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The Frontier Within: Essays by Abe Kobo
Abe Kobo (1924–1993) was one of Japan's greatest postwar writers, widely recognized for his imaginative science fiction and plays of the absurd. However, he also wrote theoretical criticism for which he is lesser known, merging literary, historical, and philosophical perspectives into keen reflections on the nature of creativity, the evolution of the human species, and an impressive range of other subjects.
Abe Kobo tackled contemporary social issues and literary theory with the depth and facility of a visionary thinker. Featuring twelve essays from his prolific career—including "Poetry and Poets (Consciousness and the Unconscious)," written in 1944, and "The Frontier Within, Part II," written in 1969—this anthology introduces English-speaking readers to Abe Kobo as critic and intellectual for the first time. Demonstrating the importance of his theoretical work to a broader understanding of his fiction—and a richer portrait of Japan's postwar imagination—Richard F. Calichman provides an incisive introduction to Abe Kobo's achievements and situates his essays historically and intellectually.
Abe Kobo tackled contemporary social issues and literary theory with the depth and facility of a visionary thinker. Featuring twelve essays from his prolific career—including "Poetry and Poets (Consciousness and the Unconscious)," written in 1944, and "The Frontier Within, Part II," written in 1969—this anthology introduces English-speaking readers to Abe Kobo as critic and intellectual for the first time. Demonstrating the importance of his theoretical work to a broader understanding of his fiction—and a richer portrait of Japan's postwar imagination—Richard F. Calichman provides an incisive introduction to Abe Kobo's achievements and situates his essays historically and intellectually.
216 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 4, 2013
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448 people want to read
About the author
Kōbō Abe
217 books2,069 followersKōbō Abe (安部 公房 Abe Kōbō), pseudonym of Kimifusa Abe, was a Japanese writer, playwright, photographer, and inventor.
He was the son of a doctor and studied medicine at Tokyo University. He never practised however, giving it up to join a literary group that aimed to apply surrealist techniques to Marxist ideology.
Abe has been often compared to Franz Kafka and Alberto Moravia for his surreal, often nightmarish explorations of individuals in contemporary society and his modernist sensibilities.
He was first published as a poet in 1947 with Mumei shishu ("Poems of an unknown poet") and as a novelist the following year with Owarishi michi no shirube ni ("The Road Sign at the End of the Street"), which established his reputation. Though he did much work as an avant-garde novelist and playwright, it was not until the publication of The Woman in the Dunes in 1962 that he won widespread international acclaim.
In the 1960s, he collaborated with Japanese director Hiroshi Teshigahara in the film adaptations of The Pitfall, Woman in the Dunes, The Face of Another and The Ruined Map. In 1973, he founded an acting studio in Tokyo, where he trained performers and directed plays. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1977.
He was the son of a doctor and studied medicine at Tokyo University. He never practised however, giving it up to join a literary group that aimed to apply surrealist techniques to Marxist ideology.
Abe has been often compared to Franz Kafka and Alberto Moravia for his surreal, often nightmarish explorations of individuals in contemporary society and his modernist sensibilities.
He was first published as a poet in 1947 with Mumei shishu ("Poems of an unknown poet") and as a novelist the following year with Owarishi michi no shirube ni ("The Road Sign at the End of the Street"), which established his reputation. Though he did much work as an avant-garde novelist and playwright, it was not until the publication of The Woman in the Dunes in 1962 that he won widespread international acclaim.
In the 1960s, he collaborated with Japanese director Hiroshi Teshigahara in the film adaptations of The Pitfall, Woman in the Dunes, The Face of Another and The Ruined Map. In 1973, he founded an acting studio in Tokyo, where he trained performers and directed plays. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1977.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 24, 2016
Abe Kobo's transformation and modernization in contemporary Japanese literature, first and foremost, was mainly influenced by author's socialist ideals and contradictory interpretation of Japanese colonialism.
