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The Face #1
Timecode of a Face
What did your face look like before your parents were born? Who are you? What is your true self? These are the questions in Ruth Ozeki's mind as she challenges herself to spend three hours gazing into her own reflection, recording every thought and detail.
What follows are a lifetime's worth of meditations on race, ageing, family, death, the body, self-doubt and, finally, acceptance. In this profound encounter with memory and the mirror, Ozeki weaves together personal history, professional experience, Zen philosophy, Japanese culture and more to paint a rich, intimate and utterly unique portrait of a life as told through a face.
What follows are a lifetime's worth of meditations on race, ageing, family, death, the body, self-doubt and, finally, acceptance. In this profound encounter with memory and the mirror, Ozeki weaves together personal history, professional experience, Zen philosophy, Japanese culture and more to paint a rich, intimate and utterly unique portrait of a life as told through a face.
135 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2015
About the author
Ruth Ozeki
18 books5,941 followersRuth Ozeki (born in New Haven, Connecticut) is a Japanese American novelist. She is the daughter of anthropologist Floyd Lounsbury.
Ozeki published her debut novel, My Year of Meats, in 1998. She followed up with All Over Creation in 2003. Her new novel, A Tale for the Time Being, was published on March 12, 2013.
She is married to Canadian land artist Oliver Kellhammer, and the couple divides their time between New York City and Vancouver.
Ozeki published her debut novel, My Year of Meats, in 1998. She followed up with All Over Creation in 2003. Her new novel, A Tale for the Time Being, was published on March 12, 2013.
She is married to Canadian land artist Oliver Kellhammer, and the couple divides their time between New York City and Vancouver.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 374 reviews
April 21, 2022
My reading efforts continue to be minimal.
This audiobook was under 2 hrs long. It was read by Ozeki herself, who's got a beautifully soothing voice.
Timecode of a Face is a meditation on ageing, heritage and being mixed race, with a bit of Zen Buddhism for good measure.
I plan to read more by Ozeki, when my fiction reading mojo returns.
This audiobook was under 2 hrs long. It was read by Ozeki herself, who's got a beautifully soothing voice.
Timecode of a Face is a meditation on ageing, heritage and being mixed race, with a bit of Zen Buddhism for good measure.
I plan to read more by Ozeki, when my fiction reading mojo returns.
May 27, 2023
Who are you? I mean really. Dig deep. In fact, I want you to take a long, hard look at yourself. For three hours. Which is exactly what Ruth Ozeki did.
It all began when Ms.Ozeki read an essay by a Professor of art history and architecture at Harvard.
The Professor's assignment to her students was to go to a museum or gallery and spend a full three hours observing a single work of art. To not simply look, but to see. The premise being that paintings are "time batteries" that take effort to be appreciated.
It occured to Ms.Ozeki that our faces are "time batteries" too (so clever!). And this inspired her to conduct an experiment of her own whereby she would sit in front of a mirror and gaze at her visage for three hours. To discover what her "...fifty-nine-year-old-face might reveal" if she could bear to stare at it for that long.
As the clock starts ticking, Ms.Ozeki's thoughts as she gazes at her reflection takes us down all sorts of pathways. Back to her childhood. Thinking about her parents, who were from different heritages. How race and the discussion of it has changed over the years. Some Buddhist teachings are thrown in (she is a Zen Buddhist Priest).
Zen teaching of existence consists of: suffering, impermanence and no-self. It's a tough gig and hard to get your head around. But I admire it.
Ageism, grey hair and plastic surgery are pondered on. The fors and against, with the ultimate decision being what you're comfortable with.
"I want to look my age. I want to look my age. I want to find some beauty in this face, the way it is."
I loved reading about her time spent in Japan to learn about Noh chanting and creating Noh masks. It's an intrinsic part of Japenese culture and was fascinating. Such painstaking work!
There's a lot about feelings. About doubts and wondering who you are. Acceptance. But all done with subtle humour. There's no angst here, despite the questions.
There is sadness too, where she talks about being with both her parents as they took their final breaths. And how she sees her face morph more and more into her parents' the older she becomes.
I've also learnt a new word. "Miscegenation". I had to look it up. How sad that a word like it exists, but that's the world.
