Books about Japan I can stomach sometimes. But literature I view as pleasure reading, and I try to avoid stuff that reminds me too much of my daily life.
In fact in 5 years of being surrounded by Japanese literature I have (manga aside) tackled only 3 books (in English translation of course): “Norwegian Wood”, “Battle Royale” and “69”.
“Battle Royale” is the book that the controversial Japanese movie was based on. In the book (and the movie) a class of 9th grade students is taken to a deserted Island, given weapons, and forced to kill each other until there is only one winner left. The movie was a huge hit in Japan, but no U.S. distributor would touch it, especially in the post Columbine era, so I believe to this day it is hard to get a hold of in America.
The book was purely a guilty pleasure. It has no social redeeming value whatsoever, and I don’t particularly recommend it, although I do have to admit it held my interest while I was reading it.
The movie had made quite an impression on me. It was horrific, but also seemed to touch on a lot of issues: generational conflict, fascist governments, the competitive nature of Japan’s educational system, and “‘Lord of the Flies’ redux type themes” about human nature. I could go on about each of these, but there’s a lot of geek ink spilled already dissecting this movie. Just search the Internet.
I was interested in reading the book to see if it would help me to further understand the movie, but after reading the book I’ve become disillusioned with both.
To my mind, scenes of 9th grade students gunning each other down are only acceptable if it is done for a purpose. “Lord of the Flies” contained many horrific scenes of child violence, but the author was doing it for a reason. If, on the other hand, we are watching students blow each other up purely for cheap excitement, then this is the lowest form of bad taste.
The movie left that question hanging. But the book is obviously clear exploitation. It reads like a comic book made into a novel. Many of the characters are comic book type stereotypes. There is the femme fatal, the evil genius, the young hero, and his love interest, among others. There are clear evil characters and clear good characters, so it is not a deep treatise on the complexity of human nature. The violence is described vicariously seemingly with the purpose to excite, and the book is infused with the Japanese Lolita complex, so that 14 and 15 year old girls are described in disturbingly sexual terms.
“Norwegian Wood” is a love story set against the backdrop of the Japanese student movement. I’ve already reviewed it in a previous post, albeit in my usual long-winded and rambling prose.
Like “Norwegian Wood”, “69” takes place against the backdrop of the student movement.
It was made into a movie a couple years ago in Japan, but I never saw it, mostly due to the bad review it got from “The Japan Times.” After having read the book, I’m now very curious about the movie, but since I don’t have a TV it’s hard for me to see stuff no longer in the theaters.
The book is the apparently autobiographical story of a high school student stuck out in the countryside of Kyushu during the height of the student movement. He wants to get involved, but doesn’t know how to best go about it. He and his fellow students barricade the school. They take a crap on the principle’s desk, but then afterwards agonize over whether this was a revolutionary act or just a perversion. They also organize a rock and art festival in their town.
I really enjoyed this book a lot. It was funny, and I identified a lot more with the confused idealism of this book than with the cynicism in “Norwegian Wood.” Some parts of the book, like when the author mentions the awkwardness of discussing Camus in Kyushu countryside dialect, don’t translate so well. But that’s all part of the fun of reading a book from another country. If you can get your hands on a copy, I’d recommend it.
Link of the Day
"Sins of Omission: How Journalism Kisses Corporate Booty" By Media Mouse Jeff Smith
Video Version Battle Royale
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