Students, you are welcome to submit things here!
『芽毟り仔撃ち』Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids
『個人的な体験』A Personal Matter
『空の怪物アグイー』"Aghwee, the Sky Monster"
『万延元年のフットボール』Silent Cry
『人生の親戚』Echo of Heaven
『取り替え子（チェンジリング）』The Changeling
1999 interview here at Berkeley (includes link to YouTube version): Art & Healing (http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people/Ōe/)
Rare photo — Ōe in 1955: http://www.photoshelter.com/image/I0000Ih.cgMeckuE
Rare photo — A younger Ōe:
Ōe at Berkeley 1999
Ōe at Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, 2006 (LIFE Magazine here http://www.life.com/image/71861434)
Oe on the 東日本大震災 (Eastern Japan Disaster — earthquake, tsunami, nuclear reactor accident)
This was published in the The New Yorker March 28, 2011: Tokyo Postcard: History Repeats
This novel's title is a bit difficult. It is noun-verb, noun-verb. Both verbs are in the 連用形 which is nominalizing the verb. So: "The act of mushiru-ing me, the act of utsu-ing ko."
Mushiru means "to pluck": むしる【毟る】(1)はえているものを引き抜く。「鳥の毛を―・る」(2)指先などでつまんではがす。魚などの身をほぐす。「魚を―・って食べる」「柴栗を―・り―・りつつ歩行くに/日光山の奥（花袋）
Utsu here means "to shoot" such as when hunting an animal: うつ【撃つ】〔「打つ」と同源〕（「射つ」とも書く）矢や弾を発射する。また、矢や弾で相手や獲物を殺傷する。「鉄砲を―・つ」「鳥を―・つ」
Me and ko are both young things: new growth of a plant and young offspring of an animal.
The English translation title is making a wordplay that is not all that strong in the original, but hinted at, overlaying young children with young goats/sheep in the word "kid".
1: “Arrival” (到着 Touchaku)
2: “The First Little Task” (最初の小さな作業 Saisyo no chiisana sagyou)
3: “The plague’s onslaught/exodus” (襲いかかる疫病と村人の退去 Osoikakaru ekibyou to murabito no taikyo)
4: “Closure” (閉鎖 Heisa)
5: “Solidarity of the abandoned” (見棄てられた者の協力 Misuterareta mono no kyouryoku)
6: “Love” (愛 Ai)
7: “The Hunt and the festival in the snow” (猟と雪のなかの祭 Kari to yuki no naka no matsuri)
8: "Sudden outbrake of disease and panic" (不意の発病と恐慌 Fui no hatsubyou to kyoukou)
9: "The return of the villagers and the slaughter of the soldier" (村人の復帰と兵士の屠殺 Murabito no fukki to heishi no tosatsu)
10: “Trial and abandonment” (審判と追放 Shinpan to tsuihou)
The below comments are by Athena, just as she sent them:
This novel is often compared to William Golding's Lord of the Flies. There is speculation that Oe drew inspiration from this novel and author, but I don't know if that's true. Lord of the Flies was Golding's first novel, published in 1954, while MEMUSHIRI was Oe's first novel, published in 1958. Golding was 43 and Oe was 23.
Lord of the Flies explores themes similar to MEMUSHIRI, including groupthink, INDIVIDUAL / GROUP, morality, rationality, and HUMAN WEAKNESS.
Here is a brief comparison of the two plots from a book blog:
"I am sure that anybody who read both novels would see a lot of similarities. British vs Japanese boys. The British boys in the jungle while the Japanese boys in a far-flung village. Both were left alone to fend for themselves. The British boys, who were some of the survivors of the sunken ship amidst nuclear war, tried to govern themselves and in the process failed due to their self-imposed rules which are founded on ignorance (innocence), selfishness and savagery. The Japanese boys, who were sent there as part of the reformatory program of the government during WWII, have external tormentors: the villagers who had to flee and leave them behind because of the onslaught of plague. When the adult rescuers found the British boys in the island, they saved them. When the adult villagers went back after the plague they scrambled to cover their acts by further tormenting the poor Japanese boys." [WALLACE: I would just like to insert here that the plague, or, rather, the belief of its existence, IS an internal threat.]
Perhaps some of the biggest distinctions between the two novels include: in Lord of the Flies, the group of boys savagely murder one of their own (Simon, the character representing innocence and goodness, maybe aligned with MEMUSHIRI's little brother). Another boy (arguably an analogue for characters in MEMUSHIRI like the Korean boy, or maybe the girl), Piggy, is also murdered. The character closest to MEMUSHIRI's narrator is hunted by the group of boys rather than adult villagers, but is saved from murder when the group is found and saved by the British navy.
Some quotes:
"Maybe there is a beast... maybe it's only us."
"He knelt among the shadows and felt his isolation bitterly. They were savages it was true; buy they were human."
"But nobody else understands about the fire. If someone threw you a rope when you were drowning. If a doctor said take this because if you don't take it you'll die -- you would, wouldn't you?"
(Thank you Athena!)
The color is #bb5522: http://www.colordic.org/colorsample/2234.html
The color is #8a3b00: http://www.colordic.org/colorsample/2225.html
The Hong Kong bit throws me off, because I feel like he's referring to the Japanese sukajan souvenir jackets that became popular post-WWII among American soldiers. Later, it became a statement piece of the "Yankee" fashion style, which I believe carried connotations of delinquency and non-conformity, in line with the "gang" dynamic in KOJIN. I've heard it called Japan's version of the punk fashion movement."
Thanks Athena!
Great information here, related to Oe (not just about Apollinaire himself): http://www.willamette.edu/%7Erloftus/oe.htm
Thanks Jessica!
