Comments on: Variations on a Theme

By: Joe Lawler

Joe Lawler — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:15:11 +0000

Sorry to call you James, Jason. I have a brother named James and a cousin named Jason. With all the “J” names I get them confused a lot.

By: Jason M. Bryant

Jason M. Bryant — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:31:52 +0000

Don’t sweat it. I usually miss sarcasm on the internet.

By: Paul Salvi

Paul Salvi — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:00:46 +0000

“The reason I didn’t detect any sarcasm is because Paul’s comments were extremely similar to the serious responses that Willow got to her blog.”

Sorry dude. I guess I underestimated Team Willow.

By: Kat Kan

Kat Kan — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:35:19 +0000

Look, I’m half-Japanese, spent a big portion of my life in extremely multicultural Hawaii, and I love Plain Janes. I totally got that Theatrical Jane is Asian (somehow I think of her as Chinese, but that’s just me). And yes, we’re all different. People of Asian descent (be it Japanese, Chinese, whatever) who grow up on the Mainland DO speak much differently from people of the same ethnic groups who grow up in Hawaii. My Hawaii-born Japanese American husband and I have both observed this; we attended college with lots of Mainland-born and raised Asian Americans who seemed worlds apart from us. In fact, during WWII, when Hawaii-born Japanese were teamed up with Mainland-born Japanese in the 100th Battalion, there were lots of fights between the “Buddha-heads” and “kotonks” because they were so different. And most books about the Japanese American experience tend to ignore Hawaii – I know, because I’ve read and reviewed more than a dozen of them in the past decade and a half.

Anyway, how come I could see the differences in all the Janes without being hit over the head with visual or verbal clues? Could it be because I’m mixed race and have learned to “see” it? I don’t know. None of the stuff being discussed now even dawned on me as a problem when I read Plain Janes.

By: Jason M. Bryant

Jason M. Bryant — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:41:02 +0000

Joe, I’m guessing you mean me.

The reason I didn’t detect any sarcasm is because Paul’s comments were extremely similar to the serious responses that Willow got to her blog. So I thought he was serious. If he was being sarcastic, then I apologize for misreading.

By: Joe Lawler

Joe Lawler — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:14:47 +0000

James, you may want to reread Paul’s post with your sarcasm detector on.

By: Jason M. Bryant

Jason M. Bryant — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 13:29:14 +0000

Actually, no. What I said is not racist in the slightest. The idea that all Japanese-American girls talk the same and all Chinese-American girls talk the same is pretty darn racist in a subtle way, however.

I’ve had friends whose heritage was from Japan, China, Singapore, and other places. They talked like Americans. Yeah, their grandparents probably talked differently from each other, but my friend from Phoenix talked exactly like his white friend from Phoenix who he grew up with. So if Willow wants to get upset that several girls talk similarly, most of whom grew up in the same town, then she’s doing more to promote racism than to hinder it.

By: Paul Salvi

Paul Salvi — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:52:43 +0000

What you’re saying is totally obscenely racist. Like everything everyone says, and every story in every medium.

You rock Willow! Preach it girl!

By: Jason M. Bryant

Jason M. Bryant — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 11:07:14 +0000

I read Willow’s full blog entry. It reads like she’s absolutely determined to be upset. Just because everything isn’t spelled out for her doesn’t mean anything was done wrong. I’ve known many Asian people who never mentioned what their heritage was. For that matter, almost none of the white people I’ve met in my life have ever told me whether their heritage was German, Irish, or whatever. So they’re exact lineage isn’t mentioned in the book. Big deal.

By: Matthew Craig

Matthew Craig — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 04:22:11 +0000

I think that subtlety beats sledgehammer every time.

Me old china bejaysis och aye boy bach.

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