"The Object of My Affection" by Stuart K. Hayashi!

[ryuuseipro]

William Tsutsui can eat it. Hawaiian columnist Stuart K. Hayashi did an excellent article from mid-2005 about his love for Godzilla, originally an e-mail response to a friend, who posted it on his blog (which has since been modified).

I identify a great deal with Stuart's article, and his views on Godzilla.

It was in response to the 2005 NY Times article, "Godzilla vs. the Giant Scissors: Cutting the Antiwar Heart Out of a Classic" by Brent Staples:
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0501-20.htm

I post the article here, with Stuart's permission.

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THE OBJECT OF MY AFFECTION . . .
By Stuart K. Hayashi

. . . is Godzilla, of course!

The New York Times ran an article on him, and http://www.lewrockwell.com actually linked to it. It's interesting that the author actually shows some respect for the movies, though it's probably for ideological reasons. I disagree with him about the Godzilla from the 1960s and '70s being "degenerated." I actually like the anthromorphism of Godzilla from those decades because it made him into even more of a Nietzschean god, as opposed to just a dangerous animal like The Blob. Plus, when Godzilla was "humanized," it became more apparent that he was actually a loner by choice.

I always thought Godzilla was a better hero than Ultraman, because he does not share the red-and-silver alien's altruism. Godzilla does not behave as if he believes he has any duty to save the world or humanity; he just does what he wants. When he battles a menace, it is usually for the sake of his own survival. He saves the world, not because he believes it's his duty, but because he feels like it. That distinction made an impression upon me when I was in elementary school.

Godzilla was an Nietzschean overman who lived as he chose, and, for it, was attacked by small, petty creatures in little tanks. How could I, as a boy, not relate to him?

Also interesting is that the Times writer actually spelled Ishiro Honda's name right. American authors tend to copy the original misspelling, "Inoshiro Honda."

I am surprised that the author also astutely observed how offensive the American "Godzilla" (more like "Fraudzilla," as G-Fan magazine put it) was when the raptor-like creature ran away from the army. I'm surprised that the Times writer, like I did, noticed that the REAL Godzilla never backs away from the military.

This is an entirely esoteric sentence,but my favorite monsters from the Godzilla movies, besides the Big G himself, are King Ghidora, Mecha-King Ghidora, Gigan, Megalon, Titanosaurus, Battra, Biollante, Gezora (not technically in any Godzilla movies, but still a Toho monster who appeared in the "Godzilla" video game), Ebirah, Gorosaurus, Fire Rodan, Baragon, Varan, Mechanikong, and Gabara.

http://tinyurl.com/dkzr2

In high school, the nerds in the art room (including the crazy ones who drew for the UH [University of Hawai'i] newspaper) explained to me that my life wasn't worth as much as theirs because I drew giant monsters ("daikaiju" [a.k.a. daikaijuu, lit. 'giant strange beasts']) while they only drew Dragonball Z characters.

By the way, the author who wrote the Toho-approved Godzilla Compendium says that "Godzilla" is not the wrong spelling, because it's "Go - dzi - lla." I don't know if he's right there, but the use of Katakana in the name does suggest that the word is "foreign." Plus, the spelling of the monster name "Mothra" makes more sense than "Mosura."

And I LIKE Raymond Burr! I always wished that he would play the U.S. President in a Godzilla movie.

[Tyler E. Martin]

[JordanGLC]

[ryuuseipro]