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The Ark Sakura
Tells of a fat hermit whose fears of a nuclear disaster lead him to build a shelter inside a mountain and equip it with everything necessary for the survival of a small community
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
131 people are currently reading
4180 people want to read
About the author
Kōbō Abe
215 books2,059 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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April 20, 2022A bewildering and mostly unpleasant reading experience. A survivalist lets a set of shills into his mountain and they wander around arguing in a casual way while nothing happens or is resolved, and scatology, fatphobia, and relentlessly grim misogyny abound. I suppose it's about the awful pointlessness of survival after nuclear war and what society will come to when reduced to a few awful people centred around a toilet.
I suspect this is one of those books that struck an amazing chord in its time/place and makes no sense once out of it, in the same way that Zuleika Dobson was a gigantic hit despite being rambling gibberish to the modern eye.
I suspect this is one of those books that struck an amazing chord in its time/place and makes no sense once out of it, in the same way that Zuleika Dobson was a gigantic hit despite being rambling gibberish to the modern eye.
October 29, 2007
This book is kind of like if Dwight Shrewt had a slightly less capable cousin in Japan, and you got to read about it.
June 4, 2011
I now know where Murakami got his groove.
And Abe got his from Kafka.
There is an important scene early on in The Ark Sakura. Mole is at a swap meet, or the Japanese equivalence, and he spots a dealer selling strange insects. The eupcaccia, or clockbug, is an insect that has no feet. It revolves to face the sun and is therefore useful as a form of clock. It spins around but goes nowhere. Mole becomes fond of this insect and sees it as an analogy to his own life.
It's a clever analogy and holds promise for the rest of the novel. In the first half Mole meets the other protagonists of this tale and things go along well. But as we get to Mole's so called Ark, his plan to survive the coming nuclear holocaust, the novel take a downward turn. Absurdism quickly degenerates into silliness. In other words, his Kafka becomes Ionesco. This strange and interesting tale just goes off into too many corners and one too many monologues. In one bizarre segment it literally goes down the toilet. I enjoyed the strangeness of Abe's writings but this is nowhere near the brilliance of his Woman in the Dunes. To borrow from a popular food book series; Don't read this, read that.
And Abe got his from Kafka.
There is an important scene early on in The Ark Sakura. Mole is at a swap meet, or the Japanese equivalence, and he spots a dealer selling strange insects. The eupcaccia, or clockbug, is an insect that has no feet. It revolves to face the sun and is therefore useful as a form of clock. It spins around but goes nowhere. Mole becomes fond of this insect and sees it as an analogy to his own life.
It's a clever analogy and holds promise for the rest of the novel. In the first half Mole meets the other protagonists of this tale and things go along well. But as we get to Mole's so called Ark, his plan to survive the coming nuclear holocaust, the novel take a downward turn. Absurdism quickly degenerates into silliness. In other words, his Kafka becomes Ionesco. This strange and interesting tale just goes off into too many corners and one too many monologues. In one bizarre segment it literally goes down the toilet. I enjoyed the strangeness of Abe's writings but this is nowhere near the brilliance of his Woman in the Dunes. To borrow from a popular food book series; Don't read this, read that.
Read
December 4, 2009By rights, I should have been head over heels for Kobo Abe's The Ark Sakura. I mean, check it out: a bizarre, absurdist-yet-thoughtful plot; a strong narrative voice; a small cast of characters semi-quarantined together in a (relatively) small area; a sharp, satirical political ethos...this book was obviously written with my wholehearted enjoyment in mind. And it starts out in a hilariously promising way: our protagonist, who because of his obesity and underground dwelling-place is known as Mole, leaves the latter-day "ark" - actually a vast, abandoned stone quarry converted into a survivalist bunker - to run some errands in town. He's almost finished his ark, which is designed to withstand the coming (according to him) nuclear winter as well as isolate him from his abusive father. But he is distressed by the fact that he has yet to hand out any invitations to others to accompany him into the brave new underground world. In the course of his wanderings he encounters a shady but possibly sympathetic insect-dealer who is peddling mounted "eupcaccias": apocryphal insects whose legs have atrophied due to the fact that they never travel, instead staying in the same place and using their mouths to move in a tight circle, excreting and consuming their own excretions at the exact same rate.
(Let me just pause a moment here to note that if you're easily grossed out or don't think it's cool to read about solid waste, this is not the book for you. It shares with Joyce's Ulysses and Saramago's Blindness the dubious honor of including at least one graphic shitting scene, and its spiritual center is a gigantic, oversized toilet used for flushing all manner of things out to sea.)
Mole pretty much knows the eupcaccias are bogus (the insect dealer has concocted an entire mythology about them, in which they dwell on an imaginary island and inspire an imaginary tourist trade), but it doesn't matter: he still finds them so allegorically compelling that he's immediately convinced the insect dealer should join him on the ark. Along with a male/female con-artist team who work the craft bazaars drumming up business by pretending to be interested in the rinky-dink merchandise, they both end up back at the bunker, where Mole introduces the other three to his stash of beer, chocolate, jerry-rigged weaponry, holographic air photography, and, of course, giant, ultra-powerful toilet.
One of the real strengths of the novel, I think, is Mole's narrative voice. Despite being an abused, unattractive loser with delusional paranoia, the twisted alternate-reality he creates for himself is oddly compelling. He tends to be so fixated on tiny details - the clever mechanical workings of the booby traps he's set up throughout the quarry, for example - that he never has to acknowledge the lunacy of his entire project. (His methodical obsession with obscure details reminded me of the narrators in the works of Kenzaburo Oe and Kazuo Ishiguro, as well as Samuel Beckett - high praise indeed, in my world.) It quickly becomes apparent that Mole imagines a full "crew" for his ark - over three hundred people - and yet it racks him with anxiety even to admit three new faces to his sanctuary. At the same time, once he's committed to inviting the three of them, he can hardly let them "escape"; they might spread the word around about how to get into his ark. He's filled with adolescent fantasies about power and sexuality; he envisions everyone on the Ark addressing him as "Captain," yet even the other outcasts, like the insect dealer and the shill, have more leadership ability. And his sexual understanding has never progressed beyond that of a twelve-year-old boy with a pile of porn stockpiled under his mattress. Yet he kids himself that he's in control of the situation, that he'll continue to control the running of the ark even after hundreds of people join it, even after he's sealed off the entrances from the encroaching nuclear winter. Meanwhile, the female half of the shill-couple has absolutely no trouble manipulating him with a single tug on her fake-leather skirt.
This brings me to the reason I'm lukewarm about The Ark Sakura: the gender roles in it really just bummed me out. Which makes me a little bit frustrated with myself, because the gross, masturbatory interactions in the book were so cartoonishly over-the-top that their satirical nature can hardly be doubted. Take this passage, in which Mole and the insect dealer take turns slapping "the girl" (nobody ever bothers to learn her name) on the ass:
See what I mean? It seems silly even to be offended by such an obviously absurd set of events. A little later, Mole goes from zero to creepy in three-point-two seconds when he momentarily fancies himself a sensitive guy:
Abe is plainly using Mole's interactions with "the girl" to point up his own ridiculously immature, even delusional, outlook on life, and the panting ease with which he lets himself be led around by his schlong. His fetishized image of the girl takes over his life and undermines his decision-making power, and yet he remains totally unable to relate to her as a person. The one time we hear her express her own reality, he immediately makes it all about himself. I think all of this is quite well-done, actually.
And yet, reading it made me feel tired. I mean, the downside of portraying Mole's inner world is that Abe HIMSELF is relieved of the need to make "the girl" into any kind of interesting character. And hey look, she's the only female in the book (if you don't count the roaming horde of junior high school girls lost somewhere in the quarry). And oh huh, how unusual, a single, fetishized female in the midst of males endowed with subjectivity. You don't say. Ho hum. Wake me after the revolution.
