Summary of SEAA READS, session five, 4/2023

The Anatomy of Loneliness: Suicide, Social Connection, and the Search for Relational Meaning in Contemporary Japan. 2021 U. California Press.

The six readers joining the online conversation in April logged on from both sides of the Pacific and points in-between. The Zoom session was hosted by Jennifer Prough, the chair of the 2022 Francis L.K. Hsu book prize committee which selected this book in the annual competition. Of the 30 titles that the committee read, this one by Chikako Ozawa-De Silva stood out for its many features: difficult to discuss topic (loneliness; death; suicide), difficult to design ethnographic sources and methods, and excellent writing that engages specialists and general audiences at the same time. See the award committee's remarks in full at https://seaa.americananthro.org/awards/past-seaa-awards/ .

The book circle began with brief self-introductions and impressions from the book, including references and new ground for some readers: anthropology of "the good," as well as psychological and legal anthropology, and despite little emphasis in the text, there was a lot of data explored and relied on that fits into the category of digital or media or virtual anthropology, too. One of the foundational questions for the SEAA Reads project is to look at ways of conducting ethnography these days (methods) and to ask what makes a piece of research/writing "ethnographic." For this book, Anatomy of Loneliness, there was a minimum of scholarly footnoting (readers had to dig into the back of the book for that) and considerable reliance on thinking of fellow social scientists in the psychology tradition rather than traditional anthropological thinkers. But by relying on interviews, observation, reflection, and synthesizing many forms of the cultural landscape and changing social terrain, the author is clearly "writing lives" in the literal meaning of ethno-graphy. A few of the book club people wondered how the IRB concerns could be overcome when studying such personal and sometimes tragic subjects.

The dramatic and emotionally charged subject of killing oneself in Japan, elsewhere in societies of East Asia, or in the wider contemporary world filled the conversation for part of the 90 minutes, but the author was clear to show this outcome as coming from a larger subject of social structure, failing, and relational stresses now; in sum, loneliness in its many forms and sources was dissected here and there to discover what social science can know and not know, as well as the semi-permeable line that partly can be known or at least sensed, that is, emotional ground and subjectivities that vary by person, by generation, by gender and many other factors in one's life. While Emile Durkheim's work was not mentioned on post-WWI poverty of life's meaning (anomie) after mass trauma and violence experienced directly or in one's closest relationships with others, some of the book club members were reminded of possible parallels to explore. As well, the author does not wrestle with the 1960s classic by Doi Takeo (The Anatomy of Dependence), the choice of title does seem to hint at that social and psychological study in Japanese life.

A few of the people compared the Japanese cases to what they knew in China (rural elderly, especially) and in Korea (a spate of deaths around the turn of the century after the IMF 1997 restructuring of international finances). Another comparison came from looking at the shaping role of the online platforms: bounded website postings versus scrolling and open-ended social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. Apart from a few informants at middle or senior age, most of the book reflected on people in their 20s and 30s whom the author knew from teaching assignments, as well as the (anonymous) online forums. One person in the book club conversation pointed out the arc of 20th century (anglophone) ethnography to the present: going from Positivist and comprehensive ambition to document and discuss a whole society from a particular set of observations and period of extended dwelling to the Postmodern doubting of such grand claims; subjective musing and reflexive considerations of nonfiction writerly craft. Now the author of Anatomy invites serious grappling with intersubjectivity: both inside the ethnographic observer's head and inside the mind of the participants/local subjects. Moving between external and internal terrain is of course challenging and differs to both the Modernist and Postmodernist efforts. But there are (imperfect) ways to proceed, as this book demonstrates.

In the closing minutes of the Zoom session one person remarked that "ethnographic projects are inherently social and interactive." This hearkens to the observation in Schools of Education that "all learning is social" and is shaped by one's relationship to teacher and text and peers; one's own context of place and moment. The features that populate any one person's immediate and wider cultural landscape, their Umwelt, surely shape what is imagined, what is possible, what seems out of one's purview, and so on. Perhaps this [paraphrased] comment by one of the readers sums up this ethnography best, 

It is good to see an author demonstrate care for her subjects and for readers, as well, writing clearly and writing well.

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In July the new book written by Lynne Nakano will be featured, Making Our Own Destiny: Single Women, Opportunity, and Family in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Tokyo., published by University of Hawai'i Press.