As the clock ticks over to three hours, she ponders on what insights she may have gained. This is a beauty:
And this spoke to me on so many levels (I know what my answer is):
A beautiful free form of thoughts and ideas, as someone looks back on their fifty nine years on this planet.
This left me feeling quite mellow, as I enjoyed the Autumn sun eating mandarins, and was the perfect Saturday afternoon read.
It all began when Ms.Ozeki read an essay by a Professor of art history and architecture at Harvard.
The Professor's assignment to her students was to go to a museum or gallery and spend a full three hours observing a single work of art. To not simply look, but to see. The premise being that paintings are "time batteries" that take effort to be appreciated.
It occured to Ms.Ozeki that our faces are "time batteries" too (so clever!). And this inspired her to conduct an experiment of her own whereby she would sit in front of a mirror and gaze at her visage for three hours. To discover what her "...fifty-nine-year-old-face might reveal" if she could bear to stare at it for that long.
As the clock starts ticking, Ms.Ozeki's thoughts as she gazes at her reflection takes us down all sorts of pathways. Back to her childhood. Thinking about her parents, who were from different heritages. How race and the discussion of it has changed over the years. Some Buddhist teachings are thrown in (she is a Zen Buddhist Priest).
Zen teaching of existence consists of: suffering, impermanence and no-self. It's a tough gig and hard to get your head around. But I admire it.
Ageism, grey hair and plastic surgery are pondered on. The fors and against, with the ultimate decision being what you're comfortable with.
"I want to look my age. I want to look my age. I want to find some beauty in this face, the way it is."
I loved reading about her time spent in Japan to learn about Noh chanting and creating Noh masks. It's an intrinsic part of Japenese culture and was fascinating. Such painstaking work!
There's a lot about feelings. About doubts and wondering who you are. Acceptance. But all done with subtle humour. There's no angst here, despite the questions.
There is sadness too, where she talks about being with both her parents as they took their final breaths. And how she sees her face morph more and more into her parents' the older she becomes.
I've also learnt a new word. "Miscegenation". I had to look it up. How sad that a word like it exists, but that's the world.
As the clock ticks over to three hours, she ponders on what insights she may have gained. This is a beauty:
"This is why we read novels, after all, to see our reflections transformed, to enter another's subjectivity, to wear another's face, to live in another's skin."
And this spoke to me on so many levels (I know what my answer is):
"Is there a time when a woman is officially old enough to stop caring?"
A beautiful free form of thoughts and ideas, as someone looks back on their fifty nine years on this planet.
This left me feeling quite mellow, as I enjoyed the Autumn sun eating mandarins, and was the perfect Saturday afternoon read.
July 2, 2023
randomly picked this off my shelf because i wanted a short book to read, and it was such a beautiful and moving collection of essays (or arguably just one essay).
the premise is that ruth ozeki challenges herself to stare at her face in the mirror for 3 hours, and what follows is a deeply human meditation on race, ageing, time, facial features, memory, identity, japanese culture, philosophy, and i’m sure more that i can’t think of right now. along with the time-marked observations as ozeki carries out the 3-hour challenge, the book is also littered with her personal experiences and anecdotes, making it incredibly introspective and vulnerable.
this is the first book i’ve read by ruth ozeki, and i’m definitely looking forward to reading more of her work after this.
the premise is that ruth ozeki challenges herself to stare at her face in the mirror for 3 hours, and what follows is a deeply human meditation on race, ageing, time, facial features, memory, identity, japanese culture, philosophy, and i’m sure more that i can’t think of right now. along with the time-marked observations as ozeki carries out the 3-hour challenge, the book is also littered with her personal experiences and anecdotes, making it incredibly introspective and vulnerable.
this is the first book i’ve read by ruth ozeki, and i’m definitely looking forward to reading more of her work after this.
August 6, 2015
"2: 58: 36 And maybe here’s a bit of insight: My face is and isn’t me. It’s a nice face. It has lots of people in it. My parents, my grandparents, and their grandparents, all the way back through time and countless generations to my earliest ancestors— all those iterations are here in my face, along with all the people who’ve ever looked at me. And the light and shadows are here, too, the joys, anxieties, griefs, vanities, and laughter. The sun, the rain, the wind, the broom poles, and the iron fences that have distressed my face with lines and scars and creases— all here."
