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February 18, 2009

Proof that the arts have utilitarian power

    My Saunterings on Kabuki (Japanese theater) show that the Catholic Church isn’t alone in using the arts - paintings, sculptures, and Passion plays - to propagandize. Read the following World War II directive from the Japanese Bureau of Information’s Executive Office to Kabuki theater workers, urging them to get with the propaganda effort:

Today, the foremost objective for theater arts must be to encourage men to sweat diligently to fulfil industrial production that will increase military strength. In addition, dramatic content must be suitably artistic and enjoyable. However, in current theater we see that war content is treated superficially and awkwardly. Because theater is for an audience of idlers, the required connections to the war situation are bogus and underhanded. Performances for a leisure class and plays that merely drag in references to the war will not do. (Quoted from page 257 of Kabuki’s Forgotten War: 1931 - 1945, by James R. Bradon. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. 2009.)

     For information on Kabuki, click here.

February 18, 2009 |

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Books by H. Charles Romesburg

  • H. Charles Romesburg: The Life of the Creative Spirit

    H. Charles Romesburg: The Life of the Creative Spirit
    Practically all of the quotations in this blog's posts are collected in "The Life of the Creative Spirit."

  • H. Charles Romesburg: How About It, Writer?

    H. Charles Romesburg: How About It, Writer?
    Based on a study of more than 12,000 essays from the very best literary magazines, this book provides writers with lists of thousands of classic forms of opening sentences, titles, transition sentences, ways of saying "for example," and ways of closing nonfiction pieces. When you are writing an essay and want a hint for a better or fresh way of saying what you mean, looking through the lists acts on the imagination, stimulating your creativity. From Lulu Press (ISBN 1-4116-2862-4, 194 pp., softback), it's $16.95 when ordered from Lulu.com/Romesburg , and $22.95 from bookstores. To view its cover, click on www.cnr.usu.edu/romesburg/how_about_it_writer.htm To view its title page, contents, and first two chapters, click on: www.cnr.usu.edu/romesburg/how_about_it_writer_preview.pdf

  • H Charles Romesburg: Best Research Practices

    H Charles Romesburg: Best Research Practices
    The Saunterer’s new book (2009), Best Research Practices explains how to plan and carry out reliable experiments, how to conceive and circumstantially support research hypotheses, how to test research hypotheses with the hypothetico-deductive method, how to discover cause and effect, and more. It’s based on his examination of 5,000 top scientific articles, studying the methods used to produce reliable knowledge. Preview it on-line by going to the following link: http://print.google.com/print?isbn=9780557017836

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