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A book review of the novel A Lost Paradise. Originally published in the Spring 2001 issue of Persimmon: Asian Literature, Arts, and Culture. Republished with permission. Article appears as captured by Internet Archive on May 7, 2008

Kempf, Andrea

Johnson County Community CollegeScholarSpace @ JCCCLibrary Papers and Presentations Billington LibrarySpring 2001Book Review: A Lost ParadiseAndrea KempfJohnson County Community College, akempf@jccc.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarspace.jccc.edu/lib_ppPart of the Arts and Humanities CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Billington Library at ScholarSpace @ JCCC. It has been accepted for inclusion in LibraryPapers and Presentations by an authorized administrator of ScholarSpace @ JCCC. For more information, please contact bbaile14@jccc.edu.Recommended CitationKempf, Andrea, "Book Review: A Lost Paradise" (2001). Library Papers and Presentations. 16.http://scholarspace.jccc.edu/lib_pp/16  A LOST PARADISE By JUN'ICHI WATANABE Translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter. Tokyo: KodanshaInternational, 2000. 372 pages, $24Andrea Kempf  Jun'ichi Watanabe's novel A Lost Paradise has been a publishingsensation in Japan. Reviewers in the United States, with an unsubtlenudge from the American publisher, have been comparing A LostParadise to The Bridges of Madison County with some justificationbecause each novel is an unrealistic but highly romantic view ofadultery, written from a man's point of view, featuring middle-agedprotagonists living dead-end emotional lives. However, A LostParadise is a uniquely Japanese book, which draws upon a numberof popular themes in twentieth-century Japanese culture. The bigquestion about Watanabe's novel is, "Why has this tale of adulterouspassion resonated so strongly with the public?" There is no doubt thathis novel has become a cultural phenomenon, not just in Japan, whereit sold almost three million copies, but also throughout Asia, where ithas been translated into numerous languages. In Japan, the novel haseven created a new slang expression: To do a Shitsuakuen (thebook's Japanese title) is the new term for having an affair.The novel tells the story of Kuki, a bored fifty-four-year-oldsalaryman in a book- publishing company who has recently beendemoted to a back office of his firm. He meets Rinko, a thirty-eight-year-old calligraphy instructor trapped in a loveless marriage. Hepursues her, and within the first chapter the couple are exploring asensuous sexual relationship unlike anything either one experienced inmarriage. Chapter by chapter, their obsession grows, and their sexualactivities become more experimental, often bordering on the sadistic.As the affair takes over, the couple gradually shut out more of theirprevious lives, work, friends, and family until they are locked in aclaustrophobic passion so personally ideal that the end can only bedeath. This is accomplished in the last chapter, in a gruesome doublesuicide immediately following coitus, which Watanabe, a doctor aswell as a novelist, assures the readers is physically possible.The Japanese culture of sex and violence has been discussed in manyforums. Recently the critic Ian Buruma devoted several chapters in hisvolume of collected essays The Missionary and the Libertine (New11/29/2010 BOOK REVIEW OF SPRING 2001web.archive.org/…/bre_sp2001_3.htm 1/3York: Random House, 2000) to that topic. Buruma conjectures thatsuicide, sex, and the art of cruelty are outlets for people in anauthoritarian society-individuals who have been denied the naturalpolitical freedoms of many other countries. When people have noability to effect changes in society itself, they focus inward, expandingthe boundaries of those areas that will shock the public, withoutdisturbing the higher authority. Buruma bases much of his thesis on theideas of Japanese filmmaker Nagisa Oshima, whose 1976 film In theRealm of the Senses (Ai No Corrida) about a famous 1920s murdercase in which a woman strangled her lover and cut off his genitals sothat no other woman could ever have him, is much discussed by Kukiand Rinko in A Lost Paradise.It is true that both Kuki and Rinko seem powerless to control theirlives. Kuki faces years of boredom in both an unchallenging job and astifling marriage. Rinko receives no support from her family to divorceher unresponsive husband. As the two of them break one taboo afteranother-for example, he seduces her during her father's wake, andlater they begin to find sexual pleasure in pain-their actions cut themadrift from the rest of the world. Rinko's mother disowns her. Kuki'swife serves him with divorce papers. Finally, Kuki's affair comes tothe attention of his superiors, which results in an even more humiliatingdemotion. Is this obsessional relationship a means of expressing theirindividuality in a repressive society?In the end, what matters is the reader's enjoyment of the novel. As aview of adultery, the novel is an intense and claustrophobicexperience. It is also a revealing look at Japanese mores. What it isnot, is great literature, but that's not the point when a book becomes acultural phenomenon spawning movies, television programs, andfashionable trips to all the elegant hotels where the fictional couple hadsex. The novel is slick and fun and another way to see Japan.Andrea Kempf is a professor and librarian at Johnson CountyCommunity College in Overland Park, Kansas, and an alumna ofthe East-West Center's Asian Studies Development Program. Sheis a regular reviewer of fiction for Library Journal and wasnamed LJ Fiction Reviewer of the Year - 2000.11/29/2010 BOOK REVIEW OF SPRING 2001web.archive.org/…/bre_sp2001_3.htm 2/3HOME | ABOUT PERSIMMON | CURRENT ISSUE | PREVIOUS ISSUES | ORDER | SUBMISSIONS | LINKSPersimmon: Asian Literature, Arts, and Culture is published by Contemporary Asian Culture, Inc., a not-for-profit educational organization. 46 East 92nd StreetNew York, NY 10128phone/fax 212-831-4751persimmon.mag@att.net  11/29/2010 BOOK REVIEW OF SPRING 2001web.archive.org/…/bre_sp2001_3.htm 3/3

