Yasunari Kawabata's crystalline novel Snow Country relates a love affair between an aloof dilettante and what is known as an onsen, or "hot-spring", geisha; and much of the novel's relentless melancholy arises from the onsen geisha's low place on the geisha totem pole. The dilettante is slumming, in other words, and his girl, though adept at the typical and treasured art of shamisen-playing, drinks and talks too boldly for a woman of her station.
The phenomenal success of Arthur Golden's novel Memoirs of a Geisha and now the recent movie release- has rekindled the public's interest in these secretive and seductive creatures, just as their species seem destined to receive the coup de grace suffered by so many things traditionally Japanese. No ear is so trained as that hoping to hear dying words.
For their part, some Japanese are not so keen on being identified with their wobbly, porcelain quasi-prostitutes. They would prefer to stand for artistic virtuosity or technical mastery. Yet there is no reason for Japan to be ashamed of this unique contribution to international culture. Where would the world be without The Mikado or Madame Butterfly?
Like many Asian countries, Japan has imported two extraordinarily unsuccessful ideas from the West. First, that marriage should be based on romantic love. Second, that marital infidelity is grounds for divorce if not damnation. Marriage, when it was not purely an economic contract between families, was based upon the necessity of producing and supporting children. The husband won the bread that the wife then distributed; and the husband was expected and even encouraged to seek amour and more elsewhere. According to the system's logic, no one woman can be an angel with the children, a maid in the kitchen, a whore in the bedroom, and a wit in the salon.
No doubt the system has its faults as a solution to the problem of the sexes. It scoffs at gender equality and tends to fester with ugly jealousies. But it also has its virtues. It accounts for the fact that men and women, for the time being anyway, are endowed with markedly different equipment and instructions for its proper use. And Asia has a far lower rate of divorce than the West.
The function of the geisha is to provide men with learned but carefree conversation, song and dance, and cup after cup of sake. Unlike the common lot of prostitutes, they are expected to receive rigorous training in their gei, or "art". Their dress is elaborate and expensive, and thus their services do not come cheap. And sex is not a service, or at any rate not the foremost service, that they offer. Though Western civilization has occasionally seen figures similar to the geisha - the Greek hetaerae and the French femmes savantes -- there is no modern Western equivalent.
Click the title for MORE
The History of London Bridge: London Bridge today is not the same London Bridge that crossed the Thames when it was first built. Peter, a priest and chaplain of St. Mary's of Colechurch, began the foundation of the original bridge in 1176 to replace a wooden bridge (expensive to maintain and repeatedly burned down) that had first been built by the Romans.
Southend-on-Sea is Essex’s largest town and its close proximity to London makes it a popular tourist destination year after year. Better still, it is located in the south east of the country in an area widely regarded as the driest part of Britain.
Southampton -- Set on the coast of Hampshire, south of Winchester, this is a place that abounds with a fascinating heritage. The Romans, who established it as a seaport, founded Southampton approximately 2,000 years ago. This was the port from which the ill-fated Titanic had set sail on her maiden voyage in 1912. Even though the place was affected during the Second World War, Southampton has grown sturdy with huge docks built for the cruise industry. The core of the modern city is now based around the City Centre.
Introducing Australia Australia is located in the Southern Hemisphere and it is over twenty times the size of the United Kingdom has the lowest population density in the world, with only two people per square kilometre, has more than seven thousand beaches (more than any other country) and covers three time zones. It is also the sixth largest country and smallest continent on the planet. The Gold Coast of Australia features 40km of sandy immaculate beaches and is located 70kms south of Queensland's capital city, Brisbane, and 947kms North the capital of New south Wales, Sydney. It has an estimated population of 480,000 and is Australia's sixth largest city.Stunning Katherine Gorge, the major attraction of Nitmiluk National Park in the Northern Territory of Australia, is an absolute must see. Katherine Gorge shows that the most impressive experiences in the Australian Outback don't cost an arm and a leg, don't have to be shared with a kazillion other tourists, and they don't require any special preparations.
New Zealand is a country comprised of two large islands and many smaller islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean and is noted for its geographic isolation. The Tasman Sea separates Australia to the northwest; to north are Fiji and Tonga. The total area of New Zealand is 268670 sq. km, which is slightly less than Japan but a little more than the United Kingdom. The country has extensive marine resources and the fifth largest Exclusive Economic Zone in the world. Meaning New Zealand can claim over four million km2 or more than 15 times its land area for exploration and use of marine resources.