Ruth Ozeki's latest publication is a rather short but poignant experiment in meditation based on an experiment: to look at her face for a full three hours. The experiment was inspired by an essay she read on the pedagogical benefits of immersive attention (by Jennifer L. Roberts, a professor of art history and architecture at Harvard).
The original concept of the experiment was to task students to go to a museum and spend three hours looking at an object or piece of art and making a detailed record of the observations, questions, and speculations that arise over that time.
"My face is not a work of art, but neither is it ready for the charnel ground, yet. Meditating upon it for three hours, however painful, is not quite equivalent to what the Buddha suggests, but then again my goals are more modest. I’m not looking for liberation or enlightenment. I’m just trying to write this essay about my face, and making a time log seemed like a good place to start. And since it is a meditative exercise, I decided to conduct the experiment in front of the small Buddhist altar where I meditate every day. I sat down on my cushion and looked at the mirror where the statue of the Buddha should be, feeling stupid and vaguely transgressive."
Through out these three hours, Ozeki takes us on a journey through her own past, her parents' lives, their relationship, their relationship with other people, changes in time, changes in society, changes in cultural attitudes, as well as through a mix of other aspects of life such as masks, roles, humor, and death.
Needless to say, I liked this a lot. The idea of an author looking at her own face and recording her thoughts while doing this may seem vain or self-important but this is not how this experiment works out. It may have worked out differently if another author had ventured to do this, but if you have ever read one of Ozeki's books, you might agree with me that she strives to create a balance between her (or her MC) and her (or her MC's) surroundings. In a way, her books are themselves studies in awareness of what it is like being in a certain time and place - or several times and places.
Review originally posted on BookLikes.
Ruth Ozeki's latest publication is a rather short but poignant experiment in meditation based on an experiment: to look at her face for a full three hours. The experiment was inspired by an essay she read on the pedagogical benefits of immersive attention (by Jennifer L. Roberts, a professor of art history and architecture at Harvard).
The original concept of the experiment was to task students to go to a museum and spend three hours looking at an object or piece of art and making a detailed record of the observations, questions, and speculations that arise over that time.
"My face is not a work of art, but neither is it ready for the charnel ground, yet. Meditating upon it for three hours, however painful, is not quite equivalent to what the Buddha suggests, but then again my goals are more modest. I’m not looking for liberation or enlightenment. I’m just trying to write this essay about my face, and making a time log seemed like a good place to start. And since it is a meditative exercise, I decided to conduct the experiment in front of the small Buddhist altar where I meditate every day. I sat down on my cushion and looked at the mirror where the statue of the Buddha should be, feeling stupid and vaguely transgressive."
Through out these three hours, Ozeki takes us on a journey through her own past, her parents' lives, their relationship, their relationship with other people, changes in time, changes in society, changes in cultural attitudes, as well as through a mix of other aspects of life such as masks, roles, humor, and death.
Needless to say, I liked this a lot. The idea of an author looking at her own face and recording her thoughts while doing this may seem vain or self-important but this is not how this experiment works out. It may have worked out differently if another author had ventured to do this, but if you have ever read one of Ozeki's books, you might agree with me that she strives to create a balance between her (or her MC) and her (or her MC's) surroundings. In a way, her books are themselves studies in awareness of what it is like being in a certain time and place - or several times and places.
Review originally posted on BookLikes.
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October 20, 2016I loved Ozeki’s Tale for the Time Being, and I also love genre-defying nonfiction, so of course I was going to pick this up. It’s a short book about … Ozeki’s face. She decides to spend three hours staring at her face in the mirror and writing about the experience. The three hours were — spoiler alert! — boring, but the resulting book most certainly is not. Descriptions of her feelings about her face are the jumping off point for personal stories and thoughts that are both charming and emotionally rich.
— Rebecca Hussey
from The Best Books We Read In September 2016: http://bookriot.com/2016/10/03/riot-r...
— Rebecca Hussey
from The Best Books We Read In September 2016: http://bookriot.com/2016/10/03/riot-r...
July 26, 2023
Interesting experiment where the author looks at her face for three hours and jots down the memories and thoughts that spring up from that.
I would try that.
I would try that.
