TOP・UPDATES・FOUR PILLARS・CINEMA/TV・GAMES・MANGA/ANIME・MUSIC・WRITINGS・FAQ・LINKS
TOP・UPDATES・FOUR PILLARS・CINEMA/TV・GAMES・MANGA/ANIME・MUSIC・WRITINGS・FAQ・LINKS
Answers to questions that you might have.
Q: What does "Pantsu Prophet" mean?
A: I first came up with this name in college. I had for a long time tried to
balance and integrate my silly otaku side with my serious, scholarly side. It
rolls off the tongue and sounds amusing. I also have always liked and felt inspired
by the idea of a "prophet" in the very old, biblical sense: someone who has to remove
himself from the comforts of the modern world and defy its norms in order to grapple
with difficult truths, grow spiritually, and then convey it to others out of the
motivation of a higher sense of love. Of course, I would never be so arrogant as to
claim that this describes me. I have been made fun of before for coming across as
very oracular and all-knowing, so I made this name to make fun of my self-importance
to a degree.
Q: What does "Amlux" mean?
A: When I was in early high school I liked a lot of Japanese noise-related music
like Melt-Banana, Boredoms, Haino Keiji, etc. The first "pure" noise album I ever
heard was called "Amlux" by Merzbow. I believe the name Amlux is just the name of
a certain Toyota showroom building in Toukyou that is prominent on the album cover.
It was a challenging listen for me like nothing I'd ever heard and while it's not
my favorite noise album or even my favorite Merzbow album today, it had an important
effect in making me appreciate avant-garde music and therefore avant-garde art in
general. So I stuck with it as a username because it's simple, short, memorable,
easy to spell, easy to pronounce, etc. Call me by my arcade initials "LUX" if you
want to shorten it even more. It means "light" in Latin which was my first word
as a baby, so I think it's a perfect nickname.
Q: Why do you spell X like that?
A: I write Japanese names as they are actually, authentically used in Japan:
family name before personal name. That means:
Ozu Yasujirou, not Yasujirou Ozu
Mishima Yukio, not Yukio Mishima
Hirasawa Susumu, not Susumu Hirasawa
etc.
While it is starting to change, for some time all east Asian countries except
Japan have been granted this luxury in modern western discourse, even ones that
exist in a much less harmonious relationship with western powers like China and
North Korea. We say the names of people from other east Asian countries
according to their proper order and expect people to learn their standard of
family name > personal name when speaking of them. We say Xi Jinping, Yoon
Suk-yeol, Kim Jong-un, Cai Ing-wen, and Nguyen Phú Trọng, for example, when
talking about people from other countries in the east Asian sphere. Why should
Japanese people alone be referred to as "Fumio Kishida" rather than Kishida
Fumio? It seems unfair and culturally disrespectful to not grant Japan the same
right of learning their ways of speech that we give to these countries. That
said, I'm not a shrieking SJW who will get mad at you for not following my
example. It's just what I prefer to do because I want to make it more of a
norm. Do whatever you're comfortable with; I won't take it as an insult. I will
admit that some Japanese names kind of have a better ring to them when written in
the western order, but I have to have a level of standardization.
Oh, by the way, I do the same for Hungarian names. Hungary is the only country in
Europe that uses the Family Name > Personal Name order in their native language
and culture. I have no idea why they do, but I follow it.
As for writing "Toukyou," "Kyouto," and "Oosaka" instead of "Tokyo," "Kyoto,"
and "Osaka," it is because I really dislike how romanization usually obscures
the difference between a short and long "o" sound in Japanese. I want to
preserve that, so I write it as, say "tou" or "too" to distinguish it from the
short sound of "to," or "yuu" to distinguish it from the short sound of "yu."
As to why sometimes I write it as "ou" and sometimes as "oo," this is complex
if you don't speak Japanese, but it has to do with certain words whose
pronunciations are inherited from China and others that are native to the
archipelago. All you need to remember is that "ou" and "oo" are both long "o"
sounds.
Lastly, I try to romanize Chinese by Hanyu Pinyin rules pretty consistently, and
this includes some words that are otherwise more commonly written in Wade-Giles.