Creating Great Catalogs
There are still times when ink on paper is essential. Many of the so-called "professions" (legal, accountancy, etc) in the UK at least still insist on correspondence being done via printed letters. They have a deep mistrust of email and for good reason, as its confidentiality can never be guaranteed. Business letters are at least fairly private - you have to assume it's easier and faster to snoop on email than it is to steam envelopes open over boiling water.In other instances, too, printed letters provide a more tamper-proof formal record of business arrangements, complaints, employee warnings/terminations and other issues that need to be carved into tablets of stone. (Well, paper, anyway.) Click HERE and discover how to make your business letters more powerful.
***
Writing articles on your topic (or your business’s topic) is usually a useful PR opportunity a) because it publicizes you/your organization and b) because it can raise your profile as an expert on the topic concerned.Articles are different from press releases because they’re usually longer and in “feature” style, i.e. not using the hard-nosed news approach of most press releases. Articles in this context are usually more relaxed and more detailed, taking a more in-depth look at the subject matter.So what are the key issues to bear in mind? Click HERE.
***
Creating Great Catalogs: Many people fail to realize that catalogues should be written. Often their objective in creating a catalogue is to cram in as many products as they can with descriptive copy kept to a few mis-spelled words in tiny type squashed into a corner. These people are the on-paper equivalent of the "stack 'em high, sell 'em cheap" species you encounter in retailing.However in a retail environment customers can usually pick up the products, have a good look at them, read the on-pack copy and find out all they need to know, so the fact that they're in a no-frills environment doesn't matter too much. When a product is pictured in the small, two-dimensional environment of the printed page it's not only no-frills but also very lonely, unless the product has the support of some well-chosen words to inform readers and encourage them to buy it.Considering that for many businesses and other organizations their catalogue is their only shop window - or at least represents, potentially, a very significant revenue stream - you would think that everyone's attention and skill would be focused on its written content as much as its other elements. But no. All too often catalogues look as though their copy has been written by a well-meaning high school pupil who can look forward to a glorious future as a street sweeper.
Probably the most interesting thing about brochures and leaflets is that they're seldom read in what we've come to know as the right order - as you would read a book. Rather in the same way that many people read magazines in dentists' waiting rooms, they will flick through brochures and leaflets and stop to take a longer look at bits that grab their attention.Alternatively they'll flick all the way through and then go back to bits they've noticed and that have interested them. They're just as likely to flick through from back to front as they are from front to back.What all this teaches us is that despite seeming logical, writing for brochures and leaflets in the form of a story that starts at the beginning, goes through the middle and finishes at the end, is not necessarily the best way forward.
Obviously you can't make every page stand alone with a message on it that says "in case you're flicking through backwards or only want to read this page, here's a summary of our corporate profile again."
But there are some tricks you can use to get this random reading pattern to work a bit more effectively for you, rather than against you.A lot depends on the type and style of brochure or leaflet you want to write, of course. In my experience, generally speaking the more specific the purpose of a brochure or leaflet the more likely readers are to read it properly and thoroughly.If a leaflet contains assembly instructions, or a brochure contains technical specifications of equipment, there's a good chance that readers will start at least near the beginning and then work through towards the end. Once again, that's because readers will only get their full value from the leaflet or brochure - the "what's in it for them" - by reading it properly. Where you get the worst random grasshopper reading, however, is with the less specific documents like "welcome" leaflets or "corporate" brochures. So let's look at how we can minimize the problems with those.Despite all of the above, often it is still worthwhile to organize your content in a reasonably logical order. Many people do absorb brochures in the usual order, and even if they don't they still expect to find the introduction at the beginning, the substantiations in the middle and the conclusion at the end. This approach is useful for the moderately subject-specific document, like a leaflet about a new service or a brochure about a new line of garden furniture.
***
Instructions should never be written by experts, because they know too much. What this means is that they are very prone to making the mistake of assuming the reader knows a little bit about the subject matter already. To an expert, the fact that before you begin assembling the bookcase you need to align sections A, B and C with each other may be so blindingly obvious it's not even worth mentioning. To someone like me it's not just worth mentioning, it's absolutely essential if I'm not to spend the next three hours wondering why on earth I can't find any bolt holes that line up.Wherever practical, instructions should be written by someone who knows as much as, but no more than, the audience. For any form of instructions to be followed by non-technical users, the writer should assume zero prior knowledge and the best way to ensure s/he does that, is if s/he doesn't have any prior knowledge her/himself. Provided that the writer has a logical mind and the ability to write clearly and simply, s/he can't fail to work out and then write good, usable instructions - because if s/he understands them so will everyone else.