English

Book Review: A Lost Paradise

Review of the novel The Money Demon. Originally published in Persimmon: Asian Literature, Arts, and Culture in Spring 2000, volume 1 issue 1. Reprinted with permission. Appears as captured in The Internet Archive on May 7, 2008

Johnson County Community CollegeScholarSpace @ JCCCLibrary Papers and Presentations Billington LibrarySpring 2000Book Review: The Money DemonAndrea KempfJohnson County Community College, akempf@jccc.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarspace.jccc.edu/lib_ppPart of the Other English Language and Literature CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Billington Library at ScholarSpace @ JCCC. It has been accepted for inclusion in LibraryPapers and Presentations by an authorized administrator of ScholarSpace @ JCCC. For more information, please contact bbaile14@jccc.edu.Recommended CitationKempf, Andrea, "Book Review: The Money Demon" (2000). Library Papers and Presentations. 17.http://scholarspace.jccc.edu/lib_pp/17  THE MONEY DEMONBy CHEN DIEXIANTranslated by Patrick Hanan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,1999. 294 pages, $42 (hardcover), $19.95 (paperback)Andrea Kempf  The University of Hawaii Press series Fiction from Contemporary Chinahas a dual purpose. First, it introduces to readers of English the fiction ofsome of China's most exciting new writers. Second, it makes accessiblethe masterworks of earlier authors who are unknown in the West. TheMoney Demon falls into the second category. Chen Diexian was a poetand a novelist as well as a businessman and inventor; he lived from 1879to 1940, a time of cataclysmic change in China. By the age of twenty, hehad over twenty published works to his credit, including numerous volumesof poetry and two novels. The Money Demon, which was originallypublished in 1913, is an autobiographical romance that chronicles his lifeand loves from childhood up to the age of twenty-two. While the book is typical of Chinese romantic novels of Chen's day, it alsofalls easily into the coming-of-age genre common in Western literature. Itgives a stunning picture of what it meant to be a young upper-classChinese male in the nineteenth century. We first meet the young Chen,called Shan in the novel, at the age of seven living in a world of women.His life is directed by his father's first wife; his father's second wife, who ishis birth mother; his nanny, Lu; a personal housemaid, Little Tan; numerousgirl cousins; and above all a neighbor's daughter called Koto for theinstrument she plays. Later, we also meet Shan's wife, of an arrangedmarriage, and Koto's mother, sisters, and friends, all of whom stronglyinfluence Shan's behavior. In this fascinating window on the life of theChinese gentry, the reader is able to view the place of women in society,the role of servants, the structure of the household, and how familyfinances were managed. In addition, the protagonist is not presented in aheroic fashion. As the author charts his amorous adventures, he describeshimself as a shallow, somewhat selfish, utterly romantic young man who iseasily distracted by a pretty face and whose business acumen is not highlydeveloped-in short, a normal adolescent male. What sets The Money Demon apart from most Chinese romantic novels isthe money motif. Throughout the narrative, Shan blames his failures on theneed for money. His great love, Koto, marries someone else because therival has more money. His family is split apart over the management of his11/29/2010 BOOK REVIEW OF SPRING 2000web.archive.org/…/bre_sp2000_8.htm 1/3father's estate. Mismanagement of money is a source of shame, and Shan'sbusiness failures are exemplary. Lack of money forces Shan to seekemployment instead of pursuing the life of an idle gentleman. Subtlety is notan element of Chen's style. After each chapter or vignette, he tells thereader how the "money demon" has corrupted the behavior of thecharacters. This preaching is particularly ironic when in real life Chen gaveup most of his literary pursuits after making a fortune by cornering themarket on Chinese tooth powder. Yet despite the heavy-handedmoralizing over money, and the jejune emotional life of the hero, TheMoney Demon is a charming narrative of a feckless young man falling inlove over and over, with his cousin, his neighbor, his wife, loving all ofthem at once, hopelessly incapable of monogamy, and relishing everyminute of his various infatuations. In addition, the text is replete with Chen Diexian's poetry, used to illustratethe events he is describing. Thanks are due the translator, Harvard scholarPatrick Hanan, and the University of Hawaii Press for rescuing the novelfrom oblivion (it is the sort of literature that is deemed unacceptable by theP.R.C. government) and making it available to modern readers. Withhelpful notes to explain various literary references, an enlighteningintroduction, and an appendix containing the original version of the Kotostory, the novel will delight both scholars of the period and readers whowish to travel to turn-of-the-century China.Andrea Kempf, a professor and librarian at Johnson CountyCommunity College in Overland Park, is an alumna of the AsianStudies Development Program of the East-West Center and a regularreviewer of fiction for Library Journal.HOME | ABOUT PERSIMMON | CURRENT ISSUE | PREVIOUS ISSUES | ORDER | SUBMISSIONS | LINKS11/29/2010 BOOK REVIEW OF SPRING 2000web.archive.org/…/bre_sp2000_8.htm 2/3Persimmon: Asian Literature, Arts, and Culture is published by Contemporary Asian Culture, Inc., a not-for-profit educational organization. 46 East 92nd StreetNew York, NY 10128phone/fax 212-831-4751persimmon.mag@att.net 11/29/2010 BOOK REVIEW OF SPRING 2000web.archive.org/…/bre_sp2000_8.htm 3/3