"Under the Double Eagle March". This is a piece that I think you will know, once you hear it. This YouTube is very cool: it is an LP version, and a English-Japanese print.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uHQVN0a2IQ
Thanks Derek!
If the link is dead, just google the song title + Wagner.
I don't think it is a coincidence that Ōe decides to mention a whisky brand rather than just a bottle of whisky. Johnnie Walker was the Whisky of his day, to be sure, but the icon on the label, the adventurous "Johnnie Walker" fits nicely into Bird's fantasy of adventures in Africa, too. The label depicted below is a contemporary one, but as best as I can tell some version of this icon has been on the label for a very long time and is likely to be quite close to what Ōe has in mind.
Thank you Howard!
Here's a history of the icon, just as random fun information, if you are interested: Character study – Johnnie Walker
“When it was her turn to stand and introduce herself, she had challenged the class to guess the source of her unusual name: Himiko—fire-sighting-child. Bird had answered, correctly, that the name was taken from the Chronicles of the ancient province of Higo—The Emperor commanded his oarsmen, saying: There in the distance a signal fire burns; make for it straightaway. After that, Bird and the girl Himiko from the island of Kyushu had become friends.” Excerpt From: Kenzaburo Ōe. “A Personal Matter.” iBooks.
火見子 (From Wiki on "Himiko: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himiko) Himiko or Pimiko (卑弥呼, d. ca. 248) was an obscure shaman queen of Yamataikoku in ancient Wa (Japan). Early Chinese dynastic histories chronicle tributary relations between Queen Himiko and the Cao Wei Kingdom (220-265), and record that the Yayoi period people chose her as ruler following decades of warfare among the kings of Wa. Early Japanese histories do not mention Himiko, but historians associate her with legendary figures such as Empress Consort Jingū, who was Regent (ca. 200-269 ) in roughly the same era as Himiko.Yamato Totohi Momoso himemiko (倭迹迹日百襲媛命), the shaman aunt of Emperor Sujin, supposedly committed suicide after learning her husband was a trickster snake-god. The Kojiki does not mention her, but the Nihon Shoki describes her as "the Emperor's aunt by the father's side, a shrewd and intelligent person, who could foresee the future" (tr. Aston 1924:156).
Original image at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MG_MGA
There is another car that started production in 1961 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MG_Midget)
but based on the dilapidated condition of Himiko's MG and the fact that the MGA was primarily produced to be exported, I have a feeling that she drove the MGA and not the Midget. I've driven in both cars before, they are not comfortable. The driver cannot even shift gears without hitting the passenger in the knee, and the wind noise is so loud because of the poorly fitting roof that a normal conversation is quite difficult.Thanks Derek!
個人的な体験 — Chpt 4 (page 39 in English translation) — "'I was thinking about this pluralistic universe.'"
I spent some time trying to track down the origins of this idea. It turns out that there are complicated debates about pluralism within several philosophical traditions and fields, and especially within logic, but the phrase "pluralistic worlds" in the sense that Himiko explains it can, I think, be traced to William James's A Pluralistic Universe (1909). I've tried to sample a part that summarizes the view from a few pages before the end.
"Pragmatically interpreted, pluralism or the doctrine that it is many means only that the sundry parts of reality may be externally related. Everything you can think of, however vast or inclusive, has on the pluralistic view a genuinely 'external' environment of some sort or amount. Things are 'with' one another in many ways, but nothing includes everything, or dominates over everything. The word 'and' trails along after every sentence. Something always escapes. 'Ever not quite' has to be said of the best attempts made anywhere in the universe at attaining all−inclusiveness. The pluralistic world is thus more like a federal republic than like an empire or a kingdom. However much may be collected, however much may report itself as present at any effective centre of consciousness or action, something else is self−governed and absent and unreduced to unity."
Thank you Anthony!
個人的な体験 — Chpt 4 (43) — The William Blake painting in Himiko's apartment
“William Blake. You remember, I wrote my thesis on him.”
Vanessa located the Blake painting from an online catalogue of artwork at an exhibition at London's Tate Museum titled "Gothic Nightmares: Fuseli, Blake and the Romantic Imagination" Feb 15-May 1, 2006. The below is from Room 7: "Revolution, Revelation, Apocalypse".
The theme of this painting is, of course, directly relevant to the narrative.
"William Blake
Pestilence: Death of The First Born circa 1805
Pen and watercolour over pencil on paper, 304 x 342 mm
Lent by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: Gift by subscription"(If the above link is broken, go here.)
Chuck also located this painting and you can see it with zoom capacity here (using a Cal computer or proxy). He adds these notes: "The looming creature in the center of the painting is 'Pestilence' -- the 10th plague God delivered unto the Egyptians before the Exodus of the Jews. This 'pestilence' kills the first born sons of the Egyptians. Bird's wondering who this creature is / what the painting represents seems then to be an embodiment of his predicament about having to make a choice whether or not to let his son die."
Athena adds to this —
"'Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.'"
This quote comes from William Blake's prose-poem "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" (1790-1793). It is one of Blake's most notable works. It is a satirical attack on orthodox religion, written in a style that imitates biblical prophecy. (http://www.enotes.com/topics/marriage-heaven-hell/critical-essays)
The specific section the quote comes from is the "Proverbs of Hell," meant to imbue wisdom — perhaps of questionable value — similar to the Bible's "Book of Proverbs." The full text of this particular poem can be found here: http://www.levity.com/alchemy/blake_ma.html
個人的な体験 — Chpt 5 (63) — Bird's Hemingway passage before becoming ill in front of his students
"I undressed in one of the bath-cabins, crossed the narrow line of beach and went into the water. I swam out, trying to swim through the rollers, but having to dive sometimes. Then in the quiet water I turned and floated. Floating I saw only the sky and felt the drop and lift of the swells. I swam back to the surf and coasted in, face down, on a big roller, then turned and swam, trying to keep in the trough and not have a wave break over me. It made me tired, swimming in the trough, and I turned and swam out to the raft. The water was buoyant and cold. It felt as though you could never sink. I swam slowly, it seemed like a long swim with the high tide, and then pulled up on the raft and sat, dripping, on the boards that were becoming hot in the sun." (Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (1926), Chapter 19, p 241)
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) — Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. The protagonist is Jake Barnes, an expatriate American journalist living in Paris. Jake suffered a war wound that left him impotent." (Wiki) He is a drinker.