Make sure your instructions are written for your audience, not your organization. People who buy products need to know how to assemble/install/use the product as easily as possible. And because many people are technodorks like me, instructions need to be understood by the lowest common denominator. Logically, then, you might think the best person to write instructions for technodorks like me is someone who knows every last detail about the product, how it was made, how it works, what it does, and what its inside leg measurement is. In other words, an expert. This could not be further from the truth. Instructions should never be written by experts. Click HERE to learn how to write instructions.
How to Start and Run your own Firewood Supply Business.
Health Insurance for the Self-Employed.
Providing affordable health insurance for your employees
The Pet Sitting Business is BOOMING. By Ian White.
Understand the various forms of intellectual properties.
Earning money from your car or truck
Here is a sample partnership contract for you to study.
How to Write a Scorching Letter of Complaint, an actual sample.
The Candy Wrapping Business
***
Writing articles on your topic (or your business’s topic) is usually a useful PR opportunity a) because it publicizes you/your organization and b) because it can raise your profile as an expert on the topic concerned.Articles are different from press releases because they’re usually longer and in “feature” style, i.e. not using the hard-nosed news approach of most press releases. Articles in this context are usually more relaxed and more detailed, taking a more in-depth look at the subject matter.So what are the key issues to bear in mind? Click HERE.
***
Creating Great Catalogs: Many people fail to realize that catalogues should be written. Often their objective in creating a catalogue is to cram in as many products as they can with descriptive copy kept to a few mis-spelled words in tiny type squashed into a corner. These people are the on-paper equivalent of the "stack 'em high, sell 'em cheap" species you encounter in retailing.However in a retail environment customers can usually pick up the products, have a good look at them, read the on-pack copy and find out all they need to know, so the fact that they're in a no-frills environment doesn't matter too much. When a product is pictured in the small, two-dimensional environment of the printed page it's not only no-frills but also very lonely, unless the product has the support of some well-chosen words to inform readers and encourage them to buy it.Considering that for many businesses and other organizations their catalogue is their only shop window - or at least represents, potentially, a very significant revenue stream - you would think that everyone's attention and skill would be focused on its written content as much as its other elements. But no. All too often catalogues look as though their copy has been written by a well-meaning high school pupil who can look forward to a glorious future as a street sweeper.
Probably the most interesting thing about brochures and leaflets is that they're seldom read in what we've come to know as the right order - as you would read a book. Rather in the same way that many people read magazines in dentists' waiting rooms, they will flick through brochures and leaflets and stop to take a longer look at bits that grab their attention.Alternatively they'll flick all the way through and then go back to bits they've noticed and that have interested them. They're just as likely to flick through from back to front as they are from front to back.What all this teaches us is that despite seeming logical, writing for brochures and leaflets in the form of a story that starts at the beginning, goes through the middle and finishes at the end, is not necessarily the best way forward.
Obviously you can't make every page stand alone with a message on it that says "in case you're flicking through backwards or only want to read this page, here's a summary of our corporate profile again."
But there are some tricks you can use to get this random reading pattern to work a bit more effectively for you, rather than against you.A lot depends on the type and style of brochure or leaflet you want to write, of course. In my experience, generally speaking the more specific the purpose of a brochure or leaflet the more likely readers are to read it properly and thoroughly.If a leaflet contains assembly instructions, or a brochure contains technical specifications of equipment, there's a good chance that readers will start at least near the beginning and then work through towards the end. Once again, that's because readers will only get their full value from the leaflet or brochure - the "what's in it for them" - by reading it properly. Where you get the worst random grasshopper reading, however, is with the less specific documents like "welcome" leaflets or "corporate" brochures. So let's look at how we can minimize the problems with those.Despite all of the above, often it is still worthwhile to organize your content in a reasonably logical order. Many people do absorb brochures in the usual order, and even if they don't they still expect to find the introduction at the beginning, the substantiations in the middle and the conclusion at the end. This approach is useful for the moderately subject-specific document, like a leaflet about a new service or a brochure about a new line of garden furniture.