July 14, 2021
It’s official, I’ve loved or thoroughly enjoyed everything I’ve read by Ruth Ozeki which I think is everything she’s published until her new novel comes out in September of this year. This essay where Ozeki documents the process of staring at own face for three hours while also talking about her experience of being mixed race, her family, Zen, aging as a woman and more has her usual mix of humor and serious topics and is so effortlessly done. For women of a certain age what she writes about our aging faces will touch a chord, and make you smile, but there is something here to make any reader of any age or gender think, smile and pause for a moment or too.
January 23, 2024
maybe whenever i look at myself in the mirror and i'm not in a hurry, i should take some time to not just point out what i like or not from my face but appreciate the history of my features too like ruth ozeki does here.
"My face is and isn’t me. It’s a nice face. It has lots of people in it. My parents, my grandparents, and their grandparents, all the way back through time and countless generations to my earliest ancestors—all those iterations are here in my face, along with all the people who’ve ever looked at me. And the light and shadows are here, too, the joys, anxieties, griefs, vanities, and laughter."
June 15, 2022
Ozeki's 3-hour written meditation / essay is an outstanding piece of work.
Like the other books in this series, the author uses "The Face" as the theme, and writes in their characteristic style. Ozeki is one of my favorite authors and this book underscores why. Highly recommended.
Like the other books in this series, the author uses "The Face" as the theme, and writes in their characteristic style. Ozeki is one of my favorite authors and this book underscores why. Highly recommended.
May 2, 2018
To be honest, I had no idea what The Face: A Time Code was about when I started it. Knowing the author to be Ruth Ozeki was enough to get me excited. But in case you need some more information, The Face is about an experiment, where the author decided to stare at her own face for three hours straight and record the thoughts that came up during that time. I absolutely adored it, as I feel like I got to know my favorite author in a personal way and now I also see her novels in a whole new light. In addition to the personal memories of her childhood and such, the text is just full on insight.
"Although lacking the brocade and elements of ancient sacred ritual, a novel can be a kind of mirror room, too. It, too, is a liminal space, silent, bound by certain rituals and full of magic. The writer enters and seats herself in front of her reflection in the mirror. She collects herself and focuses her attention, and then she picks up a mask. She gazes at it and positions it on her face, and at that moment she is transformed into the protagonist of her story, looking out through its eyes at her reflection in the mirror, made strange by the face of another. It’s a complex sensation, impossible to describe exactly, but, oh, such lingering sweetness!
Then, because the world of novels is an endless hall of mirrors, that moment of transformation of writer into character is echoed by the reader when he or she opens the book and enters the mirror room, dons the mask, and becomes the character, too. This is why we read novels, after all, to see our reflections transformed, to enter another’s subjectivity, to wear another’s face, to live inside another’s skin.”
"Although lacking the brocade and elements of ancient sacred ritual, a novel can be a kind of mirror room, too. It, too, is a liminal space, silent, bound by certain rituals and full of magic. The writer enters and seats herself in front of her reflection in the mirror. She collects herself and focuses her attention, and then she picks up a mask. She gazes at it and positions it on her face, and at that moment she is transformed into the protagonist of her story, looking out through its eyes at her reflection in the mirror, made strange by the face of another. It’s a complex sensation, impossible to describe exactly, but, oh, such lingering sweetness!
Then, because the world of novels is an endless hall of mirrors, that moment of transformation of writer into character is echoed by the reader when he or she opens the book and enters the mirror room, dons the mask, and becomes the character, too. This is why we read novels, after all, to see our reflections transformed, to enter another’s subjectivity, to wear another’s face, to live inside another’s skin.”
August 14, 2023
Note: there are racial slurs in this book but the author herself gives this note at the beginning and states why she has chosen not to redact them.
This short novella/memoir is a perfect book to read in one sitting; sit down with a cup of tea and follow Ruth Ozeki's insightful thoughts and reflections over the course of the three hours she spent meditating on her reflection.
I love the concept of this memoir, the author sitting in front of a mirror for three hours and recording her honest and raw thoughts. It's very endering and refreshing.
This is a personal memoir that makes you feel connected to the author and see how her own personal experience has influenced her other writings. I would 100% recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed any of her novels but also to those who have not yet read them as she talks on relevant topics (her asian and caucasian heritage and race, on age and aging as a woman, on family and zen Buddhist ideas).
