Review: The Fall of Language in the Age of English

The Fall of Language in the Age of English by Minae Mizumura
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After reading Mizumura's "A True Novel", I wanted to read this treatise. I taught in Japan, I studied the language, and retain a vivid interest in the culture. These two works certainly incorporate a Japanese sensibility, and make me yearn to read them in the original, to catch the nuances and the allegorical representations, as well as the class/gender distinctions built into word choice and verb endings. This treatise is a great conversation started for a linguistics class, as Mizumura includes not only a reasonable history of Japanese educational/literary policy, but is not shy about presenting her definite opinions about the dumbing down of modern society -- of course we should retain the beauteous complex elitist literary system that requires years of study to even read, let alone understand! I believe Edwin Reischauer estimated that it takes a Japanese child two extra years (compared to most other languages) to become literate in their native script, because of its devilishly complex combinations of characters and syllabaries. By coincidence, after struggling through the lengthy A True Novel, I finally picked up my long-dusty copy of 1Q84, and was entranced by the intricate and well-woven fantasy pictured there. I noted that 1Q84 contains numerous references to foreign words (such that, again, I yearn to read the original, to catch the allusions) that Mizumura must disdain? i wonder where she would categorize 1Q84 -- as True Literature? or bastard child of globish?

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