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Weazul-chan



Joined: 10 May 2005
Posts: 625
Location: Michigan
PostPosted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:56 pm Reply with quote
this reminds me, I have to get about to reading this soon. I got my hands on a copy of it via a secondhand seller on Amazon UK shortly after my last birthday and other stuff keeps coming up, so I've not even had a chance to start it yet.
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TJ_Kat



Joined: 11 Jan 2007
Posts: 426
Location: Saskatoon, Canada
PostPosted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 12:08 am Reply with quote
that wasn't so hard to find. i just went and bought a copy from amazon about a minute ago.
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captainbanana



Joined: 20 Feb 2009
Posts: 191
PostPosted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 3:58 am Reply with quote
TJ_Kat wrote:
that wasn't so hard to find. i just went and bought a copy from amazon about a minute ago.


Amazon US doesn't have the book, because it doesn't have an American publisher. Amazon CA has it, but it is out of stock (as of right now. Did you get the last copy?). Amazon UK doesn't sell the book directly (I see a few used copies, and one new copy from a third party.) The easiest way to get the book right now seems to be waiting for Amazon CA to get it back in stock, assuming that they ever will (I've seen plenty of books go out of print).

Assuming that Amazon CA will ship to the US, I'll probably wait for The Girl Who Leapt Through Time to come out in novel version, so I can double up on shipping.

Edit: Apparently Amazon CA will ship to the US, with a basic shipping rate at $10 for one book (an extra $2 per additional book if I'm reading the shipping chart correctly). So Paprika would cost about $26 to import, I guess. That's pretty steep for a soft cover, so I guess it wouldn't make much sense to only import one thing.
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Moomintroll



Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Posts: 1600
Location: Nottingham (UK)
PostPosted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 4:22 am Reply with quote
captainbanana wrote:
Amazon US doesn't have the book, because it doesn't have an American publisher. Amazon CA has it, but it is out of stock (as of right now. Did you get the last copy?). Amazon UK doesn't sell the book directly (I see a few used copies, and one new copy from a third party.) The easiest way to get the book right now seems to be waiting for Amazon CA to get it back in stock, assuming that they ever will (I've seen plenty of books go out of print).

Assuming that Amazon CA will ship to the US, I'll probably wait for The Girl Who Leapt Through Time to come out in novel version, so I can double up on shipping.

Edit: Apparently Amazon CA will ship to the US, with a basic shipping rate at $10 for one book (an extra $2 per additional book if I'm reading the shipping chart correctly). So Paprika would cost about $26 to import, I guess. That's pretty steep for a soft cover, so I guess it wouldn't make much sense to only import one thing.


Book Depository have it in stock and they ship free to the USA (regardless of order value).

Oh, and amazon.co.uk did carry the book but it's out of print. If it sold okay, it will probably be reprinted before too long.
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captainbanana



Joined: 20 Feb 2009
Posts: 191
PostPosted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 4:54 am Reply with quote
Moomintroll wrote:
captainbanana wrote:
Amazon US doesn't have the book, because it doesn't have an American publisher. Amazon CA has it, but it is out of stock (as of right now. Did you get the last copy?). Amazon UK doesn't sell the book directly (I see a few used copies, and one new copy from a third party.) The easiest way to get the book right now seems to be waiting for Amazon CA to get it back in stock, assuming that they ever will (I've seen plenty of books go out of print).

Assuming that Amazon CA will ship to the US, I'll probably wait for The Girl Who Leapt Through Time to come out in novel version, so I can double up on shipping.

Edit: Apparently Amazon CA will ship to the US, with a basic shipping rate at $10 for one book (an extra $2 per additional book if I'm reading the shipping chart correctly). So Paprika would cost about $26 to import, I guess. That's pretty steep for a soft cover, so I guess it wouldn't make much sense to only import one thing.


Book Depository have it in stock and they ship free to the USA (regardless of order value).

Oh, and amazon.co.uk did carry the book but it's out of print. If it sold okay, it will probably be reprinted before too long.


The book is listed as unavailable from that link. They list other sellers, but none seem to have free shipping to the US. From Amazon UK's Paprika page, it lists "The Book Depository" as having the book, but it lists shipping at 7 pounds (when added to the 10 pounds for the book, it comes out to about 27 USD, or roughly the same as Amazon CA)

I guess there isn't a way to get a new copy in the US for less than $27 right now.
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Myaow



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 1068
PostPosted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 7:14 am Reply with quote
Huh... I've liked Tsutsui's writing in the past and I adore Kon's Paprika, so I'm definitely going to read this once I can get my hands on it, but the way the essay describes Paprika's character re: romantic subplots makes me go ick a little. One of the things I found so nice about Kon's film was the way that everybody seemed to fall in love with Paprika but not vice versa, making her come across as more of an action-hero who happened to be a girl (like a girl Indy or 007) rather than the romantic heroine that female protagonists so often seem to become by default.

I still have enough faith in Tsutsui to believe it'll be worth the read; now finding it is the only problem...
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pachy_boy



Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 1341
PostPosted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 9:45 am Reply with quote
Sounds to me like the original book version was fairly misogynistic, while Kon in comparison seemed to treat his women characters with more respect (although admittedly I still find it hard to believe this attractive-looking woman would fall easily for such a morbidly obese guy). Even if there was a way to get the book, I think I'll stick with the movie.

