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Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness: 4 Short Novels
The Nobel Prize–winning “master of the bizarre plunges the reader into a world of tortured imagination” in this four-novella collection (Library Journal).
In this startling quartet of his most provocative stories, the multiple prize-winning author of A Personal Matter reaffirms his reputation as “a supremely gifted writer” (The Washington Post).
In The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away, a self-absorbed narrator on his deathbed drifts off to the comforting strains of a cantata as he recalls a blistering childhood of militarism, sacrifice, humiliation, and revenge—a tale that is questioned by everyone who knew him. In Prize Stock, winner of the Akutagawa Prize, a black American flier is downed in a Japanese village during World War II, where the local children see him as some rare find—exotic and forbidden. In Aghwee the Sky Monster, the floating ghost of a baby inexplicably haunts a young man on the first day of his first job. And in the title story, a devoted father believes he is the only link between his mentally challenged son and reality.
“[A] remarkable book.” —The Washington Post
“Ōe is definitely one of the Modern Masters.” —Seattlepi.com
In this startling quartet of his most provocative stories, the multiple prize-winning author of A Personal Matter reaffirms his reputation as “a supremely gifted writer” (The Washington Post).
In The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away, a self-absorbed narrator on his deathbed drifts off to the comforting strains of a cantata as he recalls a blistering childhood of militarism, sacrifice, humiliation, and revenge—a tale that is questioned by everyone who knew him. In Prize Stock, winner of the Akutagawa Prize, a black American flier is downed in a Japanese village during World War II, where the local children see him as some rare find—exotic and forbidden. In Aghwee the Sky Monster, the floating ghost of a baby inexplicably haunts a young man on the first day of his first job. And in the title story, a devoted father believes he is the only link between his mentally challenged son and reality.
“[A] remarkable book.” —The Washington Post
“Ōe is definitely one of the Modern Masters.” —Seattlepi.com
290 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1966
177 people are currently reading
6160 people want to read
About the author
Kenzaburō Ōe
237 books1,680 followersKenzaburō Ōe (大江 健三郎) was a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His works, strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory, engages with political, social and philosophical issues including nuclear weapons, social non-conformism and existentialism.
Ōe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1994 for creating "an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today."
Ōe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1994 for creating "an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 261 reviews
August 18, 2018
here are some words and phrases regarding this collection of thematically-linked novellas by left-leaning post-war Japanese author Oe Kenzaburo:
- surreal, dream-like
- grotesque, morbid
- humanistic, humane
- unsentimental, clear-eyed
- a modernist style of writing with a postmodern view of the world? or maybe not.
- unreal, a hair-raising and uncomfortable kind of unreal
- a genuine realism that kind of hurts to read
- upsetting, angry
- ambiguous, fleeting
- moving, incredibly moving at times. particularly in regards to caring for children and the terrible, wonderful, complicated bonds between parent and child, the gaps and leaps in understanding
- distancing, incredibly distancing at times. particularly in regards to injury and disease, their reality and the metaphors they can embody
- chatty, stream of conscious
- sad beyond words
- horrifying and relevant deconstruction of race
- puzzles and mysteries and ordeals
- so this is the lot of humanity. sigh
- finite experiences, the small worlds that have been jerry-built for us
- what seems like differences are yet more ways that we are connected
- tragic
- hopeful
- a summary of pan-post-war sentiments, and a pointed look at the possible origin of some of those sentiments
- tactile sensation
- emotional sensation
- at times, too real. too honest in its depictions of the insane pettiness, self-aborption, and general cluelessness of mankind
- at times, too unreal. in a couple of novellas, i grew impatient as the dreamlike ramblings took too much time to lead me to their point
- brutal but true
- heartwarming but true
- lessons, hard-earned lessons
- transcendent, sublime
my favorite of the four novellas is the title novella "Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness". this is basically the story of the relationship between a morbidly obese father and his mentally disabled son. it is not a cutesy, i'm-really-trying-to-move-you tale, it is not easy on the reader. it is funny. it is sad. the peace it finds (or does it?) is very hard-won. i'm not sure i could read it again, a bit too painful, but... wow, amazing.
- surreal, dream-like
- grotesque, morbid
- humanistic, humane
- unsentimental, clear-eyed
- a modernist style of writing with a postmodern view of the world? or maybe not.
- unreal, a hair-raising and uncomfortable kind of unreal
- a genuine realism that kind of hurts to read
- upsetting, angry
- ambiguous, fleeting
- moving, incredibly moving at times. particularly in regards to caring for children and the terrible, wonderful, complicated bonds between parent and child, the gaps and leaps in understanding
- distancing, incredibly distancing at times. particularly in regards to injury and disease, their reality and the metaphors they can embody
- chatty, stream of conscious
- sad beyond words
- horrifying and relevant deconstruction of race
- puzzles and mysteries and ordeals
- so this is the lot of humanity. sigh
- finite experiences, the small worlds that have been jerry-built for us
- what seems like differences are yet more ways that we are connected
- tragic
- hopeful
- a summary of pan-post-war sentiments, and a pointed look at the possible origin of some of those sentiments
- tactile sensation
- emotional sensation
- at times, too real. too honest in its depictions of the insane pettiness, self-aborption, and general cluelessness of mankind
- at times, too unreal. in a couple of novellas, i grew impatient as the dreamlike ramblings took too much time to lead me to their point
- brutal but true
- heartwarming but true
- lessons, hard-earned lessons
- transcendent, sublime
sub·lime (s-blm)usually i hate corny words like sublime and lyrical and evocative, but i guess in this case the shoe fits.
adj.
1. Characterized by nobility; majestic.
2.
a. Of high spiritual, moral, or intellectual worth.
b. Not to be excelled; supreme.
3. Inspiring awe; impressive.
4. Archaic: Raised aloft; set high.
my favorite of the four novellas is the title novella "Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness". this is basically the story of the relationship between a morbidly obese father and his mentally disabled son. it is not a cutesy, i'm-really-trying-to-move-you tale, it is not easy on the reader. it is funny. it is sad. the peace it finds (or does it?) is very hard-won. i'm not sure i could read it again, a bit too painful, but... wow, amazing.
November 7, 2012
(This review is for Prize Stock (Shiiku, 飼育), one of the novellas in Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness: Four Short Novels).
Paul Theroux wrote that "the revolting Japanese author Kenzaburō Ōe says [Adventures of Huckleberry Finn] is his favorite book".
How reliable this statement is I don't know, but the story of Prize Stock could be seen as sort of a dark, messed up retelling of Huckleberry. Trade the idyllic Mississippi River shore for Japan during WWII, make the character Jim a captured pilot and imagine an unhappy ending . Turn up the racism to volume eleven and expect extreme discomfort.
At any rate, you won't feel that you've been tricked into accepting a changling for a narrator in the switch from Huckleberry to "Frog", the boy of this story. The first sentence gives sufficient hint of what we're dealing with here,
And even before that, there's the title. The animal imagery associated with the pilot is relentless throughout. I get it, Mr. Ōe! But some wholesome vegetarian side dishes are also included in this offering,
Ōe wrote this story while he was a student and only 23 years old. It won the 1958 Akutagawa Prize, a prestigious award for Japanese writers, and he would go on to win the Nobel Prize for literature in 1994.
Structures of power: Oe Kenzaburo's "Shiiku" (Prize Stock)
There are 2 movies based on this work.
1. Shiiku (1961, directed by Nagisa Ôshima)
video clip
2. Gibier d'élevage (2011, directed by Rithy Panh)
Paul Theroux wrote that "the revolting Japanese author Kenzaburō Ōe says [Adventures of Huckleberry Finn] is his favorite book".
v.
How reliable this statement is I don't know, but the story of Prize Stock could be seen as sort of a dark, messed up retelling of Huckleberry. Trade the idyllic Mississippi River shore for Japan during WWII, make the character Jim a captured pilot and imagine an unhappy ending . Turn up the racism to volume eleven and expect extreme discomfort.
At any rate, you won't feel that you've been tricked into accepting a changling for a narrator in the switch from Huckleberry to "Frog", the boy of this story. The first sentence gives sufficient hint of what we're dealing with here,
My kid brother and I were digging with pieces of wood in the loose earth that smelled of fat and ashes at the surface of the crematorium, the makeshift crematorium in the valley that was simply a shallow pit in a clearing in the underbrush.
And even before that, there's the title. The animal imagery associated with the pilot is relentless throughout. I get it, Mr. Ōe! But some wholesome vegetarian side dishes are also included in this offering,
My brother and I were small seeds deeply embedded in thick flesh and tough, outer skin, green seeds soft and fresh and encased in membrane that would shiver and slough away at the first exposure to light. And outside the tough, outer skin, near the sea that was visible from the roof as a thin ribbon glittering in the distance, in the city beyond the heaped, rippling mountains, the war, majestic and awkward now like a legend that had survived down the ages, was belching foul air. But to us the war was nothing more than the absence of young men in our village and the announcements the mailman sometimes delivered of soldiers killed in action. The war did not penetrate the tough outer skin and the thick flesh. Even the 'enemy' planes that had begun recently to traverse the sky above the village were nothing more to us than a rare species of bird.
Ōe wrote this story while he was a student and only 23 years old. It won the 1958 Akutagawa Prize, a prestigious award for Japanese writers, and he would go on to win the Nobel Prize for literature in 1994.
Structures of power: Oe Kenzaburo's "Shiiku" (Prize Stock)
There are 2 movies based on this work.
1. Shiiku (1961, directed by Nagisa Ôshima)
video clip
2. Gibier d'élevage (2011, directed by Rithy Panh)
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December 13, 2018Çok kısa bir arayla iki kez okudum Kurbanı Beslemek'i ve bu aralıkta da biraz Oe hakkında bir şeyler okudum, Oe ile yapılan röportajara da baktım. Oe'yi tanımak zevkliydi, garip, kendine has ve tatlı biri. Ve bir okur-yazar olarak diğer yazarlardan beslenerek yazıyor yazdıklarını. Oe'yi biraz tanıyıp kitabı ikinci kez okumak ilkinden çok daha zevkliydi.
Bir çocuğun dilinden dinlediğimiz anlatıdaki grotesk ögeler fazlasıyla dikkat çekici kitapta. Öyle ki mezbaha ya da gusülhane kokusu sızıyor sanki kitaptan bazen. Hikaye savaş yıllarında geçiyor ve aslında hikayenin geçtiği köyde anlatan çocuğa göre savaşın pek de izi yok, fakat savaş sızan bu koku aracılığıyla duyumsatıyor kendini. Kitap ölüm, kan, ceset ve dışkı kokuyor resmen.
Kitabın temel derdi güç ve iktidar ilişisi bana kalırsa ve bunu da ''hayvan'' motifi üzerinden işlemiş Oe. Ki bu da bana Oe'nin tüm kitaplarını okuduğu Nietzche'nin bahsettiği güç istencini hatırlattı. Aslında kitapta masum görünen çocuktan, tutsak edilen zenciye kadar herkes elinde olduğu ölçüde kendi gördüğü zulümü bir diğerine yaşatmak konusunda doğal bir eğilime sahip. Masumiyet diye, iyi kötü diye bir şey yok der gibi Oe; sadece güçlüler ve daha güçlüler ve daha daha güçlüler var ve ''insanlık'' denen şey de bu iktidar ilişkisinin uzayıp gitmesinden başka bir şey değil.
