Now, you've probably heard the word, and know it as "Japanese for geek" but in its original form, it's really much more pathetic than that. It literally means 'house' as in someone who's so socially unskilled that they never leave their home to interact with others. It's lost some of that bite over the years, but 17-18 years ago when I first learned the term, I was warned by all of my Japanese friends NOT to call myself that simply because I'm a nerd who's into RPGs, video games, and comics (oh, and Japan/Japanese). Back then, it was truly an insult to be called 'otaku.'
In Japan, the depiction of these guys as a stock character in the media are the ones who are in their thirties or forties, spend all day in a small cramped room in their parents house, watching anime porn, sniffing high school girl panties (which they likely bought online because they can't get up the nerve to actually approach the high school girls who park themselves in front of convenience stores with their skirts rolled up and their knees wide apart advertising that they're willing to sell so they can buy a new Prada handbag or whatever), and when they finally take a break from the porn, it's to switch to the feed of the camera they've secretly installed in the local high school girls' changing room so they can wank off to grainy images of half naked girls. Because that's about as close as they're ever gonna get to a real one, and that makes them bitter and angry. Obviously, this is a stereotype created from an amalgam of traits common among otaku, not the image of the group as a whole, similar to the Simpson's Comic Book Guy. Japan is a country that's very friendly toward people with 'nerdy' hobbies, and if, as faustusnotes claims, his friends are self-identifying as otaku, the image has definitely changed over the years.
Now, whoever is behind YDIS is likely not this pathetic, but the pure nerd rage that pours out of it every time read it (which is very rarely) over the most trivial of topics always makes me think of that stereotypical stock character in Japan.
Anyway, Christian, if you happen to be reading this, hope you come back soon, dude. YDIS, if you're reading this, fire away. I'll be oblivious to your infantile ranting.
I'll bet the irony of this whole situation is that the guy behind YDIS's dungeon probably sucks too. I wish Christian would come back, I liked his blog.
ReplyDeleteHope he comes back.
ReplyDeletewhat an awesomely racist post. You think you're somehow better than these people when you write filth like this?
ReplyDeleteOtaku is a racist term? or explaining it is? Maybe this just hit too close to home, eh, faustusnotes?
ReplyDeleteTimothy
OK, faustusnotes, so you take 'racial' offense at this post, but this gem of yours doesn't cross a line anywhere?
ReplyDeleteShut it, troll.
I don't see how calling a geek a geek (I call my self one all the time) in any language is racist. End result is the trolls is winning until christian comes back
ReplyDeleteFrom what he told me in an e-mail, Christian is just going to be working on his 'zine for the time being.
ReplyDeleteScrew racism; I "took offense" as a nerd. I'm all like "hey! I like cartoons and porno what's your problem buddy!"
ReplyDeleteD&D's #1 problem is image and shit like this doesn't help.
@ Lord G:
ReplyDeleteI must confess my image of YDIS matches yours to the 't'. Had he not been so obnoxious, I would have felt sad for him.
(A little off topic, I was going to post this over at underdark gazette, when he was speculating about the identity of this guy, but he turned off anon posting.)
ReplyDeleteA couple posts back, YDIS called somebody a peckerwood. I've only seen that insult from one other place in the OSR: joesky... And they both have anonymous wordpress blogs.
Just a hunch, of course.
Heya,
ReplyDeleteI went for a long session this morning, thought about my blogging, the ways I have treated others and came to the conclusion that maybe I had some of it coming. But maybe not. It really stings, but I cleared my head and realized that leaving means I am shutting myself off from cool people like yourself. Onward and upward.
faustusnotes said...
ReplyDelete"what an awesomely racist post. You think you're somehow better than these people when you write filth like this?"
人差別なの？日本のみんなはおたくと言わなかった。馬鹿野郎。日本にも、アメリカにも、どこでもいやな人がいる。
And if you, or anyone else don't like it, feel free to stop reading my blog. I don't care.
@Christian, cool! Take your time, whatever you need. I just hope to see you posting again soon. Seems like I'm not the only one.
ReplyDeleteGwydion, no one would speak to me like that in a Japanese exchange. Do you seriously think you're behaving better than YDIS by calling me an idiot in casual register? And it's clearly racist - Japanese schoolgirls selling their pants for prada, the image of all otaku as perverts and the classic asian voyeur pervert image are all straight out of the racist copybook. Neither correct, nor nice, nor original.
ReplyDeleteI have spent the last year playing RPGs with Japanese otaku, and I can assure you that the Japanese nerd world has a much better gender balance, and is much more comfortable with women, than the western RPG scene. Your stupid little rant couldn't be wronger. Nor could it be more transparently obvious that the sexual deviancy on display here is a fantasy of yours more than an accurate depiction of anyone else's.
scottsz, if you can't tell the difference between what's written here and my undead jesus post, you are genuinely in need of remedial reading lessons.
@faustusnotes: the words clearly say 'shut it'... you might want to take a remedial reading lesson.
ReplyDeleteHeaven knows the writing classes you took were a waste...
faustusnotes, I'm not Japanese. I just lived there for a good long time. Re-read what I wrote above. No, it's not a pretty picture, but are you telling me there are no teenage girls who sell their panties on the street at all? Cause I've seen it happen.
ReplyDeleteI said the 'stereotypical otaku' not the reality of otaku. I was talking about the image that the Japanese have of their own otaku, as I've seen in plenty of Japanese dramas, movies, and comic books.
