Konmari'd - Life changing Magic of Tidying up 02

Tidying up your house brings magic to your life, it has even become religious, owing to Marie Kondo!

In the entry of December 2016, I wrote about the Japanese decluttering consultant and specialist Marie Kondo.

https://barefootphilolo.blogspot.com/2016/12/konmaringlife-changing-magic-of-tidying.html

Her book translated into English and other languages were skyrocket hit and put her into the global spotlight. The organizational guru presently based in the States became even more cultural phenomenon these days owing to her Netflix shows of home makeovers. (And recently she has been accused and attacked on media by bibliophiles who were offended personally when Marie Kondo said the ideal number of books to keep is 30.)

https://konmari.com/

As in the same line with the book, her website and show upgrade "the magic" of KonMari method targeting the  non-Japanese audience - KonMari sits on the floor and solemnly greets the house like a ritual when she is to embark on the client's home makeover, there are pictures of her lovingly touching boxes as to show how she appreciates all the things whether be kept or thrown away, the show narrates that she has been inspired by the philosophy of Shintoism and has applied it to her method. Marie Kondo's lovely Asian looks also adds mysterious Oriental taste that interest Western people.

KonMari method is not just magic, now it is near religion -  and Americans love it.

To show how widespread it is, the word KonMari, or her method has been mentioned in popular comedy drama lines. Emily Gilmore in "Gilmore Girls : A Year in the Life" rummages through the piles of her belongings aiming to declutter her life, tells her daughter if she knows Marie Kondo, the Japanese woman.

"Does this bring joy?"
(Feels the dress near her heart.)
"Nope"
(Chucks it away.)



I have seen new kinds of hashtags on social medias since the last entry.

#KonMaried
#Konmari'd
#Konverts

Past tenses were not so popular before, but now there are people showing off the result of the makeover of their shelf or wardrobe or desk on Instagram hashtagged #KonMaried / #Konmari'd.

I also saw a title of an article "The husband was KonMaried..."  Used in a passive (also in a negative nuance though)! This coined word is making a steady growth!

And #Konverts!
It denotes people who are so influenced and devoted to KonMari method.
Now this is really getting religious.

konmaring Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up

Japanese people make a great fuss about the big cleaning up at the end of the year. Not just cleaning up but people would go through their wardrobes, cupboards and bookshelves and dump things that they would not use anymore.

For some people, carrying out the cleaning in efficient steps and making decision on what to dispose or keep are rather difficult, so in Japan, there are many how-to books on cleaning up and decluttering.

Marie Kondo wrote a how-to book on decluttering and organizing, and it has become a big hit not just in Japan but overseas too. The style of her cleaning is named "Konmari method". Konmari is her name Kondo Marie shortened.

There even is a verb generated from this "Konmari", "konmaring". On twitter, there is a hashtag "#konmaring", "#konmari", and some with pictures are showing how they are trying to organize things at home they have accumulated over many years. There even was a post talking of "konmaring" their life or their twitter account. So the verb does not just refer to cleaning up the house.

Hashtags clearly show how big a hit her method is.

How come her method became such a hit?
The secret is in the title and the magic spell which is constantly repeated in the book.

"The life-changing magic of tidying up. The Japanese art of decluttering and organizing"

It is not just your ordinary how-to book, the book tells you that tidying up is MAGIC! It is a book of magic. And it is a magic that can change your life! Cleaning the house is not a job that most people enjoy or do it for hobby, but if it is a magic that can change your life, now, that is exciting!

The title also tells you this method is a Japanese art. To a non-Japanese reader, it would give the impression of Zen or oriental philosophy. The cleaning is purification. The slight guilt that comes from being manipulated in commercialism and materialism can be written off with this magic method.

However, this Japanese art does not tell you to throw away everything and live in modesty. Repeatedly, the book chants the magic spell,

"Does it spark joy?"

The book tells you to keep the things that sparks joy to you, and throw away the things that does not. Presents from your ex-boyfriend, jumpers and scarfs that you got on Christmas or birthday that are not quite your taste, skirt that you want to wear when you succeed in working out at the gym...etc. They do not spark joy so you should throw them away. You only keep the things that make you happy. Cast off the shackles, freedom from material means freedom of your mind.

It does seem like magic.

Yes, her book is magic - contracting her name and making it the verb to refer to the method, the selection of the words in the title, casting magic spell repeatedly in the book.

"Homosexual" - a word testing the linguistic aesthetic taste

Words always succeed the event. New words are invented to refer to the things and events that have come into being and influence our life.

The word "homosexual" was translated from German and entered English in 1892, to describe a person sexually attracted to a person of the same sex. A little later to the introduction of the word "homosexual", a trial accusing Oscar Wilde for sodomy was the talk of the town, and I think this new word must have been used in the trial.

