Day 3: Quotes from Ozeki (Part 1)

Ozeki, Ruth L. My Year of Meats. New York: Viking, 1998. Print.

Chapter 1

• "My name is Jane Tagaki-Little... Hyphenation may be a modern response to patriarchal naming practices in some cases, but not in mine. My hyphen is a thrust of pure superstition" (9).

• "In modern-day Japan, militarism is treated like a sexual deviation - when you see perverts practising it on the street, you ignore them, look the other way" (11).

• "'Where are you from, anyway?'...'New York'...'No, I mean where were you born?'...'Quam, Minnesota'... 'No, no... What are you?'... 'I...am...a...fucking...AMERICAN!'" (11).

Chapter 2

• "The women smiled broadly at Akiko, who automatically smiled back" (19).

• "Akiko was so thin her bones hurt" (20).

• "When her periods stopped coming, Akiko's doctor had told her that her ovaries were starved and weren't producing any eggs. Akiko husband, Joichi was very upset" (20).

• "Fred was furious with her for caring so much, for spending all the money on the new comforter and towels, for agreeing to the shoot to begin with" (25).

Chapter 3

• "they all spend their days off at Wal-Mart" (33).

• "I was learning. This was the heart and soul of My American Wife: recreating for Japanese housewives this spectacle of raw American abundance" (35).

• "While you are shooting them, they are your entire world and you live in the warm" (36).

• "She turned the page of The Pillow Book with exquisite care so as not to wake him" (38).

• "You could tell his wife back in Tokyo had packed his bags" (43).

• "We Japanese get weak genes through many centuries' process of straight breeding. Like old-fashioned cows. Make weak stock. But you are good and strong modern girl from crossbreeding" (43).

• "it was her duty to purchase condoms... as a married man, it's not appropriate for me to do it" (45).

Chapter 4

• "we need someone who looks attractive" (57).

• "It had felt so good to be alone. Unmolested" (62).

• "Husbands aren't supposed to cook" (78).

• "The pregnant one rose slowly when summoned, arching her back with an apologetic smile. The thin ones kept their eyes to the ground and scurried, crablike, out of sight" (79).

• "There are so many young women who are desperate to have a baby, who would cut off an arm or a leg in order to conceive and are honestly incapable of doing so" (81).

• "Sometimes you had to look at things from another angle" (83).

Chapter 5

• "And I let him come inside me because I knew it was safe" (93).

• "John answered his tersely; she could only nod or shake her head" (96).

• "'Why are you so shy?'... 'You must make more of an effort or you will never be successful in finding a good husband'" (97).

• "he gave Akiko one last violent shake...gouged Akiko right above the eye" (100).

• "The idea of being impregnated by this foul-breathing man gave me the jolt of strength I needed... and roll him over" (110).

Chapter 6

• "'She's never laughed like that before...No one's ever played with her like that before'" (139).