Archives
- American Dream Serialization (Early Chapters)
- Introduction to Jim Chaffee's Studies in Mathematical Pornography by Maurice Stoker
- Introduction to Jim Chaffee's Studies in Mathematical Pornography by Tom Bradley
- Studies in Mathematical Pornography: American Dream Title Page by Jim Chaffee
- Studies in Mathematical Pornography: Chapter 1 by Jim Chaffee
- Studies in Mathematical Pornography: Chapter 2 by Jim Chaffee
- Studies in Mathematical Pornography: Chapter 3 by Jim Chaffee
- Studies in Mathematical Pornography: Chapter 4 by Jim Chaffee
- Studies in Mathematical Pornography: Chapter 5 by Jim Chaffee
- Studies in Mathematical Pornography: Chapter 6 by Jim Chaffee
- Studies in Mathematical Pornography: Chapter 7 by Jim Chaffee
- Studies in Mathematical Pornography: Chapter 8 by Jim Chaffee
- Studies in Mathematical Pornography: Chapter 9 by Jim Chaffee
- 01-01-2015
- Modern Tragedy, or Parodies of Ourselves by Robert Castle
- 01-11-2014
- Totally Enchanté, Dahling by Thor Garcia
- 01-04-2014
- Hastini by Rudy Ravindra
- The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter Volume 5 Translation by W. C. Firebaugh
- 01-01-2014
- Unexpected Pastures by Kim Farleigh
- 10-01-2013
- Nonviolence by Jim Courter
- The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter Volume 4 Translation by W. C. Firebaugh
- 07-01-2013
- The Poet Laureate of Greenville by Al Po
- The Apocalypse of St. Cleo, Part VI by Thor Garcia
- The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter Volume 3 Translation by W. C. Firebaugh
- 04-01-2013
- The Apocalypse of St. Cleo, Part V by Thor Garcia
- The Apocalypse of St. Cleo, Part IV by Thor Garcia
- The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter Volume 2 Translation by W. C. Firebaugh
- 01-01-2013
- The Apocalypse of St. Cleo, Part I by Thor Garcia
- The Apocalypse of St. Cleo, Part II by Thor Garcia
- The Apocalypse of St. Cleo, Part III by Thor Garcia
- The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter Volume 1 Translation by W. C. Firebaugh
- 10-01-2012
- DADDY KNOWS WORST: Clown Cowers as Father Flounders! by Thor Garcia
- RESURRECTON: Excerpt from Breakfast at Midnight by Louis Armand
- Review of The Volcker Virus (Donald Strauss) by Kane X Faucher: Excerpt from the forthcoming Infinite Grey by Kane X Faucher
- 01-07-2012
- Little Red Light by Suvi Mahonen and Luke Waldrip
- TEXECUTION: Klown Konfab as Killer Kroaked! by Thor Garcia
- Miranda's Poop by Jimmy Grist
- Paul Fabulan by Kane X Faucher: Excerpt from the forthcoming Infinite Grey by Kane X Faucher
- 01-04-2012
- Operation Scumbag by Thor Garcia
- Take-Out Dick by Holly Day
- Patience by Ward Webb
- The Moon Hides Behind a Cloud by Barrie Darke
- The Golden Limo of Slipback City by Ken Valenti
- 01-01-2012
- Chapter from The Infinite Atrocity by Kane X. Faucher
- Support the Troops By Giving Them Posthumous Boners by Tom Bradley
- 01-10-2011
- When Good Pistols Do Bad Things by Kurt Mueller
- Corporate Strategies by Bruce Douglas Reeves
- The Dead Sea by Kim Farleigh
- The Perfect Knot by Ernest Alanki
- Girlish by Bob Bartholomew
- 01-07-2011
- The Little Ganges by Joshua Willey
- The Invisible World: René Magritte by Nick Bertelson
- Honk for Jesus by Mitchell Waldman
- 01-04-2011
- Red's Dead by Eli Richardson
- The Memphis Showdown by Gabriel Ricard
- Someday Man by John Grochalski
- 01-01-2011
- I Was a Teenage Rent-a-Frankenstein by Tom Bradley
- Only Love Can Break Your Heart by Fred Bubbers
- 10-01-2010
- Believe in These Men by Adam Greenfield
- The Magnus Effect by Robert Edward Sullivan
- Performance Piece by Jim Chaffee
- 07-01-2010
- Injustice for All by D. E. Fredd
- The Polysyllogistic Curse by Gary J. Shipley
- How It's Done by Anjoli Roy
- Ghost Dance by Connor Caddigan
- Two in a Van by Pavlo Kravchenko
- 04-01-2010
- Uncreated Creatures by Connor Caddigan
- Invisible by Anjoli Roy
- One of Us by Sonia Ramos Rossi
- Storyteller by Alan McCormick
- 01-01-2010
- Idolatry by Robert Smith
- P H I L E M A T O P H I L I A by Traci Chee
- They Do! by Al Po
- Full TEX Archive
Introduction to The Story Of Mimi-Nashi-Hōïchi (Earless Hōïchi)
This is the first in Lafcadio Hearn’s classic collection of Japanese ghost stories, Kwaidan, published five months before his death in 1904.
Hearn was born on an island off the coast of Greece in 1850 to an Irish father and Greek mother. He grew up in Ireland, worked as a journalist in the US, and in 1890 made a trip to Japan, where he stayed.
My own introduction to these tales was through the 1965 Japanese film Kwaidan. I remember it as one of the most beautiful and eerie films I have ever seen. It is no wonder it won a special prize at Cannes.
I first saw it in La Jolla, California, at a small theater. This was in 1966, when La Jolla was a distinctive, quiet coastal enclave with bungalows along the beachfront. When I visited the city two decades later, it had overgrown with cookie-cutter condos, the theatre replaced by a dive shop. But in those earlier days it was a welcome refuge for me while I attended Navy Hospital Corps School at the old hospital in Balboa Park. I would ride the bus on weekends to see films and hang out in the used bookstore attached to the theatre. I had discovered the place by visiting some craftspeople at the Shakespearian theatre in the park, self-styled witches and warlocks, who invited me to visit this store they owned. It is hard to imagine such a place existing now in La Jolla. In a few short months I would be stationed at the Naval Hospital in Yokosuka, Japan. In a little more than a year I would be in Vietnam in time to celebrate Tet of 1968 on my twenty-first birthday.
This story, which translates as Hōïchi the Earless, is the one I remember best of the four stories from the film. On screen the battle scenes between the Genji and the Heiké are aptly set to Hōïchi's stark recitation accompanied on the biwa. Read the story, then see the film which is now available on DVD.
JWC