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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
 Posted - 03/11/2007 : 06:31:45 AM
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One of the things that first drew my interest into learning about Hawai`i was Michener's book Hawai`i. I read this book many years ago when my girls were young, when I was just a GS-5 and never in my wildest dreams ever thought I could visit such a place.
This book grabbed me from the beginning...talking about how the land was formed, talking about what may have caused the first travelers to set out on a voyage far across the seas. Since then I have re-read the book many times, each time before I visit Hawai`i and after I return home. Each time I do, I notice different things that I did not recollect from the time before, or things that now make more sense to me because of something I saw or experienced in the islands.
When I had a chance to talk to Wayne Chang, who was the cultural expert on a cruise we took as our first visit to Hawai`i, I asked him about this book. We talked about how accurate it was, even though it was written as historial fiction. He told me that Michener had a large research staff and that the book was historically very accurate. But Wayne, as well, recommended other books to read, such as Shoal of Time by Gavan Dawes. But this book is the first time I had ever heard of slack key guitar. Like just about every other mainlander who knew nothing about Hawai`i, I thought that meant steel guitar. I asked Paul, who had been playing guitar since small kid time, if he knew what it was. He did, and he tried to explain it to me, but not being a musician, I really didn't understand. So, I used the internet. I queried about slack key and was directed to amazon.com. When I search amazon.com, basically what I got was hits for Israel Kamakawiwo`ole. I listened to samples of the songs on "E Ala E" and liked what I heard so I ordered it. We listened to it for several years before our first trip to Hawai`i. And thus began our quest for Hawaiian music. Now we probably have more drawers of da kine music in our CD cabinet than any other type of music. I used to listed to the golden oldies station on the car radio, or the sports talk show, but no I can't seem to stand to listed to much of anything else other than Hawaiian music. The other stuff sounds rough and discordant, or the words are just meaningless paff.
Anyhow, once again I am rambling without getting to my point. My question is, have any of you read this book? If so, how has the book affected you? I ask this because I truly believe that some books profoundly affect us and change the way we live our lives. That book lead me not only to Hawaiian music, but lead me to learn about being pono...and that has truly impacted my life and offered me a new serenity.
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Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
Edited by - wcerto on 03/11/2007 06:32:42 AM |
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thumbstruck
Ahonui
USA
2164 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2007 : 07:13:19 AM
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| I read the book in 1969 in HS. It was the first time I learned about slack key. I saw Dave Guard's album with Gabby, but being poor and ignorant, I didn't buy it. A few years later, I was working with a kid from Kaua'i and he played slack key. I learned from jamming with him. The book was great, I read others by Michener. If I read fiction, it's usually historical. I'm fortunate to be able to access the Hawaiian community here in the Puget Sound area. Nice folks, good food, great music. |
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hapakid
Luna Ho`omalu
USA
1533 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2007 : 07:22:01 AM
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I started the read the book a few months ago but stopped after reading about human sacrifice that included children. I'm not squeamish, but as a parent with small kids, I couldn't stomach it. Perhaps I'll skip ahead and read the rest someday.
Jesse Tinsley |
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2007 : 02:08:33 AM
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I read it as a kid when it first came out. And we still have a copy that we occasionally reread. It is still a compelling read. As far as historical accuracy goes, you gotta take it with a big grain of salt, especially in the parts before the 1900s. He has the essence correct, but the parts Sarah and I know about intimately (Opukaha'ia, New Haven, Yale, missionaries, Hiram Bingham, Dwight Baldwin and all the other Baldwins, New London, whalers, archaeology, prehistory, the marquesas, etc.) is, shall we say, speculative, or arranged for dramatic impact. Some is flat wrong.
For instance, compare the info on this site (which has various accounts of Opukaha'ia):
http://www.angelfire.com/hi5/bigfiles/opukahaia.html
against Michener's account. And, just so, you know, my knowledge is based on lots more than web sites.
...Reid
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Edited by - Reid on 03/12/2007 02:11:55 AM |
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Karl Monetti
`Olu`olu
USA
756 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2007 : 11:45:42 AM
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What I learned from reading "Hawaii" 30-some years ago; bananas make some people sick. Promptly forgot that because they never make me sick at all.
Good read, probably should read again now that i have some first-hand knowledge of the place and have eaten lots more bananas. It is on the shelf right next to another of his tomes, "Alaska". |
Karl
Frozen North |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2007 : 12:05:58 PM
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| Yeah - I read "Alaska", too. And Caribbean, and, The Source, Chesapeake, Texas, Mexico, Tales of the South Pacific, Centennial, Sayonara, Iberia and Kent State: What Happened and Why -- non-fiction (my alma mater -- 4 Dead in Ohio). All his historical fiction that I have read were most excellent. Got the movie of "Hawai`i". Not a very good movie at all. All it does is cover the missionary times, and not very good at that. They say that Bette Midler has a bit part in the movie -- one of the missionary wives on the ship traveling to Hawai`i. |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2007 : 1:15:57 PM
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Omigod! Bette Middler as a missionary's wife? Maybe Hiram Bingham's wife? (Ho, ho, ho...) On the boat that rounded The Horn without a spa or cute masseur? With 1820 foundation garments? On the same tiny boat on which they walked for hours to prevent constipation? The mind boggles.
