11/4 kaya

 The Cage of Zeus by Sayuri Ueda: This week’s stories have a sci-fi/futuristic theme, and this novel was the most sci-fi of them all. I thought it was really interesting how Ueda approached gender, as the concepts of being intersex or bigender were more “normalized” in this society, but they still faced discrimination and a lack of acceptance from the people around them. I wasn’t sure if I agreed with how the author/translator describes the Rounds, it felt like it leaned towards making them seem inhuman. However I thought the use of em/ey/eir was really interesting as I’ve never seen it before, and the explanation about why they decided to translate it that way made a lot of sense.

Self Reference Engine by Toh EnJoe: This one really reminded me of Yoko Tawada’s Scattered All Over the Earth as they both deal heavily with language and memories, and have the basis that Japan as we know it no longer exists. I found the imagination around how we decode ancient languages to be really interesting, and there is always the possibility that we’re missing something or getting it all wrong. I almost wanted more from the story since it creates such a vivid world, but I did like the twist at the end that this was one of the translated texts. The story kind of feels like it was ahead of its time, as when I read it I could only imagine the giant corpora of knowledge as the AI we see today. I’m not really sure what deeper meaning I’ve gathered from this story. 

The Missing One and On High by Aoko Matsuda: I was expecting these stories to be a little bit more spooky but I was pleasantly surprised. I found the backstories behind the stories to be really helpful, and I was especially interested in the Tenshu Monogatari play. I read The Missing One first which I think is my favorite of the two. The roots in the story of Okiku were really interesting and I’m curious how it inspired Matsuda to write this specific story. The description of simple infrastructure as a historical landmark after it becomes “useless” was really beautiful, especially in how despite the gentrification of their city, the people still relied on the pillars of the old monorail (Kikue’s shop literally relied on it). I also enjoyed On High, as it has a similar theme surrounding historical architecture. Tomihime seems like a spirit of the castle itself, as she and it watch over the people of the city. She has a distaste and acceptance of how passing generations have greatly altered the castle in an attempt to preserve it, and I think it is interesting to think about how far we should be allowed to go in preserving these places. 

The Place of Shells by Mai Ishizawa: I  really liked the premise of this story, however I did find it difficult to read as it was really heavy with flowery words and long descriptions. At a few points the story does seem to very obviously state some of its themes (the idea of people and places wearing masks), but to me the story seemed to revolve around different distances in the universe. The distance between planets, distance in time, physical distance (something we all remember from covid), and emotional distance. There are also really intense descriptions of the 3/11 tragedies, and I wonder if this idea of distance could also apply to how we distance ourselves from the tragedies of the past in order to heal or to forget. On a separate note, I couldn’t really tell if Nomiya was the only ghost person in the city as the early descriptions made it seem kind of like a liminal space where many ghosts come and go, and I would be interested to read the rest of the story. 

A First-Rate Material by Sayaka Murata: This story was really a rollercoaster of emotions for me. I went from being intrigued by the idea of human as a material, then to being grossed out, then maybe kind of understanding it, then being grossed out again. The hair didn’t bother me so much (there are many things already made with human hair like wigs and brushes, and it’s a regenerative material), but I wasn’t a fan of the skin and bone. I felt that the main character made a valid point that we use these things from animals without thinking twice, and that maybe it is sustainable to re-use humans as materials so they can keep “living on.” The fiance also had valid points surrounding the desecration of bodies, however it seems like the people who died had wished to be used as material? Although I’m a little confused by the plot, I think this story is deliberately unclear about how much consent the dead people were giving to be used as materials because it allows us to view this future as both a place where we have total control over our bodies, and a place where we have no control at all. Also, in general I’m interested in stories about how humans try to make sense of life after death, and this story was a really new perspective on that question.