Despite my (possibly mood-induced) reservations, there are many thought-provoking elements in The Ark Sakura. As satirical as Abe's portrayal of Mole is, he's never quite AS nuts as a similar person would seem in America. Japan, after all, is the one country which actually has directly experienced the fallout of nuclear war, which gives Mole's paranoia a different cast. And the fact that he's reacting against the abuse he suffered at the hands of his biological father - a man of the generation that propelled WWII forward - gives the story an allegorical cast; it's addressing the experience of the children who grew up to face the atrocities their fathers committed. I'm reminded of the section of Günter Grass's Dog Years in which sets of magic spectacles circulate around Germany as the children of former Nazis reach adolescence. When the young adults don the spectacles, they see the things their parents have done, and lose all faith. There's a certain similarity here, in Mole's interactions with his bestial father, and his own consequently stunted emotional growth. So too, his use of the giant toilet is significant: he condemns the actions of his father and wants to start over with a clean slate, and yet he himself survives by accepting money to flush toxic waste down the john, washing it out to sea. He's condemning the waste and selfishness of his own father, while simultaneously following in the father's footsteps by accelerating the destruction of his environment and naively imagining he can separate himself from that destruction.
So, certainly not a complete loss. In a different mood, at a different time, probably a big win. But right now, what I want is a well-drawn, realistically sympathetic female character. One not wracked into continual sobs by religious guilt, or flattened to two dimensions by male lust. One that makes me feel the author understands the plain, unadorned humanity of women as well as men. I have Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping, A.S. Byatt's Possession, and a biography of Mother Jones on my to-be-read shelf, but any suggestions from you, my bloggy friends, would be much appreciated as well.
(Let me just pause a moment here to note that if you're easily grossed out or don't think it's cool to read about solid waste, this is not the book for you. It shares with Joyce's Ulysses and Saramago's Blindness the dubious honor of including at least one graphic shitting scene, and its spiritual center is a gigantic, oversized toilet used for flushing all manner of things out to sea.)
Mole pretty much knows the eupcaccias are bogus (the insect dealer has concocted an entire mythology about them, in which they dwell on an imaginary island and inspire an imaginary tourist trade), but it doesn't matter: he still finds them so allegorically compelling that he's immediately convinced the insect dealer should join him on the ark. Along with a male/female con-artist team who work the craft bazaars drumming up business by pretending to be interested in the rinky-dink merchandise, they both end up back at the bunker, where Mole introduces the other three to his stash of beer, chocolate, jerry-rigged weaponry, holographic air photography, and, of course, giant, ultra-powerful toilet.
One of the real strengths of the novel, I think, is Mole's narrative voice. Despite being an abused, unattractive loser with delusional paranoia, the twisted alternate-reality he creates for himself is oddly compelling. He tends to be so fixated on tiny details - the clever mechanical workings of the booby traps he's set up throughout the quarry, for example - that he never has to acknowledge the lunacy of his entire project. (His methodical obsession with obscure details reminded me of the narrators in the works of Kenzaburo Oe and Kazuo Ishiguro, as well as Samuel Beckett - high praise indeed, in my world.) It quickly becomes apparent that Mole imagines a full "crew" for his ark - over three hundred people - and yet it racks him with anxiety even to admit three new faces to his sanctuary. At the same time, once he's committed to inviting the three of them, he can hardly let them "escape"; they might spread the word around about how to get into his ark. He's filled with adolescent fantasies about power and sexuality; he envisions everyone on the Ark addressing him as "Captain," yet even the other outcasts, like the insect dealer and the shill, have more leadership ability. And his sexual understanding has never progressed beyond that of a twelve-year-old boy with a pile of porn stockpiled under his mattress. Yet he kids himself that he's in control of the situation, that he'll continue to control the running of the ark even after hundreds of people join it, even after he's sealed off the entrances from the encroaching nuclear winter. Meanwhile, the female half of the shill-couple has absolutely no trouble manipulating him with a single tug on her fake-leather skirt.
This brings me to the reason I'm lukewarm about The Ark Sakura: the gender roles in it really just bummed me out. Which makes me a little bit frustrated with myself, because the gross, masturbatory interactions in the book were so cartoonishly over-the-top that their satirical nature can hardly be doubted. Take this passage, in which Mole and the insect dealer take turns slapping "the girl" (nobody ever bothers to learn her name) on the ass:
"One of these would supply about enough electricity for one twelve-watt bulb, and that's it," said the insect dealer, and launched a second attack on her backside. There was the sound of a wet towel falling on the floor. He'd scored a direct hit, in the area of the crease in her buttocks. She emitted a scream that was half wail.
"Eventually I intend to convert all those old bikes in that pile over there. With twenty-eight bikes operating at the same time, charging up the car batteries, there would be enough energy to supply an average day's needs."
Pretending I was going to activate one to show them, I drew closer to the woman and laid a hand on her myself, not to be outdone. It was not so much a slap as a caress: that prolonged the contact by a good five times. Using her hand on the handlebars as a fulcrum, she swung herself around to the other side, bent forward, and giggled. On the other side, the insect dealer was waiting, palm outstretched. It was a game of handball, her bottom the ball.
See what I mean? It seems silly even to be offended by such an obviously absurd set of events. A little later, Mole goes from zero to creepy in three-point-two seconds when he momentarily fancies himself a sensitive guy:
Perhaps I shouldn't have said so much. But I wanted to impress it on her that I, for one, was not the sort of man who could go around brandishing the traditional male prerogatives. I was a mole, someone who might never fall into a marriage trap, but whose prospects for succeeding in any such scheme of his own were nil. Yet I was the captain of this ark, steaming on toward the ultimate apocalypse, with the engine key right in my hand. This very moment, if I so chose, I could push the switch to weigh anchor. What would she say then? Would she call me a swindler? Or would she lift her skirt and hold out her rump for me to slap?
Abe is plainly using Mole's interactions with "the girl" to point up his own ridiculously immature, even delusional, outlook on life, and the panting ease with which he lets himself be led around by his schlong. His fetishized image of the girl takes over his life and undermines his decision-making power, and yet he remains totally unable to relate to her as a person. The one time we hear her express her own reality, he immediately makes it all about himself. I think all of this is quite well-done, actually.
And yet, reading it made me feel tired. I mean, the downside of portraying Mole's inner world is that Abe HIMSELF is relieved of the need to make "the girl" into any kind of interesting character. And hey look, she's the only female in the book (if you don't count the roaming horde of junior high school girls lost somewhere in the quarry). And oh huh, how unusual, a single, fetishized female in the midst of males endowed with subjectivity. You don't say. Ho hum. Wake me after the revolution.
Despite my (possibly mood-induced) reservations, there are many thought-provoking elements in The Ark Sakura. As satirical as Abe's portrayal of Mole is, he's never quite AS nuts as a similar person would seem in America. Japan, after all, is the one country which actually has directly experienced the fallout of nuclear war, which gives Mole's paranoia a different cast. And the fact that he's reacting against the abuse he suffered at the hands of his biological father - a man of the generation that propelled WWII forward - gives the story an allegorical cast; it's addressing the experience of the children who grew up to face the atrocities their fathers committed. I'm reminded of the section of Günter Grass's Dog Years in which sets of magic spectacles circulate around Germany as the children of former Nazis reach adolescence. When the young adults don the spectacles, they see the things their parents have done, and lose all faith. There's a certain similarity here, in Mole's interactions with his bestial father, and his own consequently stunted emotional growth. So too, his use of the giant toilet is significant: he condemns the actions of his father and wants to start over with a clean slate, and yet he himself survives by accepting money to flush toxic waste down the john, washing it out to sea. He's condemning the waste and selfishness of his own father, while simultaneously following in the father's footsteps by accelerating the destruction of his environment and naively imagining he can separate himself from that destruction.
So, certainly not a complete loss. In a different mood, at a different time, probably a big win. But right now, what I want is a well-drawn, realistically sympathetic female character. One not wracked into continual sobs by religious guilt, or flattened to two dimensions by male lust. One that makes me feel the author understands the plain, unadorned humanity of women as well as men. I have Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping, A.S. Byatt's Possession, and a biography of Mother Jones on my to-be-read shelf, but any suggestions from you, my bloggy friends, would be much appreciated as well.