***
Instructions should never be written by experts, because they know too much. What this means is that they are very prone to making the mistake of assuming the reader knows a little bit about the subject matter already. To an expert, the fact that before you begin assembling the bookcase you need to align sections A, B and C with each other may be so blindingly obvious it's not even worth mentioning. To someone like me it's not just worth mentioning, it's absolutely essential if I'm not to spend the next three hours wondering why on earth I can't find any bolt holes that line up.Wherever practical, instructions should be written by someone who knows as much as, but no more than, the audience. For any form of instructions to be followed by non-technical users, the writer should assume zero prior knowledge and the best way to ensure s/he does that, is if s/he doesn't have any prior knowledge her/himself. Provided that the writer has a logical mind and the ability to write clearly and simply, s/he can't fail to work out and then write good, usable instructions - because if s/he understands them so will everyone else.
Make sure your instructions are written for your audience, not your organization. People who buy products need to know how to assemble/install/use the product as easily as possible. And because many people are technodorks like me, instructions need to be understood by the lowest common denominator. Logically, then, you might think the best person to write instructions for technodorks like me is someone who knows every last detail about the product, how it was made, how it works, what it does, and what its inside leg measurement is. In other words, an expert. This could not be further from the truth. Instructions should never be written by experts. Click HERE to learn how to write instructions.
How to Start and Run your own Firewood Supply Business.
Health Insurance for the Self-Employed.
Providing affordable health insurance for your employees
The Pet Sitting Business is BOOMING. By Ian White.
Understand the various forms of intellectual properties.
Earning money from your car or truck
Here is a sample partnership contract for you to study.
How to Write a Scorching Letter of Complaint, an actual sample.
The Candy Wrapping Business
How To Write Powerful Presentations, Speeches, And Talks
Most of us get nervous about making a speech, whether it's to 2000 convention delegates or a PTA meeting at our child's school. Often, though, people find that's the worst part of the whole process - the anticipation. The reality is often a lot easier to handle and can even be quite enjoyable, provided that you take the necessary precaution of doing your homework beforehand - preparation.There are very, very few people who can get up at a moment's notice and give a good speech totally impromptu and on the spur of the moment. There are plenty of people who think they can and/or who will tell you they can, but the truth is most of them are deluding themselves and boring their audiences to tears.
There are also plenty of speakers who get up and present and make it look easy, as though they hadn't prepared anything beforehand. These are the real experts who, despite having years of speaking experience under their belts, if anything put more effort into preparation than people who speak for ten minutes once a year at the Golf Club dinner dance.So, what about that preparation? Really, it's about remembering those key golden rules that apply to all good business writing and they are:1. Define exactly not so much what you want to say, as what you want your speech or talk to achieve - ask yourself, "what do I want the audience to be thinking as I come to the end of my speech?"2. Find out as much as you can about your audience and ensure your content is very, very relevant to them and their needs.3. Use language and tone of voice that the audience will understand and identify with - and blend that in with your own natural style of speaking.4. By all means use a bit of jargon and a few "in" phrases as long as you're certain the audience understands them, but never use jargon others may not know.The only extra point I would make here is, remember that people can't rewind/replay or re-read you. For that reason you can't expect them to absorb as much detailed information as they would if you were to write it in a document or CD-ROM, which allow them to refer back to details as often as they want.
Knowing your audience is also unusually important here - you'll find out very quickly if you've got it wrong, because you'll see it in their faces and their body language.
Cut the clutter
Depending on the nature of the presentation you're making, sometimes you will be giving out delegate packs or some other form of permanent record of your material, so details, expansions, etc can go in there. Whether you're doing this or not, though, what you say must be clear and uncluttered.With live speeches, your success is almost entirely dependent on what your audience remembers of what you say. People have very bad memories, and if a speech has been boring or complicated or both, they will remember even less of its content and only recall how terrible it was.Often senior managers are called upon to give speeches - usually to internal audiences - which cover a wide range of topics, for example a review of the company's performance over the past year, announcements about new developments, etc. These presentations sometimes last for nearly an hour and attempt to cover more topics than a fat Sunday newspaper. At the end of it the audiences have absorbed very little, having been mesmerized by the drone of the boss's voice and an increasingly urgent desire to leave the meeting and go to the washroom.Yet, argue the senior managers, we have to get all this information over to them at our conference. The answer? Split a one-hour speech down into four fifteen-minuters, interspersed with the other presentations throughout the day or half-day session. (Or if you can't do that, split the one-hour presentation across four different speakers.) Fifteen minutes is much more comfortable for the audience's attention span. And the fact that there are more, shorter presentations creates variety which, to totally misquote an old saying is the spice of live communication.Start by writing yourself a list of points - a structure. This should cover the usual story-telling technique of a beginning, a middle and an end, although the old soap-box principle of "tell 'em what you're going to say, say it, then tell 'em what you just said" is a bit repetitive. Try if you can to keep the main issues in your presentation to fewer than five, no matter how long your speech is. If you can't actually put it together as a traditional story, what you must do is ensure that one topic leads logically on to the next using some good, workable links.
