ABSTRACT
I hope I may be forgiven for beginning by raising the dead. Specifically, I wish to invoke the memory of the late John Belushi and a character he developed while working as a cast member on the American late night variety show, Saturday Night Live. The character in question was that of a samurai swordsman trapped, either by fate or the contemporary vicissitudes of emigration, in a variety of incongruous professions—my personal favorite was that of an optometrist—and confronted by unsuspecting but demanding American customers seeking his services. At the core of every skit was the transcultural trauma of misrecognition; a trauma that eventually prompted Belushi's character to succumb to frantic swordplay, as if hysterical— though certainly professional—acting out were one's only recourse when faced with such a trauma. What prompted one's laughter, however, was not merely the absurdity of Belushi's overreaction, but that fact that his customers appeared to leave both bewildered and oddly satisfied. What could they have wanted?