This short novella/memoir is a perfect book to read in one sitting; sit down with a cup of tea and follow Ruth Ozeki's insightful thoughts and reflections over the course of the three hours she spent meditating on her reflection.
I love the concept of this memoir, the author sitting in front of a mirror for three hours and recording her honest and raw thoughts. It's very endering and refreshing.
This is a personal memoir that makes you feel connected to the author and see how her own personal experience has influenced her other writings. I would 100% recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed any of her novels but also to those who have not yet read them as she talks on relevant topics (her asian and caucasian heritage and race, on age and aging as a woman, on family and zen Buddhist ideas).
February 8, 2024
Ozeki challenges herself to spend three hours staring into the mirror at her own face. TIMECODE features both her unfiltered thoughts as she attempts this meditation as well as essays on aging, race, womanhood, Japanese culture, identity, and more.
This book inspired a lot of personal reflection for me. Would I ever be able to look at myself for three hours? I’m not sure.
This book inspired a lot of personal reflection for me. Would I ever be able to look at myself for three hours? I’m not sure.
April 14, 2024
Another delightful Sunday read!
Amidst the excruciating bout with severe depression and other health issues, reading these little gems on sundays has been one of my purest sources of happiness :)
Amidst the excruciating bout with severe depression and other health issues, reading these little gems on sundays has been one of my purest sources of happiness :)
June 20, 2016
This is a really quick collection of short essays by Ozeki, a Zen Buddhist priest, as she ritually looks at her face in a mirror for three hours. She records the thoughts that pass through her mind as she stares, but also writes small, related personal essays expanding on the subjects that come into her mind. She writes about such topics as Buddhism, her parents, growing up, and her identity.
This is thought-provoking despite its brevity. I would definitely recommend it to fans of her fiction, such as A Tale for the Time Being, for it provides some context into Ozeki as an author and her perspective.
This is thought-provoking despite its brevity. I would definitely recommend it to fans of her fiction, such as A Tale for the Time Being, for it provides some context into Ozeki as an author and her perspective.
January 8, 2023
This book focuses on a detailed interaction that our protagonist has with her own reflection as she closely observes her face in the mirror for 3 hours. A profound read about an "experiment" concerning our face, expressions and what they represent. It also touches themes like our ancestry, nature, life and death.
"My face is and isn’t me. It’s a nice face. It has lots of people in it. My parents, my grandparents, and their grandparents, all the way back through time and countless generations to my earliest ancestors—all those iterations are here in my face, along with all the people who’ve ever looked at me."
"My face is and isn’t me. It’s a nice face. It has lots of people in it. My parents, my grandparents, and their grandparents, all the way back through time and countless generations to my earliest ancestors—all those iterations are here in my face, along with all the people who’ve ever looked at me."
October 10, 2022
A meditation on faces. So introspective, revealing, vulnerable. Above all, very authentic and a different form of fiction that really clicked for me. Almost confessional. Reccomended :)
January 29, 2021
As a nonfiction book, you might expect to learn about Ruth Ozeki as a person instead of an author. It’s an intimate experiment to meditate on one’s face for three hours, but I don’t know if I’d say it’s any more intimate than Ruth’s other writing.
What I gather from this book is Ozeki’s deep and robust sense of self that’s been fostered through thoughtfulness and experience of living. I find not that I know Ozeki more, but perhaps that I know myself less and I am motivated to gather my sense of self by offering more attention to me and my various beings. This book is charming, gentle, and ultimately kind to all faces that pass over.
What I gather from this book is Ozeki’s deep and robust sense of self that’s been fostered through thoughtfulness and experience of living. I find not that I know Ozeki more, but perhaps that I know myself less and I am motivated to gather my sense of self by offering more attention to me and my various beings. This book is charming, gentle, and ultimately kind to all faces that pass over.
May 21, 2023
Un mini saggio che riporta delle riflessioni veramente stimolanti e interessanti anche sulla morte, sul Buddhismo Zen, il teatro Nō e l’identità. Sono rimasta piacevolmente colpita da come l’autrice ha inserito elementi quali l’orientalismo, la dualità di Sé e Altro e Oriente/Occidente-Noi/Loro, riferimenti ben riusciti e contestualizzati. Bellissimo il capitolo conclusivo, un climax che per me vale tutto il libro.
