Lad Lit: Ninjas and Pirates

Posted by Martin R on November 8, 2008
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i-5e9e75fd42c8884415c934ad36862a60-P1000739lores.JPGI’ve taken out a couple of extremely laddish books from the library to read for fun. Seeing constant mentions of ninjas and pirates on the web, I became curious about the historical reality of these matters. So I’ve started on Stephen Turnbull’s Warriors of Medieval Japan (2005) and I’ve got David Cordingly’s Under the Black Flag (1995) lined up next. Here’s a fine passage from Turnbull:

“… even though the Age of Warring States was a time when samurai warfare went through its biggest revolution in history under the influence of strategy and technology from both Europe and China, it was also a time of amazing nostalgia. In spite of the hail of bullets whizzing past his ears, and the ranks of lowly spearmen under his command, even the most modern samurai leader kept looking over his shoulders to a glorious and often hypothetical past. This golden age, in his view, had been a time when a battle consisted of a number of individual combats fought between honourable enemies who had singled each other out by the issuing and receving of challenges. The victor would have taken the victim’s head as proof of duty done, and for his reward would have been as pleased with the name he had made for himself as with any grant of rice fields he may have been awarded by his lord.” (p. 20)

My wife and I have very different reading habits. Ideally, I like to read only one book for fun at a time, and I don’t stock up very far into the future. She, however, has tens of books and magazines going at any one time, and constantly amasses more. As I collect them from around the apartment I deposit them in our vertical book case. The floor and ten shelves are hers. The top two tiers are mine. Currently I have three copies there of a friend’s kids’ book to give away, plus three DVDs I’ve received as review copies for the blog, and the Swedish Tourist Association’s annual that arrived yesterday.

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Comments

  1. #1 Pierce R. Butler
    November 8, 2008

    Yarrh, Under the Black Flag is quite good, but you wouldn’t want to miss B. R. Burg’s Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition…

  2. #2 Pär
    November 9, 2008

    The final word on ninjas.

  3. #3 Mad Hussein LOLScientist, FCD
    November 9, 2008

    Whoever dies with the most books wins.

  4. #4 Martin R
    November 10, 2008

    Nonono, books are just output devices. What you’re saying is basically that whoever dies with the most ink jet printers wins.

  5. #5 Henrik
    November 10, 2008

    Den som har flest prylar när han dör, vinner!

  6. #6 Elena
    November 11, 2008

    Vad intressant med japansk krigshistoria och samurajer. Har du nån bra bok du kan rekomendera? Skulle också vilja läsa lite (om man hinner).

  7. #7 Martin R
    November 11, 2008

    Elena, sorry, I’ve never read a book on this subject before. I’m not really into military history, so Turnbull’s book has me wishing I had a book named “Women in Medieval Japan”.

  8. #8 DianaGainer
    November 11, 2008

    There is always Lady Murasaki’s book, The Tale of Genji, I believe (though it’s been at least 20 years since I read it, so my memory is just the least bit hazy). I’d give you more info but I can’t seem to find it in my thousands of volumes, which fill every bookshelf in every room in my little house, and I’ve recently donated at least 500 books to various causes and libraries, so it might not even be in the house anymore! But it’s bound to be online by now since that’s supposedly the very first novel ever written.

  9. #9 Martin R
    November 11, 2008

    My wife actually read Genji recently. She found it repetitive and dated, and couldn’t understand the characters’ motivations. She thus promptly donated it to the local library, which is what we do instead of buying more book shelves.