January 8, 2023
سرگیجه گرفتم. کاش آخرش بمب اتم میخورد توی پناهگاه و همشون پودر میشدن. شاید هدف کوبو آبه رساندن یک سری مفاهیم اگزیستانسیالیستی بوده باشه؛ من که چیزی دستگیرم نشد
August 25, 2013
During my impoverished student years, I used to work at a local grocery store to meet ends. It was about two blocks away from my house. Everyday, my walks to work included terrifying encounters with a raggedy woman brimming with delusional paranoia of the world ending amid armageddon showers; her constant yelling was eerie and scared the daylights out of me.
Enter the world of 'Mole'- a middle-aged, stout man who stays true to his nickname; dwelling in an abandon stone-quarry in an obscure landscape away from civilization. He is a poster child for misanthropy and delusional paranoia. A self-confessed "Noah", presumes to build an ark to save mankind from future nuclear holocaust. Unlike Noah, I deem that his celestial prophecies were strictly induced from large amount of caffeine that he guzzled along with cheap beers. So, with the mirage of being "the savior", he goes on a monthly excursion to the malls to recruit the choicest specimens (people) who he finds worth giving a ticket to his futuristic ship. During one of his outings he assembles a trio- an insect seller, and a couple of shills. The group ultimately lands in the stone quarry and an onset of surreal and macabre atmosphere reveals the incongruous circumstances. The rest of the manuscript discusses an array of topics from old age in the form of the Broom Brigade, environmentalism, survival, murder, allegiance, sex, humanity and nuclear devastation.
The vocabulary commences strongly with personalized characterization of every actor, revealing idiosyncrasies with gritty metaphors making the individuals authentic thriving in their recluse milieu. The insect seller-Komono, who trades these paper-like fictitious insects-‘eupcaccia’, find affinity towards Mole; identifying these insects to be a placard of his own misanthropic lifestyle. Lacking friends or family, Mole compares himself to the eupcaccia, a fictional self-contained bug that feeds on its own feces. The concept of alienation shines with every passage giving a deep sense of the hermit life-styles and an acquired misanthropic quality with the fear of being ridiculed.
Abe’s bringing into play of creatures to be a metaphor to human life can be seen in his other book 'Woman in Dunes' correlating the mechanism of creepy-crawly manners to human philosophy.
"Take the anthropoids, which are thought to share a common ancestor with the human race. They exhibit two distinct tendencies: one is to make groups and build societies—the aggrandizing tendency—and the other are for each animal to huddle in its own territory and build its own castle —the settling tendency. For whatever reason, both these contradictory impulses survive in the human psyche. On the one hand, humans have acquired the ability to spread across the earth, thanks to an adaptability superior even to that of rats and cockroaches; on the other, they have acquired a demonic capability for intense mutual hatred and destruction."
Kobo Abe a proficient in surrealism and absurdity lacks lucidity in this particular manuscript. The assembly of classic outcasts and uncanny personality is quiet attention-grabbing with little quirks spilling from every character’s movements through the coherent narration. However, with introduction of new characters and embellishments of senseless jargon, the tale turns into this muddled cauldron of jumbling and irksome recitation.
Through endless yawns and blank stares, I eventually drifted building my own castle in the sky with flying ponies.
Enter the world of 'Mole'- a middle-aged, stout man who stays true to his nickname; dwelling in an abandon stone-quarry in an obscure landscape away from civilization. He is a poster child for misanthropy and delusional paranoia. A self-confessed "Noah", presumes to build an ark to save mankind from future nuclear holocaust. Unlike Noah, I deem that his celestial prophecies were strictly induced from large amount of caffeine that he guzzled along with cheap beers. So, with the mirage of being "the savior", he goes on a monthly excursion to the malls to recruit the choicest specimens (people) who he finds worth giving a ticket to his futuristic ship. During one of his outings he assembles a trio- an insect seller, and a couple of shills. The group ultimately lands in the stone quarry and an onset of surreal and macabre atmosphere reveals the incongruous circumstances. The rest of the manuscript discusses an array of topics from old age in the form of the Broom Brigade, environmentalism, survival, murder, allegiance, sex, humanity and nuclear devastation.
The vocabulary commences strongly with personalized characterization of every actor, revealing idiosyncrasies with gritty metaphors making the individuals authentic thriving in their recluse milieu. The insect seller-Komono, who trades these paper-like fictitious insects-‘eupcaccia’, find affinity towards Mole; identifying these insects to be a placard of his own misanthropic lifestyle. Lacking friends or family, Mole compares himself to the eupcaccia, a fictional self-contained bug that feeds on its own feces. The concept of alienation shines with every passage giving a deep sense of the hermit life-styles and an acquired misanthropic quality with the fear of being ridiculed.
Abe’s bringing into play of creatures to be a metaphor to human life can be seen in his other book 'Woman in Dunes' correlating the mechanism of creepy-crawly manners to human philosophy.
"Take the anthropoids, which are thought to share a common ancestor with the human race. They exhibit two distinct tendencies: one is to make groups and build societies—the aggrandizing tendency—and the other are for each animal to huddle in its own territory and build its own castle —the settling tendency. For whatever reason, both these contradictory impulses survive in the human psyche. On the one hand, humans have acquired the ability to spread across the earth, thanks to an adaptability superior even to that of rats and cockroaches; on the other, they have acquired a demonic capability for intense mutual hatred and destruction."
Kobo Abe a proficient in surrealism and absurdity lacks lucidity in this particular manuscript. The assembly of classic outcasts and uncanny personality is quiet attention-grabbing with little quirks spilling from every character’s movements through the coherent narration. However, with introduction of new characters and embellishments of senseless jargon, the tale turns into this muddled cauldron of jumbling and irksome recitation.
Through endless yawns and blank stares, I eventually drifted building my own castle in the sky with flying ponies.
February 24, 2019
Getting your foot stuck in the toilet for a fourth of the book is pretty good but he should have been a lot more embarrassed in the front of the girl
November 30, 2021
No idea why Penguin decided this might be Science Fiction but it wasn't worth it for me. The juvenile main character was annoying and the plot meandered to nowhere
February 17, 2020
خواندن كتاب خوب در زمان نامناسب باعث ميشه حس من به اين كتاب ٣ از ٥ باشه
June 30, 2025
Not sure if this novel went through the editing process as it felt more like freeform writing to me.
When it comes to the fear of atomic oblivion then The Cold War - this written around the time when the possibility was still a great threat - was obviously on Abe's mind. Knowing Abe from previously read novels this was always going to be weird, and it is - a creature that eats its own faeces and a bizarre flea market being a couple of examples. Despite its fantasy elements in the end it came down to the complex relationship between four characters - three males and a female (she being written as a sexual object more than anything else) - and their time spent together in Mole's underground ark (Mole being the reclusive central character) waiting to launch when mankind is wiped out. I liked certain parts of it but overall it didn't hold itself together as a novel in the ways I'd hoped.
October 19, 2025
کوبو آبه نویسنده کتاب، سبک خاصی داره. این سبک همه پسند نیست و با اینکه جهانبینی جالبی پشت داستانهاش هست، به شدت کسلکننده و مبهمه. این داستان هم مثل باقی آثار اسم نویسنده، شروعی جالب و ایداهای جذاب داره. اما از نیمه کتاب، بسیار خستهکننده میشه. کتاب ماجرای مردی هست که تو معدنی متروکه زندگی میکنه و میخواد افرادی رو یه این معدن بیاره تا از دنیای درحال فروپاشی نجات پیدا کنن. کشتی نوح مدرن، اما این بار کشتی نجات معدنی متروکه هست. ورود اولین نفر که به دعوت راوی داستان و صاحب کشتی اومده، همراه با ورود دو نفر دیگهس که بی اجازه اومدن به معدن متروکه. باقی داستان حول این چهار شخصیت و جنگ و گریزهایی با درونمایه فلسفی میگذره.