...Reid |
Edited by - Reid on 03/12/2007 1:21:15 PM |
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sandman
Lokahi
USA
181 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2007 : 4:54:41 PM
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Michener's a good read, most of the time, but ya gotta remember it is historical FICTION. I used to use Centenniel in my History of the Americas classes and it worked out pretty well as long as the students were aware that those figures were (mostly) fictional. Same with Hawaii. Every time I see his collection of ukiyo-e in Honolulu I think of his non-fiction book on the subject and the film he made explaining it. I showed it many times to my Asian Studies classes.
There is a new biography of him by I Can't Remember Who. It is pretty good, filling in some gaps left by his earlier biographers. He was a very complex man and not always a pleasant one, perhaps in part because of his early life, but he loved to travel and his work certainly shows that. He never thought of himself as a great stylist (although I'm a bit suspicious of writers who poor-mouth themselves) but he and his crew of researchers could put together a mass of sometimes accurate information and make it readable to a large segment of the public.
I'm one of those readers. 
Sandy |
Leap into the boundless and make it your home.
Zhuang-zi |
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 03/13/2007 : 03:14:23 AM
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Sandy, Michener had a Floating World collection? In HNL? Man, I would have loved to see it had I known. Was it all woodcuts, or did it have paintings, like Hokusai? Can you remember some of the artists? And please tell us how, and where, it can be seen.
(See what you can have if you are rich :-)
Do you know about Masami Teraoka, who does satirical, disturbing, humorous, but gorgeous versions of ukiyo-e in watercolor? He lives, I think, on Windward Oahu. He had a fantastic show here a few years ago, and his artistry is the equivalent of any of the greats (even if twisted).
...Reid
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Edited by - Reid on 03/13/2007 03:14:41 AM |
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Tonya
Lokahi
USA
177 Posts |
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 03/13/2007 : 08:11:51 AM
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Tonya, the artists of Edo were absolutely crucial to the creation of 19th century Impressionism and allied styles. Even the semi-academic Renoir painted an exact replica of a geisha in full reaglia, but with a characteristic Renoir face (blond hair, too, as I remember). In turn, the later artists of ukiyo-e, were influenced by Western (mostly French) artistic conventions such as perspective and composition. The most masterly, IMNSHO, was Hokusai - mostly known here for his woodcuts, such as "36 Views of Mount Fuji" (esp. The Wave) - but an extraordinary painter, and inventor as well. He coined the word "manga", now known as the word for comic books, as he created fantastical and whimsical humans, other creatures, and scenes, that he called by that word. So, comic books owe much to Hokusai.
Take a look at:
http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/past.htm#
Hokusai
March 4–May 14, 2006
An unprecedented exhibition of works by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849), whose iconic woodblock print "The Great Wave" is one of the most recognized images in the art world, was on view at the Sackler Gallery March 4 through May 14, 2006. The exhibition of more than 180 paintings, prints, drawings and printed books brought together for the first time 41 paintings from the Freer Gallery of Art, the largest and most important collection of paintings by Hokusai, with masterpieces from museum, library and private collections throughout the world. Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919), founder of the Freer Gallery, collected most of the Gallery's Hokusai paintings, drawings, and prints between 1898 and 1907. "Hokusai" celebrated the 100th anniversary of the official gift by Freer of his art collection and museum to the United States.
Visit the Hokusai interactive <====== Click on this when you get to the page for a Flash interactive view of that exhibit. There are no words to describe what it was like in person.
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 03/13/2007 : 08:59:02 AM
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Reid - thanks for the link. Very impressive. Seems like your head is chock full of knowledge.
Thank you for sharing it with us. |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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sandman
Lokahi
USA
181 Posts |
Posted - 03/13/2007 : 11:48:47 AM
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Reid, the Honolulu Academy of Arts is the repository of Michener's ukiyo-e collection. Hokusai, Hiroshige, and Utamaro are among the artists to be seen there. Their excellent website is at http://www.honoluluacademy.org. Michener's first and most comprehensive book on ukiyo-e is The Floating World, published originally in 1954 and updated in 1983 with a forward by Howard Link. The most recent biography on Michener is Michener: A Writer's journey by Stephen May and Valerie Hemingway. It contains some interesting stuff on Michener, why he gave this portion of his large art collection to the Honolulu Academy of Arts, and his estrangement from Hawaii after his last wife, a Nisei, suffered great discrimination when they attempted to buy into an exclusive enclave near Diamond Head. His papers are at the University of Texas.
Wasn't the Hokusai exhibit tremendous? Fortunately my wife had a meeting in DC while it was on so I flew back with her and spent a couple of days in the Freer/Sackler complex. (I was there last week and there was nothing comparable.) My Japanese friends, both stateside and in Japan, were very envious.
Teraoka is quite good. He may be in the Honolulu Academy as I've seen his work but can't remember where. There are only a couple of places that I could have enjoyed his work and my home, unfortunately, is not one of them. I have several prints but none are as good as those of the artists we have talked of.
Sandy _ |
Leap into the boundless and make it your home.
Zhuang-zi |
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