Book Review: The Money Demon

Review of The Romantics by Pankaj Mishra. Originally published in the Summer 2000 issue of Persimmon: Asian Literature, Arts, and Culture. Reproduced with permission. Appears as captured by Internet Archive on May 7, 2008

Johnson County Community CollegeScholarSpace @ JCCCLibrary Papers and Presentations Billington LibrarySummer 2000Book Review: The RomanticsAndrea KempfJohnson County Community College, akempf@jccc.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarspace.jccc.edu/lib_ppPart of the Arts and Humanities CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Billington Library at ScholarSpace @ JCCC. It has been accepted for inclusion in LibraryPapers and Presentations by an authorized administrator of ScholarSpace @ JCCC. For more information, please contact bbaile14@jccc.edu.Recommended CitationKempf, Andrea, "Book Review: The Romantics" (2000). Library Papers and Presentations. 14.http://scholarspace.jccc.edu/lib_pp/14  THE ROMANTICSBy PANKAJ MISHRANew York: Random House, 2000. 272 pages, $22.95Andrea KempfWhile Europeans and Americans have had a long, noisy love affair with themystery that is India, it is sometimes surprising to remember that many Indianshave had a similar romance with the West. Pankaj Mishra's evocative first novelis peopled with both varieties of romantics. Samar, the novel's Brahminprotagonist, is diligently studying Western literature and philosophy while hisEuropean acquaintances are immersing themselves in Indian culture and religion.Having completed his university studies, Samar aspires to passing the civil serviceexamination and getting a good government position. He is in Benares to study,but the world around him continually intrudes.His friends, both Indian and Western, are searching for ways out of their lives:Samar's neighbor Diana West is a middle-aged British woman who is living inIndia in order to see her married lover without causing him scandal. Mark is arestless American intellectual, a Buddhist one day, an expert on ayurvedicmedicine the next, unable to find a cause that will fully engage him. Sara fromGermany and Debbie from the United States are both flirting with Buddhism.Catherine is in love with the exotic itself. She is carrying on an affair with Anand,a sitar player whose career she plans to promote in Paris.Anand looks for validation of his traditional Indian music in the West. LikeSamar, he is of high caste but is denied the opportunities his caste would haveafforded him before Independence. The theme of the impoverished Brahmin is asubtext of the novel. When the Indian constitution guaranteed a percentage ofuniversity and civil service positions to low-caste and minority citizens, thetraditionally privileged Brahmins found themselves at a disadvantage. While theirpriestly benefits were unaffected, Brahmins were no longer first in line foreducation and job preferment. Samar's Brahmin friend Rajesh, a charismatic andpossibly criminal figure on the university campus, exemplifies the issue as hesquanders his prestige and intellectual capital for money and power in theunderworld. Even Samar's father has been forced to make difficult and unhappychoices because of the Brahmins' loss of automatic preferment.The novel captures the vastness of India. Whether he is describing the coolclarity of the Himalayas in the