June 27, 2022
I hadn't read anything by Kōbō Abe before but was intrigued by The Ark Sakura when I saw it on the library sci-fi shelf. This new Penguin Classic Science Fiction edition is lovely; I really like the Escher-ish cover image. The novel was first published in 1984 and the threat of nuclear war hangs heavily over it. The protagonist is a man nicknamed Mole who lives in a gigantic underground bunker that used to be a quarry. He has stocked this labyrinthine underground structure with supplies to prepare for a nuclear apocalypse. At the start of the novel he is pondering who is worthy to receive a ticket to live with him in the bunker. After meeting several people at an odd bazaar, he finds that he may have less control than he expected over who survives with him.
Most of the novel takes place within the bunker, which has a suitably creepy and ominous atmosphere. Nonetheless, I primarily experienced the narrative as a farce. Mole spends a good third of the book with his leg stuck down a giant toilet:
The book struck me as a deadpan thought experiment about a bunch of shifty losers attempting to survive a theoretical nuclear apocalypse. There's some odd and interesting stuff about coprophagic beetles, toxic waste disposal, and a militia of elderly people (who reminded me of the Canadian terrorists in Infinite Jest). Abe appears pessimistic about women being treated as people in this scenario - the sole female character constantly gets her arse slapped. The power struggles between the characters are petty and ridiculous, yet can also turn deadly. Abe certainly creates a distinctive atmosphere by combining mundane bodily functions and foolish bickering with apocalyptic dread. The bunker itself is probably the main character and dominates the narrative. The characters and their minor machinations had less impact for me; none had a distinctive presence and their doings made the plot rather fragmentary. The end was powerful and haunting, though.
Most of the novel takes place within the bunker, which has a suitably creepy and ominous atmosphere. Nonetheless, I primarily experienced the narrative as a farce. Mole spends a good third of the book with his leg stuck down a giant toilet:
"Want me to take your picture?"
"What for?"
"You look just like a human potted plant. It's so unusual - and then you'd have something to remember it all by. If the slate really does get wiped clean, and I get a chance to start over, I'm going to give up being a woman for a living, and take up photography."
The book struck me as a deadpan thought experiment about a bunch of shifty losers attempting to survive a theoretical nuclear apocalypse. There's some odd and interesting stuff about coprophagic beetles, toxic waste disposal, and a militia of elderly people (who reminded me of the Canadian terrorists in Infinite Jest). Abe appears pessimistic about women being treated as people in this scenario - the sole female character constantly gets her arse slapped. The power struggles between the characters are petty and ridiculous, yet can also turn deadly. Abe certainly creates a distinctive atmosphere by combining mundane bodily functions and foolish bickering with apocalyptic dread. The bunker itself is probably the main character and dominates the narrative. The characters and their minor machinations had less impact for me; none had a distinctive presence and their doings made the plot rather fragmentary. The end was powerful and haunting, though.
September 17, 2023
At some point in this book it began to be evident that the characters, however fictitious, very likely do represent the way the author views the world. And it was way too distracting. At first I just accepted that Mole, the Insect Dealer and the Shill were all very sexist. But after the umpteenth time reading about their thoughts and actions towards the one woman in this book, without any tonal objections in the writing, I couldn't help but assume that Kobo Abe felt the same way as his characters: that women were simply bodies, specifically asses, meant to be grabbed, spanked, and objectified; and that it was all done to assert male dominance over the one female character. It was very frustrating to read.
And the writing itself was bothersome at times, though part of that could just be the translation. Abe relied so heavily on long, overdrawn similes and metaphors that didn't really help describe anything more clearly. The book was rife with them, but here are two frustrating examples just a page apart:
"Like a signboard torn off in a sharp gust of wind, she flew over to the bottom of the stairs and snatched up the crossbow."
And:
"War? What war? asked the girl. Curiosity made her voice rise and fall like a kitten arching it's back."
Any these were nowhere near the worst of them. It almost began to feel like filler, and it just threw me out of the text each time. I got so frustrated toward the end of the book that I figured I should copy down two of the ones in front of me.
Interesting subject, and a surreal moodiness, that could've been decent if it weren't for so many distractions, blatant sexism, and poor execution.
And the writing itself was bothersome at times, though part of that could just be the translation. Abe relied so heavily on long, overdrawn similes and metaphors that didn't really help describe anything more clearly. The book was rife with them, but here are two frustrating examples just a page apart:
"Like a signboard torn off in a sharp gust of wind, she flew over to the bottom of the stairs and snatched up the crossbow."
And:
"War? What war? asked the girl. Curiosity made her voice rise and fall like a kitten arching it's back."
Any these were nowhere near the worst of them. It almost began to feel like filler, and it just threw me out of the text each time. I got so frustrated toward the end of the book that I figured I should copy down two of the ones in front of me.
Interesting subject, and a surreal moodiness, that could've been decent if it weren't for so many distractions, blatant sexism, and poor execution.
February 19, 2021
Terrible book but I enjoyed the experience reading it. I recommended it to my book club and they all voted it for us to read 😂 Let’s just say they’ll never vote for any my recommendations again 😂
February 1, 2018
This was a good one, weird and enigmatic yet still comprehensible and engaging throughout. I'd still have to put it second to "The Woman in the Dunes" or "Kangaroo Notebook," but definitely one of my more preferred Abe books.
Read
October 20, 2021 کشتی ساکورا، یک کشتی نوح ژاپنی
همهی ما به نوعی با داستان «حضرت نوح» آشنایی داریم. حالا در کتاب «کشتی ساکورا» با یک حضرت نوح عجیبوغریب طرف هستیم که به جای کشتی، یک معدن دارد و برخلاف حضرت نوح که هرآنکه نزدیکش بود را میشناخت، به کشتی خود راه میداد، موش کور (جایگزین حضرت)، وسواس عجیبی در انتخاب کسانی دارد که میخواهد با خود نجات دهد.
کشتی ساکورا حول محور مردی به نام موش کور میچرخد. نام واقعی او هرگز فاش نمیشود و تنها در یک معدن متروکه در نزدیکی توکیو زندگی میکند. او این معدن را کشتی خود مینامد و قصد دارد این کشتی را با خدمهای توانا راه بیندازد. او مردی گوشهگیر است و هیچ دوست یا خانوادهی نزدیکی ندارد. بنابراین گاهی اوقات به منظور جمعآوری خدمهی مورد نیاز خود، به اجتماعات رو میآورد. گرچه همانطور که گفتیم، او به ندرت کسی را شایسته مییابد تا پا به کشتیاش بگذارد، تا این که یک روز حین بازدید از بازار با کومونو آشنا میشود. فروشندهای که هر آشغالی را که در زمین پیدا میشود را میفروشد! او به موش کور یک حشرهی عجیب میفروشد. حشرهای که با خوردن فضولات خود زنده میماند. اینجاست که کتاب شروع به عجیب شدن میکند.
جالب است بدانید که زمان به آب انداختن کشتی، به زمانی تعلق دارد که هولوکاست هستهی بشریت را نابود کند. بلافاصله مشخص میشود که کوبو آبه، تا حدی این رمان را در پاسخ به جنگ سرد و ترس مردم از انفجار اتمی نوشته است. این کتاب در سال 1984، یعنی زمانی منتشر شد که تهدیدی چون نابودی جهان هنوز خیلی واقعی به نظر میرسید.
کوبو آبه، نویسندهی کتاب
کوبو آبه، نویسنده، نمایشنامهنویس، موسیقیدان، عکاس و مخترع ژاپنی بود. آبه را اغلب به دلیل حساسیتهای مدرنیستی و اکتشافات سورئال و اغلب کابوس گونهاش، با فرانتس کافکا و آلبرتو موراویا مقایسه میکنند. او در سال 1951، برندهی جایزهی «آکوتاگاوا» شد. همچنین در سال 1962، برای اثر «زن در تپهها» برندهی جایزه یومیوری و در سال 1967، برندهی جایزهی تانیزاکی شد. او حتی لایق جایزهی نوبل ادبی هم بود و چندین بار نیز نامش به عنوان گیرنده احتمالی این جایزه، ذکر شد، اما مرگ زودهنگام او مانع از این اتفاق شد. از جمله آثارش میتوان به «یک بخشش»، «نقشه تباهشده»، «چهرهی دیگری»، «زن در ریگ روان»، ��مدفون عصر یخبندان 4»، «آدم جعبهای»، «قتل غیر عمد»، «دوستان»، «جناب روح» و «جوراب شلواری سبز» اشاره کرد.