In his essays Kobo actively refers to mainstream Western culture, "ingenuity of the ruling class and the stupidity of the masses", which remains in isolated American democracy as the "myth of the people". His sentience of "nameless people" in American mainstream culture (particularly in Hollywood movies) inspired Hideo Kojima's directory vision and proclaims this phenomenon to be deeply rooted in the infrastructure of the [American] masses. Besides Abe's assumptions regarding a culture of the Western society, in his essay on Theory and Practice in Literature author explicitly examines "transformative activity and the partisanship of knowledge" as essential and significant aspects of a successful high-qualified writer. Inspired by Mayakovsky and Gorky, Abe finds his niche in the modernist literature between the transformation of reality and expression of knowledge.
Original Abe Kobo's concept of the "frontier within" concerns the controversy of post-modern society from a socio-cultural and philosophical domain. It goes without saying that Abe Kobo successfully implies his knowledge of Soviet psychologistic culture, American populist "imperialist decadence" and contrast Japanese intellectualism, hence he extends literature anthropology up to a point where, for instance, sacrificial lamb status of a Jewish writer becomes an ostensible topic of the authentic ideology in literature. In his own words, Abe elaborates through gaining awareness among his readers of ongoing laboratory events and means of livelihood.
In his essays Kobo actively refers to mainstream Western culture, "ingenuity of the ruling class and the stupidity of the masses", which remains in isolated American democracy as the "myth of the people". His sentience of "nameless people" in American mainstream culture (particularly in Hollywood movies) inspired Hideo Kojima's directory vision and proclaims this phenomenon to be deeply rooted in the infrastructure of the [American] masses. Besides Abe's assumptions regarding a culture of the Western society, in his essay on Theory and Practice in Literature author explicitly examines "transformative activity and the partisanship of knowledge" as essential and significant aspects of a successful high-qualified writer. Inspired by Mayakovsky and Gorky, Abe finds his niche in the modernist literature between the transformation of reality and expression of knowledge.
Original Abe Kobo's concept of the "frontier within" concerns the controversy of post-modern society from a socio-cultural and philosophical domain. It goes without saying that Abe Kobo successfully implies his knowledge of Soviet psychologistic culture, American populist "imperialist decadence" and contrast Japanese intellectualism, hence he extends literature anthropology up to a point where, for instance, sacrificial lamb status of a Jewish writer becomes an ostensible topic of the authentic ideology in literature. In his own words, Abe elaborates through gaining awareness among his readers of ongoing laboratory events and means of livelihood.
June 5, 2014
I recommend reading more about Kobo Abe and his writing before studying this. The reason being is that background on Japanese history and some comments from other critics on both him and his novels are required to understand what he was aiming for in his essays and how he applied them to his novels. Once one knows more about Abe, it becomes clear why he's one of the most celebrated Modern Japanese writers of his time. He's often overlooked and underrated in favor of Oe Kenzaburo and Haruki Murakami, two writers who silently owe a debt for the theories that he sowed in Japan's literary scene. His influence subtly stretches far and wide in Japanese popular culture, from science fiction, Japanese anime, and even to mainstream video games as Hideo Kojima and "Team Silent Hill" have disclosed in their interviews.
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December 19, 2019Çok zevkliydi okuması. Kobo Abe'nin romanları kurama, kuramsal metinleri şiire göz kırpıyor; sebebi de malum aslında. Gerçek ile düş, hakiki ve sahte, doğru ve yanlışa daimi bir şüpheyle yaklaşan, sorularla dolu bir insanın yazdığı şeyler de böyle tanıma sığmadığında, dünyada ufak da olsa bir şeyler yolunda gidiyor demektir. Edebiyat ve yaşamın bir belirip bir kaybolan sınırlarında gezinen meçhul parıltının peşinde; aklı selim olduğu kadar deli saçması metinler.
September 6, 2023
An all-around very unique and thought-provoking collection of 12 essays across Kobo Abe's career, encompassing a diverse range of topics (and quality)!
1. "Poetry and Poets (Consciousness and the Unconscious)" (1944) is a very impressive if often unintelligible dialectic rabbit hole with strong postmodern sentiments that he wrote when he was only 20.
2. "Theory and Practice in Literature" (1954), written a decade after, focuses its lens on style vs practice in literature, a topic he circles back to over his career. Here, he draws primarily and liberally from the writings of some of the most famous/infamous communist figures, Marx, Mao, Stalin, and Lenin, which I found really fun.