Much more. Click on the title.
Help
* postcards for writers
* Free Software for writers
* Practice Makes Perfect
* Learn to use the new Talk and Type software.
* Piggyback the Hollidays for Free book publicity.
* Create a bottomless notebook to spark new story ideas any time you need them.
Using Description to Drag your readers into your story.
Break into a Food Writing Career.
The Secret of Success, according to Lucy Goosey.
Watch out for the Land Gurus
Just The Writer... when the movie makers take over the book, where does the writer go?
800 words and phrases that SELL!
There are also plenty of speakers who get up and present and make it look easy, as though they hadn't prepared anything beforehand. These are the real experts who, despite having years of speaking experience under their belts, if anything put more effort into preparation than people who speak for ten minutes once a year at the Golf Club dinner dance.So, what about that preparation? Really, it's about remembering those key golden rules that apply to all good business writing and they are:1. Define exactly not so much what you want to say, as what you want your speech or talk to achieve - ask yourself, "what do I want the audience to be thinking as I come to the end of my speech?"2. Find out as much as you can about your audience and ensure your content is very, very relevant to them and their needs.3. Use language and tone of voice that the audience will understand and identify with - and blend that in with your own natural style of speaking.4. By all means use a bit of jargon and a few "in" phrases as long as you're certain the audience understands them, but never use jargon others may not know.The only extra point I would make here is, remember that people can't rewind/replay or re-read you. For that reason you can't expect them to absorb as much detailed information as they would if you were to write it in a document or CD-ROM, which allow them to refer back to details as often as they want.
Knowing your audience is also unusually important here - you'll find out very quickly if you've got it wrong, because you'll see it in their faces and their body language.
Cut the clutter
Depending on the nature of the presentation you're making, sometimes you will be giving out delegate packs or some other form of permanent record of your material, so details, expansions, etc can go in there. Whether you're doing this or not, though, what you say must be clear and uncluttered.With live speeches, your success is almost entirely dependent on what your audience remembers of what you say. People have very bad memories, and if a speech has been boring or complicated or both, they will remember even less of its content and only recall how terrible it was.Often senior managers are called upon to give speeches - usually to internal audiences - which cover a wide range of topics, for example a review of the company's performance over the past year, announcements about new developments, etc. These presentations sometimes last for nearly an hour and attempt to cover more topics than a fat Sunday newspaper. At the end of it the audiences have absorbed very little, having been mesmerized by the drone of the boss's voice and an increasingly urgent desire to leave the meeting and go to the washroom.Yet, argue the senior managers, we have to get all this information over to them at our conference. The answer? Split a one-hour speech down into four fifteen-minuters, interspersed with the other presentations throughout the day or half-day session. (Or if you can't do that, split the one-hour presentation across four different speakers.) Fifteen minutes is much more comfortable for the audience's attention span. And the fact that there are more, shorter presentations creates variety which, to totally misquote an old saying is the spice of live communication.Start by writing yourself a list of points - a structure. This should cover the usual story-telling technique of a beginning, a middle and an end, although the old soap-box principle of "tell 'em what you're going to say, say it, then tell 'em what you just said" is a bit repetitive. Try if you can to keep the main issues in your presentation to fewer than five, no matter how long your speech is. If you can't actually put it together as a traditional story, what you must do is ensure that one topic leads logically on to the next using some good, workable links.
Much more. Click on the title.
Help
* postcards for writers
* Free Software for writers
* Practice Makes Perfect
* Learn to use the new Talk and Type software.
* Piggyback the Hollidays for Free book publicity.
* Create a bottomless notebook to spark new story ideas any time you need them.
Using Description to Drag your readers into your story.
Break into a Food Writing Career.
The Secret of Success, according to Lucy Goosey.
Watch out for the Land Gurus
Just The Writer... when the movie makers take over the book, where does the writer go?
800 words and phrases that SELL!
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