Bir çocuğun dilinden dinlediğimiz anlatıdaki grotesk ögeler fazlasıyla dikkat çekici kitapta. Öyle ki mezbaha ya da gusülhane kokusu sızıyor sanki kitaptan bazen. Hikaye savaş yıllarında geçiyor ve aslında hikayenin geçtiği köyde anlatan çocuğa göre savaşın pek de izi yok, fakat savaş sızan bu koku aracılığıyla duyumsatıyor kendini. Kitap ölüm, kan, ceset ve dışkı kokuyor resmen.
Kitabın temel derdi güç ve iktidar ilişisi bana kalırsa ve bunu da ''hayvan'' motifi üzerinden işlemiş Oe. Ki bu da bana Oe'nin tüm kitaplarını okuduğu Nietzche'nin bahsettiği güç istencini hatırlattı. Aslında kitapta masum görünen çocuktan, tutsak edilen zenciye kadar herkes elinde olduğu ölçüde kendi gördüğü zulümü bir diğerine yaşatmak konusunda doğal bir eğilime sahip. Masumiyet diye, iyi kötü diye bir şey yok der gibi Oe; sadece güçlüler ve daha güçlüler ve daha daha güçlüler var ve ''insanlık'' denen şey de bu iktidar ilişkisinin uzayıp gitmesinden başka bir şey değil.
March 29, 2016
Yaşayan en büyük iki Japon yazardan bir tanesi sayılan Kenzoburo Oe, daha çok evrensel bir dilde eser vermeye çaba sarf eden bir romancı. Tıpkı Haruki Murakami, Kobo Abe ve Ryu Murakami gibi. Fakat edebi dil olarak onlara nazaran daha klasik.
"Kişisel Bir Sorun" kitabı bilindiği gibi kült. Şuanda bu romanı dışında aktif bulabileceğiz diğer kitabı "Kurbanı Beslemek". Bu kitapta üç tane uzun öykü yer almakta. Aslında bu üç uzun öykü daha önce Can Yayınları tarafından üç aynı novella olarak bağımsız birer kitap olarak basılmışlar. Fakat sonradan bir araya toplanmasına karar verilmiş, çok da yerinde bir karar olmuş. Bu üç öykü şunlar: Kurbanı Beslemek, Delilikten Kurtar Bizi, Gözyaşlarımızın Silineceği Gün.
Ben en çok ilk öykü olan ve kitaba da ismini veren "Kurbanı Beslemek" öyküsünü beğendim. İlham verici, sade ve etkileyici bir öykü. Diğer iki öyküyü ise daha zayıf buldum.
Daha önceki çeviriler Japonca'dan değilmiş ve bu versiyonda eserleri Japonca'dan, en son Haruki Murakami'nin "Kadınsız Erkekler" kitabını da çeviren, Ali Volkan Erdemir çevirmiş. Çok da özenli ve başarılı becermiş. Erdemir; Hüseyin Can Erkin, Oğuz Baykara, Esin Esen gibi değerli çevirmenlerle birlikte ileri de çok daha fazla kitap çevireceğini umduğumuz iyi bir çevirmen.
Kenzaburo Oe'nin en büyük başarısı, kişisel hayatında yaşamış olduğu ailesel sıkıntıları çok yenilikçi bir şekilde eserlerinde dönüştürebiliyor olması. Kurbanı Beslemek dışındaki iki öyküsünde bunun izleri açıkça görünüyor.
10/7
"Kişisel Bir Sorun" kitabı bilindiği gibi kült. Şuanda bu romanı dışında aktif bulabileceğiz diğer kitabı "Kurbanı Beslemek". Bu kitapta üç tane uzun öykü yer almakta. Aslında bu üç uzun öykü daha önce Can Yayınları tarafından üç aynı novella olarak bağımsız birer kitap olarak basılmışlar. Fakat sonradan bir araya toplanmasına karar verilmiş, çok da yerinde bir karar olmuş. Bu üç öykü şunlar: Kurbanı Beslemek, Delilikten Kurtar Bizi, Gözyaşlarımızın Silineceği Gün.
Ben en çok ilk öykü olan ve kitaba da ismini veren "Kurbanı Beslemek" öyküsünü beğendim. İlham verici, sade ve etkileyici bir öykü. Diğer iki öyküyü ise daha zayıf buldum.
Daha önceki çeviriler Japonca'dan değilmiş ve bu versiyonda eserleri Japonca'dan, en son Haruki Murakami'nin "Kadınsız Erkekler" kitabını da çeviren, Ali Volkan Erdemir çevirmiş. Çok da özenli ve başarılı becermiş. Erdemir; Hüseyin Can Erkin, Oğuz Baykara, Esin Esen gibi değerli çevirmenlerle birlikte ileri de çok daha fazla kitap çevireceğini umduğumuz iyi bir çevirmen.
Kenzaburo Oe'nin en büyük başarısı, kişisel hayatında yaşamış olduğu ailesel sıkıntıları çok yenilikçi bir şekilde eserlerinde dönüştürebiliyor olması. Kurbanı Beslemek dışındaki iki öyküsünde bunun izleri açıkça görünüyor.
10/7
October 5, 2014
شما جوان هستید و شاید هنوز در این دنیا از دیدار کسی محروم نشده اید که دیگر هرگز نتوانید فراموشش کنید، منظورم موجودی است که آنقدر دوستش دارید که همواره کمبودش را احساس می کنید
.پس شاید آسمانی که بالای سر شماست هنوز چیزی به جز آسمان نیست
...و این یعنی خالی بودن مخزن خاطرات
.پس شاید آسمانی که بالای سر شماست هنوز چیزی به جز آسمان نیست
...و این یعنی خالی بودن مخزن خاطرات
June 9, 2022
This collection for four novellas/short stories, translated by John Nathan, contains two of Kenzaburō Ōe's earlier works:
Prize Stock (飼育) [1957] - a short story written at the start of his career, and which won the prestiguous Akutagawa Prize.
Aghwee the Sky Monster (空の怪物アグイー) [1964] - one of the first of Ōe's stories inspired by the birth of his mentally handicaped son Hikari in 1963, and published at the same time as the better known A Personal Matter, where the father of the handicapped child makes a different choice.
and in addition:
Teach Us To Outgrow Our Madness (われらの狂気を生き延びる道を教えよ) [1969]
The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away (みずから我が涙をぬぐいたまう日) [1972]
Overall a great overview of Ōe's earlier work and the origins for the themes in his later novels.
The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away
"His Majesty the emperor wipes my tears away with his own hand"
(a deliberate mistranslation by ultra-nationalist troops of Bach's German cantata "Da wischt mir die Tränen mein Heiland selbst ab")
The narrator of this unsettling novel is lying is hospital dying, or, rather, convinced he is dying, of liver cancer, wearing brass underwater goggles with lenses covered with green cellophane, and dictating a last testament, an account of his "Happy Days" in the valley where he lived as a child, during WW2. His account is, he claims, true to the past but not necessarily the present:
"When I sensed the difficulty in my liver was incurable, I declared my freedom from all bonds connecting me to the real world that was holding me dangling from its fingertips, so there's no telling whether I actually experienced what I say, correspondence in reality in itself has never meant anything anyway, "he" says. The truth is, I'm heading straight back towards my Happy Days in the past, and if bringing some detail in that past sharply to the surface requires it, I'm prepared to alter the present reality however I please."
The story is told in an indirect style. The words we are reading have been dictated to a nurse, whom the narrator refers to, to her frustration as "the acting executor of the will". In his account he refers to himself in the third party, and the book we read is frequently interrupted by brief discussions and disputes between the narrator, and the nurse, written in [[double square brackets]]. This rather elaborate style was one Oe was to move away from drastically in his later novels starting with Somersault in 1999, and the novella reads as quite a contrast to his more recent works.
The narrator's "Happy Days" (the score of the song "Happy Days are Here Again" even features in his text) were spent, as often in Oe's novels and his own life, in a remote valley deep in the forest. His "Happy Days" begin when, close to the end of World War 2, his father, a veteran of the Manchurian campaign, returns to the village, dying of cancer, and moves in, not to the house, but to the outhouse. His elder brother is still fighting in the War, but when he deserts it causes an irrecoverable split between his mother, worried for the brother's safety and "a certain party"(as she refers to his father from that day on), who regards him as a traitor.
"[[To make someone sound like an imaginary figure can be a way of debasing him, but it can also be a way of exalting him into a kind of idol. So please don't change to "father", keep on writing a certain party.]]"
The day Japan surrenders, his father, is persuaded to lead a makeshift rebellion by a small group of ultra-loyalist troops. But the escapade is a farce, the obese and crippled a certain party is towed out of the valley in a makeshift wagon ("a ridiculous box on top of two sawed-off logs"), joined by the narrator who is wearing a "fake helmet pulled down over his ears and his shirt of woven grass and his old trousers tied with a rope below his knees - lord knows why! - and his straw sandals." (per the mother). Their bizarre plan: to somehow steal 10 US airforce plans and bomb the Imperial Palace, hoping this will force the people to rise up. Except the whole plan unravels when, visiting a bank to legitimately withdraw some funds, they are mistaken for bank robbers and killed in a shoot-out.
Ever since his mother has belittled his father, and the narrator, with "malice [that] was threatening to pulverise the very bedrock of his identity", and the last will and testament we are reading is intended as the narrator's deferred revenge:
"At the end of the tape which the acting executor of the will would play when he had entered a coma he wanted to record the following words to his mother, who would be coming alone from the house in the valley: Please make sure you stay to observe my body decomposing; if possible I would like you to observe even my putrified and swollen insdudes burst my stomach and bubble out as gas and muddy liquid."
Oe's work is highly self referential and it was particularly fascinating to read this after Oe'sDeath by Water novel Death by Water, written 35 years later . The narrator of that novel, a fictional alter-ego for Ōe , is himself also the author of an identical novel called "The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away." In Death by Water "The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away" is explained as a "grotesquely exaggerated" account of the author's father and "it also included what some critics perceived as a merciless caricature of my mother."
Fascinating 4 stars
Aghwee the Sky Monster
Aghwee the Sky Monster, published in 1964, was one of the first of Ōe's stories inspired by the birth of his mentally handicapped son Hikari in 1963, which was to become a near constant theme in his novels.
It's closer to a short story than even a novella and written in relatively unelaborate prose.
Unusually for Oe, the first person narrator here is not the father of the child, but rather a student employed as a companion for "D", a composer. (Itself significant, since Oe's son Hikari is a noted composer - is D living the life that his son would otherwise have fulfilled?).
D's son was born with a brain hernia, as with Hikari, but the composer makes a very different choice, working with a doctor to let his son die as an infant.