3. "The Hand of a Calculator with the Heart of a Beast: What is Literature?" (1955) tackles similar questions as "Theory and Practice in Literature" with perhaps a bit more finesse. The inclusion of question and answer entirely written by himself is a bit funny and self-indulgent, but he's at least partially aware of this - and it serves the essay's theme of the writer internalizing the reader's voice in their work. Calculator tackles several interesting chicken-egg situations and visualizations of self-other in literature.
4. "Discovering America" (1957) is an interesting analysis of American cities and society from the perspective of someone who never stepped foot in that hemisphere. It reminds me of Goichi Suda, who was tasked with writing a script about political and criminal underworlds for a country he never even visited (Killer7). In both cases, they did well despite their gaps in experiential knowledge, although here - just as later in this collection - Kobo attempts to write about race relations in America and Europe, and yeesh. While his heart seems to be in the right place, it comes off as short sighted at times and counter-productive at others.
5. "Does the Visual Image Destroy the Walls of Language?" (1960) is short, sweet, and fantastic, shedding light on his attitudes toward the relationship between the page and the screen in ways that make me so glad he worked with Teshigahara throughout the 60's to bring us those Japanese New Wave gems. So few novelists can dip into screenwriting with the uncanny knack that he had, and it's precisely this essay's thesis on the word and image's interconnectedness in art that gives his films such power.
6. "Artistic Revolution: Theory of the Art Movement" (1960) is good not great, talking about the connections between language, reason, and perception - again, topics he'll take up again and again.
7. "Possibilities for Education Today: On the Essence of Human Existence" (1965) has a lot of flavor but not much meat. He acknowledges from the start that he has no knowledge/experience in education or teaching, so he sticks strictly to the abstract. As a result, we get some interesting theories on connections between Pavlovian conditioning and language, personal grade school anecdotes, and encouragements for teacher to cultivate creativity and logical leaps in children, but not much in the way of concrete illustration or implementation. Eh, most if not all philosophy suffers that issue though.
8. "Beyond the Neighbor" (1966) expounds on the internalized idea of the reader in writers as well as attitudes toward personal/cultural identity and the enemy 'other' in different settings and cultures - city vs country, medieval vs contemporary society. The greatest thrill this book gives me is the ability to trace the evolution of certain recurring concepts in Kobo's career through these essays. I can really feel Face of Another and The Ruined Map taking shape through these meditations, and it's so sick!
9. "The Military Look" (1968) dives into the uniform's ultimate expression of the state, examining uniforms from Nazi photographs to contemporary American fatigues to Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. This one especially grabbed me from beginning to end. Considering the wave of punk and pre-punk youth around the 70's that began brandishing the swastika, usually for shock value, my heart's warmed to see Kobo was one who challenged that trend at its inception.
10. "Passport of Heresy" (1968) starts with an illustration of our last couple million years of evolution and ends in contemporary cities. Some fun points on social order, a few great points, and others questionable.
11. "The Frontier Within" (1968) is where I go, 'ooh no, Kobo.' The race relation commentary of previous essays such as "Discovering America" is dialed up to 100, making it one of the most uncomfortable reads of the year for me. Despite acknowledging that he of course doesn't live the realities of Jewish and Black people and that no amount of research can completely fill this gap, his commentary on state-led prejudice and discrimination is, at best, good at making points about the state's role in developing the individual's notions of authentic vs inauthentic citizenry, and at worst, offensively off the compass regarding the origins of racism and anti-Semitism, even for 1968.
12. "The Frontier Within, Part II" (1969) is a speech given over the course of two nights just before Kobo's first theatrical directorial debut. It's a treat to get a glimpse of this tiny moment in history as well as to read a more casual, spoken speech from this usually formal writer. It was fortunately a nice wrap-up to the collection.
1. "Poetry and Poets (Consciousness and the Unconscious)" (1944) is a very impressive if often unintelligible dialectic rabbit hole with strong postmodern sentiments that he wrote when he was only 20.
2. "Theory and Practice in Literature" (1954), written a decade after, focuses its lens on style vs practice in literature, a topic he circles back to over his career. Here, he draws primarily and liberally from the writings of some of the most famous/infamous communist figures, Marx, Mao, Stalin, and Lenin, which I found really fun.
