In case you’re new to Medium Cool, BGinCHI is here once a week to offer a thread on culture, mainly film & books, with some TV thrown in.
I was thinking today about a couple films I’m going to write about, both set in countries and cultures foreign to mine (“Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” (2011, dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey) and “A Separation” (2011, dir. Asghar Farhadi, Iran). This got me thinking about how we learn about, and become curious about, cultures that are different from ours.
And, since we are all, here, curious people, what films or novels or other artistic works have drawn you to a foreign culture and taught you something about it? Additionally, what was it you became most interested in? Food? Customs? Landscape? Conventions of behavior?
BGinCHI
Curious whether those films are familiar to anyone as well.
artem1s
Slightly OT…
For those of you who are supporters of independent music and college radio – WRUW FM 91.1 Cleveland, broadcasting from the campus of Case Western Reserve University has brought back their annual fundraiser. Since COVID was so hard on musicians the WRUW exec staff decided to put their effort into supporting various local music venues and canceled our April 2020 Telethon. This year listeners have really stepped up and helped the station hit their goal and surpass it already. If you are interesed you can listen via the internet here at WRUW.org and donate here WRUW Telethon if you are so inclined. The telethon ends tonight but the donation page should be active for several more weeks.
BGinCHI
@artem1s: Love it.
Benw
I haven’t heard of either of those films!
As a kid I was fascinated by the Japan of James Clavell’s Shogun. Looking back, oof, that is not a woke book, but it does better with non-Western characters than some (side-eyes Joseph Conrad).
Anyway, I’ve gotten to take two work trips to Japan and absolutely love it there.
There are those who call me...tim... (Still posh)
The Year of Living Dangerously, film and book. Later, The Harder They Come. The film and years later, the novel, which expanded and exploded it. Just great.
BGinCHI
@Benw: Really eager to visit there too. The older I get, the more I cringe at the thought of those really long flights though.
Scout211
Fiction: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
Added:
The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
Phylllis
@Benw: I’d love to go to Japan. I’m addicted to two NHK programs that our local public television airs, Journeys in Japan and Trails to Oishii Tokyo.
NotMax
Quick off the top o’ the noggin mix of items which struck a chord.
The Red and the Black (book and/or film)
Things Fall Apart (book)
Europa Europa (film)
Z (film)
The Kite Runner (book)
Mrs. Dalloway (book)
I, Claudius (TV)
Peter the Great: His Life and World (book)
.
Amir Khalid
Black Orpheus. And The Kite Runner novel. I particularly like The Kite Runner because its protagonist is named Amir and its author is named Khalid.
zhena gogolia
Gogol and Dostoevsky.
Scottish folk music.
Japanese culture I read about in kids’ books. I was fascinated by the idea of eating raw fish for breakfast.
Benw
@BGinCHI: I’m not a good plane sleeper and they are brutal! But it is a lovely and amazing place. My second trip I got to ride the Shinkansen and visit a shogunate era castle!
zhena gogolia
This story of Catherine Douglas, especially the illustration included in this Wikipedia article, was a biggie for me:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Douglas
dexwood
@Benw: We toured Japan in 97. ms. dexwood was an artist-Sister City ambassador. Her trip was free, mine was damn cheap. Nagasaki was sad for us, but the people were so gracious. Kyoto was the highlight for us. We’d love to go back, but, yeah, BG, the flight is a consideration the older we get. As for the topic, I’ve read most of Murakami’s novels with mixed reactions, but love his insight into contemporary Japanese society..
Dan B
Black Like Me – the book influenced a very young me to recognize the racism that white society could not and would not see. I don’t remember enough to know if it was deeply flawed.
Benw
@Phylllis: I keep trying (without success) to concoct plausible reasons for my work to send me back!
zhena gogolia
@Dan B:
That was also a big one for me. I’ve never revisited it.
NotMax
Slightly veering from the primary focus of the topic.