D now suffers from visions of "a fat baby in a white cotton nightgown, big as a kangaroo", which regularly descends from the sky to accompany him - Aghwee the Sky Monster, the spirit of his son. His former wife explains to the narrator "Our baby spoke once when it was alive and that was what it said - Aghwee."
He is now detached from the present world ("since I'm not living in the present time I musn't do anything here in this world that might remain or leave an imprint"), living only for his visits with Aghwee.
And the narrator writes the story many years later, prompted by an accident when he too sees Aghwee:
"When I was wounded by those children and sacrificed my sight in one eye, so clearly a gratuitous sacrifice, I had been endowed, if only for an instant, with the power to perceive a creature that had descended from the heights of the sky."
This is more of a foundation text that of high merit it its own regard, one for Oe completists. Indeed again this is a key reference in Death by Water, and also interesting to contrast to A Personal Matter, written in the same year, where the narrator makes a very different choice.
2.5 stars stand-alone, 4 when read with other stories.
Prize Stock
A short story written at the start of Ōe career, set in a remote valley (a signature Ōe theme) largely cut off after a flood washes away the main bridge.
The opening sets the scene nicely:
"My kid brother and I were digging with pieces of wood in the loose earth that smelled of fat and ashes at the surface of the crematorium, the makeshift crematorium in the valley that was simply a shallow pit...in search of remains, micely shaped bones we could use as medals to decorate our chests"
The story is set during the Second World War but "to us the war was nothing more than the absence of young men in our village and the announcements the mailmen sometimes delivered of soldiers killed in action."
When a black American airman is shot down and captured, the villagers treat him as a "catch", like a wild boar - "until we know what the town thinks. [we're going to] rear him."
With the children, "engrossed in the first real experience of their lives" in charge, the scene seems set for a Lord-of-the-Flies type narrative of child cruelty, but a connection opens up:"we were jolted by the discovery that he could almost smile. We understood then that we had been joined to him by a sudden, deep, passionate bond that was almost 'human.'"
Overall, a rather simple story much less developed that his later work, even that in this volume. 2 stars
Teach Us To Outgrow Our Madness [1969]
Another short story/novella with an arresting start:
"In the winter of 196-, an outlandishly fat man came close to being thrown to a polar bear bathing in a filthy pool below him and had the experience of nearly going mad."
This experience, explained later in the story, leads him to "be released from the fetters of an old obsession" (that his handicapped son can't live without him constantly at his side) and also to resolve to "cast off another heavy restraint", calling his mother to demand she return the draft manuscript of a biography of his father.
His father died seemingly insane, spending his last year's locked away, not communicating with the outside world, in a storehouse, sitting in a barber's chair and getting increasingly obese: "He wanted to deny the reality of a world where Japan was making war on the China he revered"
And when his son, nicknamed Eeyore is born with a brain defect (a signature and autobiographical Oe theme), he comes to fear some heriditary link through himself. Hence his plea, to his mother, to elucidate the details of his father's last days, the secret of "not only of his father's self-confinement and death but the freakish something which underlay it" and hence to "Teach me, my mother, how we can outgrow our madness!"
This plea, from which the story takes its title, is a quote from "Night Falls on China,” by W.H. Auden, again another key Oe element being to take inspiration from a, typically British, poet.
Although short, the story successfully captures two of Oe's key themes - the relationship with his handicapped son (there is a particularly successful description of an eye examination, successfully conveying the bewilderment and terror likely felt by Eeyore) and his troubled relationship with his own parents.
Recommended - 4 stars.
Prize Stock (飼育) [1957] - a short story written at the start of his career, and which won the prestiguous Akutagawa Prize.
Aghwee the Sky Monster (空の怪物アグイー) [1964] - one of the first of Ōe's stories inspired by the birth of his mentally handicaped son Hikari in 1963, and published at the same time as the better known A Personal Matter, where the father of the handicapped child makes a different choice.
and in addition:
Teach Us To Outgrow Our Madness (われらの狂気を生き延びる道を教えよ) [1969]
The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away (みずから我が涙をぬぐいたまう日) [1972]
Overall a great overview of Ōe's earlier work and the origins for the themes in his later novels.
The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away
"His Majesty the emperor wipes my tears away with his own hand"
(a deliberate mistranslation by ultra-nationalist troops of Bach's German cantata "Da wischt mir die Tränen mein Heiland selbst ab")
The narrator of this unsettling novel is lying is hospital dying, or, rather, convinced he is dying, of liver cancer, wearing brass underwater goggles with lenses covered with green cellophane, and dictating a last testament, an account of his "Happy Days" in the valley where he lived as a child, during WW2. His account is, he claims, true to the past but not necessarily the present:
"When I sensed the difficulty in my liver was incurable, I declared my freedom from all bonds connecting me to the real world that was holding me dangling from its fingertips, so there's no telling whether I actually experienced what I say, correspondence in reality in itself has never meant anything anyway, "he" says. The truth is, I'm heading straight back towards my Happy Days in the past, and if bringing some detail in that past sharply to the surface requires it, I'm prepared to alter the present reality however I please."
The story is told in an indirect style. The words we are reading have been dictated to a nurse, whom the narrator refers to, to her frustration as "the acting executor of the will". In his account he refers to himself in the third party, and the book we read is frequently interrupted by brief discussions and disputes between the narrator, and the nurse, written in [[double square brackets]]. This rather elaborate style was one Oe was to move away from drastically in his later novels starting with Somersault in 1999, and the novella reads as quite a contrast to his more recent works.
The narrator's "Happy Days" (the score of the song "Happy Days are Here Again" even features in his text) were spent, as often in Oe's novels and his own life, in a remote valley deep in the forest. His "Happy Days" begin when, close to the end of World War 2, his father, a veteran of the Manchurian campaign, returns to the village, dying of cancer, and moves in, not to the house, but to the outhouse. His elder brother is still fighting in the War, but when he deserts it causes an irrecoverable split between his mother, worried for the brother's safety and "a certain party"(as she refers to his father from that day on), who regards him as a traitor.
"[[To make someone sound like an imaginary figure can be a way of debasing him, but it can also be a way of exalting him into a kind of idol. So please don't change to "father", keep on writing a certain party.]]"
The day Japan surrenders, his father, is persuaded to lead a makeshift rebellion by a small group of ultra-loyalist troops. But the escapade is a farce, the obese and crippled a certain party is towed out of the valley in a makeshift wagon ("a ridiculous box on top of two sawed-off logs"), joined by the narrator who is wearing a "fake helmet pulled down over his ears and his shirt of woven grass and his old trousers tied with a rope below his knees - lord knows why! - and his straw sandals." (per the mother). Their bizarre plan: to somehow steal 10 US airforce plans and bomb the Imperial Palace, hoping this will force the people to rise up. Except the whole plan unravels when, visiting a bank to legitimately withdraw some funds, they are mistaken for bank robbers and killed in a shoot-out.
Ever since his mother has belittled his father, and the narrator, with "malice [that] was threatening to pulverise the very bedrock of his identity", and the last will and testament we are reading is intended as the narrator's deferred revenge:
"At the end of the tape which the acting executor of the will would play when he had entered a coma he wanted to record the following words to his mother, who would be coming alone from the house in the valley: Please make sure you stay to observe my body decomposing; if possible I would like you to observe even my putrified and swollen insdudes burst my stomach and bubble out as gas and muddy liquid."
Oe's work is highly self referential and it was particularly fascinating to read this after Oe'sDeath by Water novel Death by Water, written 35 years later . The narrator of that novel, a fictional alter-ego for Ōe , is himself also the author of an identical novel called "The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away." In Death by Water "The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away" is explained as a "grotesquely exaggerated" account of the author's father and "it also included what some critics perceived as a merciless caricature of my mother."
Fascinating 4 stars
Aghwee the Sky Monster
Aghwee the Sky Monster, published in 1964, was one of the first of Ōe's stories inspired by the birth of his mentally handicapped son Hikari in 1963, which was to become a near constant theme in his novels.
It's closer to a short story than even a novella and written in relatively unelaborate prose.
Unusually for Oe, the first person narrator here is not the father of the child, but rather a student employed as a companion for "D", a composer. (Itself significant, since Oe's son Hikari is a noted composer - is D living the life that his son would otherwise have fulfilled?).
D's son was born with a brain hernia, as with Hikari, but the composer makes a very different choice, working with a doctor to let his son die as an infant.
D now suffers from visions of "a fat baby in a white cotton nightgown, big as a kangaroo", which regularly descends from the sky to accompany him - Aghwee the Sky Monster, the spirit of his son. His former wife explains to the narrator "Our baby spoke once when it was alive and that was what it said - Aghwee."
He is now detached from the present world ("since I'm not living in the present time I musn't do anything here in this world that might remain or leave an imprint"), living only for his visits with Aghwee.
And the narrator writes the story many years later, prompted by an accident when he too sees Aghwee:
"When I was wounded by those children and sacrificed my sight in one eye, so clearly a gratuitous sacrifice, I had been endowed, if only for an instant, with the power to perceive a creature that had descended from the heights of the sky."
This is more of a foundation text that of high merit it its own regard, one for Oe completists. Indeed again this is a key reference in Death by Water, and also interesting to contrast to A Personal Matter, written in the same year, where the narrator makes a very different choice.
2.5 stars stand-alone, 4 when read with other stories.
Prize Stock
A short story written at the start of Ōe career, set in a remote valley (a signature Ōe theme) largely cut off after a flood washes away the main bridge.
The opening sets the scene nicely:
"My kid brother and I were digging with pieces of wood in the loose earth that smelled of fat and ashes at the surface of the crematorium, the makeshift crematorium in the valley that was simply a shallow pit...in search of remains, micely shaped bones we could use as medals to decorate our chests"
The story is set during the Second World War but "to us the war was nothing more than the absence of young men in our village and the announcements the mailmen sometimes delivered of soldiers killed in action."
When a black American airman is shot down and captured, the villagers treat him as a "catch", like a wild boar - "until we know what the town thinks. [we're going to] rear him."
With the children, "engrossed in the first real experience of their lives" in charge, the scene seems set for a Lord-of-the-Flies type narrative of child cruelty, but a connection opens up:"we were jolted by the discovery that he could almost smile. We understood then that we had been joined to him by a sudden, deep, passionate bond that was almost 'human.'"
Overall, a rather simple story much less developed that his later work, even that in this volume. 2 stars
Teach Us To Outgrow Our Madness [1969]
Another short story/novella with an arresting start:
"In the winter of 196-, an outlandishly fat man came close to being thrown to a polar bear bathing in a filthy pool below him and had the experience of nearly going mad."
This experience, explained later in the story, leads him to "be released from the fetters of an old obsession" (that his handicapped son can't live without him constantly at his side) and also to resolve to "cast off another heavy restraint", calling his mother to demand she return the draft manuscript of a biography of his father.
His father died seemingly insane, spending his last year's locked away, not communicating with the outside world, in a storehouse, sitting in a barber's chair and getting increasingly obese: "He wanted to deny the reality of a world where Japan was making war on the China he revered"
And when his son, nicknamed Eeyore is born with a brain defect (a signature and autobiographical Oe theme), he comes to fear some heriditary link through himself. Hence his plea, to his mother, to elucidate the details of his father's last days, the secret of "not only of his father's self-confinement and death but the freakish something which underlay it" and hence to "Teach me, my mother, how we can outgrow our madness!"