January 10, 2023
A wonderful novella about the author meditating for three hours on her face which makes her think about her being biracial, how she can see both her parents reflected in her face as well as her age and why we as a society value the way our face looks so much. (With making use of make up and in more extreme ways, surgery, especially for women) And she compares this with the way masks are used in different kinds of Japanese theater and her experiences as a zen Buddhist priest.
January 31, 2023
"Non è che non mi piaccia quello che vedo, anche se in parte c'entra anche questo. Piuttosto, è che non mi riconosco più nel mio riflesso, e quindi resto sempre spiazzata. Distogliere lo sguardo è una reazione istintiva, una sorta di reazione perturbata alla vista di questa persona che non sono più del tutto io.
Non è educato fissare gli estranei."
Ruth Ozeki fa un esperimento: si mette tre ore davanti allo specchio ed osserva il suo viso, partendo dal koan della tradizione Zen: "Che aspetto aveva la tua faccia prima che nascessero i tuoi genitori?" Analizzando il suo viso nel dettaglio, alla ricerca del suo vero sé, ritrova alcune caratteristiche della madre e del padre, cicatrici e difetti, da cui parte per raccontare aspetti della sua vita, che le vengono in mente da questa osservazione prolungata. Centrali sono la maschera giapponese No, detta anche ko-omote e la stanza degli specchi (kagami-no-ma), che diventano la chiave di lettura del libro e dello stesso esperimento: "La stanza degli specchi è dove, ogni giorno, ci confrontiamo con le nostre speranze e i desideri, le nostre delusioni e dispiaceri, il nostro invecchiamento e la nostra mortalità, e c'è qualcosa di dolce, triste e incredibilmente coraggioso nella determinazione che mostriamo nel farlo. Ci siamo truccati e messi le nostre facce da specchio. Succhiamo le guance, solleviamo il mento e giriamo la testa per deviare meglio la luce e le ombre. Salutiamo le madri e i padri con affetto o costernazione. Ci impegniamo in sotterfugi e pii desideri, ma continuiamo a tornare, ogni mattina, a guardarci negli occhi e in qualche modo a riprenderci abbastanza da uscire dalla porta e affrontare un altro giorno. Questo di per sé, è un po' eroico."
Una lettura davvero molto interessante e stimolante, sicuramente in futuro leggerò altro di quest'autrice.
Non è educato fissare gli estranei."
Ruth Ozeki fa un esperimento: si mette tre ore davanti allo specchio ed osserva il suo viso, partendo dal koan della tradizione Zen: "Che aspetto aveva la tua faccia prima che nascessero i tuoi genitori?" Analizzando il suo viso nel dettaglio, alla ricerca del suo vero sé, ritrova alcune caratteristiche della madre e del padre, cicatrici e difetti, da cui parte per raccontare aspetti della sua vita, che le vengono in mente da questa osservazione prolungata. Centrali sono la maschera giapponese No, detta anche ko-omote e la stanza degli specchi (kagami-no-ma), che diventano la chiave di lettura del libro e dello stesso esperimento: "La stanza degli specchi è dove, ogni giorno, ci confrontiamo con le nostre speranze e i desideri, le nostre delusioni e dispiaceri, il nostro invecchiamento e la nostra mortalità, e c'è qualcosa di dolce, triste e incredibilmente coraggioso nella determinazione che mostriamo nel farlo. Ci siamo truccati e messi le nostre facce da specchio. Succhiamo le guance, solleviamo il mento e giriamo la testa per deviare meglio la luce e le ombre. Salutiamo le madri e i padri con affetto o costernazione. Ci impegniamo in sotterfugi e pii desideri, ma continuiamo a tornare, ogni mattina, a guardarci negli occhi e in qualche modo a riprenderci abbastanza da uscire dalla porta e affrontare un altro giorno. Questo di per sé, è un po' eroico."
Una lettura davvero molto interessante e stimolante, sicuramente in futuro leggerò altro di quest'autrice.
