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gaijinjanai, ningensa
Can you imagine what kind of feelings are put into the words "gaijinjanai, ningensa"
,
, gaijinjanai, ningensa
Books have a way of intriguing and teaching.
#book #reading
Books have a way of intriguing and teaching.
"Reading as a priority, cross-grade learning families and early collaboration with daycare centers. The Kettelerschule in Bonn shows how education can become fairer."
Lets show that Americans love their libraries! Like, follow, and share!
I tell myself I'mma do something every day, but then I doooon't! But today the posts shall resume! Also, in 4 days, I'll be releasing my second (a about a -slime) on my website, and then once a week on Mondays, a new chapter!
This is what happens when rich people aren't greedyChess practice becomes roughly 30% more productive when a cat is present. Science hasnt confirmed this, but my cat has.
Two Alien OCs
Lilith Helexon The Abornak
And An Alien Bull (Need a name)
Both incredibly smart, Both By u/Roccokcor On reddit
-fi
New episode!
We talk with transit planner Jarrett Walker, author of the recently reissued classic Human Transit, about why buses are so great, how we can make them better, & how advocates should fight for public transit in a hostile federal funding environment.
Listen wherever you get your podcasts!
Show that Americans love their libraries!
Like
Follow
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3-Word Review:
Hook-driven
Romance-tropes
Predictable
Frictional Posture:
Which arbitrary details compel the novel's romantic and thriller plotting
A review of the USSR's August Coup. A drunken brouhaha by fossils who couldn't figure out why the people hated them
di bottega di , di prossima uscita
Leia and the others dont play by Bothan rules. They make decisions based on evidence, not prestige.
Minor Transient Documents of Everyday Life are three line recipes, short stories, jokes, riddles, science projects, love notes, horrors, confessions, and memories. A collection of haiku written between the years 2022-2024. buy it -
I miss the days of opening a book and looking at the book card to see who borrowed the before me and how long ago.
First, they were ONLY going to target school to protect the children. Then they went for public libraries. Now theyre even including sellers in their bans
If you're in LA this week, the LAPL's Richard Riordan Central Library is hosting the world's largest pop-up book. Strangely missing instructions how to fit it into the after-hours book return tho
Then what the hell is a peacock
Malia leaned forward to show me her tablet. She pointed. Thats a peacock.
I stared at the screen. Thats fucked up, is what that is.
From "Agorn" by Philippe Druillet - Mtal Hurlant #1 (1975).
In SERRC Moti Mizrahi reviews Sven Nyholm's book The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence: A Philosophical Introduction,
Free Book Alert!
So my book is on promotion on Kobo, discounted to $0 from 3rd to 9th August, but I think it's only available in these locations: CA, US, UK, AU, NZ. It's being featured on the Free Page of Diverse Stories, so hoping it gets some more attention. Help spread the word!
Here is a link to get it.
*NEW BLOG POST*
Today on I am sharing this week's post. The theme for this week is
Check out my list here...
InshaAllah kalau tak ada aral pasang niat nak usahakan sebuah buku untuk anak-anak (pra-sekolah) tentang betapa gigihnya anak-anak penyu yang dah menetas nak kembali ke laut. Pelbagai rintangan yang akan dihadapi, walau jalan yang perlu dilalui hanya lurus saja (untuk benar-benar sampai ke laut). InshaAllah. Ini peluang melukis dan menulis.
The diversity of sex was recognized in the animal kingdom.
But that was unacceptable to the White heterosexual patriarchal system so they made up a "Human exception" to justify their exclusion of diversity.
"If so many people are doing sex wrong, how can those clinging to a biological binary possibly make the case that their sex system is natural
Only by making up what sex is as they go."
The book you shouldn't miss: "Ten More Years" by Chloe Coontz
Link:
Info:
Why you shouldn't read this book:
My Hollywood-style pitch:
Started a new last night, Chuck Yeager's autobiography. So far he has a similar childhood to Neil Armstrong's, and his autobiography was great .
Should be a fun ride at +Mach 1.
BOOK OF THE WEEK! The effigy was added by yours truly because it was apt!
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25 KADOKAWA
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Fracture: Japanese Graphic Design 18751975 is Ian Lynam's biography-driven survey of Japanese visual culture across exactly a century, from Japan's opening to the West through the edge of the digital era.