Undoubtedly will repeat this in a foodie thread some time later on; what a clever way to explore foreign cuisines and recipes.
evodevo
@Dan B:
Yeah…I remember that book…I think every white cop should have to do what he did before being accepted on the force…
Benw
@zhena gogolia: the Japanese breakfast I got on my first trip when I stayed in a very Japanese hotel was soooooooo good!
Dan B
@Dan B: The book and my experience of racism in Jim Crow era Arkansas is like a foreign culture. We’re still fighting the racism. It’s deeply disturbing even if it is, for the most part, much more subtle.
NotMax
Could have sworn I included it above, but no.
Eskimo (film, 1933)
.
Phylllis
Both The Lunchbox and The Namesake kindled an interest in India for me.
Falling Diphthong
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson is an alternate history of a world in which the Great Plague kills off almost all of Europe, and so other cultures dominate the next centuries. It’s told through the eyes of a reincarnating cast of characters. (The reincarnation is to offer a through line; the history is much more science-oriented than religion-oriented.) The scientific revolution centered in Central Asia still gives me chills.
I also liked the Perveen Mistry series by Sujata Massey, about a divorced female lawyer working in India when Ghandhi’s resistance was just gaining steam.
Mike in NC
Back when I was in the Navy Reserve, I looked for opportunities for free trips overseas. Got to see Scotland twice. I signed up for exercises in South Korea and Egypt, but funding became an issue and I never got to go.
Benw
@dexwood: I really enjoyed The Wind Up Bird Chronicle (english translation) but haven’t tackled his other books.
RSA
A few books that made me want to find out more, in the order in which I encountered them:
Guareschi’s Don Camillo novels, about rural Italian life and culture
Nichols, The Milagro Beanfield War, about Hispanic/Anglo clashes in New Mexico
Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, about Czech culture (including burial customs)
Hillerman’s detective novels, about Navajo culture; my wife became interested in Navajo art
Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery, which I hope is self-explanatory
Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind, about hidden Barcelona
I just realized I’ve been fortunate enough to visit all of those places/regions except for Japan.
prostratedragon
I don’t know either of those movies, though I did hear about Once Upon a Time in Anatolia when it came out and wanted to see it; have it watchlisted now.
Keeping to a conventional understanding of foreign films –since Hollywood itself has been much influenced by the sensibilities of many immigrant filmmakers– I discovered them when I saw La Strada when I was in my early teens, and gradually watched more Italian, French, and Japanese movies, just because those were the most easily available back then, occasionally even showing up on tv. Esthetically I liked the ones in medieval Japan best, but in all cases I’ve always been fascinated about how, despite both superficial and profound cultural trappings, and the divergences created by histories, people tend to be pretty much recognizable.
Jim Appleton
Checking in late.
Has anyone mentioned “Close to Eden”?
https://youtu.be/X2pJrkbUxVU
The kid with the accordion is an all-time win.
JCJ
@BGinCHI: Having flown to Bangkok about 40 times since 1988 I can say that the trips never get any easier, but the video monitors help. Years ago I was given the tip to take a sleeping pill with a beer or glass of wine. I otherwise cannot sleep well and it helps with jet lag.
debbie
For me, Songlines by Bruce Chatwin, which led me to The Fatal Shore, one of the most readable histories I’ve ever read. Another one which I am embarrassed to bring up because I seem to bring it up at every opportunity, is Into the Silence, a retelling of the first expeditions to climb Mt. Everest. Also Seven Years in Tibet.
Dan B
The Jewel in the Crown series still echoes for me, especially the brutal portions. Years later we visited a family in Delhi. They were professionals at the peak in their fields with kids who were as well. India played Pakistan in the World Cup Final of Cricket. Grandpa, who was ordinarily very quiet, was heard swearing for the first time ever. He had been on one of the trains that fled Pakistan at Partition. God knows how he survived.
dexwood
@Benw: Just might be my favorite. A Wild Sheep Chase I read as a publisher’s galley so long should and it pulled me in. The Wind Up Bird held my attention, too.
billcinsd
I’m fairly fascinated by old worlds, so
M
Sullivan’s Travels
Riddle of the Stone Age Giants (a documentary about Gobekli Tepe)
Time Team
eta: I had not heard of the movies mentioned in the OP
BGinCHI
@Benw: I would honestly just ride around on trains, eat, hike, sleep, and I’d be perfectly happy.
dexwood
@dexwood: fuck, unable to edit. So long ago and it pulled me in.