個人的な体験 — Chpt 5 (63) — Hemingway's Green Hills of Africa
Bird says Green Hills of Africa is one of his favorites of Hemingway. Published in 1935, Green Hills of Africa is an autobiographical work documenting the one month Hemingway and his wife spent on safari in East Africa in 1933. The work describes Hemingway's hunting travels and includes reflections (sometimes in conversation) about literature and authors. (Thanks Athena!)
個人的な体験 — Chpt 6 (70) — the baby's incubator
original 1963 image at: Life images, Pediatrician Dr Ralph Shugart
Thanks Derek!
個人的な体験 — Chpt 10 (117) — My Life in a Bush of Ghosts
From: Amos Tutuola
Amos Tutuola (1920-1997)
Nigerian writer, who gained world fame with his story THE PALM-WINE DRINKARD. "I was a palm-wine drinkard since I was a boy of ten years of age," Tutuola started the novel. "I had no other work more than to drink palm-wine in my life." The book was based on Yoruba folktales, but in his own country Tutuola was accused of falsifications and uncivilized language. The novel is a transcription in pidgin English prose of an oral tale of his own intervention. It recounted the mythological tale of a drunken man, who follows his dead tapster into "Deads' Town", a world of magic, ghosts, demons, and supernatural beings. According to the Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, Tutuola's works can also be read as moral tales commenting Western consumerism: "What happens when a man immerses himself in pleasure to the exclusion of all work?"
In spite of the success and critical acclaim of the novel, Tutuola did not think himself as an author. For a long period he did not read or even own books. In the 1950s Tutuola wrote MY LIFE IN A BUSH OF GHOSTS (1954), an underworld odyssey, in which an eight-year-old boy, abandoned during a slave raid, flees into the bush, "a place of ghosts and spirits". The next twenty-four years he spents wandering in a spirit world, longing to return to his earthly home. Oumar Doduo Thiam saw in Presénce Africaine that the work is the "expression of ghosts and of African terror, alive with humanity and humility, and extraordinary world where the mixture of Western influences are united, but one always without the least trace of incoherence." Brian Eno and David Byrne took the title of the book for their 1981 album.
(emphasis mine)
個人的な体験Chpt 10 (page 119 in English translation) — “‘These deeds must not be thought after these ways,’ Bird, ‘so it will make us mad."
Himiko draws comparison to Lady Macbeth from the first scenes, but the resemblance is only made explicit in the last third of the book. I wonder if Oe saw Kurosawa Akira’s adaptation of Macbeth 蜘蛛巣城 (Throne of Blood) (1957), which also aims to translate Lady Macbeth to a Japanese cultural landscape.
First, Himiko quotes Lady Macbeth’s words right after Macbeth commits regicide, so that he can become king himself:
Lady Macbeth: Consider it not so deeply.
Macbeth: But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'?
I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen'
Stuck in my throat.Lady Macbeth: These deeds must not be thought
After these ways; so, it will make us mad. (Macbeth, II.ii)I think Oe also wants us to think of the “unsex me” soliloquy, where Lady Macbeth seeks to liberate herself from the weaknesses of her gender as she perceives them, so as to then help her husband commit the act of murder:
The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements.
Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischief!
Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry 'Hold, hold!' (Macbeth, I.iv)Thank you Anthony!
個人的な体験 — Chpt 10 (page 121 in English translation) — elephantiasis
(original image here) Thanks Lisa!
個人的な体験 — Chpt 10 (page 129 in English translation) — Kafka's letter to his father (and his connection to Theosophy)
For access to portions of Kafka's letter see, for example, https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/03/05/franz-kafka-letter-father/
We can entertain the thought that Ōe's interest in Kafka reaches beyond the specific point of one's responsibility towards a child and into a broader sense of responsibility as a husband and, indeed, simply as what constitutes a "good" person —
from The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child edited by Robert A. King, Peter B. Neubauer, Samuel Abrams, A. Scott Dowling (Yale University Press, 2008), page 323:
With this preface he engages the crucial issue of marriage "that ... high step which is impossible for him to climb even by exerting all his strength, that step which he cannot get up and which he cannot get past eitJ1er." For him "n1arry in g, founding a fa1nily, accepting all the children that come, supporting them in this in secure world, and even guiding them a little as well, is the utmost a human being can do at all." This is what he feels hi s father did not do for him; his father did not rear him to fulfill this role.
