature and model airplanes, boats, cars, trains, clocks, engines, and so on. Magazines that taught skills, presented how-tos, reported on news, contests and products, ran ads, showed off projects, and told stories. At times the material was what we might call STEM-oriented in that it was hoped to provide a training ground for future engineers and technologists. At other times the material was simply for hobbyists and enthusiasts. I'd also argue that some of the material was old folk art practices migrating into the consumerizing world. The best of them combined thought and handwork that allowed readers to improve their chosen craft; the worst merely acted as conduits to sell loads of ready-to-use products to acquisitive and passive consumers. But, one major failing, one that still exists today in many venues, is understanding and recognizing the history and development of the various fields, as well as the threads into other aspects of thought and life.

I'd counter Sibylla's critique that as far as craft, and its attendant magazines and journals, is concerned - and we're not talking about modern-day, touchy-feely therapeutic pastimes, but the more traditional ones - developing skills that interweave thought and handwork, at whatever age, is a long, deeply human, and honourable activity. Not completely intellectual, not rote, but involving and thoughtful. Should one engage in craft? Which ones? What is the right age to start? I'll agree with Sibylla on this though, I don't think we live in a society that knows or cares.

After writing this and thinking about it a bit more I can see I need to understand more about definitions, similarities, differences and popular concepts of arts and crafts and hobbies.

And what about Foundations of Aerodynamics? I've gone on too long and I'll leave that for another time.