NotMax
@billcinsd
For eminently readable novels set in eras far off, you might like Dance of the Tiger and/or Sarum.
@debbie
Two thumbs up (maybe three after the vaccine) on The Fatal Shore.
prostratedragon
Hey, another Z fan! Still my favorite political thriller, much as I love The Manchurian Candidate, and a movie I definitely thought of above. Other favorites include anything by Fellini, Kurosawa, or Almodovar, early Zhang Yimou, The Wages of Fear, The Conformist The Last Emperor and much other but possibly not all Bertolucci, The Battle of Algiers, Ang Lee’s Chinese pictures especially Lust, Caution (also the American ones), Wang Kar-wai especially 2046. I like a lot of British pictures, starting of course with Hitchcock’s British ones, and lately really like Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series, highly recommended.
cope
Though I had been interested in the Himalayas since I was a kid (mostly in terms of climbing tall mountains) when I read Peter Mathiessen’s “The Snow Leopard” in my 20s, I developed a much deeper interest in the various cultures of the indigenous people who live there.
Steve in the ATL
@zhena gogolia:
THAT IS NOT OK
BGinCHI
@prostratedragon: Just re-watched Z two nights ago! So amazing, that film. Great double feature with The Conformist.
BGinCHI
@prostratedragon:
Also, “Lovers Rock” is one of the best films I’ve seen in recent years. OK, maybe ever.
Absolutely mesmerizing, beautifully-shot, masterpiece.
For those who haven’t seen it, it’s the 2nd of the Small Axe films by Steve McQueen on Prime Video.
MUST WATCH.
Brachiator
Around the world in film.
Amores Perros (2000), an intense film about Mexico.
Pixote and City of God, two great films about the Brazilian underclass
Kurosawa, Ozu and particularly Hiroshi Ignagaki’s “Samurai” trilogy spurred an enduring interest in Japanese history and culture. The novel “Shogun” reinforced my interest and affection.
Alfred Hitchcock’s early films are chock full of his love and knowledge of British culture.
Fellini, Amarcord. One of my favorite movies ever.
The recent and justly acclaimed “Parasite” is sending me on a search for more movies and TV shows about South Korea.
Satyajit Ray’s Apu films sparked an interest in India. Also, a version of The Mahabharata, shown on PBS years ago, I think around 1989.
NotMax
@Steve in the ATL
Kellogg’s Frosted Fugu?
:)
BGinCHI
@Brachiator:
Amores Perros, YES. I re-watch every few years. And Roma too.
If you liked Parasite, work your way through his other films. So much good stuff there (start with Memories of Murder if you haven’t seen it).
Tom Levenson
Jonathan Spence’s work is fabulous for getting off center insight into China. Emperor of China and The Death of Woman Wang, are both really good, with the former being a work of art, IMHO.
Those are both non-fiction. Another marvelous look through western eyes at China somewhat more recently is Peter Fleming’s News from Tartary, one of the finest examples of that extraordinary between-the-wars moment in British travel writing.
And finally on the China theme, Wong Kar Wai’s 2046 knocked my socks off and I need to see it again.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax:
@Steve in the ATL: Honey Bunches of Octopus
BGinCHI
Also highly recommend the films of Japanese writer/director Hirokazu Kore-eda.
“Shoplifters” is a great one to watch after “Parasite.” He has many other brilliant films.
UncleEbeneezer
@BGinCHI: I’ve had the song Silly Games in my head ever since watching Lovers Rock. That scene was so cool.
BGinCHI
@Tom Levenson: Great suggestions here, and much-needed in a time of amplified Asian xenophobia.
I’ve been wanting to see some good recent (last 10 years or so) Chinese films and haven’t found as many as I’d like. Mostly been watching Korean and Japanese, and wondering what I’m missing from China, Taiwan, and HK.
