
In Praise of Halvings: Hidden Histories of Japan Excavated by Dr D. Fenberger - diodorus
https://publicdomainreview.org/conjectures/in-praise-of-halvings-hidden-histories-of-japan-excavated-by-dr-d-fenberger/
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aj7
OK, I’ll be first. This is too weird. I stopped reading when the guy was
canning his own shit. Didn’t see the relevance.

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odomojuli
The gallery of "killed negatives" bearing the hole indicating no replication
is an interesting and curious practice.

[https://petapixel.com/2016/03/28/many-great-depression-
photo...](https://petapixel.com/2016/03/28/many-great-depression-photos-
killed-editors-hole-punch/)

This article, however, confuses me. I've always been interested on notions of
cultural identity and otherness in Japanese history - instead there's this
strange constellation of disparate and only somewhat amusing historical
anecdotes. The ending upsets me. I've experienced too many different variants
and strains of this kind of New Age scientific mysticism clothed in a language
of Japanese pseudo-Zen buzzword soup that is usually a segue into discussing
their recent mushroom trip. Reading my own words back to myself, this reads as
being flippant and dismissive but then I think about the number of times this
has actually happened and how it makes me nauseous.

I'm being a bit harsh here, but this is more common than I'd like it to be and
I'd really wish people would stop using Japanese religion and spirituality as
a crutch for their psychedelic dabbling that always speaks to what feels like
religious voyeurism.

I should speak more specifically as to why this is upsetting. There is a vein
of thought in Japanese spirituality and to some degree, the larger whole of
Asian mysticism that lends itself to this sort of ambiguity and perhaps more
accessible kind of rigorous contemplation. I think a key observation would be
an example like Zen koans where perhaps the pursuit of meaning and the act of
moving towards insight is in itself valuable even if you never actually obtain
a perfect idea of what it is you're supposed to get out of anything. As if to
say, you're not supposed to suppose it at all would be one interpretation. So
this cuts a few ways. On one hand, some practitioners can wave their hands
around and speak profusely on very little. On the other hand, there's a great
deal of credence towards what you give is what you get and ultimately who is
to judge how people make sense of what imbues them with a state of wonder?

What upsets me is the tone of the article is monotonous and routine. It is all
too familiar. The preamble bearing the quotations of German nihilism of some
sort. A remarkably shallow critique of Japan's cultural and historical
identity lacking the rigor to appropriately challenge what is deserving
towards its reticence to admit its racism. And ultimately what does the
passage of words sublimate into? A sandwich containing extraneous descriptions
of shit and pleonasm.

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jeannot12
There is no source and no actual text. Most searches (Fenberger, HansetsuRoku)
point to the author. Siebold and Empuku-ji are real. But the Hinooka RC11
Bridge crosses a road. Many things sound fishy. Made up stories and characters
for art and entertainment ?

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solidsnack9000
Most of the pictures in the article were taken in the US in the early 20th
century: engineering equipment, farm fields. Nothing from the Dr. Fernberger’s
research in Japan is actually displayed.

