File spoon-archives/puptcrit.archive/puptcrit_2003/puptcrit.0308, message 83


Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2003 16:07:29 -0400
Subject: Re: PUPT: Re: Puppet types: names, + Lexicon of puppetry terms
From: robert smythe <robertsmythe-AT-mumpuppet.org>


So, in a nutshell, the Japanese use another term for what we American 
puppeteers think we are referring to when we say "bunraku;" therefore 
use of the term "bunraku" is not a denigration of some idealized form 
of puppetry, but rather a term of respect in referring to the home of 
the best-known example of said form.

I'm calling it bunraku. There is enough of a general understanding of 
this term in the general population that to start using a new term 
would be confusing. Beta or VHS? DAT or MiniDisc? Netscape or Explorer? 
While we're arguing everyone has moved on to the next thing that's not 
worried about what to call itself.

  Robert


On Tuesday, August 5, 2003, at 03:39 PM, Tim Giugni wrote:

> Bunraku will never again have it's original meaning,
> even if we can decide what the original meaning was.
> It's like Commedia Dell'Arte. The style died. Was
> lost. Came back as the best approximation of what the
> most learned people could make of it, using old
> leather masks, lazzi, and writings from the time.
>
> What has happened is that we have latched on to a
> concept of this form that we call bunraku and it is
> evolving. Bunraku has become a catch-all generic and
> worse. It has jumped from its prison and expanded and
> glommed onto other styles. It encompasses people with
> hoods and with out. In booths and in open air. People
> in velvet and not (although not nude people). Chanters
> and performers creating the voice. Recorded and
> pre-recorded music. With and with out a light curtain.
> Puppets on the floor, air, and on a piece of lumber,
> suitcase, another person, or kitchen table. Asian and
> not Asian. Wheat or rye.
>
> No matter, the exciting thing about bunraku is the
> discussion. Just like the "What is and isn't Puppetry"
> fire that sweeps through here once every 6 months.
> Discussion keeps our art a live one and not committed
> to page 367-68, with one colour plate, of some obscure
> tome that only one reeeeealy old scholar reads.
>
> Next to finally. I guess that you can see that I don't
> care much for making a concept or word sacrosanct and
> untouchable. It gives the word too much power and
> authority and makes me want to fool with it and the
> people that use it 'properly' even more. So, I would
> like to suggest buraku have tacked onto it something
> like'modified' (as in modified bunraku) or how about
> 'Am-er-ee-can Boon-rah-coo'. If you're in Canada or
> the EU, please adjust the name accordingly.
>
> Eventually there WILL come a name that we can all
> agree on (like Japanese Muppets) and there will be
> much rejoicing.
>
>
> Finally, after numerous posts I'm going back to work
> on my NEW style of puppetry. Puppets moved by strings,
> while I wear a hat. I'm going to call it
> overt-floor-top-cordbased-telepresentational
> manipulation with a hatŠ
> Tim Giugni
> Il Teatro Calamari
> www.teatrocalamari.com
> --- Preston Foerder <preston-AT-pfpuppetry.com> wrote:
>> I, myself, use the term bunraku-style with no shame
>> whatsoever.  I add the
>> style to indicate that it is not actual bunraku.  In
>> my mind it refers to a
>> puppet visually manipulated (or a vue for our
>> francophone friends) from
>> behind.  I, personally, don't like the term
>> table-top. We don't refer to
>> floor-surface puppets or playboard-top puppets or
>> floating-in-air puppets.
>> So there.
>>
>> Referring to the message below, I have also recently
>> met a Japanese
>> puppeteer who told me that Bunraku is actually the
>> name of the particular
>> theater building in which that company performs and
>> not the style of
>> puppetry.  So the English equivalent would be doing
>> New Victory puppetry or
>> Loew's puppetry.   She actually couldn't tell me
>> what the word was for the
>> style of puppet besides puppet.
>>
>> Besides, I believe, that we, as Americans, have the
>> god-given right to
>> bastardize anyway else's culture for our own immoral
>> purposes (namely
>> puppetry).
>>
>> Preston
>
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
> http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
>
>
>   --- Personal replies to: Tim Giugni <octorilla-AT-yahoo.com>
>   --- List replies to:     puptcrit-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>   --- Admin commands to:   majordomo-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>   --- Archives at:         http://lists.village.virginia.edu/~spoons
>
>
Robert Smythe
Artistic Director
Mum Puppettheatre
115 Arch Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
T: 215.925.7686
F: 215.922.5184

robertsmythe-AT-mumpuppet.org
http://www.mumpuppet.org


--- StripMime Warning --  MIME attachments removed --- 
This message may have contained attachments which were removed.

Sorry, we do not allow attachments on this list.

--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- 
multipart/alternative
  text/plain (text body -- kept)
  text/enriched
---


  --- Personal replies to: robert smythe <robertsmythe-AT-mumpuppet.org>
  --- List replies to:     puptcrit-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
  --- Admin commands to:   majordomo-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
  --- Archives at:         http://lists.village.virginia.edu/~spoons

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005