Jonathan Clements's Blog, page 27

The Mongol Armada

From A Brief History of Khubilai Khan by Jonathan Clements, available now in the UK and in the US.

—

The attempted invasion of Japan was, with hindsight, the moment when the Mongols' legendary invincibility was called into question for the first time – a sign that the tide of barbarian invasion had finally begun to ebb. The Mongols had experienced setbacks in the past, but had always, eventually, returned home with, at very least, the nominal submission of their enemies.

Logistically, the...

Leaping Through Clouds

There's always something new to say about Carl Gustaf Mannerheim. And I don't mean lurid innuendo about his private life, or schmuck-baiting insinuations about his sexuality. Finland's beloved Marshal is orbited by a publishing industry that now includes a Mannerheim cookbook and a Mannerheim comic, with a history that touches on a dozen countries. He was a truly cosmopolitan figure, the "last knight" of the Tsarist aristocracy and a hero of the nascent Finnish nation. He saw the prophetic t...

The Courts of Chaos

Just back from Saint Petersburg, one of the most amazing cities I have ever seen, on the trail of Mannerheim as always, and also putting together material for another book project, about the activities of Japanese spies in pre-Revolutionary Russia. By the side of the glittering River Neva, I dropped in on Alexander Nevsky, at his last resting place near the Nevsky Monastery on Nevsky Place, at one end of Nevsky Prospect, the glorious boulevard that stretches all the way across the city to...

Judge Dee

From Wu, by Jonathan Clements, available in the UK and in the US. Tsui Hark's forthcoming Dee movie is out in Asia next month. You can never have enough films about Empress Wu, and in depicting Dee as a young man, they're leaving things way open for many sequels.

—-

Another loyal official was the popular magistrate Judge Dee (Di Renjie). Posted to the remote western Gansu region, he had enjoyed the support of both Chinese colonists and the local population of non-Chinese. His career suffered...

Into Songland

I have been out into the wilds of Finland, up near the Russian border on the edges of songland, the place that supplied so much of the material for the Kalevala, the Finnish national myth. In the company of Mrs Clements, Delia Sherman and Ellen Kushner, I spent a fascinating day at Kalevala Spirit, a recreation of a medieval Karelian stockaded clan-house, wherein the inhabitants lived, worked and cooked using only the means and materials described in the pages of the Kalevala.

As regular...

Magical Girls

Three years ago, I was interviewed by Lesley Smith for an article about "magical girls" in SFX Total Anime magazine. As per usual, I wrote far too much in my responses and only a tiny fraction turned up in the article. Also as per usual, I did so secure in the knowledge that if I put that kind of time into helping someone, I would be able to re-use the material at a later date, and hence now reprint it here.

Lesley Smith: Why do you think the magical girl genre is so popular (a) in Japan (b...

Nearly New

An interesting question popped up on my Facebook page last week, regarding the second-hand book market. Many members of the public still assume that authors see no return from library books, although in fact, authors in the UK make a tidy sum from libraries.

I suppose I would prefer it if people bought new copies of my books, as new copies generate more sales for me, and show up as extra sales for the publisher. In the case of the Anime Encyclopedia, anyone buying a second-hand copy is 90% ...

What has the UKFC ever done for us!?

The UK Film Council is to be shut down. I have already said everything I am likely to say about the UKFC here. As you can see, it was a powerful presence behind the scenes in several anime releases in Britain over the last couple of years.

Manga and Philosophy

Out now from Open Court, Manga & Philosophy, which contains my chapter "Living Happily Never After in Women's Manga," on the readership and reception of Japanese comic magazines for women aged over twenty. There's plenty of stuff in there about the varying markets for women's manga, and some hard data about exactly who reads them. It's not always who you might think.

Other essays in the volume include studies of religion in the works of Osamu Tezuka, issues of life and death in Full Metal...

White Lies

She was looking for documentaries about anime. Figuring that it did no harm to pass on the information, I sent her a list (there have been, what, five or six over the years, and I was in most of them) and heard nothing more… until yesterday, when she suddenly emailed me back, very keen on meeting me all of a sudden. Very keen. Can we meet over the weekend? Can we meet next week? Can we meet on Monday?

Er… no, I said, we can't. Because I'm moving house. And no, you can't have my phone number...