3. "The Hand of a Calculator with the Heart of a Beast: What is Literature?" (1955) tackles similar questions as "Theory and Practice in Literature" with perhaps a bit more finesse. The inclusion of question and answer entirely written by himself is a bit funny and self-indulgent, but he's at least partially aware of this - and it serves the essay's theme of the writer internalizing the reader's voice in their work. Calculator tackles several interesting chicken-egg situations and visualizations of self-other in literature.
4. "Discovering America" (1957) is an interesting analysis of American cities and society from the perspective of someone who never stepped foot in that hemisphere. It reminds me of Goichi Suda, who was tasked with writing a script about political and criminal underworlds for a country he never even visited (Killer7). In both cases, they did well despite their gaps in experiential knowledge, although here - just as later in this collection - Kobo attempts to write about race relations in America and Europe, and yeesh. While his heart seems to be in the right place, it comes off as short sighted at times and counter-productive at others.
5. "Does the Visual Image Destroy the Walls of Language?" (1960) is short, sweet, and fantastic, shedding light on his attitudes toward the relationship between the page and the screen in ways that make me so glad he worked with Teshigahara throughout the 60's to bring us those Japanese New Wave gems. So few novelists can dip into screenwriting with the uncanny knack that he had, and it's precisely this essay's thesis on the word and image's interconnectedness in art that gives his films such power.
6. "Artistic Revolution: Theory of the Art Movement" (1960) is good not great, talking about the connections between language, reason, and perception - again, topics he'll take up again and again.
7. "Possibilities for Education Today: On the Essence of Human Existence" (1965) has a lot of flavor but not much meat. He acknowledges from the start that he has no knowledge/experience in education or teaching, so he sticks strictly to the abstract. As a result, we get some interesting theories on connections between Pavlovian conditioning and language, personal grade school anecdotes, and encouragements for teacher to cultivate creativity and logical leaps in children, but not much in the way of concrete illustration or implementation. Eh, most if not all philosophy suffers that issue though.
8. "Beyond the Neighbor" (1966) expounds on the internalized idea of the reader in writers as well as attitudes toward personal/cultural identity and the enemy 'other' in different settings and cultures - city vs country, medieval vs contemporary society. The greatest thrill this book gives me is the ability to trace the evolution of certain recurring concepts in Kobo's career through these essays. I can really feel Face of Another and The Ruined Map taking shape through these meditations, and it's so sick!
9. "The Military Look" (1968) dives into the uniform's ultimate expression of the state, examining uniforms from Nazi photographs to contemporary American fatigues to Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. This one especially grabbed me from beginning to end. Considering the wave of punk and pre-punk youth around the 70's that began brandishing the swastika, usually for shock value, my heart's warmed to see Kobo was one who challenged that trend at its inception.
10. "Passport of Heresy" (1968) starts with an illustration of our last couple million years of evolution and ends in contemporary cities. Some fun points on social order, a few great points, and others questionable.
11. "The Frontier Within" (1968) is where I go, 'ooh no, Kobo.' The race relation commentary of previous essays such as "Discovering America" is dialed up to 100, making it one of the most uncomfortable reads of the year for me. Despite acknowledging that he of course doesn't live the realities of Jewish and Black people and that no amount of research can completely fill this gap, his commentary on state-led prejudice and discrimination is, at best, good at making points about the state's role in developing the individual's notions of authentic vs inauthentic citizenry, and at worst, offensively off the compass regarding the origins of racism and anti-Semitism, even for 1968.
12. "The Frontier Within, Part II" (1969) is a speech given over the course of two nights just before Kobo's first theatrical directorial debut. It's a treat to get a glimpse of this tiny moment in history as well as to read a more casual, spoken speech from this usually formal writer. It was fortunately a nice wrap-up to the collection.
September 9, 2021
Great essay collection from early/middle Kobo Abe, with a focus on him in the 1960s (during Woman in the dunes, Face of Another, Enomoto, Ruined Map). Illustrates some of the thematic ideas behind Kobo Abe's Novels. I'd be curious to read more essays he wrote in the '70s and onwards (as well as the '80s, when, according to his JP wikipedia article, he became estranged from the literary community?). I'm always curious how a creator becomes estranged - myself I do feel pretty distant from the mainstream 'game development' community at times... but his extent was to the point of moving to a mountain. I feel like I can understand that urge at times...
