Sam Kraus - 11/19

This week's readings were lots of fun, and I enjoyed every single one of them, starting with The Devotion of Subject X. Firstly, we learn that Ishigami is a math teacher in high school, and on his way to work, he notices that the green bike was missing - immediately, in a Chekhov's gun sense, readers are informed that this bike will have some sort of significance, which it of course does. Further on the topic of the commute, I like the descriptions of the working people of a society vs. the poor or jobless. Ishigami passes through a homeless camp under the overpass, and we see mentions of what some of the homeless do with their time, such as crushing cans, reading industrial magazines, etc. We further learn about the plight of some of their situations through quotes such as, "The chances of anyone wanting him for a job at his age were close to zero anyway." Although ageism is an issue no matter where you go, particularly in Japan, ageism is a severe issue in the workplace. Due to the many variables stacked against them, there is regrettably little hope for a person like that. I like that this section is included as Ishigami commutes to work, because as I mentioned, it is a stark contrast between people who live in the same society. Anyways, this story mainly revolves around Yasuko. Yasuko immediately reminded me of Makiko from Breasts and Eggs, as Yasuko is a single mother who works at a night club, raising her only daughter Misato. Sayoko even mentions to Yasuko, "You wouldn't want her developing a complex because her mom's a nightclub hostess," and this is interesting as this is something that Midoriko must contend with too. Aside from this, we are introduced to Shinji, the ex-husband and antagonist of the reading. Keigo Higashino did a great job portraying a manipulative, narcissistic, power hungry ex-partner who refuses to move on. Some of the sentences even made me feel deeply unsettled and angry, such as when he says, "Hard for a woman living by herself to raise a kid... I've changed... you'll give in before I will, every time." "I've changed," is a classic weapon that an abuser will use, and nothing displays "change" like stalking and coercing your ex-partner at work... Another unsettling moment came when he approached Misato in the apartment - "The way he was standing blocked Misato from Yasuko's view, so she couldn't see how her daughter was reacting." This sentence does an incredible job of portraying Yasuko's powerlessness against this man, and you can imagine just how terrified Yasuko was in this moment, given that her daughter was out of sight as this man approached her. Furthermore, the cops being unwilling to help is even more damning, as seemingly, there is nothing she can do. At some points it was hard to read, as people like Shinji absolutely exist and cause people lots of suffering. And on top of that, there are plenty of stories of women reporting these types of men, in which the police do nothing, and something terrible ends up happening to them. Still, I was pleased when Misato bonks him on the head at the end. She is the hero of the story for doing that, although I can imagine that only made things worse.

As for Before the Coffee Gets Cold, I actually bought this book the day before this. I did not know we were reading it, and I had heard good things about it. And, I can confidently say that I absolutely enjoyed it. To start, I like the foreshadowing of the past, present, and future, teased by the antique clocks - "There were three large antique wall clocks in the cafe. The arms of each, however, showed different times." Of course, the reading deals with time and the past, present, and future, so to me, the three different clocks with three different times represents the past, present, and the future. Shortly after, we are introduced to our main character, Fumiko. She sounds like a pretty amazing woman as she graduated from the top of her class at Waseda and speaks 6 languages (although later in the novel she speaks 8 different ones, so I am not sure if that was an error or if she speaks only 6/8 fluently?) Anyways, her loser boyfriend decides to up and leave her on a whim to move to America of all places. She is distraught over this, and the conversation in which he broke up with her took place at the very cafe this story revolves around. Upon revisiting this cafe, Fumiko learns that she can travel back in time. Initially, she wants to travel back in time to convince him to stay around. Hirai and Kazu slowly reveal the secrets of the process, and Fumiko commits to visiting the past. However, this is interesting, as Fumiko is explicitly told that she is unable to change anything through this process. Yet, she still wants to do it. Is it to try to convince him anyways? To see his face one more time? To voice her frustrations without consequence? Who knows, but to me, it could go one of two ways - she could tell him off or something and get closure, or she would simply prolong her pain. Without being able to change anything, it seems that revisiting the past would be futile. On a different note, I love the portrayal of this underground cafe - it comes across as its own little world in which characters gather for similar reasons, and they suffer from similar issues. Even with the future displaying endless possibilities, our characters are stuck on one fixed outcome from the past that weighs them down, yet cannot be altered. 

