Agree with Kara that the key point about Ozu is that he is an outsider. Firstly this is unsettling to the existing residents because they are used to things staying the same. In the first chapter they are all appalled that a new person is coming in because these flats stay in families for generations. He isn't just new, he is from a totally different country and culture and has a new way of doing things . We have reports via Manuela that he is refurbishing the flat in a totally different Japanese way. So he is exotic, but he's also pleasant and polite to everyone, so everyone is curious and wants to see him. I did find it funny watching the residents think of excuses to visit!
Why can he see people - well as an outsider, he will be used to looking. If you don't fit in, but you want to, or at least you want to make sure you don't offend anyone, then you observe people and what they do and try to do the same thing. He has also obviously had a very good education in works of literature outside his own country and culture, he lives in a country very different to his own, and is much more used to thinking outside his own box than the other building residents. However I think this has to be combined with a genuine interest in people as well to pick up their personalities.
I am so interested to get into Ozu’s character! I don’t feel completely confident in being able to answer the question, but I do think that he has cultural and emotional differences from the residents of the building that sets him apart. He’s not from “their world,” he embraces and lives out the beauty and value of another culture, and he seems to be a deeply observant and empathetic person. Joy mentioned a couple times this idea of being seen and known as a reason to live, and Ozu has that rarified ability to really see people. I think it makes Paloma comfortable for all of the reasons it makes everyone else uncomfortable. I think he will eventually make Renee comfortable once she is accustomed to feeling exposed.
I loved Renee’s discourse on grammar. I don’t know French well at all, but I have some knowledge of French as a less grammar-heavy language as English, and it tickled me that such emphasis was given to grammar in a French novel. (Someone feel free to correct me if I’m totally wrong. 😅)
I was also tickled by Paloma’s deep consternation that of course someone interesting would come along write before she was going to die. I think it’s one of the first little hints in her mind that the word is greater than she knows. Barbery just does Paloma’s voice so well, and I greatly enjoy her humor and snark.
Paloma's reflection on trees - specifically birch trees (if I remember correctly; I'm listening to the audiobook) - prompted my own reflection on trees in my Morning Pages. I had forgotten how beautiful those particular trees are, and, like Paloma, what an effect they can have on us. If you'll indulge me, here's just a few thoughts from my pages (sorry, Julia!):
"The trees have eyes, like Argos.
I have just been pleasantly reminded of birch trees by The Elegance of the Hedgehog... I imagined the birches in my mind, remembering them from [my childhood home]. Their white, many-eyed barks, their small, delicate leaves, which turn a golden yellow in autumn. I remember the sound they make in the wind... The remembrance brought tears to my eyes... Who knew I had such an attachment to birch trees? Something I barely thought about as a child. Yet they were always there, standing guard over my childhood. Never being thanked, yet continuing in their mysterious beauty anyway."
Anyway, onto the question. Like the others, I suspect that Ozu unsettles the residents because of how starkly different he is from the otherwise homogenous building. The same kind of people, with the same cultural values and economic status, have lived there for ages without interruption. It seems the climate in that building is so curated that not even Renee wants to disrupt it by revealing her intellectual and artistic inclinations (a thing which I find very amusing and puzzling, as someone who tends to hold others' thoughts about me at a healthy distance). But Ozu crashes in and completely renovates the apartment, with no regard for the unspoken rules of the building.
I wish I knew more about Japanese culture, because I do wonder if that would help answer this question. Alas. But again, like the others have noted, it seems Ozu is relatively well travelled and learned, being fluent in French (Renee notes his accent) and knowing Russian literature. I suspect that kind of life experience trains the mind to be observant of and open to others. Regardless, I'm very excited to keep learning about Ozu and his effect on Renee, Paloma, and the residents!
Agree with Kara that the key point about Ozu is that he is an outsider. Firstly this is unsettling to the existing residents because they are used to things staying the same. In the first chapter they are all appalled that a new person is coming in because these flats stay in families for generations. He isn't just new, he is from a totally different country and culture and has a new way of doing things . We have reports via Manuela that he is refurbishing the flat in a totally different Japanese way. So he is exotic, but he's also pleasant and polite to everyone, so everyone is curious and wants to see him. I did find it funny watching the residents think of excuses to visit!
Why can he see people - well as an outsider, he will be used to looking. If you don't fit in, but you want to, or at least you want to make sure you don't offend anyone, then you observe people and what they do and try to do the same thing. He has also obviously had a very good education in works of literature outside his own country and culture, he lives in a country very different to his own, and is much more used to thinking outside his own box than the other building residents. However I think this has to be combined with a genuine interest in people as well to pick up their personalities.
I am so interested to get into Ozu’s character! I don’t feel completely confident in being able to answer the question, but I do think that he has cultural and emotional differences from the residents of the building that sets him apart. He’s not from “their world,” he embraces and lives out the beauty and value of another culture, and he seems to be a deeply observant and empathetic person. Joy mentioned a couple times this idea of being seen and known as a reason to live, and Ozu has that rarified ability to really see people. I think it makes Paloma comfortable for all of the reasons it makes everyone else uncomfortable. I think he will eventually make Renee comfortable once she is accustomed to feeling exposed.
I loved Renee’s discourse on grammar. I don’t know French well at all, but I have some knowledge of French as a less grammar-heavy language as English, and it tickled me that such emphasis was given to grammar in a French novel. (Someone feel free to correct me if I’m totally wrong. 😅)
I was also tickled by Paloma’s deep consternation that of course someone interesting would come along write before she was going to die. I think it’s one of the first little hints in her mind that the word is greater than she knows. Barbery just does Paloma’s voice so well, and I greatly enjoy her humor and snark.
Paloma's reflection on trees - specifically birch trees (if I remember correctly; I'm listening to the audiobook) - prompted my own reflection on trees in my Morning Pages. I had forgotten how beautiful those particular trees are, and, like Paloma, what an effect they can have on us. If you'll indulge me, here's just a few thoughts from my pages (sorry, Julia!):
"The trees have eyes, like Argos.
I have just been pleasantly reminded of birch trees by The Elegance of the Hedgehog... I imagined the birches in my mind, remembering them from [my childhood home]. Their white, many-eyed barks, their small, delicate leaves, which turn a golden yellow in autumn. I remember the sound they make in the wind... The remembrance brought tears to my eyes... Who knew I had such an attachment to birch trees? Something I barely thought about as a child. Yet they were always there, standing guard over my childhood. Never being thanked, yet continuing in their mysterious beauty anyway."
Anyway, onto the question. Like the others, I suspect that Ozu unsettles the residents because of how starkly different he is from the otherwise homogenous building. The same kind of people, with the same cultural values and economic status, have lived there for ages without interruption. It seems the climate in that building is so curated that not even Renee wants to disrupt it by revealing her intellectual and artistic inclinations (a thing which I find very amusing and puzzling, as someone who tends to hold others' thoughts about me at a healthy distance). But Ozu crashes in and completely renovates the apartment, with no regard for the unspoken rules of the building.
I wish I knew more about Japanese culture, because I do wonder if that would help answer this question. Alas. But again, like the others have noted, it seems Ozu is relatively well travelled and learned, being fluent in French (Renee notes his accent) and knowing Russian literature. I suspect that kind of life experience trains the mind to be observant of and open to others. Regardless, I'm very excited to keep learning about Ozu and his effect on Renee, Paloma, and the residents!