Another Scott
My dad had a subscription to National Geographic when I was a kid in the 60s-early 70s. I don’t think there was anything better for introducing youngsters to the gigantic variety of peoples (some bare-chested), life, geology, etc., that exists on our little planet. Plus, NASA!
Cheers,
Scott.
UncleEbeneezer
@BGinCHI: Funny we just tried Memories of A Murder last night and couldn’t get into it at all. It was too slow/boring and frankly all the detectives were such a-holes that we bailed on it. We gave it 40 mins but it still didn’t grab us by then.
BGinCHI
@UncleEbeneezer:
OMG, right??
I can’t remember another scene that so drew me in that wasn’t in a thriller.
UncleEbeneezer
Netflix series Kingdom and Mr. Sunshine are great historical K-dramas that will teach you a bit about the history and culture of Korea while also being very fun, action-packed etc.
BGinCHI
@UncleEbeneezer:
Opposite experience for me.
His films don’t follow conventions of character or emotional tone. They swerve wildly around (in “Mother” this is really pronounced) and I felt like I had to learn to watch them to figure out what he’s doing.
NotMax
@BGinCHI
Tip top, albeit harrowing movie. Irene Papas brings new meaning to the word melancholy.
@Brachiator
Ooh, Pixote. Yes.
In a much lighter vein of urban odyssey, Piso Pisello (“Sweet Pea”).
artem1s
There are two film by Theo Angelopoulos which have an interesting view on the history of the Balkans and the conflicts going on in that part of the world during the 80s and 90s. Ulysses Gaze and Eternity and a Day. Besides giving me an insight of the complexities of the cultures, I found Angelopoulos’ style absolutely mesmerizing. He had a way of forcing the viewer to slow down and really look at his blocking and framing of the scenes. Right about this time most Hollywood directors had mad action tracking shots racing around and daring the viewer to keep up with the camera (Gilliam, Cameron and Scott). The first time I saw one of Angelopoulos’ films I realized I had spent something like the first 20-40 minutes racing ahead of his shots, impatiently imploring him to catch up with me, the viewer, so I could see what was going to happen next. Once I got to about the 45 minute mark, he wore me out. And I started to really see what he was trying to show me and it was wonderful. Eternity and A Day has not only one of my favorite actors, Bruno Ganz, it has several of my favorite tracking scenes in all of film. He was at the height of his career at that time when he passed. And the length of his films usually turns off a lot of audiences so many don’t know his work. But I highly recommend it.
If you like foreign language film you may also want to check out Kieslowski’s Three Colours Trilogy: Blue, White and Red
UncleEbeneezer
We have been recently obsessed with Liziqi, a Chinese YouTube video gal who does these amazing videos of cooking, farming, building etc., using mostly traditional tools and methods. Whether it’s making a multi-course meal or building a quick bamboo fence, her skills are pretty incredible. Plus, everything has a very curated look perfect for Instagram. She has one of the biggest online followings in the world and I believe has the most for any non-western person.
NotMax
Topical, in its way.
What Netflix’s ‘Lost Pirate Kingdom’ Got Right (And Wrong) About The Golden Age Pirate Gang
Jim Appleton
@Jim Appleton:
Seriously people, spend the next five minutes very happily in a yurt …
https://youtu.be/X2pJrkbUxVU
UncleEbeneezer
Currently reading An Insignificant Family by Da Ngan, which has a lot of interesting insights into post-war Vietnam and traditional Vietnamese culture.
“Beginning in Vietnam shortly after the end of the American war and ending sometime in the 21st century, this 8th volume of Curbstone’s Voices from Vietnam Series follows the life of Nguyen Thi My Tiep, a woman writer and a revolutionary, whose girlhood is spent as a guerrilla fighter, and whose post-war life becomes a search for personal liberation and individual love. Tiep’s struggles are seamlessly connected to the changes her country is going through, as Da Ngan’s daring and controversial novel draws us into the life of a woman who insists on leading a meaningful and honest life–as a citizen, as a daughter, as a mother, as a writer, and as a lover who pursues her own sexuality.