This plea, from which the story takes its title, is a quote from "Night Falls on China,” by W.H. Auden, again another key Oe element being to take inspiration from a, typically British, poet.
Although short, the story successfully captures two of Oe's key themes - the relationship with his handicapped son (there is a particularly successful description of an eye examination, successfully conveying the bewilderment and terror likely felt by Eeyore) and his troubled relationship with his own parents.
Recommended - 4 stars.
June 11, 2020
Rating: 4.5🍌
Simply put, nobody writes like Kenzaburo Oe. Like my favorite of his books, A PERSONAL MATTER, this collection of four novellas explores intense psychological themes, parenting a developmentally disabled child, and the legacy of Japan's role in World War II through a style that owes a debt to avant-garde/absurdist and modernist writers like Samuel Beckett. Oe's style is all his own, though, one that explores the corners of human consciousness we usually try to keep hidden while maintaining an almost whimsical tone. It's a jarring contrast that leaves the reader irrevocably shaken, their perceptions altered.
THE DAY HE HIMSELF SHALL WIPE MY TEARS AWAY: The first of the four novellas is the one that reminds me most of Beckett, specifically MOLLOY. A middle-aged man lays in his bed, convinced that he has cancer despite his doctor's disputations, recalling a childhood event involving his father and a ridiculous failed coup attempt on the eve of Japan's surrender in World War II. Despite its challenging structure, the story is at turns disturbing, comic, and finally very moving.
PRIZE STOCK: This is one of Oe's best-known works and the story that helped him burst onto the Japanese literary scene at the age of 23. Near the end of World War II on the outskirts of a rural, almost mythic village cut off from civilization by a flood, an American fighter plane crashes. The only survivor of the crash, a black American pilot, is captured by the locals and kept locked up in the village storehouse, where the adolescent narrator forges a sort of relationship with him. An exploration of race and power, the story is essentially a coming-of-age tale with strong echoes of Joyce's "Araby" (especially the final scene). A straightforward -- if intense and disturbing -- entry into Oe's ouevre.
TEACH US TO OUTGROW OUR MADNESS: Another narratively challenging novella that offers rewards to the patient reader. The story describes the relationship between the narrator and his developmentally disabled son -- a common theme for Oe, who has talked in interviews about raising his developmentally disabled son, Hikari, and the influence of that experience on his work.
AGHWEE THE SKY MONSTER: Another story that seems inspired by Oe's real-life experience of raising his son. The narrator, a college student, is hired as a companion to a brilliant composer who has almost completely withdrawn from the world. The explanation given for the composer's odd behavior mirrors the central plot in A PERSONAL MATTER (with a key difference).
That said, summaries of themes and plot don't do Oe justice, in the same way that describing a strawberry can only feebly transmit the experience of eating one. It’s unfortunate that, despite winning the Nobel Prize, he’s not as widely read as other contemporary Japanese authors.
Simply put, nobody writes like Kenzaburo Oe. Like my favorite of his books, A PERSONAL MATTER, this collection of four novellas explores intense psychological themes, parenting a developmentally disabled child, and the legacy of Japan's role in World War II through a style that owes a debt to avant-garde/absurdist and modernist writers like Samuel Beckett. Oe's style is all his own, though, one that explores the corners of human consciousness we usually try to keep hidden while maintaining an almost whimsical tone. It's a jarring contrast that leaves the reader irrevocably shaken, their perceptions altered.
THE DAY HE HIMSELF SHALL WIPE MY TEARS AWAY: The first of the four novellas is the one that reminds me most of Beckett, specifically MOLLOY. A middle-aged man lays in his bed, convinced that he has cancer despite his doctor's disputations, recalling a childhood event involving his father and a ridiculous failed coup attempt on the eve of Japan's surrender in World War II. Despite its challenging structure, the story is at turns disturbing, comic, and finally very moving.
PRIZE STOCK: This is one of Oe's best-known works and the story that helped him burst onto the Japanese literary scene at the age of 23. Near the end of World War II on the outskirts of a rural, almost mythic village cut off from civilization by a flood, an American fighter plane crashes. The only survivor of the crash, a black American pilot, is captured by the locals and kept locked up in the village storehouse, where the adolescent narrator forges a sort of relationship with him. An exploration of race and power, the story is essentially a coming-of-age tale with strong echoes of Joyce's "Araby" (especially the final scene). A straightforward -- if intense and disturbing -- entry into Oe's ouevre.
TEACH US TO OUTGROW OUR MADNESS: Another narratively challenging novella that offers rewards to the patient reader. The story describes the relationship between the narrator and his developmentally disabled son -- a common theme for Oe, who has talked in interviews about raising his developmentally disabled son, Hikari, and the influence of that experience on his work.
AGHWEE THE SKY MONSTER: Another story that seems inspired by Oe's real-life experience of raising his son. The narrator, a college student, is hired as a companion to a brilliant composer who has almost completely withdrawn from the world. The explanation given for the composer's odd behavior mirrors the central plot in A PERSONAL MATTER (with a key difference).
That said, summaries of themes and plot don't do Oe justice, in the same way that describing a strawberry can only feebly transmit the experience of eating one. It’s unfortunate that, despite winning the Nobel Prize, he’s not as widely read as other contemporary Japanese authors.
October 7, 2019
Japon yazarları ne zaman okusam hayatımın sadeleşmeye, yavaşlamaya başladığını hissederim. Ōe de aynı etkiyi yaptı. Yine bütün gün ütü yapmak, sokaklarda saatlerce yürümek, miso çorbası içip pencereden telaşsızca yağmuru seyretmek istedim. Okuduğu kitabın şeklini alan bir okurum galiba biraz, Rus edebiyatından bir şeyler okuyunca sürekli duygularımı sorguluyorum, İskandinav edebiyatına yönelince ailemi düşünüp duruyorum; Latin Amerika edebiyatı söz konusuysa ufaktan çıldırıyorum. Şaka bir yana, gerçekten edebiyat ruh hâlini etkiliyor bence. Bunu üniversitede Rus Dili-Edebiyatı ve Fransız Dili-Edebiyatı öğrencileri olan arkadaşlarımın tavırlarındaki, düşünme biçimlerindeki farklılığı fark edince düşünmeye başlamıştım.
Kitaba gelirsek, ismini veren öyküyü çok sevdim, zaten kardeşlik ilişkisinin alt metinde bulunduğu çoğu öyküyü seviyorum; ama beni asıl vuran öykü Bizi Delilikten Kurtar oldu. Şişman Adam ve oğlu Eeyore'u hâlâ düşünüyorum ve belli ki bundan sonra da sık sık hatırlayacağım bu ikiliyi, hele de bisiklet görürsem...
Ōe, yavaş ve derin bir kazı yapar gibi yazıyor bence. Başta çok basit görünen öyküler her satırda biraz daha genişliyor, katmerleniyor. Çok keyifli bir okuma oldu benim için. Çeviri de gayet güzeldi.
Kitaba gelirsek, ismini veren öyküyü çok sevdim, zaten kardeşlik ilişkisinin alt metinde bulunduğu çoğu öyküyü seviyorum; ama beni asıl vuran öykü Bizi Delilikten Kurtar oldu. Şişman Adam ve oğlu Eeyore'u hâlâ düşünüyorum ve belli ki bundan sonra da sık sık hatırlayacağım bu ikiliyi, hele de bisiklet görürsem...
Ōe, yavaş ve derin bir kazı yapar gibi yazıyor bence. Başta çok basit görünen öyküler her satırda biraz daha genişliyor, katmerleniyor. Çok keyifli bir okuma oldu benim için. Çeviri de gayet güzeldi.
June 2, 2015
یک رمان جنون آمیز و سخت روانکاوانه، از نویسنده ای آسیایی طبق معمول سرشار از توصیفات و بازی های لفظی است ولی دقت و موشکافی در جهت پرداخت درونیات صرف شده و نه پرداختن به اوهام و خیالات، ترجمه اثر نسبتا قدیمی است ومتاسفانه نسخه ی من چند صفحه ای سفید و چاپ نشده داشت. در مجموع از قدرت ذهن نویسنده بسیار لذت بردم.
January 28, 2021
Üç uzun öyküden oluşan bu kitap, daha önce ayrı ayrı basılmış şimdi ise bir arada.
İlk öykü Kurbanı Beslemek. Savaş sırası köylerinin ormanına düşen bir uçaktaki düşman askerinin ele geçirilmesiyle başlıyor hikaye. Çocukların köye gelen değişikliğe - düşman dahi olsa- mutlulukları, belirli bir süreden sonra herkesin herkese alışabileceğini, ama ille de en önemlisinin de can olduğunu anlatıyor yazar bize.
Delilikten Kurtar Beni ise ikinci öykü. Ben tarz olarak Kişisel Bir Sorun’un devamı hissine kapıldım. Hikayede bir baba ve engelli ( kitapta inatla özürlü denmesi beni üzüyor.🥺) çocuğu arasında, babasının kurduklarına inandığı bağı anlatıyor. Çocuğun yeni doğduğunda beyninde oluşan bir sorun ile ameliyat edilmesi ve ölüm riskinin yüksek olması detayı bana kişisel bir sorun’u hatırlattı. Ama yazarın kendi çocuğunun da engelli olduğu düşünülürse, bu konuda elbette birden fazla kez yazmıştır.
Üçüncü hikaye ise Gözyaşlarımı Sileceği Gün. Ben bu öyküyü pek beğenmedim. Tek derdi annesinin yanına gelmesi olan bir hasta anlatılıyor. Farklı bir yazım tarzı ( ya da benim okuduklarıma benzemeyen.) denemiş.
İlk öykü Kurbanı Beslemek. Savaş sırası köylerinin ormanına düşen bir uçaktaki düşman askerinin ele geçirilmesiyle başlıyor hikaye. Çocukların köye gelen değişikliğe - düşman dahi olsa- mutlulukları, belirli bir süreden sonra herkesin herkese alışabileceğini, ama ille de en önemlisinin de can olduğunu anlatıyor yazar bize.
Delilikten Kurtar Beni ise ikinci öykü. Ben tarz olarak Kişisel Bir Sorun’un devamı hissine kapıldım. Hikayede bir baba ve engelli ( kitapta inatla özürlü denmesi beni üzüyor.🥺) çocuğu arasında, babasının kurduklarına inandığı bağı anlatıyor. Çocuğun yeni doğduğunda beyninde oluşan bir sorun ile ameliyat edilmesi ve ölüm riskinin yüksek olması detayı bana kişisel bir sorun’u hatırlattı. Ama yazarın kendi çocuğunun da engelli olduğu düşünülürse, bu konuda elbette birden fazla kez yazmıştır.
Üçüncü hikaye ise Gözyaşlarımı Sileceği Gün. Ben bu öyküyü pek beğenmedim. Tek derdi annesinin yanına gelmesi olan bir hasta anlatılıyor. Farklı bir yazım tarzı ( ya da benim okuduklarıma benzemeyen.) denemiş.