He asks him self why he did not marry. In response he describes the agonies h e suffers when he faces that step: he can no longer sleep, hi s head burns day and night, life can n o longer be called life, he staggers about in despair. It is not the worries that bring this about. The worries are "like worms con1pleting the work on the corpse." The decisive blow comes from "the general pressure of anxiety, of weakness, of self-contempt." Trying to explain this more fully he brings the parricidal conflict closer to conscious awareness: marriage would be the most acute form of self-liberation and independence; he would achieve the highest thing and would be the equal of his father; sha1ne and tyranny would be n1ere hi story. He likens him self to a prisoner who wants to escape and at the same time rebuild s the prison as a pleasurable place for him self. Marrying would be the greatest thing of all and would provide the most honorable independence but at the same time it is in the closest relation to father , so that getting out of the prison has a touch of madness about it
from Butterfly, the Bride: Essays on Law, Narrative, and the Family by Carol Weisbrod (University of Michigan Press, 2009), page 80:
Kafka was never able to marry. He certainly engaged in sexual relations with women-though sex, like everything else, became ultimately quite secondary to his writing. It probably cannot be known for certain whether he had an illegitimate son who died at seven, or whether his relationship with Milena (a Czech writer) had a physical dimension. Kafka's idea of marriage shows a merger of the several levels. Marriage involves a state directive, a Jewish dimension, a level specific to his father (relating to social standing), and finally a level specific to Kafka. For Kafka, marriage meant much more than companionship or psychological or physical intimacy. It was an institution of ultimate value.
Marrying, founding a family, accepting all the children that come, supporting them in this insecure world and perhaps even guiding them a little, is, I am convinced, the utmost a human being can succeed in doing at all. That so many seem to succeed in this is no evidence to the contrary; first of all, there are not many who do succeed, and second, these not-many usually don't "do" it, it merely "happens" to them; although this is not that utmost, it is still very great and very honorable (particularly since "doing" and "happening" cannot be kept clearly distinct). And finally, it is not a matter of this Utmost at all, anyway, but only of some distant but decent approximation; it is, after all, not necessary to fly right into the middle of the sun, but it is necessary to crawl to a clean little spot on Earth where the sun sometimes shines and one can warm oneself a little.
There is, with Kafka, too, a connection to Theosophy:
The Mystical Life of Franz Kafka: Theosophy, Cabala, and the Modern Spiritual Revival by June O. Leavitt
ABSTRACT This book aims to show that the “Kafkaesque” in Franz Kafka may be immediate or residual impressions of the clairvoyance which Kafka admitted he suffered from: Those aspects of his writings in which the solid basis of human cognition totters, and objects are severed from physical referents, can be understood as mystical states of consciousness. However, this book also demonstrates how the age in which Kafka lived shaped his mystical states. Kafka lived during the modern Spiritual Revival, a powerful movement which resisted materialism, rejected the adulation of science and Darwin and idealized clairvoyant modes of consciousness. Key personalities who were Kafka’s contemporaries encouraged the counterculture to seek the true essence of reality by inducing out-of-body experiences and producing spiritual visions through meditative techniques. Most importantly, they inspired the representation of altered perception in art and literature. Leaders of the Spiritual Revival also called for changes in lifestyle in order to help transform consciousness. Vegetarianism became essential to reach higher consciousness and to return humanity to its divine nature. It is no surprise that Kafka became a vegetarian and wrote several important narratives from an animal’s point of view. Interweaving the occult discourse on clairvoyance, the divine nature of animal life, vegetarianism, the spiritual sources of dreams, and the eternal nature of the soul with Kafka’s dream-chronicles, animal narratives, diaries, letters, and stories, this book takes the reader through the mystical textuality of a great psychic writer and through the fascinating epoch of the great Spiritual Revival.
個人的な体験Chpt 11 (page 139 in English translation) — "’...we . . . our dirtying our own hands with the baby’s murder . . . .”
Beginning on page 139, we get debates over whose hands would be dirtied by the murdering of the baby. This is undoubtedly alluding to another famous passage in Macbeth.
Gentlewoman: It is an accustomed action with her, to seem
thus washing her hands: I have known her continue in
this a quarter of an hour.LADY MACBETH: Yet here's a spot.
Doctor: Hark! she speaks: I will set down what comes from
her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.LADY MACBETH: Out, damned spot! out, I say!--One: two: why,
then, 'tis time to do't.--Hell is murky!--Fie, my
lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we
fear who knows it, when none can call our power to
account?--Yet who would have thought the old man
to have had so much blood in him. (Macbeth, V.i)Thank you Anthony!
個人的な体験 — Chpt 12 (150) — lemmings
Interesting facts about the lemming myth: http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.asp (not sure how relevant it is to the narrative since the metaphor isrelying on the falsehood, but still...)
Thanks Lisa!
空の怪物アグイー p 13 in English translation — pyorrhea (wife's dental disease)
Pyorrhea refers to an advanced stage of periodontal disease. It is at this stage that the ligaments and bone that support the teeth become inflamed and infected. In most cases it is a result of gingivitis that plaque buildup infects the gums, and can drive a literal wedge between the tooth and gum line. Once these pockets form they can trap food particles that will feed bacteria that is also trapped in them. These pockets can go so deep that they can begin to erode the supporting bone structure and lead to tooth loss. In fact, bone loss from pyorrhea is the primary cause of tooth loss in adults.
original photo at: http://www.oramd.com/images/pyorrhea3w.jpg
Thanks Tema!
空の怪物アグイー "we were enveloped by the belling of a pack of hounds." — Rabelais's dogs …
Death by Water (水死, Suishi 2009) | Part One: The Drowning Novel | Prologue: The Joke
These are the final passages from that prologue. Translation 2015 by Deborah Boliver Boehm. (He returns to this scene in the following chapter, too.)
At that, I started to walk toward the uphill road that led to my house. But instead of taking the social cue and saying good-bye, the girl asked me a question. She seemed suddenly preoccupied, and a subtle change in her facial expression appeared to reflect some interior reverie.
“This is about something completely different,” she said, “but I heard that your old French literature professor at Tokyo University translated an epic novel from the sixteenth century— is that right? And apparently the book contains an episode about a man who uses a crazed bunch of dogs to create some kind of riot in Paris?”
