Miyazaki and Japan.(... the work of animation artist Miyazaki Hayao is of interest to adult and child alike)(Letter to the Editor)

SIR: Timothy Harris (September 2003) sets out to do three things. While celebrating the magnificence of Miyazaki Hayao's new animated adventure story for children he casts some rather pointed barbs at others like himself who try to find significance in art.

Employing the work of Miyazaki for some rearguard critical activities is at least slightly offensive. At worst it's grandstanding. And while I agree that art isn't reducible to social "relevance", I disagree wholeheartedly that "any good artist in whatever field knows how, in the process of creation, it is the work that leads you towards its own consummation". Bracing stuff, to be sure, but hardly universal. One of Japan's most gifted authors, Haruki Murakami, would agree that that's how he writes. But Vladimir Nabokov would have considered this an admission of incompetence.

Miyazaki's significance is undoubted and it's a shame that he's not better known in Australia. However, as Harris makes clear, much of his output has strong cultural ties to Japan. That shouldn't stop us. Japanese kids heartily enjoy Hollywood produce. It'd be no surprise to meet youngsters in Tokyo watching Tonari no Toraro on Saturday and The Lion King on Sunday. Clearly Harris wants to redress an imbalance, but is it necessary for him to throw into such violent relief the feelings he has about both bodies of work, when Miyazaki's target audience swallows either with equal relish? Possibly.

Miyazaki certainly pushes animation up to new levels of subtlety. In his ability to evoke for children moods and feelings through the smallest movements, he operates on a higher level than most. But you must wonder at the motivation for one particular statement of Harris's, accurate or otherwise: "Chihiro moves as a girl of her age moves, in a manner quite different from the way a boy moves."

Perhaps; and this points to Harris's third goal: to point out the "thingness" of things in Japan. The up side of this truism ...