May 4, 2021
Çok sevdiğim yazar Mişima'nın 'yaşayan en büyük Japon yazarlardan' dediği Kenzaburo Oe ile ilk defa tanışma fırsatını yakaladım. Mişima kalbimde yedeği olmayan, yeri dolmayan bir yazar. Biraz fazla geç kaldığım bir tanışma olmasından dolayı ne kadar utansam da beni Kenzaburo okumaya iten Mişima'dır. Bu tanışma sıralaması biraz rahatlatıcı ve isabetli diyebilirim.
3 uzun öyküden oluşan bu eserde esas vuruşu yapan öykü kesinlikle Kurbanı Beslemek.
"Bizlere evcil hayvan gibi görünen zenci askerin bir zamanlar savaşan bir asker olduğuna inanamıyor, çeşitli olasılıkları aklımızdan kovuyorduk. Zenci asker takım çantasına baktıktan sonra bakışlarını bize çevirdi. Bizse içimiz sevinçten kıpır kıpır, onu izliyorduk."
" Savaş işte böyle merhametsiz bir şey. Çocukların parmaklarına kadar parçalıyor."
Kenzaburo tanıdığım diğer Japon yazarların aksine klasik bir dile sahip. Anlatımı dolaylı ve süslü de değil. Sebep ve sonuç net. Abartısız anlatımın yanı sıra olay her ne ise sebep olduğu sonuçta gün gibi ortada. Yazar okuru sorgulamaya fırsat vermeden bir anda çekip vuruyor. Tam olarak hissiyatım bu.
Şimdi kitaba esas ismini veren Kurbanı Beslemek öyküsüne 5 yıldız vermek istiyorum.
Diğer öyküleri bunun yanında birazcık zayıf kalmış bile olsa kitaba ismini veren bu öykünün hatırına genel olarak puanım 4 yıldız.
3 uzun öyküden oluşan bu eserde esas vuruşu yapan öykü kesinlikle Kurbanı Beslemek.
"Bizlere evcil hayvan gibi görünen zenci askerin bir zamanlar savaşan bir asker olduğuna inanamıyor, çeşitli olasılıkları aklımızdan kovuyorduk. Zenci asker takım çantasına baktıktan sonra bakışlarını bize çevirdi. Bizse içimiz sevinçten kıpır kıpır, onu izliyorduk."
" Savaş işte böyle merhametsiz bir şey. Çocukların parmaklarına kadar parçalıyor."
Kenzaburo tanıdığım diğer Japon yazarların aksine klasik bir dile sahip. Anlatımı dolaylı ve süslü de değil. Sebep ve sonuç net. Abartısız anlatımın yanı sıra olay her ne ise sebep olduğu sonuçta gün gibi ortada. Yazar okuru sorgulamaya fırsat vermeden bir anda çekip vuruyor. Tam olarak hissiyatım bu.
Şimdi kitaba esas ismini veren Kurbanı Beslemek öyküsüne 5 yıldız vermek istiyorum.
Diğer öyküleri bunun yanında birazcık zayıf kalmış bile olsa kitaba ismini veren bu öykünün hatırına genel olarak puanım 4 yıldız.
November 13, 2022
this book is comprised of four novellas, and i read the shorter three for a postwar japan course in 2016. all of these stories feature children at the fore, and all are dark, sometimes disgusting, and ultimately quite sad.
prize stock, a disturbing story about a small japanese village which takes a black US soldier captive, is particularly memorable because of the multifaceted racial stuff going on. teach us to outgrow our madness and aghwee the sky monster are both unsettling and surreal.
it took me until 2021 to get around to reading the longest work, the day he himself shall wipe my tears away, since it's quite difficult to get through. even the translator's introduction warns that it's a tough read. there's very little punctuation, some sentences go on for half a page, and some paragraphs go on for several pages.
but i suppose this is reflective of the narrator's mental state. he lies on his deathbed, narrating his memoirs as he eagerly awaits his death of (possibly imagined) liver cancer. he recalls his wartime childhood in a small village in japan, and the trauma associated with the emperor's admission of defeat.
this novella's title is from the lyric of a song sung by soldiers as they enact an absurd coup. they pledge their refusal to accept defeat, and their devotion and desire to die for the emperor:
loyalty to one's family and loyalty to one's country are both deeply ingrained in a collectivist culture, and our narrator was horrified by the expectation to betray both. it's particularly traumatic to have to do so at a formative age, and with his much-idolized father (referred to as a certain party) rapidly declining into isolation.
i wasn't sure if the main reason he wished to die was to hurt his antagonistic mother, or to finally be free to admit defeat and escape the torment of his memories. dark stuff, and very interesting in the context of the shifting culture of postwar japan.
prize stock, a disturbing story about a small japanese village which takes a black US soldier captive, is particularly memorable because of the multifaceted racial stuff going on. teach us to outgrow our madness and aghwee the sky monster are both unsettling and surreal.
it took me until 2021 to get around to reading the longest work, the day he himself shall wipe my tears away, since it's quite difficult to get through. even the translator's introduction warns that it's a tough read. there's very little punctuation, some sentences go on for half a page, and some paragraphs go on for several pages.
but i suppose this is reflective of the narrator's mental state. he lies on his deathbed, narrating his memoirs as he eagerly awaits his death of (possibly imagined) liver cancer. he recalls his wartime childhood in a small village in japan, and the trauma associated with the emperor's admission of defeat.
this novella's title is from the lyric of a song sung by soldiers as they enact an absurd coup. they pledge their refusal to accept defeat, and their devotion and desire to die for the emperor:
His Majesty the Emperor wipes my tears away with his own hand, Death, you come ahead, you brother of Sleep you come ahead, his Majesty will wipe my tears way with his own hand.
loyalty to one's family and loyalty to one's country are both deeply ingrained in a collectivist culture, and our narrator was horrified by the expectation to betray both. it's particularly traumatic to have to do so at a formative age, and with his much-idolized father (referred to as a certain party) rapidly declining into isolation.
i wasn't sure if the main reason he wished to die was to hurt his antagonistic mother, or to finally be free to admit defeat and escape the torment of his memories. dark stuff, and very interesting in the context of the shifting culture of postwar japan.
Read
January 31, 2021Completed 2 of the 4 novellas in this one:
"Aghwee the Sky Monster"
"The Days He Himself Shall Wipe Away My Tears"
Kenzaburō Ōe's 2 novellas / short stories "Aghwee the Sky Monster" and "The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away" left major impressions earlier this month. Both are meditations on death and grief and characters' memories and coping mechanisms through trauma. Children and childhood seem to play a role in many of Ōe's works, as it did in both these novellas - Aghwee features the ghost of a deceased infant, and "Tears" focused heavily on childhood memories of WWII.
Since I only read 2 of the 4 novellas in this one, I will be back to read the other 2 - the titular "Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness" and "Prize Stock".
📝All stories in this collection were translated from the Japanese by John Nathan.
Ōe is one of the three Literature #NobelPrize winners from Japan (Kawabata & Ishiguro are the others) and has several novels in translation as well. I know a few readers shared his "Death by Water" and "A Personal Matter" novels this month. I want to read more of his work.
"Aghwee the Sky Monster"
"The Days He Himself Shall Wipe Away My Tears"
Kenzaburō Ōe's 2 novellas / short stories "Aghwee the Sky Monster" and "The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away" left major impressions earlier this month. Both are meditations on death and grief and characters' memories and coping mechanisms through trauma. Children and childhood seem to play a role in many of Ōe's works, as it did in both these novellas - Aghwee features the ghost of a deceased infant, and "Tears" focused heavily on childhood memories of WWII.
Since I only read 2 of the 4 novellas in this one, I will be back to read the other 2 - the titular "Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness" and "Prize Stock".
📝All stories in this collection were translated from the Japanese by John Nathan.
Ōe is one of the three Literature #NobelPrize winners from Japan (Kawabata & Ishiguro are the others) and has several novels in translation as well. I know a few readers shared his "Death by Water" and "A Personal Matter" novels this month. I want to read more of his work.
February 29, 2012
Prize stock:
In real life, I visited Kenzaburo's hometown and I tripped around like I tripped around Wordsworth's Lake District cottage, delighting at the old stuff and the nature. I even thought it was hilarious to sing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcmcXr....
From this story, it turns out that the pretty mountain village, with its Edo period street and kabuki theatre, was actually a nightmare wasteland. Post-apocalyptic to the max (whilst remaining vague about the nature of the apocalypse, or if there even was one). Isolated from civilization (if it still exists) and with the war pressing in from the treeline, feral kids run around fondling themselves and each other. Everyone stinks and sleeps on the floors of rooms that, in happier times, were used for industry. Such poverty! Not sexy poverty like "The sound of waves". This is mental poverty like "The woman in the dunes".
It's such the opposite of furusato, I'm not convinced that it's Japanese.
The day He himself shall wipe my tears away:
Oe re-wrote "Teach us to outgrow our madness" (great title) in response to the Mishima Incident, and called it "The day He himself shall wipe my tears away" (great title). It's very nuts and difficult to read, but nuts and difficult to read in a classic "literary fiction" way. Whereas "Prize stock" was a nice story about fucking mental, this feels more familiar. I really liked that it felt, at times, that Oe was taking Mishima to task for taking Morita Masakatsu with him.
In real life, I visited Kenzaburo's hometown and I tripped around like I tripped around Wordsworth's Lake District cottage, delighting at the old stuff and the nature. I even thought it was hilarious to sing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcmcXr....
From this story, it turns out that the pretty mountain village, with its Edo period street and kabuki theatre, was actually a nightmare wasteland. Post-apocalyptic to the max (whilst remaining vague about the nature of the apocalypse, or if there even was one). Isolated from civilization (if it still exists) and with the war pressing in from the treeline, feral kids run around fondling themselves and each other. Everyone stinks and sleeps on the floors of rooms that, in happier times, were used for industry. Such poverty! Not sexy poverty like "The sound of waves". This is mental poverty like "The woman in the dunes".
It's such the opposite of furusato, I'm not convinced that it's Japanese.
The day He himself shall wipe my tears away:
Oe re-wrote "Teach us to outgrow our madness" (great title) in response to the Mishima Incident, and called it "The day He himself shall wipe my tears away" (great title). It's very nuts and difficult to read, but nuts and difficult to read in a classic "literary fiction" way. Whereas "Prize stock" was a nice story about fucking mental, this feels more familiar. I really liked that it felt, at times, that Oe was taking Mishima to task for taking Morita Masakatsu with him.
October 27, 2008
Incredible. Astonished. This is one of those books that puts tiny fingers in between the breaches in what one thought was a continuous idea of the possible in a book, and breaks it apart, leaving and making use of these fascinating new spaces. It is embarassing but I felt as if this book were a hose pumping a fuel hungry to be used, designed only for me, into my brain. It gets better and better.
My organs are too destroyed to write any meaningful analysis, so: FUCKING BRILLIANT.
My organs are too destroyed to write any meaningful analysis, so: FUCKING BRILLIANT.