“That’s right,” I said. The Life of Gargantua and Pantagruel, by Rabelais. The first volume of what is, indeed, a monumental novel, is called simply Pantagruel. The title character is one of a race of giants, and in one chapter his favorite retainer, Panurge, plays a prank on an aristocratic lady who rejected his attempts to court her. According to the story, Panurge found a female dog in heat and fed her all sorts of delicacies, presumably to enhance her sexual energy. Then he killed the dog and took a certain, um, something out of her insides. He mashed it up, stuffed the resulting pulp into the pocket of his greatcoat, and off he went. He tracked down the snooty Parisian lady and furtively smeared the substance on her dress: on the sleeves, in the folds of the skirt, and so on. Of course, the aroma attracted a huge crowd of male dogs. They all came running and leaped on the lady, and the result was a very unseemly sort of mayhem. I mean, you can imagine what would happen if ‘more than 600,014’ male dogs— the story gives the exact number— were whipped into a frenzy.”
“If the first dog, the one that was killed, was a female, what on earth did the retainer take out of her, um, insides?”
“Well … this is a bit awkward. I mean, it isn’t the sort of word I feel comfortable introducing into a conversation with a young woman I’ve only just met.” I was truly flustered by the question, but at the same time I was also pleasantly reminded of Professor Musumi’s transported expression and exuberant manner of speaking whenever he was illuminating some arcane point for his students. Trying to emulate my late mentor’s happily didactic spirit, I did my best to explain, as delicately as possible, one of the footnotes from my late mentor’s translation of the famous medieval novel.
“It was the uterus of the female dog,” I said. “That organ has been known to scholars since Greek times for its medicinal properties, and I’ve read that medieval sorcerers also used it as an ingredient in magical love potions.”
Without saying another word the girl gave a slight bow, then turned and walked away. I felt curiously refreshed and amused, and I also realized that the request from Unaiko and her colleagues in the Caveman Group had made me much more inclined to act on Asa’s invitation to return to Shikoku, after all these years, and explore the contents of the red leather trunk.
万延元年のフォットボール：死者にみちびかれて p 1 in Eng trans — "expectation"
"expectation" is 「期待」
万延元年のフォットボール：死者にみちびかれて p 5-6 in Eng trans — Sarudahiko (Sarutahiko) and Amenouzume (Ame-no-Uzume-no-mikoto):
Since Mitsu breaks down into tears when recalling the story of Sarudahiko, it seems that we should pause to look more closely at that story. Ōe appears to present him as a brave sole confronting adversity alone.
Sarudahiko is the only one of the great deities (大神) who is of earth, not heaven. That sets him apart and seems relevant to our novel, perhaps.
Sarudahiko is known for his red-face (and red-bottom, in other words, like a monkey, see Nihon shoki 2:17, Aston 77) and this, obviously, is relevant to our novel.
Sarudahiko goes out to confront the female deity Ame-no-Uzume, who has arrived to clear the way for the descent of the great Piko-po-no-ninigi-no-mikoto (that is his short name!) who himself has been commanded by Amaterasu to descend to the earth and rule it. (See Kojiki 1:38, Philippi 137-38) Sarudahiko is at the cross-roads and his resistance is softened by Ame-no-Uzume baring her breasts and showing her genitals. (She did this earlier, to bring Amaterasu out from her cave. See Matsumae Takeshi, "Origin and Growth of the Worship of Amaterasu" Asian Folklore Studies 37.1 (1978) 1-11.) Ōe's "negotiations" is a good summary of that event. (It is not recounted in Kojiki but is at Nihon shoki 2:17, Aston 77).
After "Piko" establishes authority on the land, Ame-no-Uzume gathers the fish to also pledge loyalty: "Are you willing to serve the offspring of the heavenly deities?" Then all of the fish said as one: "We will serve." Among [them, only] the sea-slug did not say anything. [This, to me seems reminiscent of MEMUSHIRI, the rice-ball scene.] Then Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto said to the sea-slug: "This mouth, a mouth which does not reply!" [This might be relevant to the recurring 本当のこと言おうか refrain.] Using a dagger, she slit its mouth. For this reason, even today the mouth of the sea-slug is slit." (Kojiki, 1:40, Philippi, 143.)
Ōe's drawing a connection between Sarudahiko and the sea-slug is a very interesting reading of the Nihon shoki passages (or perhaps later representations of the myth). It is not the obvious interpretation but it does resonate (Saurdahiko seems to have drowned into the ocean, found rebirth there under different names, but returns from the ocean, and has perhaps become Ame-no-Uzume's husband. Very confusing.)
Pictures:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eEUSTnnfHCc/TMDrlEg9SNI/AAAAAAAAA6k/FafiIZoDGr8/s1600/sarutahiko_x800.jpg
http://www.univie.ac.at/rel_jap/w/images/c/ca/Uzume_sarutahiko.jpgInfo about the myth:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/524582/Sarudahiko
This entry emphasizes the redness of his face and the phallic nature of his nose.
*The wiki on Sarutahiko seems "wrong" to me (as in not similar in primary characteristics to the Sarudahiko manifest in Ōe's mind). It is probably written by aikido enthusiastis and represents their take on this god.万延元年のフォットボール：死者にみちびかれて p 13 in Eng trans — "Late one night in June"
There were riots through May and June to oppose the renewal of the U.S. - Japan Security Treaty. The treaty was nevertheless ratified on June 19, 1960. From the Zengakuren folks themselves, recording the history of that riot:
Upsurge of the 1960 Ampo (Japan-US Security Treaty) struggle
The 1960 Ampo struggle was sparked by the battle in November 27, 1959, in which Zengakuren rushed into the Diet (Parliament) ground, overcoming the brake of JCP [Japan Communist Party]. The movement against the revision of Japan-US Security Treaty gained momentum by the impact of this struggle and reached its climax on June 15 1960 when 5.8 million workers and students rose up for protest actions and 11,000 demonstrators surrounded the Diet building. 1,500 militant students out of general mobilization of 15,700 forced their way through one of the gates and a student of Tokyo University, sister KANBA Michiko, was killed during the clash with the riot police. In spite of this struggle the revised Ampo (Japan-US Security Treaty) was ratified by the Diet at midnight on June 19, 1960, while workers and students surrounded the diet building. As a result Kishi administration fell down. Socialist Party and Communist Party put their power into settling the matter within a framework of parliamentary discussion and procedure with an intention to suppress a huge upsurge of people's angry movement. At the same time, the great struggle of coal miners in Miike, in Kyushu of southern Japan, against mass dismissal was also defeated under the reformist union leadership.