Da Ngan was born in 1952 in Can Tho, Vietnam, and served in the Southern Liberation Forces during the American War. She has written a number of novels and short story collections.”
Kim Walker
I remember from my childhood, that some network station played foreign children’s movies when I was very young in the the 1960’s. I don’t believe that it was an early version on PBS. It may have something to do with Kukla, Fran and Ollie, but I could be mixing it up. I remember seeing “The Red Balloon” (French) and “Skinny and Fatty” (Japanese). I loved them! I would always try to be inside by noon on Saturday to watch. There were others, but those are the two that really stuck with me. I also remember seeing “A Man and A Woman” as an 8 or 9 year old with my grandparents. Yes, on network TV. My grandfather was really taken with Anouk Aimee (“that Greek babe”), but I think he mistook her for Melina Mercouri. And mind, our family was vanilla, rural/new surburban, one generation off the farm. But we subscribed to every magazine out there (Look, Life, National Geographic, Sunset, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science), got the morning and afternoon newspaper. I remember devouring those from cover to cover. And it was the heyday of National Geographic specials (popcorn and soda night!). All of this really shaped my thinking and steered me toward anthropology, work as an analyst and a life of the mind.
artem1s
@Benw:
I do think Clavell did a good job in his books of showing why the West’s relationships with the East are so fucked up. Especially when it comes to trade and how completely clueless Europeans were about considering a viewpoint other than their own. And that their ideal business relationship was probably not good for anyone but them. I totally understand where the GOP (and America in general) got their screwed up ideas about capitalism and foreign relations.
zhena gogolia
@Kim Walker:
I loved “The Red Balloon”! I saw it on TV too.
Barbara
I am never sure when I read books about foreign cultures whether I am getting idiosyncratic insights versus a typical or at least an accurate portrait. With that caveat, I liked Peter Carey’s early novels about Australia, especially The Tax Collector, and The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy about modern India.
MagdaInBlack
@Kim Walker: Chicago stations had something on Saturday called ( I think) “Childrens International Film Festival” that my mother had me watching. Those films you mentioned sound like something from that.
Another Scott
@Kim Walker: @MagdaInBlack: Indeed, Kukla, Fran, and Ollie hosted the international movies for kids. I remember Skinny and Fatty too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS_Children%27s_Film_Festival
TV actually was in the public interest back then!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@artem1s: That’s a great post, very evocative. If you’re not a film critic in real life, you should look into it! :-)
Thanks very much.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kim Walker
zhena gogolia– I’ve seen it many times now. The last time was with my grandboys. It just is wonderful.
MagdaInBlack – That name sounds familiar! But I was in Portland OR. I really think they shaped my thinking to some extent.
Barbara – I named my tortie after Arundhati Roy (we do authors for our girls). I loved that book. My husband loved it so much, that when he finished the last page, he started reading it again. And he reads little fiction.
Another Scott – I’m glad there were quite a few of us apparently, who were glued to good TV in the olden days. There were things to learn.
scav
The Tale of Genji is one for me. That one’s going to be a tad hard to visit properly though.
bertintx
For a very long time I’ve been interested in Iranian film. The director have to navigate government censors, so stories are told in metaphor and imagery. I watched “A Separation” the year it came to the US and have recommended it many times. It’s not an easy film to watch, but when I think about how many years the Persian culture has existed, it’s a good view.
Dorothy A. Winsor
We’re been watching Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy, which is mostly about food but also about a variety of social issues. I want to go to all the places he’s going, only with him.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I’ve seen Blue. Watched it because I’m a Juliette Binoche fanboy.
I’ve watched a fair amount of French cinema and read a few French novels. My French is not fluent so it’s a very slow slog to get through a novel. I love learning the little cultural tidbits that are the underside of French culture, the things that aren’t on the tourist map.