north, or the heat and light of the south atPondicherry, or Benares with its funeral pyres along the Ganges, Mishra conveysthe essence of each place-its similarities to all of India as well as its differences.His character studies are also deft. He captures those seekers of the worldwhose own cultures have not given them sustenance and who look to the East or   11/29/2010 BOOK REVIEW OF SUMMER 2000web.archive.org/…/bre_sum2000_11.htm 1/2the West for fulfillment. Yet because the novel's characters learn to makeaccommodations to life's realities and discover how unlikely it is that they will findthe fulfillment they seek, the bittersweet ending is more moving than one in whichan author neatly wraps up his story with good news for all. This finely nuancednovel is a harbinger of an exciting new talent.Andrea Kempf, who recently returned from a month-long visit to India, isa professor and librarian at Johnson County Community College inOverland Park, Kansas. She is an alumna of the Asian StudiesDevelopment Program at the East-West Center and a regular reviewer offiction for Library Journal.     HOME | ABOUT PERSIMMON | CURRENT ISSUE | PREVIOUS ISSUES | ORDER | SUBMISSIONS | LINKSpersimmon.mag@att.net© 2000 Contemporary Asian Culture, Inc.© Aramco World/Nik WheelerAll rights reserved. 11/29/2010 BOOK REVIEW OF SUMMER 2000web.archive.org/…/bre_sum2000_11.htm 2/2

Book Review: The Romantics

The author studies the literature of Janet Lambert, Georgette Heyer, Francis Parkinson Keyes, and Inez Haynes Gillmore Irwin, and posits that frequent events within their works are not fantasy, but re-tellings of real experiences these authors lived

Shared Lives: Women Who Wrote for Women

Using a power series to solve an ordinary differential equation will often result in a solution whose general term involves a product of terms from an arithmetic sequence.  This paper explores how factorials and the gamma function can be used to rewrite such general terms in a closed form

Wilson, Steven J.

Johnson County Community CollegeScholarSpace @ JCCCTopics in Mathematics Mathematics11-1994Series Solutions, Factorials, And The GammaFunctionSteven J. WilsonJohnson County Community College, swilson@jccc.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarspace.jccc.edu/topmathPart of the Ordinary Differential Equations and Applied Dynamics CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mathematics at ScholarSpace @ JCCC. It has been accepted for inclusion in Topics inMathematics by an authorized administrator of ScholarSpace @ JCCC. For more information, please contact bbaile14@jccc.edu.Recommended CitationWilson, Steven J., "Series Solutions, Factorials, And The Gamma Function" (1994). Topics in Mathematics. 1.http://scholarspace.jccc.edu/topmath/1

Series Solutions, Factorials, And The Gamma Function

Campus child care centers have served two distinct purposes. Originally centers emphasized education, functioning as a lab school for teacher training and research. Later, centers emphasized service, functioning as a support system providing child care for children of students, faculty, staff, and community parents. Recently centers have served a combination of education and service.
The major purpose of this study was to describe community college child care centers in terms of selected operational and physical features