(History of Zengakuren: http://www.zengakuren.jp/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/No.1_Report__History_of_Zengakuren2.pdf)
Michiko Kanba's death continues to be a rallying point. Try searching her. Here's a recent, local example: "Student perspective: Change is in our hands" in OaklandNorth by Ayako Mie, posted March 3, 2010 4:26 pm.
万延元年のフォットボール：死者にみちびかれて p 14 in Eng trans — "Shall I tell you the truth?"
"Shall I tell you the truth?" (本当のこと言おうか)— This will be key throughout this text. It comes from a poem. See Chapter titles, Chapter 8, Truth Unspeakable, for the poem and original Japanese phrase. You don't need to read this now, necessarily, but you will have to eventually so you might want to take a peek. This is at the heart of the theme of the work.
万延元年のフォットボール：死者にみちびかれて p 18 in Eng trans — "silent cry"
"silent cry" is 「沈黙のうんちなる叫び声」
万延元年のフォットボール：一族再会 p 37 in Eng trans — Citroen
Here's an old Citroen from 1955:
http://carblueprints.info/blueprints/citroen/citroen-traction-avant-15cv-6h-1955.gif
I'm not sure of the exact year of Hoshio's car, but there's a bunch of photos of various Citroen models here:
万延元年のフォットボール：見たり見えたりする、、、 p 63 in Eng trans — John Manjiro: see below (p 204)
万延元年のフォットボール：見たり見えたりする、、、 p 79 in Eng trans — the musician at the end of this chapter
While reading 'A Silent Cry' I was inspired to look into the musician who's record Mitsu and Taka's sister owned and is playing on p79 right before the end of the chapter. His name is Dinu Lupatti, a man hailed both for having very high technical skill at the piano and a genuine style in his playing. He was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease soon after WWII and played his last concert, despite severe illness, knowing it would be his last before he soon died in 1950. The piece in 'A Silent Cry' is one of the Chopin waltzes from his final concert. He played all twelve of these waltzes except for #2, which required more energy than Lupatti had at the time.
Here is Dinu Lipatti's 1950 concert performance of the waltz mentioned in the text:
Chopin - Dinu Lipatti (1950) Waltz No 1 in E flat Op 18
And a page from the musical score:
万延元年のフォットボール：見たり見えたりする、、、p 83 in Eng trans in English translation — Brigitte Bardot
Being someone interested in the fashion industry, I am glad there's the mention of Brigitte Bardot in Ōe's books! ... There's the famous Bardot neckline—a neckline that exposes both shoulders, often on knit sweaters. ... According to this website (http://www.nndb.com/people/815/000023746/) she is a French actress, and arguably the film industry's first sex kitten. She started out modeling at the age of 15, and branched into acting around the age of 18.
The film that made her famous internationally was the role of a nymphet in Vadim's controversial ... And God Created Woman (1956, imdb). "She embodied a natural yet innocent sexuality that was a precursor to the sexual liberation movement of the 1960s." She was also known for her many affairs with men, suicide attempts, racist comments, and support for animal rights.
万延元年のフォットボール：見たり見えたりする、、、p 83 in Eng trans in English translation — expectation
"past expecting anything" is 「何も期待」
万延元年のフォットボール：見たり見えたりする、、、p 84 in Eng trans in English translation
"Self-service Discount Dynamic Store " is in English and all caps
万延元年のフォットボール：見たり見えたりする、、、p 87 in Eng trans in English translation
"easy stool" is 楽便品
万延元年のフォットボール：見たり見えたりする、、、p 99 in Eng trans in English translation — "member of the establishment"
This is a 60s way of talking about authority figures with conservative views and vested interest in the status quo
万延元年のフォットボール：見たり見えたりする、、、p 108 in Eng trans — The Sōseki work Natsumiko is reading
Natsumiko is referring to Natsume Sōseki's "Shuzenji Diary." (thanks Virginia!)
And I would like to add that I see some parallels between Sōseki's lamenting the changing values of Japan after the Meiji Restoration and the priest's lamenting that the village has become decadent. A further connection I see in this vein is between Sōseki's concern about Western-style individualism and Bird's (sic) self-awareness of his egoism.
万延元年のフォットボール：見たり見えたりする、、、p 108 in Eng trans — self-mumification by monks
The self-mummification of the Japanese monks mentioned on p.109 is known as Sokushinbutsu (即身仏). According to Wikipedia:
"For 1,000 days (a little less than three years) the priests would eat a special diet consisting only of nuts and seeds, while taking part in a regimen of rigorous physical activity that stripped them of their body fat. They then ate only bark and roots for another thousand days and began drinking a poisonous tea made from the sap of the Urushi tree, normally used to lacquer bowls. This caused vomiting and a rapid loss of bodily fluids, and most importantly, it made the body too poisonous to be eaten by maggots. Finally, a self-mummifying monk would lock himself in a stone tomb barely larger than his body, where he would not move from the lotus position. His only connection to the outside world was an air tube and a bell. Each day he rang a bell to let those outside know that he was still alive. When the bell stopped ringing, the tube was removed and the tomb sealed. After the tomb was sealed, the other monks in the temple would wait another 1,000 days, and open the tomb to see if the mummification was successful. If the monk had been successfully mummified, they were immediately seen as a Buddha and put in the temple for viewing. Usually, though, there was just a decomposed body. Although they were not viewed as a true Buddha if they were not mummified, they were still admired and revered for their dedication and spirit. As to the origin of this practice, there is a common suggestion that Shingon school founder Kukai brought this practice from Tang China as part of secret tantric practices he learned, and that were later lost in China."