For instance another Binoche movie, Caché, has as kind of an undercurrent the Algerian-French conflicts and old resentments dating back to the Algerian war of the 1950s. I felt like I was missing a lot of backstory to really understand what was going on with some of the characters.
I love the Maigret stories by Georges Simenon. One of them, Chez les Flamands (which translates something like “In Flemish country” or “Among the Flemish”) has a lot of similar stuff, resentments and suspicion and prejudice between the French and the Flemish. Again I feel like I’m missing a lot. Also Simenon was Belgian, though I’m not sure whether he was Flemish.
Then there was a movie called Entre les Murs (Between the Walls) which takes place in a classroom in Paris. The students are almost all immigrants or the children of immigrants from third-world countries. So it was a little different view of Paris than the usual.
As I say, these glimpses into the underside of French culture really fascinate me.
CaseyL
I saw Shogun when it first aired, and it opened up (a version of) Japanese history I knew little about. Set as it was in the 17th Century, I wasn’t expecting “modern” attitudes from anyone. Fun fact: when it first aired, there were few if any subtitles for the frequent conversations in Japanese. The audience was invited to learn the language along with Blackthorn – it was amazing, and amusing, how many people did start sprinkling in a few Japanese words into their conversation in the weeks the series aired.
I worked with an attorney of Pakistani heritage, who invited me to see The Namesake with him. Though the movie (and the book it’s based on) follow an immigrant Indian, my friend said the way they portrayed the immigrant experience, and trying to balance one’s American identity with one’s non-American identity really spoke to him. I loved the movie, got the book as well, and read at least one other book by the author. So that opened up another literary world to me.
And, many years ago, when I lived in Florida, I wandered into a book store and got into a conversation with the manager about how my favorite writers didn’t write fast enough to keep me in new books. He offered to suggest some entirely new authors, even genres, if I was up for something new. I was – and he turned me onto Latin American literature, recommending Jorge Amado (Dona Flor and her Two Husbands), Gabriel Garcia Marquez (100 Years of Solitude), and Isabel Allende. Another new universe, and magic realism! A revelation.
Haydnseek
@Benw:I’m old and will probably never get to go there, but I’ve been interested in Japan for a long time. It started with a love for ukiyo-e, the art of Japanese woodblock printing. This led to the food, the popular culture, the way the ancient and ultra-modern exist side by side, and ultimately to Zen Buddhism.
Haydnseek
@Falling Diphthong: The Kim Stanley Robinson book is incredible. I read it decades ago but it’s stayed with me all this time. My “need to read” pile is always growing, so what’s one more? Thanks for the reminder.
billcinsd
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Evidently, Simenon was Walloon on his father’s side and Dutch/German on his mother’s, according to Wikipedia
BGinCHI
@Kim Walker:
This sentence made my day:
“My grandfather was really taken with Anouk Aimee (“that Greek babe”), but I think he mistook her for Melina Mercouri.”
BGinCHI
@bertintx:
YES! Totally agree.
BGinCHI
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Haven’t heard of this and will check it out.
Coincidentally, teaching “The Daytrippers” in my film class next week.
BGinCHI
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
(see previous comment) And I’m teaching “Caché” the week after!
Barbara
@Kim Walker: You might also like Behind the Scenes at the Museum– by Kate Atkinson, pre-Jackson Brodie, which has uncanny parallels to The God, etc. — death of a twin, the overtaking of civic life to meet the demands of tourism, and of course, dysfunctional families. Still think it’s her best.
citizen dave
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I don’t have any over-riding art that has impelled me to anywhere, though they all are interesting–everyone has a story.
Like Ceci, “I’ve seen Blue. Watched it because I’m a Juliette Binoche fanboy.” I have watched Blue many years ago for the same reason.
My main influence was growing up just underage for our Vietnam War, and the great movies about it afterwards. So when I had a chance to go to Hanoi and do a 3 day work activity (and free days on either side), I volunteered and was chosen (2019). I was explaining one night to a young woman in our party why I had come, and she capitalized it “You had to come and see it”. Yes. I would like to go back and see more. Same influences plus The Killing Fields influenced my first long trip to anywhere to Cambodia in 2017.