چرا یک منزوی در گیرودار نجات است؟
در ژاپن حتی کسانی که اوتاکو هستند (کسی که انیمه زیاد میبیند) بخش منفعل جامعه محسوب میشود. در مقایسه با داستان «کشتی ساکورا»، به این نتیجه میرسیم که «موش کور» قطعا یک طرد شده است و چیزی جز آن معدن بیجان خود ندارد. چرا همچین کسی اصلا باید به زندگی دیگران اهمیت دهد؟ درون ذهن او چه میگذرد که توسط کوبو آبه انتخاب شده و ماجرایش نوشته شده است؟ کوبو آبه به طور کلی، به زاغهنشینها و اهالی حاشیه اهمیت بیشتری میدهد. اما شاید این تنافض به نوعی سبب جذابیت موش کور و شاید کل داستان باشد.
ادموند وایت در نقد و بررسی این رمان برای نیویورک تایمز گفته بود که کشتی ساکورا را میتوان به سبکی رویایی، رمانی با «سختترین معنا» توصیف کرد. او دامنه و سطح جزئیات رمان را ستود. این رمان عمیقاً در ایدههای عجیبوغریب راوی منزوی خود کاوش میکند. اما به نوعی نیز میتوان آن را یک نوع اکتشاف جذاب از زندگی مدرن در ژاپن و معنای رانده شدن در همین کشور پرطرفدار در نظر گرفت. گرچه رانده شدن از هر کشوری میتواند سخت باشد، اما رانده شدن کاراکتری که کوبو آبه به تصویر کشیده، معانی خاصی را در بر دارد. شاید این کاراکتر، بیش از حد میدانست، شاید این کاراکتر، ایدهای دارد که میتواند نجاتبخش همه باشد. اما دولتی که او را طرد کرده، به احمقها احتیاج بیشتری دارد. شاید ترس دولت از کسانی که میفهمند، «موش کور» را روانهی معدن کرده است.
به هر حال، کوبو آبه این رمان عمیق و فلسفی را با سبکی سورئال و جذاب نوشته تا هم یادی از سورئالهای پیچیدهی موراکامی کنیم، هم با سطح جدیدی از ادبیات روانشناختی روبهرو شویم که این بار در فرانسه، انگلیس، آلمان یا روسیه اتفاق نمیفتد، بلکه در ژاپن رخ میدهد.
در صورت تمایل میتوانید تحلیل کامل و جذابی از این کتاب را در مقالهای با عنوان «یک تایتانیک شخصی؛ معرفی رمان کشتی ساکورا» که در مجلهی کتابچی وجود دارد، مطالعه فرمایید.
همهی ما به نوعی با داستان «حضرت نوح» آشنایی داریم. حالا در کتاب «کشتی ساکورا» با یک حضرت نوح عجیبوغریب طرف هستیم که به جای کشتی، یک معدن دارد و برخلاف حضرت نوح که هرآنکه نزدیکش بود را میشناخت، به کشتی خود راه میداد، موش کور (جایگزین حضرت)، وسواس عجیبی در انتخاب کسانی دارد که میخواهد با خود نجات دهد.
کشتی ساکورا حول محور مردی به نام موش کور میچرخد. نام واقعی او هرگز فاش نمیشود و تنها در یک معدن متروکه در نزدیکی توکیو زندگی میکند. او این معدن را کشتی خود مینامد و قصد دارد این کشتی را با خدمهای توانا راه بیندازد. او مردی گوشهگیر است و هیچ دوست یا خانوادهی نزدیکی ندارد. بنابراین گاهی اوقات به منظور جمعآوری خدمهی مورد نیاز خود، به اجتماعات رو میآورد. گرچه همانطور که گفتیم، او به ندرت کسی را شایسته مییابد تا پا به کشتیاش بگذارد، تا این که یک روز حین بازدید از بازار با کومونو آشنا میشود. فروشندهای که هر آشغالی را که در زمین پیدا میشود را میفروشد! او به موش کور یک حشرهی عجیب میفروشد. حشرهای که با خوردن فضولات خود زنده میماند. اینجاست که کتاب شروع به عجیب شدن میکند.
جالب است بدانید که زمان به آب انداختن کشتی، به زمانی تعلق دارد که هولوکاست هستهی بشریت را نابود کند. بلافاصله مشخص میشود که کوبو آبه، تا حدی این رمان را در پاسخ به جنگ سرد و ترس مردم از انفجار اتمی نوشته است. این کتاب در سال 1984، یعنی زمانی منتشر شد که تهدیدی چون نابودی جهان هنوز خیلی واقعی به نظر میرسید.
کوبو آبه، نویسندهی کتاب
کوبو آبه، نویسنده، نمایشنامهنویس، موسیقیدان، عکاس و مخترع ژاپنی بود. آبه را اغلب به دلیل حساسیتهای مدرنیستی و اکتشافات سورئال و اغلب کابوس گونهاش، با فرانتس کافکا و آلبرتو موراویا مقایسه میکنند. او در سال 1951، برندهی جایزهی «آکوتاگاوا» شد. همچنین در سال 1962، برای اثر «زن در تپهها» برندهی جایزه یومیوری و در سال 1967، برندهی جایزهی تانیزاکی شد. او حتی لایق جایزهی نوبل ادبی هم بود و چندین بار نیز نامش به عنوان گیرنده احتمالی این جایزه، ذکر شد، اما مرگ زودهنگام او مانع از این اتفاق شد. از جمله آثارش میتوان به «یک بخشش»، «نقشه تباهشده»، «چهرهی دیگری»، «زن در ریگ روان»، ��مدفون عصر یخبندان 4»، «آدم جعبهای»، «قتل غیر عمد»، «دوستان»، «جناب روح» و «جوراب شلواری سبز» اشاره کرد.
چرا یک منزوی در گیرودار نجات است؟
در ژاپن حتی کسانی که اوتاکو هستند (کسی که انیمه زیاد میبیند) بخش منفعل جامعه محسوب میشود. در مقایسه با داستان «کشتی ساکورا»، به این نتیجه میرسیم که «موش کور» قطعا یک طرد شده است و چیزی جز آن معدن بیجان خود ندارد. چرا همچین کسی اصلا باید به زندگی دیگران اهمیت دهد؟ درون ذهن او چه میگذرد که توسط کوبو آبه انتخاب شده و ماجرایش نوشته شده است؟ کوبو آبه به طور کلی، به زاغهنشینها و اهالی حاشیه اهمیت بیشتری میدهد. اما شاید این تنافض به نوعی سبب جذابیت موش کور و شاید کل داستان باشد.
ادموند وایت در نقد و بررسی این رمان برای نیویورک تایمز گفته بود که کشتی ساکورا را میتوان به سبکی رویایی، رمانی با «سختترین معنا» توصیف کرد. او دامنه و سطح جزئیات رمان را ستود. این رمان عمیقاً در ایدههای عجیبوغریب راوی منزوی خود کاوش میکند. اما به نوعی نیز میتوان آن را یک نوع اکتشاف جذاب از زندگی مدرن در ژاپن و معنای رانده شدن در همین کشور پرطرفدار در نظر گرفت. گرچه رانده شدن از هر کشوری میتواند سخت باشد، اما رانده شدن کاراکتری که کوبو آبه به تصویر کشیده، معانی خاصی را در بر دارد. شاید این کاراکتر، بیش از حد میدانست، شاید این کاراکتر، ایدهای دارد که میتواند نجاتبخش همه باشد. اما دولتی که او را طرد کرده، به احمقها احتیاج بیشتری دارد. شاید ترس دولت از کسانی که میفهمند، «موش کور» را روانهی معدن کرده است.