(thanks Virginia!)
万延元年のフォットボール — p 118 in Eng trans — the young men were kicking the football around ...
Does フォットボール mean rugby, American football or soccer? Well, if it is meant to mean specifically one of these we simply must choose soccer because here we can read: 黙りこんだ若者たちが胸苦しいほどにも真剣にボールを蹴っている。This can only describe soccer. (Of course it is possible that what game is being played is meant to be as obscure to us as the events of 1860 and 1945. But this seems like an easy way out of the problem, to my mind.) All three sports were in Japan by the 1960s. None were in Japan in the 1860s. So 万年元年のフォットボール can only mean "the football (soccer?) of today that is to be understood as mysteriously linked to something important in 1860." At least that is my current thinking. If I have read about this, I've forgotten but I'm reasonably confident that this is the direction we should take it.
万延元年のフォットボール — p 119 in Eng trans — Battle of Leyte Gulf
The battle mentioned on p. 119 refers to the "Battle of Leyte Gulf," considered to be the largest naval battle of WWII, and possibly even the largest in history. It was a battle between combined forces of American and Australian forces against Imperial Japan. It took place in the sea near Philippine islands such as Leyte and Samar from October 23 to 26, 1944. US had previously invaded Leyte to isolate Japan from its colonies in Southeastern Asia, and to cut Japan off its oil supplies. The Japanese Navy lost. The battle was also the first battle in which Japanese carried out organized kamikaze attacks. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leyte_Gulf] (thanks Virginia!)
万延元年のフォットボール — p 176 — Schopenhauer's flies
"Whether the fly now buzzing round me goes to sleep in the evening and buzzes again the following morning, or whether it dies in the evening and in spring another fly buzzes which has emerged from its egg, this in itself is the same thing. But then the knowledge that presents these as two fundamentally different things is not unconditioned, but relative, a knowledge of the phenomenon, not of the thing-in-itself. In the morning the fly exists again; it also exists again in the spring. For the fly what distinguishes the winter from the night?" The world as will and representation, vol. 2 Arthur Schopenhauer, E. F. J Payne trans.
万延元年のフォットボール — p 205 — "... So I found myself to be my wife's husband and grandson, ..."
Regarding the newspaper article described in the letter, this is a famous, possibly true and possibly fictional situation that's been immortalized in song. Hear the Ray Stevens version here, along with a diagram of the situation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYlJH81dSiw) And Wikipedia has an article about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I'm_My_Own_Grandpa (thanks Lisa!)
万延元年のフォットボール — p204 — John Manjiro (Nakahama Manjiro)
Manjiro is easy to research on the Web.
When reading a bio of Ibuse Masuji written, I am pretty sure, by Mark Jewel though his name is now off the site, I came across this:
After the Manchurian Incident of 1931, traditional fiction experienced a resurgence in popularity and Ibuse’s individualistic style attracted widespread attention. Both Sazanami gunki (Ripples on the Water: A War Chronicle, 1930-1938) and Jon Manjirō no hyōryūki (John Manjirō, the Account of a Castaway, 1937) portray the lives of ordinary people caught up in the workings of fate; the latter story was awarded the Naoki Prize in 1938. (http://www.jlit.net/authors_works/ibuse_masuji.html)
万延元年のフォットボール — "split pomegranates" — p243
万延元年のフォットボール — "the aged horse chesnut" — p247
This is definitely referring to Antoine Roquentin's philosophical encounter with a chestnut tree in Jean-Paul Sartre's existential novel Nausea (1938).人生の親戚 — Translator's background
Margaret Mitsutani was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1953 and received her master's degree in comparative literature from Tokyo University in 1981. Since 1991, she has been teaching at Kyoritsu Women's University in Tokyo. Her translations of Hayashi Kyoko's stories have appeared in Manoa and Prairie Schooner; other translations include Ōe Kenzaburō's novel An Echo of Heaven, a collection of three stories by Tawada Yoko entitled The Bridegroom Was a Dog, and A Dream Like This World: One Hundred Haiku by Nagata Koi, which was cotranslated by Naruto Nana.
人生の親戚 — Contributions by Chuck to the Jinsei Chpt 4-8 sections, general comment:
Note about page numbers: My copy of Jinsei is an uncorrected galley proof, so likely the page numbers are about 1 page off from what I have recorded here; page numbers refer to the first place these references are mentioned in these 4 chapters. Should be easy to find them.