I'll give a few thoughts on each essay.
Introduction: Emphasizes that Abe was motivated by critiquing the idea of national identity and categorization of writers. That is, Abe is often read as a "Japanese writer", but he argues that to think of someone as a "Japanese writer" is to implicitly assume that there is such as a thing as "Japaneseness", or "unity amongst Japanese peoples". This was a fun intro that also discussed other essays in the book.
I think this intro could have had some footnotes or thoughts about the more complicated philosophical essays, though.
Poetry and Poets 1944
I didn't understand this essay at all. Maybe it was a college essay or thesis? Abe wrote this at ~20, and I just don't know the context or referenced philosophical works at all.
Theory and Practice in Literature 1954
Still fairly philosophical and hard to understand, but there's some critique of the literary establishment and "I-novels" here (novels which are directly based on the authors life and usually told in first person - someone mentioned once that they were often written by horny men, so.) The essay has some gesturing at the ultimate purpose of literature as the "liberation of mankind." Overall I feel like I was missing some context here. There's some mention of Lenin and Mao (which doesn't help me.)
The Hand of a Calculator with the Heart of a Beast: What is Literature? 1955
A-ha! Now here's a more understandable essay. This one critiques 'writing manuals' / tutorials on 'how to write', which is something I think about from time to time (in the context of music composition or videogame creation.) Anyways, Abe writes about the importance of keeping the reader in mind: after all, literature does not 'exist' until it is read and filtered through a reader's mind. He mentions a writer should consider why they're picking literature as a medium as opposed to any other way to use one's energy. I like his thought on not having contempt for an audience (thinking yourself as 'better'), but thinking of literature as something a reader can 'discover reality' through.
There's general advice - read widely (applies to making games and music!), write a lot, but also the interesting idea of 'objectifying your desire' so that you can look at your motivation to create from a reader's POV, and then use the dialogue between your inner writer/reader in a productive manner. (Of course, when you're making something, you're always simultaneously consuming and creating it.)
Discovering America 1957
Observations on populism in America, its control by a capitalist class, and how the population buys the myth of democracy, '[like being led on leashes]'. Depressingly still relevant today (although I think more people are starting to understand that the whole democracy thing is a sham.)
Does the Visual Image Destroy the Walls of Language 1960
I think this had to do with visual art and literature practices and their capacity for change... that... or the capacity for visual art to inspire literature-creators? I don't really know.
Artistic Revolution: Theory of the Art Movement 1960
I didn't get most of this, but there are some bits on the uniqueness of literature and its written imagery (describing things that can't be drawn), as well as something about literature or arts and relation to influencing masses.
Possibilities of Education Today: On the Essence of Human Existence 1965
"How then can one give children the chance to leap?"
"...Emphasizing the importance of identifying exceptions and developing ways of thinking that can release one from these chains will lead to the cultivation of resistance..."
This was a talk Abe gave to teachers, which I think boils down to issues with the education system and the need to build critical thinking skills. Which I would argue are still important, based on the wild range of arguments and misinformation I see on Twitter...
Beyond the Neighbor 1966
Didn't really understand what was being argued here, but parts seem to be about questioning tradition and its tendency towards conservatism. Some ideas about the 'illusion' of the rural village community of neighbors, and how that gets illustrated as an 'escape' for people in the city. I think maybe Abe is questioning the conservative talking points/tendencies to see rural farmers as "true Japanese" with "pure Japanese language" or something (even though written Japanese came to be due to Westernization and English to Japanese translation). Well, but then there's a few pages about literary tradition and 'writers' needing to also be good 'readers'. So I'm not sure...
The Military Look 1968
About American and Nazi military uniforms, the lack of 'fanciness' in American uniforms, and some analysis of Military Fashion Trends in 1960s tokyo. Abe brings into question why American military fatigues attempt to look not overly conspicuous, and how that is kind of suspicious. Likewise there's some bits on how different a soldier looks when they've lost the war, or how they transform when losing the uniform.