The most notable one for my interests is "Taoism," which I write as "Daoism," in a
way that is closer to its actual pronunciation. Still, I'm in the process of making this
shift. I won't lie, writing "Dao De Jing" instead of "Tao Te Ching" still feels weird and
wrong to me! And in some cases I don't even realize I'm using Wade-Giles because
I can't speak Chinese like I can Japanese. But I care a lot about being standardized
and consistent. A lot of this also gets caught up in weird political identity things between
Taiwan and the mainland too, so let me make it clear that I by no means emphasize
Pinyin as a political move. It's just easier to read!
Q: Do you hate X group?
A: Short answer, no. I don't hate any group of people. I hate certain ideas but don't
hate individual people.
Of course, any racist would say the same thing. So let me elaborate. I use some pretty
spicy language because I'm very against the gradual expansion of policing of language
on all major social media platforms. Therefore, I make it a point to use words like
NIGGER, FAGGOT, RETARDED, TRANNY, etc. But I don't think that any race is worse than
any other, that gay or transgender people are all sick perverts, that you should be
mean to people with mental disabilities, etc. I want to recover the norm of acting
completely different online than you do in real life and not being afraid to be foul
and crude. I make a lot of jokes, but I trust the intelligence of readers to be able to
tell when I'm joking and when I'm serious. You may notice me use the phrase
"globohomo" on this site a lot, but the homo in it refers to homogenization, not to
homosexual. It's an important enough concept that I think we need a short term like
this to describe it. Of course, a lot of the times globalization is accompanied by the soyest,
lamest, most soulless artstyle possible
(you know the one),
so I think a phrase like globohomo is justified to fully capture the fagginess of it.
Q: Why is there an inconsistency in how you rank X movie/album/game
versus your profile on X site/another list on this site/etc.?
A: All lists and rankings are a reflection of impressions of a moment and are to
be considered in flux and capable of constant rearrangement given my whims. So
there is a general trend over what things I prefer to others, but it's never
fixed and eternal. I find rating things difficult in general, but websites like
RateYourMusic and MyAnimeList require me to engage with it and I think a sense
of my overall opinions and taste comes through even if I find it hard to "lock
in" my feelings to a number.
Q: How do you stay happy when things in the world are so terrible?
A: It's not easy and I don't always manage it. But I try to focus on what I can
do and check if I am doing everything I can. At the very least, it allows me
the comfort that I am not just standing by and doing nothing. I see a therapist
regularly and also meditate for at least 10 minutes every day, which are both
very helpful.
Q: Why the fuck do you write html like that?
A: I'm a beginner at this stuff and mostly taught myself by looking at html of
sites that I like rather than learning html conventions. Some of it probably
looks confusing or messy due to lack of indentations, inconsistencies in tags,
and so on. It triggers my OCD at times too but what can I say? I'm still figuring
this shit out and I think the best way to learn is by writing shitty html over and
over again until you get better at it.
Q: Can I give you some other feedback on your site?
A: Of course, please do! Email me at pantsuprophet@proton.me, or reach out on XMPP at amlux@xmpp.earth or Discord at Amlux#6988.
I am receptive to feedback about anything on my site. Some things I especially expect
and encourage are:
＊Corrections to information I say (I hate spreading misinformation)
＊Corrections to interpretations and readings of philosophers and other more
subjective matters, or questions for areas that I haven't made clear
＊Suggestions for my Miko List! (although I only add entries when I've finished the piece of media, so it might take some time to add your suggestion)
I don't claim to be an expert about anything I say. I only speak from my own
understanding, research, experience, and interpretation. I try to make that my
own limitations transparent but I sometimes mess up. There may be misinformed
or inconsistent parts of my writing, and I'd love those to be pointed out. And
for more debatable matters, I've changed my mind or added nuance to my opinion
about all kinds of stuff in the past, so feel free to seek out a dialogue if
you want to. I might be convinced and change my view, and even if I don't, it's
always valuable to hear opposing opinions. Feedback of the "kys pedo/nazi"
variety will of course be ignored.