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オブ・ザ・ベースボール (文春文庫)
「道化師の蝶」で第146回芥川賞を受賞した円城塔氏のデビュー作が登場。ほぼ一年に一度、控えめに見ても百人を下ることのない人間が空から降ってくる町、ファウルズ。単調で退屈な、この小さな町に流れ着き、ユニフォームとバットを身につけ、落ちて来る人を「打ち返す」レスキューチームの一員になった男の物語。奇想天外にして自由自在な文学空間。表題作は文學界新人賞受賞。
118 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2008
1 person want to read
About the author
Toh EnJoe
40 books29 followersToh EnJoe (Japanese: 円城 塔 Hepburn: Enjō Tō, pen name) (born September 15, 1972) is a Japanese author. His works are usually literary fiction, speculative fiction or science fiction.
Born in 1972 in Sapporo, he graduated from the physics department of Tohoku University, then went on to the graduate school at University of Tokyo and received Ph.D. for a mathematical physical study on the natural languages. He worked as a post-doc researcher at several research institutes for seven years, then abandoned the academic career in 2007 and found a programmer job at a software firm (resigns in 2008 to become a full-time writer).
In 2006, he submitted Self-Reference ENGINE to a science-fiction novel contest Komatsu Sakyō Award. Although it did not win the award (none did in this year), it was published from Hayakawa Shobō in 2007. At almost same time, his short story Obu za bēsbōru ("Of The Baseball") won the contest of literary magazine Bungakukai, which became his debut in literary fiction.[3]
His literary fictions are often dense with allusions. Labyrinthine annotations were added to "Uyūshitan" when it was published in book form in 2009, where there were none when published initially in literary magazine. Often, his science fiction works take motif from mathematics. The narrator of "Boy's Surface" (2007) is a morphism, and the title is a reference to a geometrical notion. In "Moonshine" (2009), natural numbers are sentient through a savant's mind's eye in a field of the monster group.
Project Itoh's Genocidal Organ was also a finalist of Komatsu Sakyō Award contest and published from Hayakawa Shobō in 2007, along with Enjoe's Self-Reference ENGINE. Since then they often appeared together at science fiction conventions and interviews, and collaborated in a few works, until Itoh's death of cancer in 2009.
At the press conference after the announcement of Enjoe's Akutagawa Prize in January 2012, he revealed the plan to complete Itoh's unfinished novel Shisha no teikoku. It was published in August 2012, and received the Special Award of Nihon SF Taisho.
Born in 1972 in Sapporo, he graduated from the physics department of Tohoku University, then went on to the graduate school at University of Tokyo and received Ph.D. for a mathematical physical study on the natural languages. He worked as a post-doc researcher at several research institutes for seven years, then abandoned the academic career in 2007 and found a programmer job at a software firm (resigns in 2008 to become a full-time writer).
In 2006, he submitted Self-Reference ENGINE to a science-fiction novel contest Komatsu Sakyō Award. Although it did not win the award (none did in this year), it was published from Hayakawa Shobō in 2007. At almost same time, his short story Obu za bēsbōru ("Of The Baseball") won the contest of literary magazine Bungakukai, which became his debut in literary fiction.[3]
His literary fictions are often dense with allusions. Labyrinthine annotations were added to "Uyūshitan" when it was published in book form in 2009, where there were none when published initially in literary magazine. Often, his science fiction works take motif from mathematics. The narrator of "Boy's Surface" (2007) is a morphism, and the title is a reference to a geometrical notion. In "Moonshine" (2009), natural numbers are sentient through a savant's mind's eye in a field of the monster group.
Project Itoh's Genocidal Organ was also a finalist of Komatsu Sakyō Award contest and published from Hayakawa Shobō in 2007, along with Enjoe's Self-Reference ENGINE. Since then they often appeared together at science fiction conventions and interviews, and collaborated in a few works, until Itoh's death of cancer in 2009.
At the press conference after the announcement of Enjoe's Akutagawa Prize in January 2012, he revealed the plan to complete Itoh's unfinished novel Shisha no teikoku. It was published in August 2012, and received the Special Award of Nihon SF Taisho.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 26, 2025
Of the baseball really hit all the right points for me: a insane story that takes place on a rural island where people randomly fall from the sky that is equipped with a team of “rescuers” inexplicably armed with baseball bats is supposed to save them. The MC is one of the said rescuers and the story ends up being really poignant while still maintaining a really humorous nature. The second story is more normal Enjoe and is about an author who is said to have copied another (possibly nonexistent?) author. I liked a lot of parts of this one too and I especially liked what Toh was trying to do, but I don’t think it was very satisfying compared to the first story.
October 15, 2020
「オブ・ザ・ベースボール」
設定がすごく面白そうで読んだけど、思ったより楽しめなかった。最後は想像してたのと違う方向に行ってそう来たかって感じだった。
「つぎの著者につづく」
意味わかんないんだけど、なぜかこっちの話の方が好きだった。何回も読みこまないと理解には至らないと思う(何回も読んでも無理かも。。。)。
この著者の本読むの多分初めてだけど、さらっと娯楽で読むには確実に向かない。
設定がすごく面白そうで読んだけど、思ったより楽しめなかった。最後は想像してたのと違う方向に行ってそう来たかって感じだった。
「つぎの著者につづく」
意味わかんないんだけど、なぜかこっちの話の方が好きだった。何回も読みこまないと理解には至らないと思う(何回も読んでも無理かも。。。)。
この著者の本読むの多分初めてだけど、さらっと娯楽で読むには確実に向かない。
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews