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"There is a period between each night and day when one dies for a few hours, neither dreaming nor thinking nor tossing nor hating nor loving, but dying for a little while because life progresses in just such a way."

- 'No-No Boy' by John Okada (page 39)

#mutt reads #no no boy #John Okada #book quotes

Have you read No-No Boy by John Okada (1957)?

yes

I didn't finish it

I've never heard of it

Voting ended onJan 8, 2025

#no-no boy #john okada #book poll #have you read this book poll #polls #requested

Books 23 through 32 of the year 📚!

#read in 2022 #stanislaw lem #nicola barker #john steinbeck #john okada #italo calvino #isaac bashevis singer #mikhail bulgakov #bernard malamud #marcus goodrich #talks

How is one to talk to a woman, a mother who is also a stranger because the son does not know who or what she is? Tell me, Mother, who are you? What is it to be a Japanese? There must have been a time when you were a little girl. You never told me about those things. Tell me now so that I can begin to understand. (...) Tell me everything and just a little bit and a little bit more until their lives and yours and mine are fitted together, for they surely must be.

Ichiro in John Okada’s No-No Boy

#No-No Boy #John Okada #japanese internment #Japanese relocation #japanese-american #immigrant

John Okada’s “No-No Boy” is a 1957 novel about a Japanese-American draft resister in WWII and the devastating impacts of JA incarceration. The groundbreaking book is considered the first ever Japanese American novel.

In May 2019, Penguin Classics released a new edition of No-No Boy that oversteps the book's copyright and cuts Okada's family out of royalties. Now, the fight is on to protect the book’s legacy from a greedy company.

Learn more about the publishing fight over No-No Boy here.

#john okada #no-no boy #no no boy #japanese american #japanese internment #ja incarceration #wwii #asian american #asian american history #literature #asian lit #author

And, as his heart mercifully stacked the blocks of hope into the pattern of an America which would someday hold an unquestioned place for him, his mind said no, it is not to be, and the castle tumbled and was swallowed up by the darkness of his soul, for time might cloud the memories of others but the trouble was inside of him and time would not soften that.

John Okada, No-No Boy (1957)

#literature #quotes #john okada #no-no boy #1957 #1950s #aapi #asian american #japanese american #american lit

"Not your strength, but your madness which I have taken. Look at me! I'm as crazy as you are. See in the mirror the madness of the mother which is the madness of the son. See. See!"

- No-No Boy, John Okada

#lit #no no boy #john okada #:(

An Open Letter to Penguin

Attn: The Penguin c/o Penguin Publishing

Sir,

It has come to my attention that you are currently engaged in a dubious undertaking. I would like to persuade you to reconsider.

Cynics have informed me that my counsel will go unheeded. They tell me that you are of questionable moral character, and cite evidence: You once tried to tried to murder a person named Bat Man, that you deliberately created potentially lethal umbrellas, and that you attempted to destroy an entire city with an army of rocket-armed birds. Be that as it may, I believe that we all possess both flaws and virtues, and it is worth the effort to encourage the best within any and every individual.

I have seen recent news reports about the actions of a company known as Penguin Publishing, and I infer that you, Mr. Penguin, aka "The" Penguin, are the proprietor of said company.

The undertaking to which I refer is your decision to publish a new edition of John Okada's novel No-No Boy, without consulting the Okada family, and excluding the Okada family from royalties from the sale of this book.

Mr. Penguin, I hope that I have been misinformed. Let us reflect on the Okada family history: In 1943, the Okada family was forced into an internment camp in Minidoka, Idaho. In spite of this, John Okada served in the United States Army during World War II, translating intercepted communications. Okada's novel, written in 1957, was unsuccessful when it was initially published, but is now regarded as a classic. (Penguin Books, in fact, publishes works under many different names. The name under which Okada's book is being published? Penguin Classics.)

I am reminded of a conversation I once had with an erudite gentleman named Smithers: he decried the fact that a man he admired had, in his words, "crossed that line between everyday villainy and cartoonish super-villainy."

Everyday villainy is one thing: Build a flamethrower umbrella if you must. But denying a share of a book's ample profits to the author's family? That is cartoonish super-villainy. It is simply going too far.

Mr. Penguin, it may or may not be true that the book's original copyright had been filed incorrectly, and may have lapsed. This does not give you the moral right to appropriate the work. The fact that you can do something does not mean that you should.

Do the right thing, Mr. Penguin.

#penguin #publishing #john okada #batman #smithers #the penguin #penguin publishing #no no boy #open letter #cartoonish supervillainy #evil #japanese americans #japanese internment #world war 2 #shawn wong #university of washington press