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Episode 235, unbowed, unbent, unbroken.

This week, I want to return to a story that I rediscovered while preparing for the

Ishkawa-Goymon episode a few weeks back. In the process of preparing, I was rereading Ivan

Morris's The Nobility of Failure, a book that I have many fond memories of remembering I was

supposed to have read a few chapters of about

eight hours before the start of an undergraduate seminar.

And just in case you're listening, Dr. Johnston, that's definitely a joke, and I never

forgot to do the reading and cram it in the hallways 15 minutes before class.

Never would I do such a thing.

Anyway, the nobility of failure is, remember, the history of a sort of heroic archetype in Japanese history, that of the tragically doomed hero.

Morris's argument is that these heroes have a special attraction in Japan because they're rebellious against the grain nature, makes them stand out in a society

that prizes conformity.

...