11/4 Readings - Raian

  “A First-Rate Material” was a pretty weird read at first, it was pretty jarring to see human parts used as commodities. It reminded me a lot of Peddler of Tears because of that, humans became commodities after that, but it is pretty different thematically. I think most of us would be Naoki, although I’m not sure if I would be particularly moved by my father’s skin becoming a wedding veil. That’s what makes me question Naoki’s acceptance, is it out of understanding of its value, or is he resigning himself to these peculiar social norms?

The two short stories by Aoko Matsuda were pretty interesting to me, seeing how both briefly intertwine, as well as their seemingly happy endings. The Missing One was pretty sad at some parts, especially when Kikue prepares for the worst even from a simple email because of her being a woman. It was just sad to see her struggle as a small business owner, and it makes me happy that she finds some joy with Yuta at the end. On High was also really interesting to me, and I appreciate how Tomihime regained her confidence and ownership of her role in the end. 

Self-Reference Engine was a really interesting, although a little confusing, read for me. The idea of an established language and people going extinct and extremely advanced technology being used to try and decipher it is  a really cool premise to me. It makes me wonder if a language like Japanese could be decipherable if it became alien to humanity. I also find it to perhaps be about the potency of human resistance, with the found texts possibly having gibberish mixed in to prevent machines and AI from ever truly cracking the essence of the language. It’s really relevant today as well, with generative/transformative AI being able to seemingly train off of any human dataset. 

The Cage of Zeus excerpt was an extremely interesting read to me, specifically the idea of Rounds. I can’t form an idea about why they’re called rounds, but their status as human-yet-not, to me,  reflects how gender non-conforming people are treated in real life. Even past the depictions of gender, the conflict between the inhabitants of Jupiter-I and the Vessel of Life was really interesting to me, specifically how it's supposedly a clash of ethics. I’d like to see how the rest of the book further depicts it.

The Place of Shells was yet another really interesting read, and it felt really connected to a lot of the earlier stories we’ve read about tragedy. There’s an overwhelming emphasis on distance throughout the excerpt, and to me it feels like a part of the narrator’s guilt of being safe from the 2011 earthquake. Her discussion of how beautiful and peaceful the sky was that night, and how far and disconnected it was from the happenings below really solidified it for me. I also find interesting how Nomiya’s existence as a ghost is treated normal and yet somewhat abnormal at the same time.