: The Outsized Life of
Fracture Book Review: Japanese Graphic Design 18751975
Fracture: Japanese Graphic Design 18751975 is a 447-page survey by Ian Lynam that finally gives English-language readers a real history of Japanese design, not just a picture book with captions. I bought a copy some months ago, and Ive now spent enough hours with it to tell you exactly where it earns its price tag and where it doesnt.
Japanese graphic design has been fetishized in the West for decades, usually through a handful of recycled images: the 1964 Olympics pictograms, some Muji packaging, maybe a Kenya Hara essay if the writer did their homework. Fracture is the first book Ive handled that treats that visual language as the product of a century of political pressure, gender politics, and commercial invention, rather than as a mood board. Thats the gap Lynam is filling, and its a wide one.
Fracture: Japanese Graphic Design 18751975 by Ian LynamWhat Exactly Is Fracture: Japanese Graphic Design 18751975
Fracture is a bilingual survey published by Set Margins in February 2025, covering exactly a century of Japanese visual culture, from 1875 to 1975. Ian Lynam built the book around biography rather than chronology alone. He profiles more than 90 designers, illustrators, typographers, and art directors, letting their individual careers carry the larger argument about how Japans visual identity was built and rebuilt.
The book contains more than 500 full-color images pulled from kimono kamon crests, wartime propaganda posters, childrens book illustrations, erotic magazine covers, travel posters, and product advertising. Lynam spent roughly 15 years assembling the material, negotiating rights with archives in Japan, Australia, and North America, and tracking down items through private collectors when institutions came up empty. That research timeline shows. Very few design history books this readable carry this much archival weight underneath them.
Who Is Ian Lynam, and Why Should You Trust His Take on This Subject
Lynam isnt a tourist writing about a culture he visited once for a conference. Hes based in Japan, teaches design at Temple Universitys Japan campus and at Vermont College of Fine Arts, and holds an MFA from CalArts. Hes written three previous books, including War with Myself and The Impossibility of Silence, and has spent his career working as a designer, critic, and educator inside the country hes writing about.
That matters for a book like this. A Western author skimming secondary sources would produce something closer to a coffee-table object. Lynam instead writes like someone who has argued about these designers in Japanese with people who studied under them. You can feel the difference on nearly every page, especially when he pushes back on comfortable Western assumptions about what Japanese design even means.
The Four Rupture Points Framework: How the Book Actually Structures a Century
I want to name something Lynam does that I havent seen described this way anywhere else, so lets call it the Four Rupture Points Framework, since thats exactly what the books title is pointing at. Fracture doesnt move in a straight line from 1875 to 1975. It organizes around four moments where Japanese visual culture broke from what came before it.
The first rupture is the Meiji opening itself, less than two decades before the books start date, when 200 years of isolation ended, and Western printing technology flooded in. The second is the interwar period, where propaganda and consumer advertising collided to invent a new image of the modern Japanese woman, seen in the work of Hisui Sugiura and Tada Hokuu. The third is 1964, when Yusaku Kamekuras red circle Olympic logo and the Games pictogram system put Japanese design on a global stage for the first time. The fourth is the rise of the ribu womens liberation movement in the early 1970s, right as the book closes on the edge of the digital era.
Naming these four points isnt just a reading trick. Its the clearest way Ive found to explain to a design student why this book feels different from a standard greatest hits survey. Each rupture resets the rules of what Japanese design was allowed to look like, and Lynam never lets you forget that these are political events with visual consequences, not just style changes.
Whats Actually Inside: A Look at the Physical Book and Its Image Density
Heres where the hands-on part matters. At 447 pages and roughly 2.85 pounds, this isnt a book you casually flip through on the couch. The bilingual layout runs English and Japanese text in parallel, which adds bulk but also means the book functions as a legitimate reference for Japanese readers, not just an export product for Western shelves.
I clocked what Id call the Visual Density Index, my own rough measure of images per page across a design survey, and Fracture lands high. With over 500 color plates spread across fewer than 450 pages, youre rarely more than a page or two from a full illustration. The reproductions are sharp, the color separation on the vintage ephemera holds up, and the trim size (7.5 x 10.25 inches) gives the posters and magazine spreads room to breathe without shrinking type to the point of uselessness.
My one physical complaint: the binding is tight enough that a handful of full-bleed spreads disappear slightly into the gutter. Not a dealbreaker, but if youre planning to photograph pages for a lecture slide, budget extra time to wrestle the book flat.
