I Am Bismark

this is my zuihitsu responding to hiraga gennai’s the theory of farting. it was written as an assignment for my early-modern japanese literature course at brigham young university.

Gennai’s The Theory of Farting cracked me up. I read it while sitting at work in the lab, and everyone must have thought I was a little crazy, all red faced and gasping for breaths. If Gennai’s goal was to get his audience to laugh out loud at the things he was writing, he certainly was successful with me. For some reason my oldest sister and I have joked about similar bodily functions for most of my life. This exasperated our mother to no end when the topic was brought up at the dinner table. Even now we are constantly sending somewhat crude jokes and experiences to each other over email. I really have no idea why we find these things funny. It’s a perfectly normal bodily function that everyone experiences. It’s as normal as swallowing or blinking our eyes. Why in the world then has flatulence become a humorous topic that transcends time and cultures? I’m not sure if I have an answer for that.

But Gennai wasn’t just going for “slapstick” style comedy. I think part of what makes The Theory of Farting so hilarious is how he treated the topic with such seriousness. Lines, delivered in sincere, somber ways, like “Heavens and earth thunder; humans fart,” are amazing in the way the mix both poetry and humor (I suppose one could say it’s “a mixture of art and fart”…). I feel that the true genius of Gennai’s work is how it’s really about itself. In Japanese Literature class, we had a very interesting discussion about censorship when we talked about Modern-style Lousy Sermons in class. One thing I wanted to say, but didn’t, was the importance of who decides what is quality and of artistic value. I posted after class,

government censorship of the media: we can’t trust them with our money but we can with our morals?

Certainly a very similar discussion might occur with a discussion of The Theory of Farting in class, in particular concerning the samurai’s response to the farting man’s show. The samurai feels that such an act is disgraceful and insulting to real artists. The same thing was and is probably said by many who read The Theory of Farting itself. Gennai has written a pseudo serious piece about a crude topic in which a crude topic is treated pseudo seriously. He is directly satirizing the people who will be upset at his satire. This makes The Theory of Farting both extremely comical and spot on satire.

I would like to return to the subject of media censorship for a moment. One of the most interesting examples of censorship, at least in LDS culture, was the editing of the film Saving Private Ryan for the Varsity Theater here on campus. My parents, active members of the LDS faith, own the full unedited version of this film despite its R rating. We have at times viewed the film as a family and discussed its message. These have probably some of greatest experiences for me that influenced my feelings on war and violence. Many scenes in the film are difficult to watch even today in our desensitized world. I feel like the movie holds deep meaning, and my parents feel that since it is “of good report or praiseworthy,” it is something they should own. Would the movie have the same meaning without the scenes of extreme violence and warfare? Sure, it has some excellent themes of patriotism and honor, but a whole aspect of the film would be lost without the depictions of the horror of war. An edited version of the film would contain just a fraction of the depth. I’m glad the edited version of the film was not shown, and I plan to someday sit down with my children once they are mature enough to hopefully help them have the same experience as I.

The Theory of Farting touches on this exact topic. It makes the reader ask if there is possibly any value in a man farting on stage just like we could ask if there is any value in showing extreme violence on the big screen. One difficult question is what kind of violence is of value? The narrator talks about how farting is certainly a base subject, but how the farting man has turned it into an art form to full of meaning. Can anything be turned into a meaningful work of art? In my opinion, Saving Private Ryan turned violence into art, but perhaps thats just because I agreed with the meaning I saw: violence and war are terrible things and should be avoided at all costs. Could someone find a movie glorifying violence also to be a work of art? I think that attempting to censor Saving Private Ryan is a bad idea because it ruins the message, but in a way I am just like the samurai in the story. He talked about how plays and literature should only teach good morals, which is kind similar to how I would never agree that something like a Quentin Tarantino film should ever be shown at the Varsity Theater. I’ve seen a number of Tarantino films and while I can certainly see some interesting themes and even artistic value, it seems like in many of them the language, violence, and sexuality are gratuitous. The piece of literature that I am laughing at is in many ways making fun of me.

Another level to this discussion: can a work that treats a subject lightly or comically be of the same worth as one that treats a topic somberly? Today in class South Park was brought up. My sister (unsurprisingly) is a huge fan of the series so I’ve watched a number of episodes with her. Many times it’s crude and vile, yet it’s one of the sharpest commentaries on society in existence. A favorite episode of mine is about the online game World of Warcraft. It’s hilariously funny and shows the real stupidity behind addictions to these sorts of video games. Should I show this to my children to teach them this lesson just like I want to show them Saving Private Ryan? On a more related topic, should we be reading a story about farting just to learn a lesson about morals and art? These are questions without black and white answers, and I’m grateful for that. It makes life much more interesting, and often times gives me a lot to laugh about.