McElhenny, Sara

Johnson County Community CollegeScholarSpace @ JCCCSabbatical Projects Sabbatical and Senior Scholar Projects1987Child Care Center Operations and Facilities ofSelected League for Innovation CommunityCollegesSara McElhennysmcelhen@jccc.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarspace.jccc.edu/sabbatical_projectsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Sabbatical and Senior Scholar Projects at ScholarSpace @ JCCC. It has been accepted forinclusion in Sabbatical Projects by an authorized administrator of ScholarSpace @ JCCC. For more information, please contact bbaile14@jccc.edu.Recommended CitationMcElhenny, Sara, "Child Care Center Operations and Facilities of Selected League for Innovation Community Colleges" (1987).Sabbatical Projects. Paper 4.http://scholarspace.jccc.edu/sabbatical_projects/4.. «I III .. .. «> ., It 70 .. III .. A 77 III 82 C $ 84 1 86 90 iii • 94 1: care .. 37 2: .. 41 3: .. .. 410 011 .. 43 4: .. 47 5: 51 6 As 3 \ ! care care were Iowa In 1 care ( were Care .. over came area was seven , were 53 a care two care use;r 16,000 are 16 2 as A I a A are I care to 3 , was use 1987 32 1 6 59,856 6 Kern 3 16,557 8 2 39 370 2 9 102,361 9 4 1,860 4 2 16,318 2 8,837 1 1 6,3 1 1 ,93 1 ,34 1 383 1 N .. J 1 1 N .. 1 4 1 4 015 3 1 17,342 4 1 6,782 2 Texas 42 408, 51 34 case were a j or more 1983). 2 16,000 or more 12 000 16,000 8 000 12 000 4,000 Fewer 8,000 000 9 8 14 5 ) 18.8 16.7 29.2 25.0 10.4 6 A 87 .. 4 (92 .. ) no on 3).. No III I , 81 .. 3% 5) Seven care was were 38 48 more 5 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 5 :2 6 92 .. 1 7 .. 9 8 .. 7 47 8 43 .. 40 3. (91 .. over (12 .. a care 14 care as care was (2.. ) A was , are was f 41 .. ) 6 3% ) some 4 care as a Year Year & Hours .. 8 5 9 5 15 18 3 3 .. ) 3 3 .. .. 9 2 3 3 37.5 3 3 44 .. 0 15 .. 46 8 44 7 2 9 2 2.1 48 were 31 ( some 3 care 5 area 35 4 2 16 Access From 93419 2 No 2 as care 64 v &: care access.. In care are a However awareness or are on How care serve 3 are care are care a 66 ( are some (1973 1973 a 6 care a a source common care are as 72 Derr San 35-44 care .. 6 SURVEY CAMPUS CHILD eME CENTERS Dear Child Care Center Manager: Yoor experience and percept ions of co liege advanced care possible. Please take a few minutes IS )lOU can. A preaddressed. postage-paid envelope us. Thank)lOU. 1. Education - Teacher t""inill'ln To emphasis 2. responsible _1. College 2. Independent. not-for-profit 3. 3. Community children 4. Is enrollment priority A. Children of students of Children faculty/staff __ C. Community chHdren 5. What age groups of 6. What type of care 1. Fun-day care __ 2. Half-day care __ 3. Orop- in care Even i ng care 5. After school (Check child care centers will assist all of us in providing the most answer each of the questions IS honestly and completely enclosed for your convenience in returning the completed survey to students. faculty Weekend care ___ 1. Preschool program Ot~r ______________________________ __ 1. Pe'I"IMnent wa 115 _ 2. T~rjln·y walls _ 3. Movable partitions 4. outdoor facilities available for children? 1. Direct access age-appropriate outdoor play facility ____ 2. Age-appropriate outdoor facility within close proximity _ 3. Ho age-appropriate outdoor facility 21. To whom the ell nd eare 3. Manager ISupenrisor Assistant Manager Jh:, ....... "lI!?""·" degree Bachelorls degree Graduate ~ r~~tll'!r'<l;'. 24. What education qualifications are 25. What the 26. What is "' ____ 1. '. Volunteers (StudeifltJrpal"en1t/Other) g. Student Teachers ___ 11. Ma 1 ntemmce/CustocU a 1 ___ 12. Cook ___ 13. Other _________ _ ___ 14. Total staff 82 B Care 84 APlpe!'lal.X C APlpel'Ull,X D # 21 .. .. .. .. .. Dean 88 Human Resources 90 Appenal.X E :# 29 92 are see I .. 1 ... 2 Jeo 4 5 6eo 7 II Yes .. No more summer a an 94 APlpe!lQl.X F 96 I 

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Book Review: A Lost Paradise

Book Review: The Money Demon

Book Review: The Romantics

Shared Lives: Women Who Wrote for Women

Series Solutions, Factorials, And The Gamma Function

Child Care Center Operations and Facilities of Selected League for Innovation Community Colleges

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