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Jun. 2nd, 2007 04:25 pmFound a copy of Train Man (the original novel) last night at Grey Region and finished it today. For those who've never heard of it, it's a sort of chat-room epistlary novel, being a (possibly real) transcript of a two-month long thread in which a shy young Japanese computer nerd woos a woman he met on the train, while his fellow geeks encourage and advise him, partly because if he can get a girlfriend, there's hope for them all.
The story became a hit in Japan, inspiring at least two mangas, a stage-play, a tv series (which contained a fictional anime show that spun off and became a real anime show), and a feature film. If it is fiction, it's very believable both for the chat-room vibe and for its depiction of the early stages of a romance when a common code of communication has not yet been established and both sides are analyzing every gesture and turn of phrase, and worrying that the interpretation of "s/he likes me!" is over-optimistic. Train, of course has a whole think-tank of geeks doing this - none of them have especially good social skills, but as a group they are mighty : ) , approaching Train's romance as a kind of strategy game.
It's very Japanese as well - especially in the effort that goes in to analyzing the significance of gifts, in a society in which most people know the price of any luxury item typically given as a gift and the amount that should be spent in any given scenario, and where this is not crass, just a standard social skill - one Train doesn't have, so when he tells the board, who've been analyzing the significance of a pair of teacups as a thankyou gift from a woman, "It says Hermes on them, some kind of household goods company?" you can almost hear everyone's sharp intake of breath before they start posting back : "Those are really expensive designer cups, man - that's way too much to be mere gratitude. CALL HER!!!"
They frequently use a very odd military metaphor - odd because they do not, as one might all too easily expect, treat Train's wooing of "Lady Miss Hermes" as a military campaign against her - instead whenever Train brings them a report of his latest conversation, they comically describe him as 'bombing' them and depict themselves in words and ASCII art clutching their chests and dying of admiration and envy at his progress, or ducking into trenches to shield themselves against the emotional onslaught. At the end of the book, (NOT MUCH OF A SPOILER REALLY) when Train and Hermes have finally declared their love to each other, there follow pages of ascii depictions of nuclear explosions, kamikaze pilots heading off to die with cheers, etc - a bit bizarre, but then these are guys who (a) are several generations removed from WWII, and (b) probably play a lot of battle videogames (as a yardstick of their nerdiness, several mention that they've never even played any of the dating/sex simulation games, just the fantasy-quest ones).
The story became a hit in Japan, inspiring at least two mangas, a stage-play, a tv series (which contained a fictional anime show that spun off and became a real anime show), and a feature film. If it is fiction, it's very believable both for the chat-room vibe and for its depiction of the early stages of a romance when a common code of communication has not yet been established and both sides are analyzing every gesture and turn of phrase, and worrying that the interpretation of "s/he likes me!" is over-optimistic. Train, of course has a whole think-tank of geeks doing this - none of them have especially good social skills, but as a group they are mighty : ) , approaching Train's romance as a kind of strategy game.
It's very Japanese as well - especially in the effort that goes in to analyzing the significance of gifts, in a society in which most people know the price of any luxury item typically given as a gift and the amount that should be spent in any given scenario, and where this is not crass, just a standard social skill - one Train doesn't have, so when he tells the board, who've been analyzing the significance of a pair of teacups as a thankyou gift from a woman, "It says Hermes on them, some kind of household goods company?" you can almost hear everyone's sharp intake of breath before they start posting back : "Those are really expensive designer cups, man - that's way too much to be mere gratitude. CALL HER!!!"
They frequently use a very odd military metaphor - odd because they do not, as one might all too easily expect, treat Train's wooing of "Lady Miss Hermes" as a military campaign against her - instead whenever Train brings them a report of his latest conversation, they comically describe him as 'bombing' them and depict themselves in words and ASCII art clutching their chests and dying of admiration and envy at his progress, or ducking into trenches to shield themselves against the emotional onslaught. At the end of the book, (NOT MUCH OF A SPOILER REALLY) when Train and Hermes have finally declared their love to each other, there follow pages of ascii depictions of nuclear explosions, kamikaze pilots heading off to die with cheers, etc - a bit bizarre, but then these are guys who (a) are several generations removed from WWII, and (b) probably play a lot of battle videogames (as a yardstick of their nerdiness, several mention that they've never even played any of the dating/sex simulation games, just the fantasy-quest ones).
