Richard D. Lawson wrote:

blee@freenet.vcu.edu wrote:

[snip]

Remember, this girl comes from a Japanese background, not a
American one. Given the pressures she must felt about upholding
the family honor and other such things, killing herself after
she had just murdered someone in cold blood makes perfect sense
after she realizes what she's just done and in the process had
become.

So you're saying that Japanese have an easier time killing themselves
than Americans?  I don't believe that.  In either event, suicide is a
*VERY RARE EVENT*.  Less than 1% of the deaths in the US are due to
suicide.  It's like getting in a plane wreck - it may happen, but some
extraordinary things have to occur.

I think the point the first poster is trying to make is that we are 
dealing with a very different culture here that holds some beliefs that 
are very different from Western ones. Something that tends to be 
overlooked when we (folk of Western cultural backgrounds) start to 
write.

Suicide in the West is considered 'bad'. It's culutural and ingrained in 
our physce. A thing of dispair and hopelessness, a plea for help that 
has gone unheard from which there is no redemption. The Church still 
teaches that a suicide is damned. Period. Many Catholic priests will not 
give a Christian burial service to someone they know suicided.

In Japan a suicide is viewed very differently. It is a way to reclaim 
lost honor, to remove disgrace and failure from a family line. It is an 
acceptable way to die. I don't know if it is 'easier' but the whole 
outlook on the idea is very different from ours. I read somewhere that 
the suicide stats for Japan are very high, especailly among high school 
and college students. Can anyone back that up for me?

I guess part of this reply comes from my own ambiguity when I write 
about Japanese anime. I try to keep in mind all the differences between 
what my culture considers 'correct' and what little I know of the 
Japanese culture. But then the agruement comes up of 'well, we're 
western writers writting for a western audience. For the most part, 
that's true, but the source material we are drawing from is Eastern and 
heavily influenced by that culture. I just think we need to keep that in 
mind.

Well, spit. I'm rambling now so I'd better shut up.

Laters.

Windlily

(dragoncritter@theCelestialTemple.com)