Jackals’ continued comments on Japan make me want to fulfill my wife’s wish to go there–perhaps next spring. The pandemic delayed us.
zhena gogolia
@Barbara:
I loved that book.
Mike G
A little off beam from the other answers here, but when I was a kid the Tintin graphic novels gave me a great curiosity about Europe and other parts of the world.
The Spielberg film that turned the character into Young Indiana Jones was a travesty, but that’s another topic.
Felanius Kootea
Books: The Master and Margarita (Mikhail Bulgakov), The Wind Up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami), Beloved (Toni Morrison – read in Nigeria before I ever set foot in the US), One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez), Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi), Trainspotting (Irvine Welsh).
J R in WV
@Steve in the ATL:
Wife and I took our first big vacation in the late ’80s, flew to Seattle, spent a long weekend in that area, then took the AMtrak train to Oregon, spent a week driving on the Oregon coast, took the train to San Francisco for a long weekend, then train to Colorado on the western side of the Front Range, then last train to Denver, from where we flew home.
On that first long flight to the west coast, where I was looking forward to the seafood and great restaurants, I read an article in a magazine about South American fishermen (Peruvian?) who were blown into the center of the Pacific by a storm.
The survivors were eventually rescued by a huge freighter. They were the fishermen who could and did eat raw fish. Those who did not eat raw fish did not survive at all. So I decided to eat raw fish, sushi, in Seattle, where my raw fish would be served fancy with ginger and horseradish and rice and such.
Having lived in Key West and on the Gulf Coast, and eaten in New Orleans, I was familiar with good fresh caught seafood, raw oysters, etc. Making the move to sushi was surprisingly easy for this hillbilly.
If lost at sea in a storm, I would definitely survive if we could catch enough fish.
Also got an introduction to French culture by taking a week long trip on a sailboat captained by a Frenchman — he had fought with the Foreign Legion in French North Africa.
That was the week the shock and awe campaign around Iraq and Kuwait began, and all our news was from Radio France, translated by our captain. His opinion of Arabs was low, having had comrades tortured by the Algerian revolutionaries fighting the colonial French in the 1950s.
Soic ( our skipper ) was no fan of Fanon…
ETA: Was also fortunate enough to hire and work closely with people from many nations in my career, India, Philippines, Pakistan, Peru, China, Burma. Am still close with some of those folks, learned a lot about all those cultures.
Dan B
@J R in WV: Glad you had sushi in Seattle. In a semi-industrial area just down the hill from us is a small Japanese grocery (with Chinese takeout, go figure). They’ve got sushi made by the Chinese cooks, again – go figure! It’s good. At 5 PM the sushi goes half price. The parking lot fills and all the sushi vanishes. Result is fresh sushi every day.
Most of the employees were native Japanese speakers but now it’s about 30% English speakers. They’re also American in behavior. I can usually tell who’s from Japan before they speak.
Yutsano
@NotMax: Am very disappoint there is no separate entry for Hawai’i.
Kim Walker
Barbara: I’ve reserved it at the library – thanks for recommendation!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
This is very like a trip we took a few years ago, our last long trip. It started in Vancouver, Canada which I’d always wanted to see, then via train to Seattle and Portland, OR. But the train to SF was cancelled because of the fires, so I’ve still got it on my bucket list to take that scenic train ride down through CA.
J R in WV
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Our train trip from Portland to San Francisco was over night, the only part of the trip where we were able to book a sleeper cabin, which was great. Nice dinner in the dining car with drinks and wine, then the porter had made up the bed, with a fruit and wine basket. Slept like a baby!
The next morning we got to see the industrial parts of the north end of San Francisco Bay on our way into the city. It was still great, I love trains. French trains are also great, the food and wine is better, and the views are, well, French!
prostratedragon
@BGinCHI: “Mesmerizing” is a good word for it. And really unique in capturing the shared experience of the group, each of whom would have some impactful memory of the evening. And it took a week for me to stop randomly savoring my own memory of Janet Key’s “Silly Games” and the main scene it accompanied.