Does Fracture Live Up to the Hype My Honest Assessment
What the Book Gets Right
Lynams prose is direct in a way design history writing rarely manages. He doesnt hedge behind academic throat-clearing, and he doesnt pad chapters with filler biography. Each of the 90-plus profiles earns its page count. The essays on gender, imperialism, and commercialism woven between the biographies do real work, connecting Hani Motokos journalism career (and her role commissioning Frank Lloyd Wrights Hall for Tomorrow schoolhouse) to the larger argument about who got to define modern Japanese identity and who got erased from it.
The book also resists the trap of treating Japanese design as a monolith. Propaganda-era commercial art sits next to erotic magazine covers, which sit next to childrens book illustration, and Lynam treats all three as equally serious evidence rather than picking a tasteful subset to represent the whole country.
Where It Falls Short
At 447 pages covering a century and 90-plus designers, some entries are necessarily thin. A few of the postwar commercial designers get barely more than a page, which stings when you want more after Lynams setup. And because the book ends deliberately at 1975, right before digital tools started reshaping the field, readers hoping for a bridge into the Shibuya-kei and Muji-era design language of the 1980s and 1990s will need a second book to fill that gap. Thats a boundary, not a flaw, but its worth knowing going in.
How Does Fracture Compare to Other Books on Japanese Design History
Most English-language books on Japanese graphic design fall into two camps. The first is the glossy monograph, built around a single designer like Kamekura or Tanaka Ikko, useful but narrow. The second is the broad visual-culture survey that treats design as decoration, with captions instead of arguments. Fracture sits in a third category almost by itself: a biography-driven survey with the critical apparatus of an academic text and the pacing of something youd actually finish.
Compared to Helmut Schmids typography-focused writing, Fracture is less technical and more historical. Compared to general Japanese visual culture books aimed at Western design fans, its far more rigorous about sourcing and far less interested in flattering the readers existing assumptions. If you already own a shelf of Japanese poster books, this is the one that explains why those posters look the way they do.
Who Should Buy This Book
Design educators will get the most immediate use out of Fracture, since the biography structure maps directly onto a semesters worth of lecture material. Working designers curious about Japanese visual history but tired of superficial mood-board content will also get real value, especially the essays on gender and commercialism that rarely show up in Western coverage.
If youre a casual design fan looking for a pretty coffee-table object to leave out for guests, this can still work, since the images alone justify a flip-through. Just know youre buying a research document that happens to be beautifully illustrated, not the other way around.
My Prediction: Where Fracture Will Sit in Design Education Five Years From Now
Ill go on record with this one. Within five years, Fracture becomes the default English-language citation for any serious discussion of pre-1975 Japanese graphic design, the way Meggs History of Graphic Design became the default general reference decades ago. The 15-year research timeline and the sheer density of primary sourcing make it hard for future writers to skip, especially once university design programs start assigning individual chapters rather than the whole book. Id also bet Lynam or another scholar eventually produces a companion volume covering 1975 to the present, simply because Fractures ending point is too clean an invitation to leave alone.
Fracture at a Glance
DetailInformationTitleFracture: Japanese Graphic Design 18751975AuthorIan LynamEditorsLouise Rouse and Chris PalmieriPublisherSet Margins publicationsPublication dateFebruary 11, 2025LanguageEnglish / Japanese (bilingual)Length447 pagesImages500+ full-color illustrationsDesigners profiled90+ISBN-13978-9083449845Dimensions7.5 x 1.25 x 10.25 inchesResearch periodApproximately 15 yearsFrequently Asked Questions About Fracture: Japanese Graphic Design 18751975
Is Fracture by Ian Lynam worth buying
Yes, if you want a serious reference on Japanese graphic design history rather than a picture book. The research depth and the biography-driven structure set it apart from most competing titles in this category.
What time period does Fracture cover
The book spans exactly one century, from 1875, less than two decades after Japans opening to the West, through 1975, right before digital tools began reshaping the design field.
Is Fracture appropriate for design students
Yes. The chapter structure, built around individual designer biographies, maps well onto lecture formats and independent study, and the essays give students critical vocabulary that most surveys skip.
How many designers are featured in the book
Lynam profiles more than 90 designers, illustrators, and art directors across the books 447 pages.
Does Fracture cover typography specifically
Typography appears throughout, but the books primary lens is graphic design history as a whole, including advertising, propaganda, magazine covers, and packaging, not typography alone.
Is there a sequel or companion volume planned
Nothing has been officially announced. Given how cleanly the books 1975 endpoint invites a follow-up covering the digital era, a companion volume would make sense, but thats speculation on my part, not a confirmed release.
Browse WE AND THE COLORs Books category for more.
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