In Diary of a Void, I found it interesting how only by lying about her pregnancy could the narrator escape the menial tasks that her male coworkers expected her to do. They all walk on eggshells around her (with the exception of Higashinakano, maybe) when they find out she’s pregnant, and this could be seen as either the stigma behind pregnant women working or the romanticization of motherhood.
The Lonesome Bodybuilder was a satisfying read for me because I felt like there was an emotional journey with the protagonist. She slowly worked on it and built herself up, showing her endurance despite it being a solitary sport. I thought the bodybuilding was a parallel to the woman’s marriage because it’s something she was determined to do and commit to, even if she was solitary and lonely throughout it. I also liked that the story showed how important it is for a partner to be invested in your progress (which is why the Coach felt more like a partner than her own husband did) and to really notice you. I didn’t really like the husband because of his failure to notice such obvious changes in his own wife, but I liked that the ending was optimistic - the husband finally sees the change and accepts her for it, allowing her to finally feel seen.
The Woman in the Purple Skirt intrigued me in that we learn more about this “woman in the purple skirt” than the narrator herself. It was jarring how much she knew about her life and made me wonder if the woman in the purple skirt is meant to be a representation of the narrator’s past self? The contrast between how much the Woman in the Purple Skirt stands out and how the narrator appears so invisible is also interesting! It felt obsessive how much the narrator was fixated on the woman in the purple skirt and how she kept trying to pull strings by circling ads in the newspaper to steer her to the right jobs. Her admiration for the woman in the purple skirt verged on jealousy, and I thought this was a super interesting dynamic - to admire someone (a complete stranger at that), be jealous of them, but still want to help them and see them succeed.
“The Most Boring Red on Earth” made me realize how most women avoid thinking about their own bodies and bodily health. The ease at which Rika just endures the mishaps with her period was startling, but real.
It was interesting hearing the narrator’s thoughts in Breast and Eggs regarding sex and having children. It seems she’s uncomfortable with the idea of sex because doing it with Naruse always made her feel alone, and that she always had to go along with it because she was a woman. At the same time, it feels like she feels she’s missing out because she doesn’t have children. This made me think about society’s expectations around women having children and why the narrator wanted them so badly.
I related to the narrator’s feelings of laziness in free time in Naked. The emergence of ambition and desire to win when you’re in the midst of a busy time compared to the desire to just do nothing when you finally have free time is difficult to explain, and I think the story tries to encapsulate the feeling here. I wonder if the narrator truly enjoys her unemployment or if she’s just saying she’s happy for the sake of it. It was also interesting to see how everyone treats her differently after finding out she’s unemployed - like treating her to meals, walking on eggshells around her, or even her former work subordinate treating her more like an equal.
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