H. Havelock Ellis (1859 - 1939), a physician and a writer who studied human sexuality, expressed his abhorrence to this new word. He said in his book:

'Homosexual' is a barbarously hybrid word, and I claim no responsibility for it. It is, however, convenient, and now widely used. 'Homegenic' has been suggested as a substitute. (H. Havelock Ellis, "Studies in Psychology" 1897)

I am sure Oscar Wilde, an aesthete who had "found it harder and harder every day to live up to his blue china", would have shared the same revulsion to the word 'homosexual' when he heard it used in his trial. The word 'sodomy', with its biblical origin, would have suited Wilde's taste far more than the newly invented word in describing his sexual orientation.

How come the word 'homosexual' is barbarously hybrid?

 'Homo' comes from Greek and 'sexual' is Latin origin. 

You might think, 'is that all?!' but I highly recognize the aesthetic taste of Ellis; fusing things of different origin is like eating strawberry jam on rice. Agh!

Japanese, too, are not so sensitive to this kind of linguistic aesthetic taste. From our earliest history, we are so used to adopting and adapting words and letters from foreign languages. There are even some words that have become so familiar in our vocabulary that not many think that it has a foreign origin.

'Tempura-don' is a name of a typical and popular Japanese dish, and it has tempura on a bowl of rice. The word 'tempura' comes from Spanish word 'tempero', and I think not many Japanese people would know that, and '-don' is a short form of 'domburi' which means 'a bowl' in Japanese.

'Tempura-don' is actually an amalgamate word of Spanish and Japanese. 

I bet Ellis and Wilde would have abhorred the word.

Power of words and Mysterious Lactobacillic Drink from Asia

There was a drink I liked from childhood. It is a concentrated lactobacillic drink you dilute with water. It is white in colour, and it tastes a little sour but also sweet. It was a product of Japan.

Our family moved to Australia when I was 7, and I was happy that I could take to school drink bottles with juice in it. My mother got hold of that concentrated drink from a Japanese import food shop, and let me take that drink to school.

I was new to the school, and my classmates were very curious of everything I had. They looked at my pencils, rubber, pencil case, lunch box, and my drink bottle. The Japanese girl had different lunch, so they wanted to taste a little. They were also curious about what was in the drink bottle.

I could not speak English well, but I could tell that my classmates wanted to taste my lunch and drink, so I let them have some. My friends liked the drink, so they asked me what the name of the juice was. I proudly said,

"Calpis!" (It was the name of the product)

"Oooh, yuck! Cow pis!"

"???"

My friends who just had enjoyed the drink was now making a great fuss about it. I could not figure out what had gone wrong.

Later I found out that 'Calpis' sounded very similar to 'cow pis', and my friends thought that they had drank "it".

Words put ideas in your head. After this incident, my friends did not ask me for a sip of my drink although it was not 'cow pis' at all. Words are powerful.

This was years before export version of Calpis was made. Now, the export version had arranged the name of the product to "Calpico". Sales-wise, I think the re-naming was a wise choice.

http://www.calpico.com/calpico/index.html

Typhoon, tycoon, tyranny and Tyrannosaur Part 2

(The second half of me letting my imagination fly from "typhoon, tycoon, tyranny and Tyrannosaur")

And then, I went on to thinking about 'tyranny' and 'Tyrannosaur'.

I guess that when archaeologists found the full set of skeletal structure for the largest carnivorous dinosaur, they must have imagined what fear it brought to other creatures living in same age. 

"Here comes thumping and whipping its thick fat tail the hungry big-headed humongous meat-eating creature with great big munching jaws lined with lethal set of sharp teeth!!!!"

So, this predator was named 'Tyrannosaur'. One of them even has -rex on the end of its name, which means "king"! How powerful could you get!

Then, what about the word 'tyranny'?

Now, I imagine that this kind of word is born from the side of the ruled, not the ruler, and in a culture where it has seen a great domination over people. If you are in power, you have no fear, you can do whatever you want. However, if you have been suffering under brutal domination for many years and you know who's or what's to blame, you would come up with a word to describe that, wouldn't you. You would want to share your agony and distress with the people under the same condition.

"Oh! That tyrant! We will be left with nothing, no food, no future if this tyranny goes on!"

Something you still might hear in a smoking room in a big company.

And this word 'tyranny' is Greek in origin. Yes, the ancient Greeks have dominated vast regions in the Mediterranean and later was dominated by the Romans.

Maki, having fun slipping myself to Asia, prehistoric ages and the ancient Greek world with words...

Typhoon, tycoon, tyranny and Tyrannosaur Part 1

I like playing with word sounds. And when I am just playing around with them, I sometimes hit on some linguistic features that words share.

typhoon

tycoon

tyranny

Tyrannosaur

These words look similar, sound similar, and also they are all terrifying if they are around you, aren't they. Frightening as one, but imagine all four of them coming to you at once (and I am so good at letting my fantasy fly wild).

".... A typhoon which revives a Tyrannosaur in its hibernation hits your country of tyranny ruled by a tycoon...."

Socially, politically, and catastrophically you are doomed!

Now, both 'typhoon' and 'tycoon' were imported from Asian words - 'typhoon' is 台風 meaning violent wind storm, and 'tycoon' is 大君 originally meaning the Tokugawa Shogun, later changing to refer to someone rich and successful in great power.

               Asian origin words showing great power over people

It may be just a coincidence, but don't these common features excite you?! They do for me.