به هر حال، کوبو آبه این رمان عمیق و فلسفی را با سبکی سورئال و جذاب نوشته تا هم یادی از سورئالهای پیچیدهی موراکامی کنیم، هم با سطح جدیدی از ادبیات روانشناختی روبهرو شویم که این بار در فرانسه، انگلیس، آلمان یا روسیه اتفاق نمیفتد، بلکه در ژاپن رخ میدهد.
در صورت تمایل میتوانید تحلیل کامل و جذابی از این کتاب را در مقالهای با عنوان «یک تایتانیک شخصی؛ معرفی رمان کشتی ساکورا» که در مجلهی کتابچی وجود دارد، مطالعه فرمایید.
February 16, 2012
Excellent food for thought with a very bizarre allegory at its core!
January 1, 2019
"... မဟုတ္ဘူး။ ဒါက အသက္ရွင္က်န္ရစ္ဖို႔အတြက္ လက္မွတ္ပဲ။ ေသတၱာကိုဖြင့္ၿပီး ခင္ဗ်ားဘာသာ ၾကည့္ၾကည့္ပါလား"
"... ဘယ္ကေန အသက္ရွင္က်န္ရစ္ရမွာလဲ"
"ကပ္ဆိုးႀကီးေပါ့"
"ဘယ္က ကပ္ဆိုးႀကီးလဲ"
"ေနပါဦး.. အခု က်ဳပ္တို႔ ကပ္ဆိုးႀကီးတစ္ခုရဲ႕ ႏႈတ္ခမ္း၀မွာေရာက္ေနတယ္လုိ႔ ခင္ဗ်ားက မထင္ဘူးလား။ သဘာ၀ပတ္၀န္းက်င္၊ လူသားမ်ဳိးႏြယ္၊ ကမၻာေျမ၊ အို.. ေလာကႀကီးတစ္ခုလံုး"
"အမွန္အတိုင္း ေျပာရရင္ေတာ့ ထင္ပါတယ္။ ဒါေပမဲ့ က်ဳပ္ရဲ႕အထင္ေၾကာင့္ ဘာမ်ားေျပာင္းလဲသြားမွာမို႔လို႔လဲ"
"... လာပါ။ ခင္ဗ်ားကို ကၽြန္ေတာ္ ျပစရာရွိတယ္"
ကၽြန္ေတာ္က မတ္တပ္ရပ္ၿပီး ကၽြန္ေတာ့္ေနာက္ကို လိုက္ခဲ့ဖို႔ သူ႔ကို အခ်က္ျပလိုက္တယ္။ ဒါေပမဲ့ ပိုးမႊားေရာင္းသူက သူ႔ေနရာက မထဘူး။
လက္မွတ္ေသတၱာကို မထိသလို သူထိုင္ေနတဲ့ေနရာကလည္း တစ္ဖ၀ါးမွ မေရြ႕ဘူး။
"အဲဒါမ်ဳိးက က်ဳပ္ရဲ႕ ပံုစံမဟုတ္ဘူး။ လူထုဆႏၵျပပြဲတုိ႔ ဘာတို႔ေလ။ က်ဳပ္က အရာရာဟာ သူ႔သေဘာသူေဆာင္သြားလိမ့္မယ္လို႔ပဲ သေဘာထားတတ္တဲ့ လူစားမ်ဳိး"
"ဒါေပမဲ့ တျခားလူေတြအေၾကာင္း ခင္ဗ်ားကို ဘယ္သူကမွ ပူခိုင္းမေနဘူးေလ။ ဒီလက္မွတ္က ခင္ဗ်ားအတြက္ သီးသန္႔ပဲ"
"ဘာပဲျဖစ္ျဖစ္ ေက်းဇူးတင္ပါတယ္။ က်ဳပ္ကေတာ့ လက္လႊတ္လိုက္ေတာ့မယ္။ တျခားလူေတြအသက္မရွင္ႏိုင္တဲ့အခ်ိန္မွာ အသက္ရွင္က်န္ရေအာင္ က်ဳပ္က ဘာေကာင္မို႔လို႔လဲ။
ေတာင္းဆိုခ်က္မ်ားလြန္းတာဟာလည္း ဒုစရိုက္မႈပဲ မဟုတ္ဘူးလား။
တျခားလူေတြအသက္မရွင္ႏိုင္တဲ့အခ်ိန္မွာ အသက္ရွင္က်န္ရေအာင္ က်ဳပ္က ဘာေကာင္မို႔လို႔လဲတဲ့။
ဒီလူေျပာတဲ့စကားက အခ်က္ေတာ့ က်တယ္။ သူက ကၽြန္ေတာ့္ရဲ႕ ေပ်ာ့ကြက္ကို ဖမ္းမိသြားတာပဲ။
@The Ark Sakura by Kobo Abe
"... ဘယ္ကေန အသက္ရွင္က်န္ရစ္ရမွာလဲ"
"ကပ္ဆိုးႀကီးေပါ့"
"ဘယ္က ကပ္ဆိုးႀကီးလဲ"
"ေနပါဦး.. အခု က်ဳပ္တို႔ ကပ္ဆိုးႀကီးတစ္ခုရဲ႕ ႏႈတ္ခမ္း၀မွာေရာက္ေနတယ္လုိ႔ ခင္ဗ်ားက မထင္ဘူးလား။ သဘာ၀ပတ္၀န္းက်င္၊ လူသားမ်ဳိးႏြယ္၊ ကမၻာေျမ၊ အို.. ေလာကႀကီးတစ္ခုလံုး"
"အမွန္အတိုင္း ေျပာရရင္ေတာ့ ထင္ပါတယ္။ ဒါေပမဲ့ က်ဳပ္ရဲ႕အထင္ေၾကာင့္ ဘာမ်ားေျပာင္းလဲသြားမွာမို႔လို႔လဲ"
"... လာပါ။ ခင္ဗ်ားကို ကၽြန္ေတာ္ ျပစရာရွိတယ္"
ကၽြန္ေတာ္က မတ္တပ္ရပ္ၿပီး ကၽြန္ေတာ့္ေနာက္ကို လိုက္ခဲ့ဖို႔ သူ႔ကို အခ်က္ျပလိုက္တယ္။ ဒါေပမဲ့ ပိုးမႊားေရာင္းသူက သူ႔ေနရာက မထဘူး။
လက္မွတ္ေသတၱာကို မထိသလို သူထိုင္ေနတဲ့ေနရာကလည္း တစ္ဖ၀ါးမွ မေရြ႕ဘူး။
"အဲဒါမ်ဳိးက က်ဳပ္ရဲ႕ ပံုစံမဟုတ္ဘူး။ လူထုဆႏၵျပပြဲတုိ႔ ဘာတို႔ေလ။ က်ဳပ္က အရာရာဟာ သူ႔သေဘာသူေဆာင္သြားလိမ့္မယ္လို႔ပဲ သေဘာထားတတ္တဲ့ လူစားမ်ဳိး"
"ဒါေပမဲ့ တျခားလူေတြအေၾကာင္း ခင္ဗ်ားကို ဘယ္သူကမွ ပူခိုင္းမေနဘူးေလ။ ဒီလက္မွတ္က ခင္ဗ်ားအတြက္ သီးသန္႔ပဲ"
"ဘာပဲျဖစ္ျဖစ္ ေက်းဇူးတင္ပါတယ္။ က်ဳပ္ကေတာ့ လက္လႊတ္လိုက္ေတာ့မယ္။ တျခားလူေတြအသက္မရွင္ႏိုင္တဲ့အခ်ိန္မွာ အသက္ရွင္က်န္ရေအာင္ က်ဳပ္က ဘာေကာင္မို႔လို႔လဲ။
ေတာင္းဆိုခ်က္မ်ားလြန္းတာဟာလည္း ဒုစရိုက္မႈပဲ မဟုတ္ဘူးလား။
တျခားလူေတြအသက္မရွင္ႏိုင္တဲ့အခ်ိန္မွာ အသက္ရွင္က်န္ရေအာင္ က်ဳပ္က ဘာေကာင္မို႔လို႔လဲတဲ့။
ဒီလူေျပာတဲ့စကားက အခ်က္ေတာ့ က်တယ္။ သူက ကၽြန္ေတာ့္ရဲ႕ ေပ်ာ့ကြက္ကို ဖမ္းမိသြားတာပဲ။
@The Ark Sakura by Kobo Abe
July 30, 2024
It's like a strange combination of Doctor Strangelove and Terry Southern but set in an abandoned mine in Japan. Kōbō Abe's The Ark Sakura is about an ungainly character named Mole (or sometimes Pig) who occupies the mine, stocks it to survive a nuclear Armageddon, and looks around for people to occupy it with him as their Captain of an immovable ark, so to speak. In Japanese, a Sakura is a shill; for it seems the three people he finds are all shills of various sorts.
