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Best regards, Andrew Stewart - - - Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/ Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <h-rev...@lists.h-net.org> > Date: September 13, 2019 at 3:01:14 PM EDT > To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > Cc: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.org> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Japan]: Smith on Yasar, 'Electrified Voices: How > the Telephone, Phonograph, and Radio Shaped Modern Japan, 1868-1945' > Reply-To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > > Kerim Yasar. Electrified Voices: How the Telephone, Phonograph, and > Radio Shaped Modern Japan, 1868-1945. New York Columbia University > Press, 2018. xv + 277 pp. $30.00 (paper), ISBN 978-0-231-18713-8. > > Reviewed by Martyn Smith (University of Sheffield) > Published on H-Japan (September, 2019) > Commissioned by Martha Chaiklin > > Rocks tumbling from the peak of Mount Fuji, the chug of steam engines > on the Oikawa railway line in Shizuoka, jet engines at Chitose > (Sapporo) or Haneda (Yokohama) airports, the passing of a high-speed > bullet train across the Fuji River, and drag racing at the Fuji > Speedway--these sounds, and the best time of year to capture them, > were among those listed on a map of Japan printed in a 1977 guidebook > to the hobby of sound recording.[1] The article made it clear that by > the 1970s the sounds of Japan could be captured and reproduced by > anyone with the inclination to pack a portable tape recorder, some > spare clothes, and a map. The portability and affordability of > sound-recording technology was just one element in an individual and > technological mobility that transformed everyday social, political, > and economic life after 1945, yet sound was clearly already part of a > Japanese national imaginary and deeply imbricated in economic, > social, and technological change. > > Kerim Yasar's _Electrified Voices_ starts from the premise that sound > is central to the social and ritual life of a community and explains > how this connection between sound and the nation space came about > over the previous century, when the new, "modern" technologies of > telephone, phonograph, and radio began a process of incorporating > sound into a national imaginary that print capitalism had already > initiated. The reproduction of sound that became possible in the > latter part of the nineteenth century radically altered the human > relationship to it. Sound gradually came to be understood as one > aspect of a national culture, and Yasar argues that the new > technologies the book examines made more thorough the state-driven, > ideological processes of homogenization that the Meiji Restoration of > 1868 had accelerated. The book explains how the telephone, > phonograph, and radio radically changed the way Japanese related to > and understood sound, particularly the sound of the voice. > > The roles and uses of sound and our relationship to the sonic > environment are historically and culturally conditioned--often > particular to a given culture. Nonetheless, until relatively > recently, historians have largely ignored sound and concentrated on > the visual aspects of the modern experience. This privileging of > sight over sound meant that the ability to read became indispensable > to social and cultural life and embedded a bias toward writing and > seeing in understanding the world. It also helped to shore up and > literally engrave upon society class distinctions and a tendency to > consider elite visual culture as superior to "less civilized" > preliterate cultures. The role of the written media in shaping > national identities and fueling nationalism is well documented and > Yasar notes the important part Benedict Anderson's work has played in > this. But by explaining the central importance and value placed on > the voice in Japanese culture throughout history, Yasar gives us an > alternate take on the role of technology in shaping the national > space. The technology to record, transmit, and replay sound shaped > the creation of "modern Japan" just as much as the printing press and > the ability to partake in an imagined community through script. > > In the first chapter, dealing with the arrival of the telephone, > Yasar makes a strong argument for the role of the voice in Japan, and > clearly shows how important to Japanese culture the primacy of the > voice and orality was and still is. Scholars from the 1600s on > distinguished Japan as a culture rich in speech and placed it in > opposition to China--the country "rich in script." This "residual > orality" is evident in a range of Japanese arts such as Naniwabushi > (narrative ballads), the Benshi (storytellers accompanying silent > films), Kabuki, and Rakugo, and Yasar notes that the pulse of oral > narrative remained vital throughout the prewar period (p. 28). The > telephone then, with its ability to transmit the voice across wider > distances than previously imagined, quickly became popular after the > introduction of the Yobidashi Denwa in 1900. This system allowed > callers without a phone line to visit the telephone exchange and > connect to the telephone office nearest to the person they wished to > speak with. A telephone summons ticket would be sent, valid for seven > days and often including an appointed time for the call to take > place. According to the figures, over six thousand were issued in the > first year of operation, rising to more than half a million just ten > years later and more than two million by the mid-1930s. The > technological magic and pleasure derived from the voice meant that > even at its most disruptive--it could sometimes take hours to place a > call when the exchanges were busy--the telephone became crucial to > modern life in Japan. > > Given the historical context of the arrival of the telephone, > phonograph, and radio in Japan, it is not surprising that the devices > immediately came to symbolize Western modernity, and the connection > with "civilization" was impossible to escape. Yet everywhere > ambiguity was central to the experience of the modern. As Seth > Jacobowitz has recently shown, in Japan the telegraph came to > symbolize a modernity that could be both frightening and desirable > but certainly appeared unstoppable.