September 6, 2012
I think I'm done with this book. One of these stories strangled me in my sleep, one of them sort of angrily shouted at me until I had learned my lesson, and one of them made me feel absolutely terrible up until the very end, whereupon, once more, I felt absolutely nothing. I don't want to know what's behind door number 4 for right now. I'm satisfied -- if you can call it that. But, mind you, all of these things I relate as stress on my body were actually... in a weird way... enjoyable? Is that the word?
The first story took a long, long time to read. "The Day He Himself Shall Wipe my Tears Away" is probably the sickest thing I've ever read. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, but it was just so painfully graphic in the most mentally aggravating way, and written (and translated?) in the most obtuse, indecipherable style. I took a break near the middle, waited two days, and then went back and took the last 60 pages in a sitting of pure terror. This man got a Noble Prize for literature for being the most disturbed Japanese author to ever try to make sense of his universe.
"Prize Stock" was sort of just annoying, but a lot easier to read and a whole different set of concepts to go with it. Go misguided empathy. Woo!
"Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness" was my favorite part. Although that's not exactly hard, it was just so pure, so humble, so unrelentingly sad that I could not help but feel rewarded every time I turned the page. The language erupts in a beautiful overlap of flow and metaphor, and suddenly you have lines like:
"Even if I escape all that, I'll probably go mad in thirty seconds of so--if it was madness that drove my father to confine himself for all those years until he died, how can I escape madness myself when his blood runs in me? ...when madness converts the passageway itself into a ruined maze, he'll have to back up into a state of idiocy even darker than before"
This is where Oe gets the majority of his praise, I'd hope. While I totally recognize the merits of a piece like "The Day He Himself..." it's just so long, deep, and filled to the brim with everything scholarly fantastic that it deserves to be written in a style that's pleasurable, or at least rewarding, to read. It shouldn't be a chore. It was. I will, however, say that after reading the introduction, I really want to read Homo Sexualis and A Personal Matter, but most importantly I want to read a biography of this man. A portrait would be nice.
"...can you stand to think of him having nightmares he can't make any sense of?"
The first story took a long, long time to read. "The Day He Himself Shall Wipe my Tears Away" is probably the sickest thing I've ever read. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, but it was just so painfully graphic in the most mentally aggravating way, and written (and translated?) in the most obtuse, indecipherable style. I took a break near the middle, waited two days, and then went back and took the last 60 pages in a sitting of pure terror. This man got a Noble Prize for literature for being the most disturbed Japanese author to ever try to make sense of his universe.
"Prize Stock" was sort of just annoying, but a lot easier to read and a whole different set of concepts to go with it. Go misguided empathy. Woo!
"Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness" was my favorite part. Although that's not exactly hard, it was just so pure, so humble, so unrelentingly sad that I could not help but feel rewarded every time I turned the page. The language erupts in a beautiful overlap of flow and metaphor, and suddenly you have lines like:
"Even if I escape all that, I'll probably go mad in thirty seconds of so--if it was madness that drove my father to confine himself for all those years until he died, how can I escape madness myself when his blood runs in me? ...when madness converts the passageway itself into a ruined maze, he'll have to back up into a state of idiocy even darker than before"
This is where Oe gets the majority of his praise, I'd hope. While I totally recognize the merits of a piece like "The Day He Himself..." it's just so long, deep, and filled to the brim with everything scholarly fantastic that it deserves to be written in a style that's pleasurable, or at least rewarding, to read. It shouldn't be a chore. It was. I will, however, say that after reading the introduction, I really want to read Homo Sexualis and A Personal Matter, but most importantly I want to read a biography of this man. A portrait would be nice.
"...can you stand to think of him having nightmares he can't make any sense of?"
August 1, 2018
داستان اول -روزی که او خود...- در مورد توهمات پیچیده با واقعیت یه مرد سی و پنج ساله بیست سال بعد از شکست ژاپن در جنگ جهانیه و به نظر میاد که تجارب شخصی نویسنده اثرات زیادی روش داشته.
داستان دوم هم راوی قصهای از آشنایی و ماجراهای شخصیت اصلی کتاب با آهنگسازیه که مسئول مرگ کودک تازه به دنیا اومدهاش بوده و در نتیجه دچار جنون شده. این داستان هم با زندگی شخصی نویسنده نزدیکی زیادب داره.
در هر دو داستان تشخیص واقعیت در بین تمامی اتفاقات و روایات سخته و ناممکن.
به علاوه ترجمه خوبی داره و مترجم تونسته با رندی از زیر تیغ سانسور بگذره و به متن وفادار بمونه.
به به.
داستان دوم هم راوی قصهای از آشنایی و ماجراهای شخصیت اصلی کتاب با آهنگسازیه که مسئول مرگ کودک تازه به دنیا اومدهاش بوده و در نتیجه دچار جنون شده. این داستان هم با زندگی شخصی نویسنده نزدیکی زیادب داره.
در هر دو داستان تشخیص واقعیت در بین تمامی اتفاقات و روایات سخته و ناممکن.
به علاوه ترجمه خوبی داره و مترجم تونسته با رندی از زیر تیغ سانسور بگذره و به متن وفادار بمونه.
به به.
March 28, 2017
Realismo bordeando lo visceral, fantasías paranoicas que son pretextos para llegar a la verdad.
Öe es un mundo al cual no creo que muchos gusten entrar, ni mantenerse; puesto que su literatura muestra la existencia sin filtros, esa que nos avergüenza un poco, que preferimos mirar para un lado.
Öe es un mundo al cual no creo que muchos gusten entrar, ni mantenerse; puesto que su literatura muestra la existencia sin filtros, esa que nos avergüenza un poco, que preferimos mirar para un lado.
April 3, 2010
الكتاب عبارة عن أربع روايات قصيرة (أو يمكن قصص طويلة!)
علمنا أن نتجاوز جنوننا: تتحدث عن ارتباط فوق معتاد بين اب وابنه، الابن مصاب بعته منذ الولادة يمنعه من الكلام والتعبير عن نفسه والأب يعتقد انه حين يلمس اصبع ابنه فإن مشاعر ابنه تنتقل إليه وتنطلق من خلاله. هذه الرواية جاءت بعد ولادة الطفل الأول لكينزابورو، بورم في الدماغ.
الرواية الثانية في الكتاب (يوم يكفكف دمعي بنفسه) كانت فخاً، وحين انتصفت فيها مع شعوري بالضياع وصعوبة المواصلة عدت لقراءة مراجعات من سبقوني فوجدتهم ينصحون بإرجاء هذه الرواية للنهاية لصعوبتها!
الرواية عبارة عن سرد هذياني لشخص ثلاثيني راقد في مستشفى ومصاب بإلتهاب في الكبد لكنه يعتقد بشدة أنه مصاب بسرطان وأن الاطباء يحاولون اخفاء الحقيقة عنه، وهو متأكد انه موشك على الموت ولهذا يبدأ بسرد تاريخ حياته على مدوّنة تستمع له وتسجل ما يقول، وتقاطعه لإستنكار التناقضات التي يقع فيها!
يتحدث بشكل خاص عن الأيام الاخيرة للحرب العالمية الثانية وهزيمة/استسلام اليابان، ذهاب شقيقه للحرب، موته، نقمة الأم لفقد ابنها وصدمة الأب إثر إعلان الهزيمة.
الروايتين القصيرتين المتبقيتن هما الأجمل:
الجزاء: أسير زنجي يقع في قبضة اهل القرية اليابانية ومع الوقت يتحول لصديق للأطفال حتى جاءت لحظة تسليمه للسلطات. القصة مدهشة ومتجاوزة للتوقعات ولطيفة جداً لأن السارد فيها طفل.
مسخ أجو�� السماوي: شاب صغير يحصل على وظيفته الأولى وهي باختصار مرافقة مجنون موسيقي يعتقد أن ابنه الميت يعود أحيانا ليحادثه متخذا هيئة طفل عملاق يلبس بيجامة ويتقافز كـ كينجارو. مع مرور الوقع نكتشف مع المرافق التفسيرات الواقعية لهذه الرؤى لكن المرافق ذاته يبدأ يؤمن بوجود أجوي. أعتقد ان هذه هي أجمل قصص المجموعة!
بشكل عام أفكار كينازبورو مدهشة، وثيماته إنسانية وشخصياته مختلفة وعميقة.الحرب كانت حاضرة بشدة في كتاباته والأطفال الذين يولدون مشوهين، متأثراً بتجربته الشخصية مع ابنه.
"عندما تبدأ حربٌ في تهشيم اصابع الصبية فإنها تكون قد مضت أبعد مما يط��ق. لكنها لا يمكن أن تمضي أبعد من ذلك. ~ كينزابورو أوي"
علمنا أن نتجاوز جنوننا: تتحدث عن ارتباط فوق معتاد بين اب وابنه، الابن مصاب بعته منذ الولادة يمنعه من الكلام والتعبير عن نفسه والأب يعتقد انه حين يلمس اصبع ابنه فإن مشاعر ابنه تنتقل إليه وتنطلق من خلاله. هذه الرواية جاءت بعد ولادة الطفل الأول لكينزابورو، بورم في الدماغ.
الرواية الثانية في الكتاب (يوم يكفكف دمعي بنفسه) كانت فخاً، وحين انتصفت فيها مع شعوري بالضياع وصعوبة المواصلة عدت لقراءة مراجعات من سبقوني فوجدتهم ينصحون بإرجاء هذه الرواية للنهاية لصعوبتها!
الرواية عبارة عن سرد هذياني لشخص ثلاثيني راقد في مستشفى ومصاب بإلتهاب في الكبد لكنه يعتقد بشدة أنه مصاب بسرطان وأن الاطباء يحاولون اخفاء الحقيقة عنه، وهو متأكد انه موشك على الموت ولهذا يبدأ بسرد تاريخ حياته على مدوّنة تستمع له وتسجل ما يقول، وتقاطعه لإستنكار التناقضات التي يقع فيها!
يتحدث بشكل خاص عن الأيام الاخيرة للحرب العالمية الثانية وهزيمة/استسلام اليابان، ذهاب شقيقه للحرب، موته، نقمة الأم لفقد ابنها وصدمة الأب إثر إعلان الهزيمة.
الروايتين القصيرتين المتبقيتن هما الأجمل:
الجزاء: أسير زنجي يقع في قبضة اهل القرية اليابانية ومع الوقت يتحول لصديق للأطفال حتى جاءت لحظة تسليمه للسلطات. القصة مدهشة ومتجاوزة للتوقعات ولطيفة جداً لأن السارد فيها طفل.
مسخ أجو�� السماوي: شاب صغير يحصل على وظيفته الأولى وهي باختصار مرافقة مجنون موسيقي يعتقد أن ابنه الميت يعود أحيانا ليحادثه متخذا هيئة طفل عملاق يلبس بيجامة ويتقافز كـ كينجارو. مع مرور الوقع نكتشف مع المرافق التفسيرات الواقعية لهذه الرؤى لكن المرافق ذاته يبدأ يؤمن بوجود أجوي. أعتقد ان هذه هي أجمل قصص المجموعة!