Subsole
If the past counts as a foreign country, Thucydides, to whom I was introduced at 16 by my history teacher.
Subsole
@Brachiator: City of God was amazing.
@Tom Levenson: Speaking of China, the Good Earth was incredible to me. And for history, Tuchman wrote an interesting book about Stilwell’s time in China.
prostratedragon
@BGinCHI: Guess I do have a ’30s world in turmoil interest that comes out in movie choices; see Chinatown, The Conformist, The Last Emperor, and Lust, Caution; come to think of it, Youth Without Youth fits there as well. All of these are built around how we got to the time around 1938.
schrodingers_cat
My school library had a lot of the original Nancy Drew books. I decided on reading them that somehow I must get myself to America where girls can do anything.
Felanius Kootea
@UncleEbeneezer: I almost perforated my husband’s eardrums reaching for the upper registers on Silly Games after watching Lover’s Rock. Janet Kay would have cried in embarrassment at my butchering of her song.
I really liked Mangrove, Lover’s Rock, and Education. I felt like I wanted more on Red, White, and Blue and Alex Wheatle, especially after reading about the protagonists’ real lives. I’m glad John Boyega won a Golden Globe though.
JWR
In HS, I took a summer school class taught by our lovely Drama instructor, Ms. Demerjian, and the assigned book was Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolpho Anaya. I can’t say I remember it very well, but at the time, I found it quite moving.
phein61
@Another Scott:
Y’all may want to check out the Wiki page for the CBS Children’s Film Festival: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS_Children%27s_Film_Festival
prostratedragon
@Tom Levenson: Yeah, for those who don’t know the movie, 2046 would be extra appealing to someone with a strong visual sense. Trailer.
ETA: Shoot, I might have to change a plan and watch it again tonight.
Origuy
@J R in WV: I did Amtrak the other direction a few years ago, from San Jose to Tacoma. The train left San Jose in the mid-evening and got to Sacramento around midnight. I was sleeping in the seat from there; the tracks were pretty rough and I dreamt of being in an earthquake. We passed Mount Shasta right at sunrise, which was spectacular. Crossing the Cascades in the afternoon was beautiful, too. If only the train didn’t have to constantly stop for freighters, though.
Another Scott
@Subsole: I’ve got a couple of my grandmother’s books around here somewhere, from her book club collection. One I remember is The Good Earth. Another is I Married Adventure by Osa Johnson.
Hmmm…
One can’t blame her for wanting to get away from small-town Kansas, but …
She had a full life. I’m glad that most people don’t feel the need to go “big game hunting” any more as part of their adventures, though.
Cheers,
Scott.
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
I read every single one!
Cowgirl in the Sandi
Right after the Harry Potter mania, we watched another film starring Daniel Ratcliffe called December Boys ( a sweet film BTW). It was filmed on Kangaroo Island off the southern coast of Australia. A significant part of the movie took place at the Remarkable Rocks – a HUGE rock formation along the coast. It was amazing and some years later we went to Kangaroo Island to see the Remarkable Rocks for ourselves. They really are remarkable! Unfortunately Kangaroo Island suffered great damage in fires, but the rocks remain.
James E Powell
@artem1s:
One of my old buddies does a show on WRUW – Radio Children. I will drop by and drop some cash. Thanks for the link.
hoodlet
In working on public administration projects for East African countries, for Orissa (Odisha) state in India, for Pakistan, and others, I have come at countries in a different way. I have started with the law (usually fiscal, often mining) because that’s where my projects have been.
But I have read heavily from local writers and in local bookstores, for literature, for folk tales and songs, for local music styling, and for history. In the process I have encountered lots of material that is simply not available by the net or in the English speaking first world – even though it is in, or mostly in, English.
I have different views of Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe to most people. And I have friends and contacts there.
Seeing, for instance, a couple of women proudly hand-holding through the main square of Harare and the reaction (mostly accepting or thumbs up) from the stall holders and their customers was a real surprise for me.