So I stand by my statement that you're an idiot. You obviously need to learn to read carefully, not just see something negative written about the nation in which you live, and knee-jerk pull out the race card.
Now, am I sinking to YDIS's level by poking some fun at him the way he does at others? Yes, guilty as charged. He thinks it's funny to laugh at all of us about what we find passionate. I'm laughing at him because he's an impotent, angry little nothing with no point to his blog but to shit all over others' hobbies. You're right that I shouldn't sink to his level, but I was pissed off last night and out it came.
Gwydion, if you've lived in Japan and dealt with otaku you know that this is not the image of otaku that Japanese have - you know in fact that the mainstream view of otaku in Japan is generally much better than the mainstream view of nerds in most Western countries. Your post hasn't presented this view as just an image, either. This:
ReplyDeleteNow, you've probably heard the word, and know it as "Japanese for geek" but it's really much more pathetic than that. In Japan, these guys are the ones who...
That's not an attempt to distinguish between reality and stereotype... nor does it offer any clarity as to who is doing the stereotyping - and it gives a strong impression that the stereotype is based on reality, as does your defense in which you claim that there are elements of fact to the image.
I'm guessing that like most white guys in Japan you were treated well and with patience and kindness and respect. I would have thought that you could do a little better in return than to post up this kind of negative stereotyping, that just continues to perpetuate the image of the Japanese male as sad, scared and voyeuristic. Do you think that if the nerds I dealt with over the last year had an inkling that their culture was being portrayed in this way by foreign visitors to their country they would have been so willing to go out of their way to accommodate me in their gaming world?
Of course you're right that YDIS is pretty shit, and it's nice to imagine him or her as exactly the kind of no-good loser your post describes. But the racial angle is unnecessary and ... belittles you and the Japanese it's about.
But that said, minus the racial angle it is a pretty solid description of the kind of arsehole that I imagine YDIS to be. That much sexually aggressive language in one place can only speak of a man with no sexual experience and no sexual future...
Alright, faustusnotes, that's a much more well-reasoned argument, and I appreciate it. I've edited the post to make it crystal clear I'm talking about equating YDIS with the stereotype, and not some blanket term related to everyone in Japan, which I was never doing. Sorry you read it that way.
ReplyDeleteAnd I apologize for calling you an idiot in both languages.
However, while I did have a great experience in Japan, I don't feel the need to sugar coat everything I say about the country. And I don't see it as disrespecting all of the friends, colleagues, acquaintances, or even outright strangers I met there who treated me well to be honest about the country.
I have never lived in Japan, but I live in America where cowards throw the race card every day. That way they do not have to think about what the subject is. Sometimes they are right, usually they are not. There was nothing of racism in Gwydion's post. Only a fool who has pre-programmed himself with those lenses would perceive racism in any form.
ReplyDeleteBut then you are the fool who thinks Lord of the Rings is a secret homage to the SS, fautusnotes. No more use talking to you than to a bible thumper. You were also the fool who condemned the world media for taking Fukushima seriously - you even played the race card in covering that topic. By the way - that nuclear disaster is ongoing still, is it not?
Timothy
@faustusnotes: I know Gwydion personally, and I can honestly say that he's not racist. Anything racist in his post was something you sought out and exaggerated out-of-proportion.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, I think you were actively looking for something that you could construe as offensive in order to take Gwydion to task. Your exegesis of his "rant" says more about you than him.
Getting on someone else's blog and ad hominem attacking the author is not cool. It's similar to going over someone's house, sitting on their couch, and then telling them how much of an asshole they are while propping your muddy feet up on their coffee table. If you don't like Gwydion's blog, don't read it. Otherwise, bring constructive criticism and actual debate, and check your ad hominems and personal dislikes at the door. Or rant on your own blog.
@Gwydion: This other guy's blog, YDIS, reads like a 19-year-old 4channer wrote it. I, for one, will not grace it with my traffic again. It's actually not even worth talking about. If the guy is an immature, unprofessional douche, let his own blog speak for itself. I've always held you in high esteem, and I can tell you, Den, you're wasting your time with this guy. He's the gamer equivalent of a "dude, brah"-quipping Jersey Shore character.
Yeah, Dave, but I'm pretty sure you read Christian's blog, too, and I was just pissed that the worthless troll had managed to prick under Christian's skin enough to make him take down his blog.
ReplyDeleteChristian's back again, and like I said at the end of the post, if YDIS does his routine about me next, I'll be oblivious. Like you, I'm not gonna visit the site again. The only reason I ever have was in cases like this, to get perspective on the argument. Not gonna even bother with that in the future.
ReplyDeleteHowever, while I did have a great experience in Japan, I don't feel the need to sugar coat everything I say about the country. And I don't see it as disrespecting all of the friends, colleagues, acquaintances, or even outright strangers I met there who treated me well to be honest about the country.
absolutely, Lord Gwydion, and it does no one in Japan any favours to do otherwise. Thank you for listening to my point of view.
Timothy, if you have complaints about my analysis of LoTR I hardly think you do them any favours by reducing them to the kind of silly soundbite above. The argument is ongoing on my blog if you want to join in. But it might help you to learn what "playing the race card" means, since that's not what I'm doing. It helps to get the terms right before you make accusations.
I want to thank you for introducing me through this post to the insane satire and polemic of Your Dungeon Is Suck. Too bad his topics are so narrow in scope.
ReplyDelete