Scuffulans hirsutus

… by TSO

Book Meme Rules
1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people

The stack of books nearest to hand includes titles by George Weigel, Thomas Craughwell, Fuyumi Ono and Robert Benchley. Unfortunately, the one on top was Warriors of Legend: Reflections of Japan in Sailor Moon, by Jay Navok and Sushil K. Rudranath.

The kuji incantation itself is a Buddhist war chant. A large, frightening figure appears on the screen during Rei’s incantation of this ceremony, and he is the god of war from Buddhist lore. Since Rei is a Shintoist and not a Buddhist (and according to one episode, considers the other religions her “competition”), the display of a Buddhist god is a contemporary example of the syncretism we discussed earlier, which blurs Shintoism and Buddhism for most Japanese (in this case, the anime’s writers).

Tagged: Kashi and the Wolf, Maureen, John and anyone else who wanders by.

This would explain a few things about me, I suppose. It has, in fact, occurred to me that I could possibly have been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome in my childhood, except that the term wasn’t coined until many years later in 1981. It might just have been Einstein syndrome, though.

(Via Ellyn.)