While dissecting the works of Ao Omae last week, I reflected on the fact that when people feel isolated or alienated, they will find unconventional ways to survive and cope. This week, I noticed that to be a common theme among the assigned stories.
In Omae’s People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals are Nice, Nanamori and other college students retreat to the university ‘Plushie Club’ as a sanctuary for connection and emotional vulnerability. They talk to stuffed animals as a way to cope with their struggles surrounding traditional gender norms, dating, and therefore find emotional release and connection through the club.
In Wataya Risa’s I Want to Kick You in the Back, Ninagawa is a high school outcast who copes with feelings of ostracization by conducting a parasocial sanctuary around a fashion model. Specifically, he hides a plastic chest full of her merchandise under his desk.
In The Hole, the motivation to escape rigid, traditional social roles becomes more physical. Here, Asa quits her unrewarding job and moves to her husband’s rural hometown, where she falls into a deep and hidden hole along the riverbank. I thought that this hole served as a strange physical representation of her newfound isolation as a housewife, almost like a void.
Lastly, I wanted to touch on Ishikawa’s Hunchback, where Buddha finds solace and connection by using the internet to combat her physical limitations. Online, she creates a digital sanctuary for herself, using writing and anonymous posts to deconstruct ableism in society.
Across these stories, characters find their sanctuary in ways that don’t exactly fit society’s boxes or rigid standards, but in hidden, “odd” places that offer the comfort and connection they’re looking for. Each author, in various ways, demonstrates that when society doesn’t give you somewhere to fit in, retreating (inward) can become necessary to survive and/or thrive in society.
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