hecker

Amateur essayist, anime & manga fan

Resident of Howard County, Maryland, systems engineer, and amateur essayist and data scientist. Author of the book That Type of Girl: Notes on Takako Shimura's Sweet Blue Flowers. Staff writer for Okazu.


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@hecker
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frank@frankhecker.com

Prompted by a book post by @JhoiraArtificer, I got a copy of the Maria Headley translation of Beowulf, which I greatly enjoyed. In a comment on that post I recommended Christopher Logue's free translation/adaptation of Homer's Iliad, contrasting it with more conventional translations. I've started reading Caroline Alexander's translation of the Iliad, one of the more heralded modern translations, and thought it might be fun to present it side by side with Logue's version, along with a classic translation, that of Alexander Pope.



This post is the last in a series discussing Yasujirō Ozu’s Early Summer (1951) as a hypothesized example of “a queer film subtly but firmly protesting compulsory heterosexuality, made by a (possibly) queer director and starring a (possibly) queer actor.” See also my introduction in part 1, and my detailed breakdown of the film’s scenes in part 2, part 3, and part 4.

Here I provide my final thoughts on the film and my thesis.

NOTE: This post contains spoilers for Early Summer.



I originally hypothesized that Yasujirō Ozu’s 1951 film Early Summer could be seen as “a queer film subtly but firmly protesting compulsory heterosexuality, made by a (possibly) queer director and starring a (possibly) queer actor.” My second post looked for evidence in favor of this thesis, as did my third post. In this post I discuss the final section of the film.

NOTE: This post contains spoilers for Early Summer.



In my first post I hypothesized that Yasujirō Ozu’s 1951 film Early Summer could be hypothesized as “a queer film subtly but firmly protesting compulsory heterosexuality, made by a (possibly) queer director and starring a (possibly) queer actor.” In my second post I presented some evidence to that effect, covering the first half of the film. In this post I continue trying to find evidence for my hypothesis, starting with the first part of the second half of the film.

NOTE: This post contains spoilers for Early Summer.