Q: I have an upcoming assessment for Ext1 English, and was wondering if you could recommend a related text that would work well with my core text, Hiroshima. The topic is “After the Bomb” and I’m looking for something that fits within the timeframe 1945-1988 or something that reflects ‘attitudes and values’ of that time.
A: Have you thought of anime and manga to show the opposing perspective:
Barefoot Gen was originally manga but was adapted into anime. Graveyard of the Fireflies is a very touching examination of the Japanese position through children.
There’s an American doco, Atomic Cafe. Maybe hard to access. Very pointed in it’s depiction of naivete.
You can look at other post war literature.
Q: The anime and manga don’t really interest me, however, I will have a look in my local library for some of your recommendations. I found Atomic Cafe quite interesting, though I feel it would be difficult to analyse because it is a collage of authentic video clips. Apart from that, could you perhaps recommend some films, short stories or novels? The topic is really ‘texts and ways of thinking’ so I feel that anything within the timeframe would be appropriate, regarding the bomb or otherwise. Later on, I plan to use Hiroshima and ‘Waiting for Godot’ as my two core texts, so a Japan-centric text is not necessary for one of the related texts.
A: These are not the commonplace examples. Atomic Cafe using editing as an important technique to present it’s argument and to generate an ironic tone, a sophisticated technique. It’s not just a collection of clips. There is also the process of selection in order to make meaning.
Alan Ginsberg’s poem , Howl, now an animation. Jack Kerouac, On the Road. British ‘angry young man’ theatre eg John Osborne. Richard Attenborough’s Oh What A Lovely War! Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5. Just to suggest a few.
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