I enjoyed I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, and I even ended up reading the rest of it. Still, I could not help but think of something silly - why would Sakura hang out with this guy? The author tries to play it off as - well, he is the only one who knows her secret, and he does not treat her differently even knowing that she is going to die, so that is why. However, I cannot take this as being realistic. Honestly, this more so comes off as a fantasy that some quiet guy in the back of the classroom would have, and the author is trying to tap into that audience. Especially because although he did make me laugh a couple of times, the protagonist can be annoying. Regardless, as I mentioned, it was enjoyable for me - mainly because I liked Sakura. Furthermore, I do think that the main sentiment of the piece is not only poignant, but true - "Is it really all right for you to be spending what little time you have organizing books in the school library?" Response: "You have things you want to do before you die, too, right? Yet you're not doing them. Either one of us could die tomorrow." As someone who appreciates classical stoic philosophy and Buddhism, this is a familiar sentiment. We are all dying every single day, yet we only pay attention to those who are, say, terminally or visibly dying. To most people, death appears to be a far off day or even an impossibility, but pieces like this attempt to remind us the truth. Speaking of Buddhism, I actually found some parts of the reading to be quite Genji-esque, such as, "I took a step with each pulse of my heartbeat, and my mood soured by the forced awareness of the transience and fragility of my life." This whole piece reminds me of the concept of Mono no Aware, and even other sentences such as, "It has started in April, when the late-blooming Sakura trees still held their cherry blossoms," also reminded me of that. Of course too, Sakura is a fitting name for the young girl, as she only lived for a short time, yet left many in awe and emotionally moved. Of course, it is also the ephemerality of something like that that makes something so beautiful in the first place. Would a cherry blossom be as magnificent and culturally cherished if it survived year round? I do not think so. 

I knew of Junji Ito and his fame, but I had not actually read any of his works before. I simply had seen photos of it, and truthfully, I am surprised that it took me so long to read something. I am not into manga or anime, but I do love the manga Berserk, and it shares similar elements of dark fantasy which is my favorite genre. I love the deeply unsettling, eerie build up as Shuichi's father slowly loses his mind in the process of staring at spirals. The panels became increasingly disturbing, and the build up to the last one was magnificent. Honestly, the last panel was horrifying, but in the best way possible. It is hard to form too many thoughts after such a short reading, but I felt very uncomfortable and on the edge of my seat the whole time. This winter break, I would love to explore more of his work, as this is the type of fiction I love. 

Lastly, just like everything else, I really enjoyed Uketsu. The build up of the mystery of the photos was well done, and along with being unnerving, the story was tragic too. Raku's blogs were quite upbeat, happy, and optimistic about the future. However, throughout this entire process, the wife knew the truth of what fate would unravel for her. Throughout the entirety of the blog and her pregnancy, she knew that she would die upon giving birth to their child. And when Raku figured this out, I could only imagine how much pain he felt - pain, grief, depression, and betrayal. This is one of the novels that I plan to purchase, as I would love to figure out what happens next. Yuki absolutely appeared to love Raku, yet it seems as if her fate was sealed, and to protect Raku, she let events unfold as they did. I thought the most depressing moment of the story was when Shuhei revealed the last two images of the father and child walking together - Yuki knew that it would be just them together. Although the story was emotionally moving at points, I enjoyed the adventure of Shuhei and Kurihara solving the puzzle piece by piece. I had no clue what was going to happen, even though I even tried to consider it for a bit. Reading each page felt rewarding as new information was revealed, and I overall liked this story a lot. One of the themes appears to be the powerlessness of human beings at times, as Raku was stuck in a chain of events that were guaranteed to happen, outside of his control, and in the midst of this, he was uninformed, powerless, and ultimately, completely alone.