بشكل عام أفكار كينازبورو مدهشة، وثيماته إنسانية وشخصياته مختلفة وعميقة.الحرب كانت حاضرة بشدة في كتاباته والأطفال الذين يولدون مشوهين، متأثراً بتجربته الشخصية مع ابنه.
"عندما تبدأ حربٌ في تهشيم اصابع الصبية فإنها تكون قد مضت أبعد مما يط��ق. لكنها لا يمكن أن تمضي أبعد من ذلك. ~ كينزابورو أوي"
January 11, 2014
"من دیگر به هیچ وجه در زمان حال زندگی نمیکنم، دست کم به طور خوآگاه زنده نیستم.نمیدانم شما با قوانین حاکم بر سفر به گذشته در یک ماشین زمان آشنا هستید یا خیر؟ مثلا، مردی که به ده هزار سال قبل بازمی گردد، جرئت نمیکند در دنیای آن زمان دست به کاری بزند که احیانا اثری از او بماند. زیرا در حقیقت او ده هزار سال پیش در آن دنیا زندگی نمیکرده و چنانچه اثری از خود به جا بگذارد اثرش، حتی اگر خیلی ناچیز باشد، باز چیزی نخواهد بود مگر تغییر تمامی تاریخ ده هزار ساله ی بعد از آن.این قانون تغییر نمیکند و استثنا بردار هم نیست و چون من نیز دیگر به هبچ وجه در زمان حال زندگی نمیکنم، حق ندارم دست به کاری بزنم با عملی انجام دهم که اثری از من به جا بگذارد."
June 25, 2012
"كنزابورو أوي "
ما خلقته بي هو الاختلاف.. و الهذيان عالي القيمة!
أربع محاولات لخلق عالم مختلف
تبدأ بالجنون العاطفي لكافة أشكال التلاحم الروحي بين أب و ابنه..
ستتوقف بلحظات هامساً لنفسك أيعقل ؟!
لن أتحدث عن القصص لأن دهشة اكتشافها و استبصار عميق هذا الكاتب تستحق الدهشة الأولى!
مع التنبه لنوعية سرده الداخلي هذا الفن الصعب الذي لا يرحل بسهولة متى ما تمكن منك..
ملاحظة:
لا تدعوا القصة الثانية تعيق تقدمكم معه هي صعبة جداً و سترهقكم و لكن بديعة ♥
ما خلقته بي هو الاختلاف.. و الهذيان عالي القيمة!
أربع محاولات لخلق عالم مختلف
تبدأ بالجنون العاطفي لكافة أشكال التلاحم الروحي بين أب و ابنه..
ستتوقف بلحظات هامساً لنفسك أيعقل ؟!
لن أتحدث عن القصص لأن دهشة اكتشافها و استبصار عميق هذا الكاتب تستحق الدهشة الأولى!
مع التنبه لنوعية سرده الداخلي هذا الفن الصعب الذي لا يرحل بسهولة متى ما تمكن منك..
ملاحظة:
لا تدعوا القصة الثانية تعيق تقدمكم معه هي صعبة جداً و سترهقكم و لكن بديعة ♥
November 18, 2019
Dört yıldız ilk iki öyküye. Çevirideki sıkıntılara rağmen sevdim.
Gözyaşlarımı Sileceği Gün başlıklı son öyküyü okumadım.
Gözyaşlarımı Sileceği Gün başlıklı son öyküyü okumadım.
March 24, 2016
Sonofabitch! The shorter novella form works well for Oe here. Each story escalates a larger theme that runs through the book, though they were written years apart. This might be his masterpiece. Really 4.5 stars, but not an option. Subjectively, it's better than A Personal Matter. But it's not a 'perfect' book. Aw, whatever. It's a goddamn masterpiece.You even get Eeyore (twice, really). "Prize Stock" and "Aghwee the Sky Monster" will tear you open.
I could never sum up Oe better than this passage. God bless the man...
____Don’t forget, Eeyore, that seeing means grasping something with your imagination. Even if you were equipped with normal optic nerves you wouldn’t see a thing unless you felt like starting up your imagination about the animals here. Because the characters we’re running into here at the zoo are a different story from the animals we’re used to seeing every day that don’t require any imagination at all to grasp. Take those hard, brown boards with all the sharp ridges that are jammed up in that muddy water over there. Eeyore! how would anybody without an imagination know those boards were crocodiles? Or those two sheets of yellow metal slowly swaying back and forth down there next to that mound of straw and dung, how would you know that was the head and part of the back of a rhinoceros? Eeyore! you got a good look at that large, gray, tree-stump of a thing, well that happened to be one of an elephant’s ankles, but it’s perfectly natural that looking at it didn’t give you much of an impression that you’d seen an elephant—tell me, Eeyore, why should a little boy in an island country in Asia be born with an imagination for African elephants? Now if you should be asked when we get home whether you saw an elephant, just forget about that ridiculous hunk of tree-strump and think of the nice, accessible elephants like cartoons that you see in your picture books. And then go ahead and say, Eeyore saw an elephant! Not that the gray tree-stump back there isn’t the real thing, it is, that’s what they mean by a real elephant. But none of the normal children crowding this zoo is using genuine imagination to construct a real elephant from what he observes about that tree-stump; no, he’s just replacing what he sees with the cartoon elephants in his head, so no one has any reason to be disappointed because you weren’t so impressed when you encountered a real elephant!
Not much to be added to that. Essential Oe, as fantastic as anything he's ever done. Only chance at upending this is The Silent Cry which I'm holding off on until the bitter end of the translated Oe.
I could never sum up Oe better than this passage. God bless the man...
____Don’t forget, Eeyore, that seeing means grasping something with your imagination. Even if you were equipped with normal optic nerves you wouldn’t see a thing unless you felt like starting up your imagination about the animals here. Because the characters we’re running into here at the zoo are a different story from the animals we’re used to seeing every day that don’t require any imagination at all to grasp. Take those hard, brown boards with all the sharp ridges that are jammed up in that muddy water over there. Eeyore! how would anybody without an imagination know those boards were crocodiles? Or those two sheets of yellow metal slowly swaying back and forth down there next to that mound of straw and dung, how would you know that was the head and part of the back of a rhinoceros? Eeyore! you got a good look at that large, gray, tree-stump of a thing, well that happened to be one of an elephant’s ankles, but it’s perfectly natural that looking at it didn’t give you much of an impression that you’d seen an elephant—tell me, Eeyore, why should a little boy in an island country in Asia be born with an imagination for African elephants? Now if you should be asked when we get home whether you saw an elephant, just forget about that ridiculous hunk of tree-strump and think of the nice, accessible elephants like cartoons that you see in your picture books. And then go ahead and say, Eeyore saw an elephant! Not that the gray tree-stump back there isn’t the real thing, it is, that’s what they mean by a real elephant. But none of the normal children crowding this zoo is using genuine imagination to construct a real elephant from what he observes about that tree-stump; no, he’s just replacing what he sees with the cartoon elephants in his head, so no one has any reason to be disappointed because you weren’t so impressed when you encountered a real elephant!
Not much to be added to that. Essential Oe, as fantastic as anything he's ever done. Only chance at upending this is The Silent Cry which I'm holding off on until the bitter end of the translated Oe.
February 5, 2016
دو داستان فضای مرموزی دارن و من وقتی که مقدمه رو خوندم گره های داستانی واسم باز شد
هرکدوم از داستانا از یکی از مهمترین اتفاقاتی که برای افتاده نویسنده افتاده الهام گرفته شدن و رنگ و بوی اساطیری به خودشون گرفته ن
بشخصه زیاد دوست نداشتم داستانها رو هرچند خوب بودن!
ترجمه جالبی هم نداشت!!
هرکدوم از داستانا از یکی از مهمترین اتفاقاتی که برای افتاده نویسنده افتاده الهام گرفته شدن و رنگ و بوی اساطیری به خودشون گرفته ن
بشخصه زیاد دوست نداشتم داستانها رو هرچند خوب بودن!
ترجمه جالبی هم نداشت!!
July 23, 2016
Bu yazının orijinali (ve daha iyi görüneni) canlabirsene'de yayınlandı.
Başıma gelecekleri bilseydim, Kenzaburo Oe'nin Kurbanı Beslemek'te yer alan üç öyküsünü peş peşe okumazdım; her ay birini okurdum. Burnuma dışkı, sidik ve ter kokularının dolmasıyla başlayan yolculukta yüzüme tokat üstüne tokat ineceğini nereden bilebilirdim ki? Tüm bunlar iyi anlamda tabii. Kenzaburo Oe, bana çok sevdiğim Marquez'i anımsattı. Bunu korkusuzluğuyla, gerçeklikle büyüyü harmanlamasıyla, güzellikle çirkinliği bir araya getirmesiyle ve insanların içindeki en karanlık köşeleri pat pat dışarı vurmasıyla yaptı. Ve her hikâyenin satır aralarında da farklı türlerde delilik, delilik, delilik... Ya da "deli" olarak algılananlar diyelim.
Farklı kültürlere ışık tutan hikâyeleri seviyorum ancak Kenzaburo Oe'nin daha genel, küresel bakış açısını da çok sevdim. Kurbanı Beslemek, Delilikten Kurtar Bizi veya Gözyaşlarımı Sileceğim Gün herhangi bir ülkede, herhangi bir toplumda geçmiş olabilirdi. Tabii ki spoiler vererek heyecanı mahvetmek istemiyorum, o yüzden şöyle diyeyim: bu hikâyelerde insanların geçmişten kaçamayışını, kendilerini ararken etraflarını gözlemlemeyi unutuşlarını, insanoğlunun hele ki güveni, kendini inandırdığı yalanlar yıkılınca ne kadar acımasız olabileceğini, yalnızlığın, dışlanmışlığın, farklı olmanın insanı nasıl deliliğe itebileceğini göreceksiniz. Kenzaburo Oe, karakterlerini gerçekten çok zor durumlara sokuyor ve bu durumlardan sıyrılma konusunda da onları kendi hallerine bırakıyor.
Başıma gelecekleri bilseydim, Kenzaburo Oe'nin Kurbanı Beslemek'te yer alan üç öyküsünü peş peşe okumazdım; her ay birini okurdum. Burnuma dışkı, sidik ve ter kokularının dolmasıyla başlayan yolculukta yüzüme tokat üstüne tokat ineceğini nereden bilebilirdim ki? Tüm bunlar iyi anlamda tabii. Kenzaburo Oe, bana çok sevdiğim Marquez'i anımsattı. Bunu korkusuzluğuyla, gerçeklikle büyüyü harmanlamasıyla, güzellikle çirkinliği bir araya getirmesiyle ve insanların içindeki en karanlık köşeleri pat pat dışarı vurmasıyla yaptı. Ve her hikâyenin satır aralarında da farklı türlerde delilik, delilik, delilik... Ya da "deli" olarak algılananlar diyelim.
