East --> West

[Duncan]

I'm always going West --> East. I want to go the other way. For example, Hesse was a European influenced by Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and other Western philosophers who was also strongly influenced by Eastern thought. I'm looking to approach the same middle ground from the other direction. So do you guys have any recommendations of maybe Buddhist, Taoist, Hindu, Confucian, Shinto, Eastern atheists, or whatever authors approaching Western thought analogously to the way Hesse approaches Eastern thought? I've read a bit from China from round the time the Jesuits were really pushing their agenda there. I've also read some stuff from Meiji period Japan, and some Tanizaki. It occurs to me this endeavor may be limited by my own identity, but I figure it should interesting. So, any suggestions?

[Melville]

The only thing I can think of is Yukio Mishima's Temple of the Golden Pavillion. It kind of fuses existential and Buddhist themes. I'm not sure if it fits your criteria, but it's a great book. And the author committed ritual suicide, which should be worth something.

[lovejuice]

so hard and yet so challenging a question.

an easy answer might be murakami whose -- as little as i adore him -- writting is much influenced by western idea and style. although if you look for hardcore western philosophy, you ain't find it here. (the fans will argue otherwise, i'm sure.)

i'll think about this more, and come back later.

[D_Davis]

This poses a very interesting question. In the west, we often glamorize eastern religion and philosophy, but does the east do this with western religion and philosophy? Is it hip in Japan to be a Christian like it is hip in some areas of America to be a Buddhist? Do they attach a cool stigma to western religion?

You could look at something like the anime, Neon Genesis, which takes a confounded look at some of the ideas of Christianity, and then jumbles them even further beyond the limited amount of the initial understanding.

[lovejuice]

This poses a very interesting question. In the west, we often glamorize eastern religion and philosophy, but does the east do this with western religion and philosophy? Is it hip in Japan to be a Christian like it is hip in some areas of America to be a Buddhist? Do they attach a cool stigma to western religion?

You could look at something like the anime, Neon Genesis, which takes a confounded look at some of the ideas of Christianity, and then jumbles them even further beyond the limited amount of the initial understanding.

D actually touches on something here. if you want eastern art that is flauntingly based on western idea, go for manga. i'm not saying they're deep or philosophical, but for a weird reason christianity plays out very well with manga logic. i even dare say there are more christian-like characters in manga than buddhist-like.

[Duncan]

The only thing I can think of is Yukio Mishima's Temple of the Golden Pavillion. It kind of fuses existential and Buddhist themes. I'm not sure if it fits your criteria, but it's a great book. And the author committed ritual suicide, which should be worth something.

Sounds good. I think I've actually heard of it, but if I have it was only in passing. I'll check it out.

[Duncan]

so hard and yet so challenging a question.

an easy answer might be murakami whose -- as little as i adore him -- writting is much influenced by western idea and style. although if you look for hardcore western philosophy, you ain't find it here. (the fans will argue otherwise, i'm sure.)

i'll think about this more, and come back later.

I haven't read any Murakami, but I bought one of his books as a Christmas present for my Mom. She's read so many books it's hard to find something new for her. I'm pretty confident she's never read anything by him. I'll borrow it when she's done with it.

[Duncan]

This poses a very interesting question. In the west, we often glamorize eastern religion and philosophy, but does the east do this with western religion and philosophy? Is it hip in Japan to be a Christian like it is hip in some areas of America to be a Buddhist? Do they attach a cool stigma to western religion?

You could look at something like the anime, Neon Genesis, which takes a confounded look at some of the ideas of Christianity, and then jumbles them even further beyond the limited amount of the initial understanding.

I was considering anime. I do find, however, than they very often suffer from the problem you describe. I think often they want to be so mind blowing that they just make things confusing rather than insightful. I've read a manga called Barefoot Gen (at least I think that's what it was called) about post Little Boy Hiroshima. It definitely had some commentary on America in it, but it was mostly concerned with its specific time and place.