As Mole himself admits, "Things never go the way you plan them. excerpt in fantasies." And it seems that for all his advance planning, he runs into a series of unexpected contretemps.
Kobo Abe's works are always fun to read, and this novel is no exception.
As Mole himself admits, "Things never go the way you plan them. excerpt in fantasies." And it seems that for all his advance planning, he runs into a series of unexpected contretemps.
Kobo Abe's works are always fun to read, and this novel is no exception.
August 16, 2024
شخصیت اول این کتاب مردی چاق و مردمگریز با لقب موش کوره. او حاصل تجاوز یک مرد به مادرشه و در نوجوانی با این پدر نااهل مشکلات زیادی داشته و آسیبهای زیادی هم دیده.
او با نخبگی تمام یک معدن زیرزمینی را نقشهبرداری کرده، تکنولوژیهای زیادی در آن راه انداخته و به شکل کشتی در آورده و از این مکان با نام «جایی برای نجات از بمباران اتمی» یاد میکنه. حالا به دنبال ایجاد یک اجتماعه، پیدا کردن آدمهایی که در زمان بمباران ارزش نجات یافتن را داشته باشن... به دنبال پیدا کردن این اجتماع داستان شروع میشه و پیش میره.
برخلاف نظراتی که در مورد این کتاب خوندم، فکر میکنم بسیار به قلم کوبوآبه شباهت داشت و دغدغههای او در زن در ریگ روان در این کتاب هم مشهود بود.
این کتاب در سال ۱۹۸۴ در دوران جنگ سرد که احتمال و دغدغهٔ جنگ اتمی بسیار بالا بود نوشته شده و ایدهٔ جالبی برای شروع کتابی با این مضمونه.
او با نخبگی تمام یک معدن زیرزمینی را نقشهبرداری کرده، تکنولوژیهای زیادی در آن راه انداخته و به شکل کشتی در آورده و از این مکان با نام «جایی برای نجات از بمباران اتمی» یاد میکنه. حالا به دنبال ایجاد یک اجتماعه، پیدا کردن آدمهایی که در زمان بمباران ارزش نجات یافتن را داشته باشن... به دنبال پیدا کردن این اجتماع داستان شروع میشه و پیش میره.
برخلاف نظراتی که در مورد این کتاب خوندم، فکر میکنم بسیار به قلم کوبوآبه شباهت داشت و دغدغههای او در زن در ریگ روان در این کتاب هم مشهود بود.
این کتاب در سال ۱۹۸۴ در دوران جنگ سرد که احتمال و دغدغهٔ جنگ اتمی بسیار بالا بود نوشته شده و ایدهٔ جالبی برای شروع کتابی با این مضمونه.
February 20, 2021
This was the hardest book I ever had to read through. I forced myself to finish because I just HAD to find out the ending no matter how much I disliked it. The ending is the definition of anti-climactic and I want to bang my head against a brick wall for making myself suffer through that for the least satisfying ending known to man.
But hey, if you like books filled with people deceiving each other, constant sexual harassment toward a woman, the repetitive mentioning of a stupid bug, and a man getting his leg stuck in a damn toilet for 1/4 of a book, then you’ll be happy to know that this is the book for you.
But hey, if you like books filled with people deceiving each other, constant sexual harassment toward a woman, the repetitive mentioning of a stupid bug, and a man getting his leg stuck in a damn toilet for 1/4 of a book, then you’ll be happy to know that this is the book for you.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 17, 2018
Second time reading this. It was the first novel by Abe I ever read. I think I love it even more now than I did 3+ years ago. So absurd and compelling and that sudden, inscrutable ending gives me chills.
February 1, 2022
• THE ARK SAKURA by Kobo Abe, tr. by Juliet Winters Carpenter, 1984/1988.
People on society's margins - an underground "ark" bomb shelter.
Weird. Dark. Disturbing.
People on society's margins - an underground "ark" bomb shelter.
Weird. Dark. Disturbing.
September 13, 2024
naja? ich weiß nich, denke war nicht das richtige Buch zum Einstieg für Kobo Abe,, aber werde definitiv anderen Büchern eine Chance geben. das muss jetzt nicht wirklich sein
May 20, 2022
By no stretch of imagination can this book be categorized as SF. What a disappointment!!
September 22, 2018
•كشتي ساكورا•
نمي دونم هنوز برشما مسجل شده كه من عاشق ادبيات ژاپنم يا نه؟! كشتي ساكورا يه رمان ٢٩٦ صفحه اي از #كوبو_آبه ،ولي اگه اسم نويسنده رو ندونين و كتاب رو بخونين بيشتر فكر ميكنين بوكوفسكي يا براتيگان كتاب رو نوشتن!
پس اصلا نبايد با ذهنيت #زن_در_ریگ_روان برين سمتش!چون اصلا به اون قدرت و جديت نيست...
فضا البته مثل همون كتاب گنگ تا حدودي و درك كردن محيط يكم سخته كه نمي دونم تا چه حد مربوط به قلم نويسنده است و تا چه حد به ترجمه برميگرده،چون كسايي كه زن در ريگ روان رو هم زبان اصلي خوندن گفتن اصلا گنگ نبوده برعكس كسايي كه فارسي خوندن...اما اين گنگي تو مكالمه ها و بقيه توصيف ها نيست...
كتاب،كتاب بانمكي و راجع به يه آدم چاق و انزوا طلب كه به خاطر نگراني از اتفاقات آخر الزماني ،يه پناهگاه امن ميسازه و...بازهم در آخر درست زماني كه يكي از شخصيت ها مي تونه خودش رو نجات بده و فرار كنه ،برعكس عمل ميكنه و موقعيت جديد رو ميپذيره و مي مونه،اين نقطه اشتراك قلم كوبو آبه بود.
خب حقيقتش من چون خودم با ذهنيت قبلي زن در ريگ روان رفتم سمتش توقع ام اونطور كه بايد رفع نشد ولي الان كه بدون اون مقايسه و ديد بهش نگاه ميكنم ميبينم كتاب بدي نبوده و كلا من بازهم اونقدر ادبيات ژاپن رو دوست دارم كه نمي تونم عادلانه قضاوت كنم شايد!و توي گودريدز هم نظر كاربرها دقيقا ضد و نقيض بود يه عده خيلي جالب بود براشون و يه عده نه،ولي كتابي كه ميشه بعد از يه كتاب جدي و سنگين خوند و راحت پيش رفت چون جملات ساده اما جالبي داره كه خوشايندن،مثل مقايسه زندگي آدم با حشره يوپكاچيا، يا تعريف دموكراسي و مقايسه انواع تاريكي ها با هم...
اما درمورد نوع نوشتار كتاب،كلمات و املاي جدا از هم شون به چشم خيلي نامأنوس مي اومد! نميدونم اين سبك املاي جديده يا نه مثل:ره بر، به تر، پيش رفت و...كلمات ديگه اي كه يادم نيست اما قبلا استوري كردم.
طرح جلدش رو هم خيلي دوست داشتم! كلا راجع به نويسنده هاي ژاپني فكر ميكنم بهتره خودتون چندصفحه از كتاب رو بخونين و يا تحقيق كنين ببينين دوست دارين يا نه و به مذاق مطالعه تون خوش مياد...
