Shibumi: Trevanian

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Kitaptaki Nicholai karakterini, Satranç kitabındaki Dr. B'ye çok benzetmiştim. İkisinin de ortak yönleri çoktu, her ikisinin de başına gelenler çok benzerdi , her ikisi de karizmatik karakterlerdi, her iki kitabı da okuyanlar bilir.

Nicholas Hel would not have lent his support to the current leaders of Israel. He would have wished the current rational leaders of Palestine all good fortune in negotiating towards peace with justice, now that Arafat is no longer in the way. (Footnote: Arafat's end has all the marks of an inside job, almost surely with the assistance of the second bureau. Israel, of course, knew what was going on, and it's likely that they informed the United States, but that's not sure. It's hard to put limits on the incompetence of American intelligence services. Each time we find a lower value, they prove they can fail even that; so Israel might not have informed us early enough for us to get our clumsy hands into things and mess them up.) Q:Since I first read Shibumi and then reread it twenty years later, my opinion of the Israeli-Palestinian situation has changed entirely, as a result of becoming much better informed...Has your opinion in this regard at all changed since Shibumi has been published? Nicolai (Nikko) Hel is a one of a kind man caught in uncommon circumstances. When he and his mother are trapped in China during the Japanese invasion, they are accepted into the home of a Japanese general of administration who takes a liking to Nikko (known more commonly as Hel). He teaches the boy many languages, including the art of Shibumi, which is more than simply the knowledge of things, but rather the 'understanding' of things. In philosophy, where SHIBUMI emerges as WABI, it is spiritual tranquility that is not passive; it is being without the angst of becoming. And in the personality of a man, it is…authority without domination. One does not achieve SHIBUMI, one…discovers it. And only a few men of infinite refinement ever do that. One must pass through knowledge and arrive at simplicity to arrive at SHIBUMI.”appearances. It is a statement so correct that it does not have to be bold, so poignant it does not have to be pretty, so true it does not have to be real. Kitabın E Yayınları ile çıkan basımında ufak tefek de olsa imla hataları var. Okumanızı etkilemiyor.

Needless to say, there are high moments and low moments in this epic struggle including a long cave sequence (too long?) that becomes critical to one of the key moments late in the plot (No Spoilers, I promise). Along the way, we learn of Hel's few friends: FEEL the calm and warming presence of the sublime meadow that is the assassin's mystical meditative psychic retreat. and what shall come to those blundering dolts who dare encroach upon this special Happy Place? you have one guess! it is a word that starts with D, foolish Company Man! The main character Nicholai Hel speaks several languages due to his heritage and place of birth, and over the course of the book studies two additional languages: Japanese and Basque. These last two feature prominently in the book. Most of the Japanese in the book centers around the game of Go, which Hel formally studies, and which is used as a metaphor in several points throughout the book. The novel itself is broken down into six books, each of which is named from Japanese Go vocabulary. In the table of contents the author provides his own translation of these six terms, as follows: [2]

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Nicholai's adoptive Japanese father ultimately is drawn into the war and sends the boy to Japan to study the Japanese game of Go with Otake-san, a Dan seven legend. Otake-san teaches the boy many things, not the least of which about the knowledge of older people: "never resent the advantage of experience your elders have. Recall that they have paid for this experience in the coins of life and have emptied a purse that cannot be refilled." (p. 117). It is interesting to note that most of Hel's make companions from then on are his age or older. I also appreciated this twist on a common maxim: "Many Japanese seemed not to realize that the propaganda of the victor becomes the history of the vanquished." (p. 141). Ben çok seyahat ettim, dünyayı avucumun içinde çevirdim ve bir şeyi iyice anladım. İnsanı en mutlu eden şey, ihtiyaçlarıyla varlıkları arasında bir denge bulunmasıdır. Bütün sorun, bu dengenin nasıl sağlanacağı. İnsan bunu belki varlıklarını yükseltip ihtiyaçlarının düzeyine çıkararak yapabilir. Ama bu budalalık olur. Bunu yapmak, arada bir sürü doğa dışı şeyler yapmayı gerektirir. Pazarlık etmek gibi, çalışmak gibi, çabalamak gibi. Öyleyse? Öyleyse akıllı bir adam dengeyi, ihtiyaçlarını azaltarak, yani onları varlıklarının düzeyine indirerek sağlar. Bunu yapmanın da en iyi yolu, bedava olan şeylerin değerini bilmektir. Dağların, kahkahanın, şiirin, bir dostun verdiği şarabın, yaşlı ve şişman kadınların, Bakın bana! Ben elimdekilerle mutlu olmayı çok iyi bilen biriyim. Bütün mesele elimdekileri yeteri kadar çoğaltmak." Poi, ho capito che ‘Satori’ è il prequel di ‘Shibumi’ e quindi questa inutile lettura potevo evitarmela. Sigh. Ma anche doppio sigh: perché, oltre che inutile, è proprio brutto. Sibumi romani, oglanci, mikropenisli, etnik bir espri olan aptal araplarla, nedense herhangi bir sifatla tanimlanmamis olan israilliler arasindaki kavganin, enerji kaynaklarinin, hukumetlerin ve akla gelebilecek her seyin dolayisiyla da tum dunyanin kontrolunu elinde tutan zenginlere sorun cikarmasindan kaynaklanan tatsiz bir durumun, asil ve onurlu japon kulturu etkisinde buyumus, atesli-nuktedan-isyankar ve durust basklara kendini yakin hissettiginden bask bolgesinde bir satoda yasayan, orumcek adamin yakinlik algisini, batmanin dovus tekniklerini, supermanin kisilik degistirme ozelligini, schraderin donuk bakislarini ve calimeronun haksizlik karsisindaki durusunu bunyesinde toplamis, subyanci, zubbe, 7 dil bilen, go oyunu ustadi, sevisgen, sorunlu ve evli kadinlara amator fahise diyen bir ultrakahramanin maceralarini, avrupanin artiklarindan ortaya cikmis amerikalilarin, beceriksiz italyanlarin, duzensiz fransizlarin, bilmem ne olan ingilizlerin, temellerin ve fadimelerin yasadigi bir dunyada, irkci-macist-ozenti bir yazar? tarafindan kaleme alinmis bir kitaptir I've seen reviewers say that this book is too intelligently written to be published today. A bit cynical in my opinion, the book is a product of the time, but certainly doesn't come across as a typical written by-the-numbers thriller. Written today it would obviously be written differently. Probably some of the more defining aspects of the book would be lost, but I still think this book would make the spring list of a major publisher.