Farklı kültürlere ışık tutan hikâyeleri seviyorum ancak Kenzaburo Oe'nin daha genel, küresel bakış açısını da çok sevdim. Kurbanı Beslemek, Delilikten Kurtar Bizi veya Gözyaşlarımı Sileceğim Gün herhangi bir ülkede, herhangi bir toplumda geçmiş olabilirdi. Tabii ki spoiler vererek heyecanı mahvetmek istemiyorum, o yüzden şöyle diyeyim: bu hikâyelerde insanların geçmişten kaçamayışını, kendilerini ararken etraflarını gözlemlemeyi unutuşlarını, insanoğlunun hele ki güveni, kendini inandırdığı yalanlar yıkılınca ne kadar acımasız olabileceğini, yalnızlığın, dışlanmışlığın, farklı olmanın insanı nasıl deliliğe itebileceğini göreceksiniz. Kenzaburo Oe, karakterlerini gerçekten çok zor durumlara sokuyor ve bu durumlardan sıyrılma konusunda da onları kendi hallerine bırakıyor.
June 14, 2021
Eser üç uzun öyküden oluşuyor.
Daha önceki yıllarda bu kitabı üç ayrı kitap olarak basmış Can Yayınları. Bu en son baskı ise muhteşem bir üçü bir arada olmuş.
1. KURBANI BESLEMEK
Savaş sırasında Japonya’nın ücra bir köyüne bir savaş uçağı düşer. İçindeki siyahi Amerikan askeri köylüler tarafından tutsak edilir ve tutsaklık süresince bir çocuk tarafından beslenir.
Çok çarpıcı bir şekilde başlayan ve sürprizlerle devam eden bu uzun öyküyü bir solukta okudum ve tadı damağımda kaldı. İyilik ve kötülük kavramlarının çocukluk ve yetişkinlik üzerinden ustalıkla işlenme şekli yüreğime yer etti.
2. DELİLİKTEN KURTAR BİZİ
Birincisinden geri kalmayacak muhteşemlikte bir kurgu, nefis betimlemeler ve kalifiye kalem işçiliği. Zihinsel engelli bir evlat ve ona kendini adamış bir baba. Bu durumun bir nesil öncesine varan kökleri. Babanın özgürleşme sürecini yazmış Kenzo. Çok da güzel yazmış yahu... Görmek üzerine çok okuma yaptım bugün dek, bu kadar beni sarsanına ilk kez denk geldim. Bir nobel değil beş nobel eder bu öykü... Hala okumadıysanız kaçırmayın derim.
3. GÖZYAŞLARIMI SİLECEĞİ GÜN
İlk yirmi sayfasında oldukça çaba isteyen metin, ilerleyen sayfalarda yerini akıcı bir olay örgüsüne bırakıyor. Savaşta esir düşen üvey abinin, ölümü kabullenip teslim olması için direten bir baba... Buna karşın karşı cepheye geçmesini ve yaşamasını savunan bir anne...Anne ve baba arasındaki düşmanlık... Sakin kafayla, sindire sindire okunması gereken, üzerinden kaç yıl geçerse geçsin anımsanacak bir eser.
Üç öyküyü de çok sevdim.
5/5 gelsin. En yıldızlısından.
Daha önceki yıllarda bu kitabı üç ayrı kitap olarak basmış Can Yayınları. Bu en son baskı ise muhteşem bir üçü bir arada olmuş.
1. KURBANI BESLEMEK
Savaş sırasında Japonya’nın ücra bir köyüne bir savaş uçağı düşer. İçindeki siyahi Amerikan askeri köylüler tarafından tutsak edilir ve tutsaklık süresince bir çocuk tarafından beslenir.
Çok çarpıcı bir şekilde başlayan ve sürprizlerle devam eden bu uzun öyküyü bir solukta okudum ve tadı damağımda kaldı. İyilik ve kötülük kavramlarının çocukluk ve yetişkinlik üzerinden ustalıkla işlenme şekli yüreğime yer etti.
2. DELİLİKTEN KURTAR BİZİ
Birincisinden geri kalmayacak muhteşemlikte bir kurgu, nefis betimlemeler ve kalifiye kalem işçiliği. Zihinsel engelli bir evlat ve ona kendini adamış bir baba. Bu durumun bir nesil öncesine varan kökleri. Babanın özgürleşme sürecini yazmış Kenzo. Çok da güzel yazmış yahu... Görmek üzerine çok okuma yaptım bugün dek, bu kadar beni sarsanına ilk kez denk geldim. Bir nobel değil beş nobel eder bu öykü... Hala okumadıysanız kaçırmayın derim.
3. GÖZYAŞLARIMI SİLECEĞİ GÜN
İlk yirmi sayfasında oldukça çaba isteyen metin, ilerleyen sayfalarda yerini akıcı bir olay örgüsüne bırakıyor. Savaşta esir düşen üvey abinin, ölümü kabullenip teslim olması için direten bir baba... Buna karşın karşı cepheye geçmesini ve yaşamasını savunan bir anne...Anne ve baba arasındaki düşmanlık... Sakin kafayla, sindire sindire okunması gereken, üzerinden kaç yıl geçerse geçsin anımsanacak bir eser.
Üç öyküyü de çok sevdim.
5/5 gelsin. En yıldızlısından.
June 12, 2018
Özellikle ilk hikaye inanılmaz etkileyici. Ancak ikinci ve üçüncü hikayelerde yer yer zor takip edilen akış, çeviri üzerinde tereddütlerimin oluşmasına neden oldu.
September 30, 2024
4.5*
این دومین کتابیه که از اوئه میخونم و باید اعتراف کنم که با خوندن همین دو کتاب، به نبوغ زیاد ��ین نویسنده پی بردم و علاقه مند شدم تمامی آثار ترجمه شده اش رو بخونم!
کتاب حاضر شامل دو داستانه:
داستان اول مربوط به مردی بستری در بیمارستان روانیه که مشغول تعریف کردن گذشته اش و برهه ای از زندگیشه که از اون به عنوان «روزهای خوش» یاد میکنه..
وقتی مرد از دوران کودکیش صحبت میکنه، شاید بشه علت تمامی مشکلات روحی و روانی ای که الآن باهاشون دست به گریبانه رو تا حدودی متوجه شد!
مشکلاتی که گویا از رفتار سنگدلانه ی مادرش و پیامدهای جنگ در دوران کودکیش نشأت گرفته ان!
قسمت جالب این داستان این بود که اصلا نمیشد حدس زد حرفهای مرد و داستانهایی که از گذشته تعریف میکنه درسته یا روایتهای مادر که در اکثر مواقع عکس روایتهای پسرش هستن!
ترجمه ی این داستان اصلا خوب نبود، به خصوص چند صفحه ی اول، ولی کمی که به ترجمه عادت کردم و اصل داستان که شروع شد همه چیز کمی بهتر و قابل تحملتر شد…
داستان دوم مربوط به آهنگساز جوانیه که فرزندش با مشکلی مغزی(گویا فتق مغزی) متولد شده و مرد با همدستی پزشکها اون رو به قتل میرسونه!
(اوئه در زندگی واقعیش همچین مسئله ای رو تجربه کرده و با الهام از همین تجربه، کتاب یک مسئله ی شخصی رو نوشته و حالا مجددا توی این داستان هم، به اون اتفاق اشاره کرده!
مشخصه که این تجربه تاثیر بزرگی توی زندگی شخصی و حتی زندگی حرفه ایش داشته!)
حالا مرد در زمان متوقف شده و دائما با موجودی خیالی که گویا همون فرزند کشته شده اش هست و از آسمان به زمین میاد ملاقات میکنه.
البته در پایان داستان اتفاقی میوفته که مثل داستان اول، تشخیص یک سری مسائل و راست و حقیقی بودن اصل داستان زیر سوال میره…
ترجمه ی این داستان بر خلاف داستان اول، خیلی خوب بود!
هر دو داستان به شدت از جنبه ی روانشناختی قابل تأمل هستن،
علاوه بر اون پیچیدگی و جذابیت بالایی داشتن و با اینکه کمی هم ناراحت کننده بودن(به خصوص داستان اول) ولی من از خوندنشون به شدت لذت بردم..!
این دومین کتابیه که از اوئه میخونم و باید اعتراف کنم که با خوندن همین دو کتاب، به نبوغ زیاد ��ین نویسنده پی بردم و علاقه مند شدم تمامی آثار ترجمه شده اش رو بخونم!
کتاب حاضر شامل دو داستانه:
داستان اول مربوط به مردی بستری در بیمارستان روانیه که مشغول تعریف کردن گذشته اش و برهه ای از زندگیشه که از اون به عنوان «روزهای خوش» یاد میکنه..
وقتی مرد از دوران کودکیش صحبت میکنه، شاید بشه علت تمامی مشکلات روحی و روانی ای که الآن باهاشون دست به گریبانه رو تا حدودی متوجه شد!
مشکلاتی که گویا از رفتار سنگدلانه ی مادرش و پیامدهای جنگ در دوران کودکیش نشأت گرفته ان!
قسمت جالب این داستان این بود که اصلا نمیشد حدس زد حرفهای مرد و داستانهایی که از گذشته تعریف میکنه درسته یا روایتهای مادر که در اکثر مواقع عکس روایتهای پسرش هستن!
ترجمه ی این داستان اصلا خوب نبود، به خصوص چند صفحه ی اول، ولی کمی که به ترجمه عادت کردم و اصل داستان که شروع شد همه چیز کمی بهتر و قابل تحملتر شد…
داستان دوم مربوط به آهنگساز جوانیه که فرزندش با مشکلی مغزی(گویا فتق مغزی) متولد شده و مرد با همدستی پزشکها اون رو به قتل میرسونه!
(اوئه در زندگی واقعیش همچین مسئله ای رو تجربه کرده و با الهام از همین تجربه، کتاب یک مسئله ی شخصی رو نوشته و حالا مجددا توی این داستان هم، به اون اتفاق اشاره کرده!
مشخصه که این تجربه تاثیر بزرگی توی زندگی شخصی و حتی زندگی حرفه ایش داشته!)
حالا مرد در زمان متوقف شده و دائما با موجودی خیالی که گویا همون فرزند کشته شده اش هست و از آسمان به زمین میاد ملاقات میکنه.
البته در پایان داستان اتفاقی میوفته که مثل داستان اول، تشخیص یک سری مسائل و راست و حقیقی بودن اصل داستان زیر سوال میره…
ترجمه ی این داستان بر خلاف داستان اول، خیلی خوب بود!
هر دو داستان به شدت از جنبه ی روانشناختی قابل تأمل هستن،
علاوه بر اون پیچیدگی و جذابیت بالایی داشتن و با اینکه کمی هم ناراحت کننده بودن(به خصوص داستان اول) ولی من از خوندنشون به شدت لذت بردم..!
August 15, 2020
Kurbanı Beslemek son derece güçlü bir öykü, tek başına değerlendirilse 5 yıldızı hak ediyor. Kitapta yer alan diğer iki öykü içinse aynı şeyi söylemek çok zor:(
July 22, 2023
Son öyküsü hariç sürükleyici ve benzersizdi. Gözyaşlarımı sileceği gün ise bir delinin sayıklamalarından oluşuyor ve okurken inanılmaz derecede tükendim.
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