[2] In Victorian England, Charles > Dickens, Thomas Carlyle, Charles Babbage, and George Elliot wrote > about and became interested in the ambiguous nature of the sonic > transformations wrought by modern technology. While Carlyle was > driven mad by the noise of London, including the sound of the air > vents installed in the loft he created to escape the din, in Japan > Yasar gives us Natsume Soseki--constantly on the move in search of > peace and quiet. Soseki nevertheless made abundant use of the > telephone to keep in touch, all the while rigging his own phone to > ensure it did not ring when he had visitors, or simply leaving it off > the hook when he was working. The telephone created its own noise and > "participated in the temporal tyranny of modernity" constantly > threatening to distract him from his work, take his time, and disrupt > his concentration (p. 47). The writer Nagai Kafu was also driven to > seek an escape from the maddening noise of technology as it became > "impossible to read or write in this heat with the sound of the radio > next door" (p. 148). > > Chapters 4 and 5 give a fascinating insight into the creation of a > national radio network that popularized Kafu's creative nemesis. > Yasar gives superb account of the development of sports commentary on > the radio and how the experience of listening and the idea that > Olympic competitions were being broadcast to an audience "back home" > made commentator, listener, and athlete feel part of something much > larger. Radio drama, covered in chapter 5, brought mediated sound to > the masses as people tuned in at the same times to listen to the same > programs, but also because the technology gave listeners the > opportunity to generate their own content, even if this was still > policed by the gatekeepers of the publishing and broadcasting > industries. > > The chapter on the phonograph is preceded by a discussion of the > impact of Western music and Western listening styles on Japanese > music. From the first public display of a phonograph in 1879, the > fascination of reproduction brought a disjunction between the visual > and the auditory, adding to a sense that--in the early > years--auditory media were organic, living entities. As sound > recordings became valuable commodities, the issue of copyright and > ownership came to occupy a central place in debates surrounding the > new technology. Importantly, Yasar shows that these debates were > little different from those taking place around the same issues > elsewhere in the world, but that the nature of Japanese music and art > forms nevertheless informed these discussions. With the rise of > popular musical recordings in the Taisho era, the potential for sound > technology to shape and create cultural memories spanning the past > and the present created an imagined community of listeners. The final > chapter examines the already well-covered debates over sound and film > in the prewar period. > > Overall, the book is a stimulating and well-written outline of the > connection between sound technology and the creation of "modern > Japan." A great addition to a slowly growing field of research and > teaching, it is also a useful addition to any class on modern > history, not just East Asian or Japanese. But, if this is a book > concerned with the nation-space, it tells us little about the spaces > within the nation. The increasing volume of modern life made evident > new communal, political, and social cleavages. In London, Babbage and > Carlyle (even Charles Dickens) were concerned with the noise made by > the lower classes, and the ever-present immigrants on the streets. > Their irritation with noise had as much to do with who made it, > where, and why. In the second and third chapters, we see some hint of > the ambiguity created by the new technology. Yet, aside from the > chapter on the telephone, where exchange operators were mainly young > and female, there is little mention of class distinctions, race, or > gender in relation to the new technology. This book does not really > get to grips with Japan's imperial expansion, either, although Yasar > does note in the conclusion that there is much work to be done on the > sonic dimensions of the colonial project. What the book does well is > make clear the important work that remains to be done on sound > culture and the development of sound technologies beyond the West. It > offers an excellent model for the transdisciplinary nature of that > task. Kerim Yasar's _Electrified Voices_ is an excellent, > ground-breaking work that will spark debate, research, and hopefully > teaching in an emerging field. > > Notes > > [1]. _Namaroku no Hon_ (Tokyo: Kosaido Books, 1977). > > [2]. Seth Jacobowitz, _Writing Technology in Meiji Japan: A Media > History of Modern Japanese Literature and Visual Culture _(Cambridge, > MA: Harvard University Asia Centre, 2015). > > Citation: Martyn Smith. Review of Yasar, Kerim, _Electrified Voices: > How the Telephone, Phonograph, and Radio Shaped Modern Japan, > 1868-1945_. H-Japan, H-Net Reviews. September, 2019. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=53567 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
