I read his translation of 源氏物語. I dunno how I should feel about that.

Thanks for the links. That line in the Mainichi/AP one, “Seidensticker was not married and had no children, according to the associate” seems incredible for an obituary published in 2007. It was hardly a big secret that he was gay, was it? I wonder, is this American coyness or Japanese coyness?

Thanks for the links. That line in the Mainichi/AP one, “Seidensticker was not married and had no children, according to the associate” seems incredible for an obituary published in 2007. It was hardly a big secret that he was gay, was it? I wonder, is this American coyness or Japanese coyness?

Such a good comment, I had to post it twice!

Going for the record now ... I just noticed that your headline is one year out on the date of his death. It *is* 2007 now, isn't it?

Patrick, I have no idea what you're talking about! This headline has always read "2007". NOTHING TO SEE HERE.

As for the "not married" thing.... well, I guess obits usually mention the children of the deceased ("She is survived by...") and they just wanted to put something in to show that they hadn't forgotten.

Oh, OK, maybe it's just that I'm used to British and Canadian newspapers, which haven't been shy of saying "X, who was gay, is survived by his partner ..." (or, as the case may be, "His partner died Y years ago") for several years now.
Or maybe it's a generational thing. It's easy to forget how very long the big names (Seidensticker, Keene, Richie) have lived, and the kind of backgrounds they came from.

True indeed. Then again, it may just be the AP being skitterish. I guess we'll never know...

..."skitterish"? OK, I declare this whole post a disaster. Sorry, Mr Seidensticker.

I guess people just made shit up when they couldnt google things and make sure. You have to wonder if the demand for precise accuracy actually makes things harder for translators today when before you could just shrug off a little uncertainty.