May 28, 2023
Book blurb: ... a lifetime's worth of meditations on race, ageing, family, death, the body, self-doubt and, finally, acceptance. In this profound encounter with memory and the mirror, Ozeki weaves together personal history, professional experience, Zen philosophy, Japanese culture and more to paint a rich, intimate and utterly unique portrait of a life as told through a face.
This is a really short memoir - an essay really - and I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author. For the first half of this short audio I thought this would be a 5 star read. It lost steam for me in the 2nd half, but is still worth a listen - especially if you are a fan of Ozeki's work.
This is a really short memoir - an essay really - and I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author. For the first half of this short audio I thought this would be a 5 star read. It lost steam for me in the 2nd half, but is still worth a listen - especially if you are a fan of Ozeki's work.
December 26, 2023
The author spent 3 hours staring at her own face in the mirror. Afterwards, she wrote down (how?) what she saw and what went through her mind at each moment.
Interesting retrospection about her mixed-race upbringing, her Japanese mother and American father, their reaction to her creative works, etc…There is a brief mention of a sexual encounter with an older man when she was only 14 and being treated like a sex-doll because of her race.
Interesting retrospection about her mixed-race upbringing, her Japanese mother and American father, their reaction to her creative works, etc…There is a brief mention of a sexual encounter with an older man when she was only 14 and being treated like a sex-doll because of her race.
December 10, 2017
I wish Ruth Ozeki would ask me to come over for some tea sometime.
I would sit there holding the warm, steaming cup, and just listen to her reminisce and talk about this and that, and I think the memory would stay with me forever.
Reading this book is probably as close as I can get to that experience.
I would sit there holding the warm, steaming cup, and just listen to her reminisce and talk about this and that, and I think the memory would stay with me forever.
Reading this book is probably as close as I can get to that experience.
February 28, 2024
This very short piece made me reflect on a lot of things that I’ve been feeling about approaching 40 recently - these things all feel cliche/obvious but also profound.
1. Everything is impermanent - who we are, how we are, how we feel is constantly changing and it is crazy how all of the sudden you don’t quite recognize yourself and think “how did I get here to middle age?”.
2. Around 40, aspects of your appearance do astonish you. I’ve never really cared much about aging and it still doesn’t trouble me but it is kind of shocking to see the lines, the gray hairs, etc. and to know that it’s all going to speed up from here. “I don’t quite recognize myself in my reflection anymore, and so I’m always startled. Averting my gaze is a reflexive reaction, a kind of uncanny valley response to the sight of this person who is no longer quite me.”
3. As you age, you can choose to address things you don’t like or accept them. There’s no right answer, but it is an interesting quandary of what’s life about - where does happiness/contentedness come from?
4. I laugh at myself a lot about the things that I feel surprised by - like feeling older and middle aged and watching things change. Like I’ve seen this so much in culture and yet it’s still surprising when it’s me. It makes me realize that the most profound experiences of being a human are the banal ones we all experience - living on your own for the first time, becoming a parent, getting older, losing people, watching your parents age, losing your parents, etc. Even though everyone goes through this and it isn’t unexpected, the shock and power of it in your own life is huge.
5. I often think about what it must be like to be my parents knowing you’re in the last innings, feeling your body not serve you like it used to, etc. and to know I’m only heading in one direction towards that. 40 feels like the end of feeling young which does make it a meaningful milestone.
Anyway, I enjoyed these musings a lot though don’t think I could look at my face for 3 hours!
1. Everything is impermanent - who we are, how we are, how we feel is constantly changing and it is crazy how all of the sudden you don’t quite recognize yourself and think “how did I get here to middle age?”.
2. Around 40, aspects of your appearance do astonish you. I’ve never really cared much about aging and it still doesn’t trouble me but it is kind of shocking to see the lines, the gray hairs, etc. and to know that it’s all going to speed up from here. “I don’t quite recognize myself in my reflection anymore, and so I’m always startled. Averting my gaze is a reflexive reaction, a kind of uncanny valley response to the sight of this person who is no longer quite me.”
3. As you age, you can choose to address things you don’t like or accept them. There’s no right answer, but it is an interesting quandary of what’s life about - where does happiness/contentedness come from?
4. I laugh at myself a lot about the things that I feel surprised by - like feeling older and middle aged and watching things change. Like I’ve seen this so much in culture and yet it’s still surprising when it’s me. It makes me realize that the most profound experiences of being a human are the banal ones we all experience - living on your own for the first time, becoming a parent, getting older, losing people, watching your parents age, losing your parents, etc. Even though everyone goes through this and it isn’t unexpected, the shock and power of it in your own life is huge.
5. I often think about what it must be like to be my parents knowing you’re in the last innings, feeling your body not serve you like it used to, etc. and to know I’m only heading in one direction towards that. 40 feels like the end of feeling young which does make it a meaningful milestone.
Anyway, I enjoyed these musings a lot though don’t think I could look at my face for 3 hours!
March 4, 2024
'My face is and isn’t me. It’s a nice face. It has lots of people in it. My parents, my grandparents, and their grandparents, all the way back through time and countless generations to my earliest ancestors— all those iterations are here in my face, along with all the people who’ve ever looked at me. And the light and shadows are here, too, the joys, anxieties, griefs, vanities, and laughter. The sun, the rain, the wind, the broom poles, and the iron fences that have distressed my face with lines and scars and creases— all here.'
A very interesting premise for a memoir, authored by precisely the right person to tell such a unique story. As a meditative experiment, Ozeki stares at her face for three hours, and from this unfolds a series of ruminations on family, history, identity, culture and self. This is a short stream of consciousness narrative, but one that will linger, leaving you with questions of where your own identity is held.
A very interesting premise for a memoir, authored by precisely the right person to tell such a unique story. As a meditative experiment, Ozeki stares at her face for three hours, and from this unfolds a series of ruminations on family, history, identity, culture and self. This is a short stream of consciousness narrative, but one that will linger, leaving you with questions of where your own identity is held.
December 17, 2018
I liked this book quite a bit! It's a completely different type of memoir derived from an experiment of the author looking at her face in a mirror for 3 hours! I really liked the parts about the Japanese Noh mask. I know very little of Japanese traditions and found this info to be very interesting. I enjoyed the Zen Buddhist sections also. It's a short book with lots of little tidbits from her life and her observations. I liked it and plan to read the other 2 books in this series, by 2 other authors.
October 2, 2022
This was a beautiful if brief dive into a literal and figurative reflective task Ozeki set herself: study her face in a mirror for 3 hours.
Along the way you get her musings on family, race, difference, aging, vanity and Buddhist philosophy through snippets of memoir.
It is a short read but packed with wisdom and insight. A good reminder to pause and observe and that journeys are not always long or far. Sometimes they are sitting still for three hours with just one task.
Along the way you get her musings on family, race, difference, aging, vanity and Buddhist philosophy through snippets of memoir.
It is a short read but packed with wisdom and insight. A good reminder to pause and observe and that journeys are not always long or far. Sometimes they are sitting still for three hours with just one task.
November 7, 2022
Such a genius little book.
Ozeki recounts her life whilst going through each feature on her face. Crows feet, under eye bags, each dent or scar has a story to tell.
Her experience as a Soto zen priest was very interesting, she explores the recognition that a face, whilst it is an accurate representation of your life journey, can also be a mask. You can feel dissociated with it.
Ozeki recounts her life whilst going through each feature on her face. Crows feet, under eye bags, each dent or scar has a story to tell.
Her experience as a Soto zen priest was very interesting, she explores the recognition that a face, whilst it is an accurate representation of your life journey, can also be a mask. You can feel dissociated with it.
November 25, 2022
This is a beautiful little book, with a simple premise - the author intends to look at her face in the mirror for three hours, an experiment based on a university art assignment in which students are told to look at a painting in a museum for 3 hours on end, while making detailed observations. As per Professor Jennifer Roberts, the teacher who sets the assignment, paintings are 'time batteries', or stockpiles of information that are only appreciated through slow and careful contemplation.
What follows are short meditations on aging, death, and casual racism; all blended with the Zen Buddhist background of the author herself. Short insights on philosophy and buddhist thought coupled with social issues makes this a pleasantly surprising short book packed with wisdom.
What follows are short meditations on aging, death, and casual racism; all blended with the Zen Buddhist background of the author herself. Short insights on philosophy and buddhist thought coupled with social issues makes this a pleasantly surprising short book packed with wisdom.
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