Passport of Heresy 1968
Talks about the evolutionary history of humans, comparing nomadic to agricultural species/tribes. Something about how 'settled' 'agricultural' peoples start to develop a stronger sense of time and borders, as well as shared sense of time with other tribes/parts of the world
The Frontier Within 1968
A somewhat too-long and at times confusing essay that investigates the roots of Anti-Semitism and the statelessness of the Jewish people, and the tendency of States to create a farming/peasant class of 'good' citizens, and how that contrasts against "city people" - or how discrimination is created by the state in order to create the concept of 'patriotism.'
There seems to be some potentially weird analysis about Jewish peoples and the existence of antisemitism, but I don't really know enough to analyze what's going on here... reader beware.
Funny quote:
"In the soviet union, where ethnic or national discrimination is expressly forbidden by the constitution, how was such Nazi-like insanity possible? The average American would proudly reply, 'It's because of totalitarianism. There is something wrong with anyone who would take seriously a totalitarian constitution.'"
On Israel and claiming land: "First of all, the very notion that a two-thousand-year tradition has any validity today is pure fantasy and comes closer to the world of myth than it does to history."
The Frontier Within, Part II (Speech) 1969
Similar ideas to the previous essay but explained a bit better (as it was spoken for an audience.) Abe contrasts the farming village, which he sees as 'closer knit communities', with the relative isolation of the city. However, he doesn't see the isolation as negative, but rather this kind of petri dish that create shared interests, identification with others for reasons other than just living nearby.
---
In conclusion I give this 5/5. I think for the actual content of Abe's essays I'd put it more around 3.5-4, but I think as a historical document this is a pretty important collection of essays, and I know Abe had more essays from after the '60s so hopefully someone translates those!
To re-iterate I think it would have been nice to get context (from scholars) on the more philosophical or hot-take-y essays.
I'll give a few thoughts on each essay.
Introduction: Emphasizes that Abe was motivated by critiquing the idea of national identity and categorization of writers. That is, Abe is often read as a "Japanese writer", but he argues that to think of someone as a "Japanese writer" is to implicitly assume that there is such as a thing as "Japaneseness", or "unity amongst Japanese peoples". This was a fun intro that also discussed other essays in the book.
I think this intro could have had some footnotes or thoughts about the more complicated philosophical essays, though.
Poetry and Poets 1944
I didn't understand this essay at all. Maybe it was a college essay or thesis? Abe wrote this at ~20, and I just don't know the context or referenced philosophical works at all.
Theory and Practice in Literature 1954
Still fairly philosophical and hard to understand, but there's some critique of the literary establishment and "I-novels" here (novels which are directly based on the authors life and usually told in first person - someone mentioned once that they were often written by horny men, so.) The essay has some gesturing at the ultimate purpose of literature as the "liberation of mankind." Overall I feel like I was missing some context here. There's some mention of Lenin and Mao (which doesn't help me.)
The Hand of a Calculator with the Heart of a Beast: What is Literature? 1955
A-ha! Now here's a more understandable essay. This one critiques 'writing manuals' / tutorials on 'how to write', which is something I think about from time to time (in the context of music composition or videogame creation.) Anyways, Abe writes about the importance of keeping the reader in mind: after all, literature does not 'exist' until it is read and filtered through a reader's mind. He mentions a writer should consider why they're picking literature as a medium as opposed to any other way to use one's energy. I like his thought on not having contempt for an audience (thinking yourself as 'better'), but thinking of literature as something a reader can 'discover reality' through.
There's general advice - read widely (applies to making games and music!), write a lot, but also the interesting idea of 'objectifying your desire' so that you can look at your motivation to create from a reader's POV, and then use the dialogue between your inner writer/reader in a productive manner. (Of course, when you're making something, you're always simultaneously consuming and creating it.)
Discovering America 1957
Observations on populism in America, its control by a capitalist class, and how the population buys the myth of democracy, '[like being led on leashes]'. Depressingly still relevant today (although I think more people are starting to understand that the whole democracy thing is a sham.)
Does the Visual Image Destroy the Walls of Language 1960
I think this had to do with visual art and literature practices and their capacity for change... that... or the capacity for visual art to inspire literature-creators? I don't really know.