از متن كتاب:
-آدمي زاد چيزي نيست جز يك مشت حرف مفت.
-طعم آبكي نا اميدي مثل يك جفت كفش كهنه با آدم اُخت مي شود.
-هر تصميمي در نهايت نوعي ديكتاتوري است.
-انجام دادن كاري كه آدم دلش مي خواهد و انجام ندادن كاري كه كه دلش نمي خواهد،ممكن است شبيه به هم به نظر برسند،اما به كلي منفاوت اند.
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.
.
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#كشتي_ساكورا #ادبيات #ادبيات_ژاپن #معرفي_كتاب
نمي دونم هنوز برشما مسجل شده كه من عاشق ادبيات ژاپنم يا نه؟! كشتي ساكورا يه رمان ٢٩٦ صفحه اي از #كوبو_آبه ،ولي اگه اسم نويسنده رو ندونين و كتاب رو بخونين بيشتر فكر ميكنين بوكوفسكي يا براتيگان كتاب رو نوشتن!
پس اصلا نبايد با ذهنيت #زن_در_ریگ_روان برين سمتش!چون اصلا به اون قدرت و جديت نيست...
فضا البته مثل همون كتاب گنگ تا حدودي و درك كردن محيط يكم سخته كه نمي دونم تا چه حد مربوط به قلم نويسنده است و تا چه حد به ترجمه برميگرده،چون كسايي كه زن در ريگ روان رو هم زبان اصلي خوندن گفتن اصلا گنگ نبوده برعكس كسايي كه فارسي خوندن...اما اين گنگي تو مكالمه ها و بقيه توصيف ها نيست...
كتاب،كتاب بانمكي و راجع به يه آدم چاق و انزوا طلب كه به خاطر نگراني از اتفاقات آخر الزماني ،يه پناهگاه امن ميسازه و...بازهم در آخر درست زماني كه يكي از شخصيت ها مي تونه خودش رو نجات بده و فرار كنه ،برعكس عمل ميكنه و موقعيت جديد رو ميپذيره و مي مونه،اين نقطه اشتراك قلم كوبو آبه بود.
خب حقيقتش من چون خودم با ذهنيت قبلي زن در ريگ روان رفتم سمتش توقع ام اونطور كه بايد رفع نشد ولي الان كه بدون اون مقايسه و ديد بهش نگاه ميكنم ميبينم كتاب بدي نبوده و كلا من بازهم اونقدر ادبيات ژاپن رو دوست دارم كه نمي تونم عادلانه قضاوت كنم شايد!و توي گودريدز هم نظر كاربرها دقيقا ضد و نقيض بود يه عده خيلي جالب بود براشون و يه عده نه،ولي كتابي كه ميشه بعد از يه كتاب جدي و سنگين خوند و راحت پيش رفت چون جملات ساده اما جالبي داره كه خوشايندن،مثل مقايسه زندگي آدم با حشره يوپكاچيا، يا تعريف دموكراسي و مقايسه انواع تاريكي ها با هم...
اما درمورد نوع نوشتار كتاب،كلمات و املاي جدا از هم شون به چشم خيلي نامأنوس مي اومد! نميدونم اين سبك املاي جديده يا نه مثل:ره بر، به تر، پيش رفت و...كلمات ديگه اي كه يادم نيست اما قبلا استوري كردم.
طرح جلدش رو هم خيلي دوست داشتم! كلا راجع به نويسنده هاي ژاپني فكر ميكنم بهتره خودتون چندصفحه از كتاب رو بخونين و يا تحقيق كنين ببينين دوست دارين يا نه و به مذاق مطالعه تون خوش مياد...
از متن كتاب:
-آدمي زاد چيزي نيست جز يك مشت حرف مفت.
-طعم آبكي نا اميدي مثل يك جفت كفش كهنه با آدم اُخت مي شود.
-هر تصميمي در نهايت نوعي ديكتاتوري است.
-انجام دادن كاري كه آدم دلش مي خواهد و انجام ندادن كاري كه كه دلش نمي خواهد،ممكن است شبيه به هم به نظر برسند،اما به كلي منفاوت اند.
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.
.
.
#كشتي_ساكورا #ادبيات #ادبيات_ژاپن #معرفي_كتاب
April 18, 2022
I just love books by this author and reading a new one is a definite treat. So far none of his books have disappointed me and that says a lot. They are just so unique and generally include some bizarre situation. And this one was loads of fun! I was very absorbed in this underground tale set in a quarry in Japan. No actual year is given but the main character is a bit strange and is prepping for an imminent nuclear disaster. He thinks hiding underground in this huge old mine is the answer - but he wants others to share in his madness.
And so he invites a few people over... Well he actually invites one but a few others are rude uninvited guests!
And then his problems start!
Truthfully reading his books always surprise me! And the totally insane situation at the end of this one (it appears maybe about 3/4 of the way through) is the most crazy thing I have seen in a book! It's also hilarious but very, very UNfunny for the main character! This is the kind of thing that makes you think "Is that even possible? Who thinks of such a thing?!" Obviously Abe did, with great results! Just sitting here thinking about it has me laughing! So stupid but funny!
And this story has many other side plots in here as well. And they all work out perfectly! The story moves along at a great pace and it is never boring at all. I can guarantee you never read anything like this before! And that is why I love his books.
Oh a big part of the plot is the animosity between the main character and his father. The two do not get along at all.
This cover is like blah but the story is just fantastic! In many ways the main character thinks he is smart and clever but he is not as clever as he thinks he is. Everyone else is way ahead of him. He calls himself Mole... But Mole and the others definitely bring this story alive! No flat characters in here.
And so he invites a few people over... Well he actually invites one but a few others are rude uninvited guests!
And then his problems start!
Truthfully reading his books always surprise me! And the totally insane situation at the end of this one (it appears maybe about 3/4 of the way through) is the most crazy thing I have seen in a book! It's also hilarious but very, very UNfunny for the main character! This is the kind of thing that makes you think "Is that even possible? Who thinks of such a thing?!" Obviously Abe did, with great results! Just sitting here thinking about it has me laughing! So stupid but funny!
And this story has many other side plots in here as well. And they all work out perfectly! The story moves along at a great pace and it is never boring at all. I can guarantee you never read anything like this before! And that is why I love his books.
Oh a big part of the plot is the animosity between the main character and his father. The two do not get along at all.
This cover is like blah but the story is just fantastic! In many ways the main character thinks he is smart and clever but he is not as clever as he thinks he is. Everyone else is way ahead of him. He calls himself Mole... But Mole and the others definitely bring this story alive! No flat characters in here.
August 22, 2020
Странный роман с открытой концовкой.
Главный герой, который в начале романа кажется in control, на самом деле оказывается самым беспомощным персонажем, который буквально застревает в унитазе.
Ситуация отражает притчу, рассказанную в романе:
Реально то, во что веришь.
Главный герой, который в начале романа кажется in control, на самом деле оказывается самым беспомощным персонажем, который буквально застревает в унитазе.
Ситуация отражает притчу, рассказанную в романе:
Помню, в детстве в нашем доме были раздвижные ставни, и в нише, куда они задвигались на день, свила гнездо птичка. Коричневая пичужка, похожая на маленькую ворону. Я не люблю птиц. По утрам кричат, клещи от них, а когда долго к ним приглядываешься, замечаешь, какие противные у них клюв и глаза. От этой птицы я просыпалась чуть свет и с досады стала на ночь оставлять в нише одну ставню. А чтобы птица не могла влететь, сделала совсем узкую щель. Потом забыла о гнезде и вспомнила, лишь когда лето уже кончилось, — из щели между ставней и нишей вдруг показалась головка высохшей мертвой птички. Через щель она получала от родителей пищу, но когда выросла, вылететь не смогла. Ужас, правда? Такова родительская любовь.
Реально то, во что веришь.
January 30, 2022
I have complicated feelings about this book. I probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone I know and I certainly won't reread it, but it's not completely without merit. More of a review to come later as I collect my thoughts.
October 20, 2024
What the Flip?
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