Last edited by pachy_boy on Tue Mar 22, 2011 9:50 am; edited 1 time in total
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gwdone



Joined: 01 May 2008
Posts: 272
PostPosted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 9:49 am Reply with quote
What great information! I loved Paprika and have watched it several times. I will go out of my way to try and check out the book.

What I thought was cool was the author being worried about the music during the parade scenes. (on the extras in Paprika)

I appreciate the heads up on the book and a nicely written article.
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TJ_Kat



Joined: 11 Jan 2007
Posts: 426
Location: Saskatoon, Canada
PostPosted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 10:53 am Reply with quote
captainbanana wrote:
TJ_Kat wrote:
that wasn't so hard to find. i just went and bought a copy from amazon about a minute ago.


Amazon CA has it, but it is out of stock (as of right now. Did you get the last copy?).


.....maybe. but shhhh don't tell anyone. it will make me seem less pretentious and more like i'm just being an ass Razz
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Moomintroll



Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Posts: 1600
Location: Nottingham (UK)
PostPosted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 12:21 pm Reply with quote
captainbanana wrote:
The book is listed as unavailable from that link.


Ah. It was in stock when I posted it but...I guess they only had one left. Not your lucky day.

Quote:
From Amazon UK's Paprika page, it lists "The Book Depository" as having the book, but it lists shipping at 7 pounds (when added to the 10 pounds for the book, it comes out to about 27 USD, or roughly the same as Amazon CA)


It's not possible for private sellers to offer free shipping when selling as Amazon Marketplace merchants - the shipping rates are set by Amazon and can't be waived. In any case, if BD are showing it as out of stock on their main site, their amazon.co.uk listing should be taken down soon anyway, since they don't actually have it to sell.

Quote:
I guess there isn't a way to get a new copy in the US for less than $27 right now.


I tried a few other UK book sellers but they all list it as out of print. There's at least one seller on Abe Books with a copy that's a fair bit cheaper than that (£4.23 with £6.40 shipping to the USA - comes to about $17.00) but it has a damaged spine.
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littlegreenwolf



Joined: 10 Aug 2002
Posts: 4796
Location: Seattle, WA
PostPosted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 12:32 pm Reply with quote
I was interested in reading the book until the mentioned rape scene. The description alone of it makes me know I'd hold it against the whole book because I really can't stand a female lead like that I can't respect, and I find rape scenes written by men usually unnecessary or overly detailed (Terry Goodkind - here's looking at you and your whole sword of truth series). Can't say I'm not surprised with the various levels of sexism still evident in Japan's society today. From what you've written it seems I'm to be very happy with how Kon changed her for the movie adaption.

Thanks for mentioning some of the differences though from the movie to the book, that's just about the only reason I'd be curious enough to hunt it down.
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bravetailor



Joined: 30 May 2009
Posts: 817
PostPosted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 2:13 pm Reply with quote
littlegreenwolf wrote:
I was interested in reading the book until the mentioned rape scene. The description alone of it makes me know I'd hold it against the whole book because I really can't stand a female lead like that I can't respect, and I find rape scenes written by men usually unnecessary or overly detailed (Terry Goodkind - here's looking at you and your whole sword of truth series). Can't say I'm not surprised with the various levels of sexism still evident in Japan's society today. From what you've written it seems I'm to be very happy with how Kon changed her for the movie adaption.

.


Yeah. I don't think by and large, most anime and manga artists (even with so-called "moe" movements and hentai) are actually more left-leaning in politics than your average Japanese, who tend to be closer to the middle or in the case of older men, more staunchly conservative.

That said, a lot of Japanese novelists tend to be fairly graphic in their prose, in my experience. Haruki Murakami, for instance, pretty much has at least 1 extremely graphic skinning scene in every novel he's done. I don't think it necessarily means he's a budding serial killer, though Laughing , but sometimes I do feel he could lay off that particular technique for metaphor (I think he constantly uses "skinning" scenes as easy metaphors for a person's shedding of outside layers)

As for Paprika, I'd be surprised if Kon kept much from the novel beyond a few threadbare themes. It seems very much to me more of a visual and thematic movie than a narrative one.
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Youkai Warrior



Joined: 07 Aug 2008
Posts: 505
Location: Sarayashiki
PostPosted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 7:36 pm Reply with quote
Paprika sounded interesting at first, but when I read about the rape scene, and that Paprika just goes through with it, I totally lost interest. I can't respect that, sorry. I'm sure the movie's good, and I may check it out someday. It sounds like Kon changed her characetr for the better, but I'm not tracking the book down. I'm not into rape, sorry.

However, good article this week.
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Charred Knight



Joined: 29 Sep 2008
Posts: 3085
PostPosted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 8:06 pm Reply with quote
That is without a doubt the most hilarious cover I have ever seen. A Japanese woman just passed out from a food coma caused by eating too many berries.
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hitokiriizo



Joined: 18 Aug 2007
Posts: 69
PostPosted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 9:32 pm Reply with quote
kinda funny how alot anime/manga/j-book fans will defend they're hobby til death and say they like them because they are different compared to western lit and comics but refuse to read a book due to 1 rape scene of a fictional character
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