Artistic Revolution: Theory of the Art Movement 1960
I didn't get most of this, but there are some bits on the uniqueness of literature and its written imagery (describing things that can't be drawn), as well as something about literature or arts and relation to influencing masses.
Possibilities of Education Today: On the Essence of Human Existence 1965
"How then can one give children the chance to leap?"
"...Emphasizing the importance of identifying exceptions and developing ways of thinking that can release one from these chains will lead to the cultivation of resistance..."
This was a talk Abe gave to teachers, which I think boils down to issues with the education system and the need to build critical thinking skills. Which I would argue are still important, based on the wild range of arguments and misinformation I see on Twitter...
Beyond the Neighbor 1966
Didn't really understand what was being argued here, but parts seem to be about questioning tradition and its tendency towards conservatism. Some ideas about the 'illusion' of the rural village community of neighbors, and how that gets illustrated as an 'escape' for people in the city. I think maybe Abe is questioning the conservative talking points/tendencies to see rural farmers as "true Japanese" with "pure Japanese language" or something (even though written Japanese came to be due to Westernization and English to Japanese translation). Well, but then there's a few pages about literary tradition and 'writers' needing to also be good 'readers'. So I'm not sure...
The Military Look 1968
About American and Nazi military uniforms, the lack of 'fanciness' in American uniforms, and some analysis of Military Fashion Trends in 1960s tokyo. Abe brings into question why American military fatigues attempt to look not overly conspicuous, and how that is kind of suspicious. Likewise there's some bits on how different a soldier looks when they've lost the war, or how they transform when losing the uniform.
Passport of Heresy 1968
Talks about the evolutionary history of humans, comparing nomadic to agricultural species/tribes. Something about how 'settled' 'agricultural' peoples start to develop a stronger sense of time and borders, as well as shared sense of time with other tribes/parts of the world
The Frontier Within 1968
A somewhat too-long and at times confusing essay that investigates the roots of Anti-Semitism and the statelessness of the Jewish people, and the tendency of States to create a farming/peasant class of 'good' citizens, and how that contrasts against "city people" - or how discrimination is created by the state in order to create the concept of 'patriotism.'
There seems to be some potentially weird analysis about Jewish peoples and the existence of antisemitism, but I don't really know enough to analyze what's going on here... reader beware.
Funny quote:
"In the soviet union, where ethnic or national discrimination is expressly forbidden by the constitution, how was such Nazi-like insanity possible? The average American would proudly reply, 'It's because of totalitarianism. There is something wrong with anyone who would take seriously a totalitarian constitution.'"
On Israel and claiming land: "First of all, the very notion that a two-thousand-year tradition has any validity today is pure fantasy and comes closer to the world of myth than it does to history."
The Frontier Within, Part II (Speech) 1969
Similar ideas to the previous essay but explained a bit better (as it was spoken for an audience.) Abe contrasts the farming village, which he sees as 'closer knit communities', with the relative isolation of the city. However, he doesn't see the isolation as negative, but rather this kind of petri dish that create shared interests, identification with others for reasons other than just living nearby.
---
In conclusion I give this 5/5. I think for the actual content of Abe's essays I'd put it more around 3.5-4, but I think as a historical document this is a pretty important collection of essays, and I know Abe had more essays from after the '60s so hopefully someone translates those!
To re-iterate I think it would have been nice to get context (from scholars) on the more philosophical or hot-take-y essays.
April 18, 2024
This is certainly worthwhile reading for the student of Abe. As it opens, I was struck by Abe's unyielding focus -- one might call it 'adherence', but it's certainly not quite that -- to, I suppose, dialectical materialism, or at least Marx and those who claimed his legacy. By the end of this collection of essays spanning twenty-five years, Abe has lightened up, is funnier, self-effacing. Through these essays we can also see the extent of his internationalism and his engagement as a public figure. He makes insightful remarks on national character and takes an interest in the reach of US culture. He comments on what it means to be a writer, and his characterization of himself as an "ultravisual imagist" rings true. Abe's commentary on social role and identity are a particular focus. Abe certainly had questions about primordialist views of identity. With all that has changed in the intervening decades, I wonder what Abe would make of the world today; where his analysis would be even more pointed, and where capitalism's diversionary tactics would inspire new insights.
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