Enjoy,
Chuck Goldhaber.人生の親戚 — "who loved the future like a mistress" (Chpt 1, English 7)
“There have been men who loved the future like a mistress, and the future mixed her breath into their breath and shook her hair about them and hid them from understanding of their times. William Blake was one of these men, and if he spoke confusedly and obscurely it was because he spoke of things for whose speaking he could find no models in the world he knew.” So starts [William Butler] Yeats essay on William Blake and the Imagination. (Theosophical Order of Service: http://www.theoservice.org/node/188, and can be found in The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats, Volume IV: Early Essays, "William Blake and the Imagination" — it is that essay's first sentence. google books preview, p 84)
人生の親戚 — Kim Ji-ha: "A young Korean poet" (Chpt 1, English 11)
"Kim Ji-ha (Korean: 김지하,, 1941– ) is a Korean poet and playwright. He was a dissident under the Park regime and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1976. As a Catholic, he compared the suffering of the Korean people with the greater suffering of Jesus Christ. In his play "The Gold-Crowned Jesus" a leper, the most despised outcast class in Korea, encounters the imprisoned Jesus. Jesus tells the leper that he must help liberate Him. By helping the poor the gold crown of Jesus will be removed and His lips freed to speak." (Wiki 13 April 2010)
"The ballad 'Five Thieves' appeared in the May issue of 'Sasanggye (Thought World)' in 1970 was not only a flash point of the life-and death Armageddon between the Park Chung-hee regime and the democratic forces but a symbol of the practical spirit offering resistance to an iron-fisted rule. The 'Five Thieves' was a bitter satire on the depravities and corruption of the mainstream group who were dominating the then ruling class such as business giants, assemblymen, high-ranking officials, ministers or vice-ministers and the military generals. The poem sparked an anti-establishment front against the Yushin regime. Due to the poem, Kim Ji-ha was taken into custody on June 20, 1970 on charges of violating the Anti-Communist Act and was released on bail on September 8 that year, ..." (Korean Democracy Newsletter No. 4 / 2005.11)
人生の親戚 — "wide-open" (アッケラカン) (first use Chpt 1, English 12)
One of the important characteristics of Marie is her smile. This "wide-open smile" is, in the original アッケラカン. This word is used mostly now to be something of a "no-worries" smile but in a more precise usage, and this is Ōe's intention, it suggests a smile that, while genuine, also has behind it some sort of difficulty. Perhaps the below smiles can be considered this type of smile (found view a Google image searching using あっけらかん as the search term) if you imagine these individuals hurt but smiling:
Here's some web-based definitions. The first refers to common usage. The second to its etymology.
みなさんは「あっけらかん」という言葉を普段どんな意味で使っているでしょうか。ほとんどの人は“平然”とか“けろり”といった意味で用いていることと思います。たとえば「あいつはミスをしてもいつも、あっけらかんとしている」というふうに。楽観的、という意味で使うのかもしれない。 ところが、本来の意味はそうではなかったのです。「あっけらかん」のルーツは「あんけ」で、この言葉は、「口を開けた様子」を示します。つまり、「あきれてポカンとしている」という状態を表す言葉なのです。したがって、今の一般的な用い方の“平然”や“ケロリ”というのは、誤用といえるのです。私たちは、「あっけらかん」の使い方に「あっけらかん」なのです。 しかし、ご安心を。今ではどんな辞書でも、両方の使い方をＯＫとしています。言葉の使われ方は時代の流れと共に変化し多様化する、という現実を追認しているわけだから。そもそも、「あんけ」という言葉自体知っている人はほとんどいないでしょうけど
(http://www.union-net.or.jp/cu-cap/akkerakan.htm)あっけらかん 語源由来辞典 http://gogen-allguide.com/a/akkerakan.html
人生の親戚 — Betty Boop
Betty Boop is a cartoon figure with overt sexuality, created in the 1930s. She appeared in film version cartoons and cartoon strips in newspapers.
The Betty Boop lips that Ōe refers to:
人生の親戚 — Olive Oyl (Chpt 2, English 34)
A cartoon character first appearing in 1919, later Popeye's fickle girlfriend. The tightly bunned hair (and big feet, and overall somewhat conservative dress) is her trademark.
人生の親戚 — Nearsighted Magoo (Mr. Magoo) (Chpt 3, English 44-45)
Quincy Magoo is a wealthy, short-statured retiree who gets into a series of sticky situations as a result of his nearsightedness, compounded by his stubborn refusal to admit the problem.
人生の親戚 — EEG (Chapter 3, page 45)
Tema writes:
Electroencephalography (EEG) is the recording of electrical activity along the scalp produced by the firing ofneurons within the brain.[2] In clinical contexts, EEG refers to the recording of the brain's spontaneous electrical activity over a short period of time, usually 20–40 minutes, as recorded from multiple electrodes placed on thescalp. In neurology, the main diagnostic application of EEG is in the case of epilepsy, as epileptic activity can create clear abnormalities on a standard EEG study.[3] A secondary clinical use of EEG is in the diagnosis ofcoma, encephalopathies, and brain death. EEG used to be a first-line method for the diagnosis of tumors, strokeand other focal brain disorders, but this use has decreased with the advent of anatomical imaging techniques such as MRI and CT.
人生の親戚 — Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925 – August 3, 1964)
Excerpt from an online essay: "An examination of O’Connor’s stories soon reveals many such recurrent themes: disfigurement, shallowness, pettiness, naïveté, hypocrisy, and an overall ugliness, badness, and meanness of character woven together into a sort of dark comedy. Almost always, some shocking act of violence acts as the catalyst by which the protagonists are forced to face their own inner poverty. In this regard, she has much in common with Søren Kierkegaard, the late nineteenth-century Danish thinker hailed as the father of existentialism." ("Flannery O’Connor: Heaven Suffereth Violence" by Eric Knickerbocker Full essay)
Excerpt from an online essay: "Her literary purpose was to probe the intersections of nature and grace. In a collection of her writings, she refers to this as the struggle between “mystery and manners.” She saw modern Catholic experience as Manichaean---the dividing of human experience into areas of absolute good and absolute evil. That divides human experience into either sentimentalism or obscenity. For her this division is overcome by awareness of the mystery of grace. The reality of the love of God keeps us from sliding into sentimentalism on the one hand or obscene behavior on the other." ("Flannery O'Connor: Her Vision" by F. Thomas Trotter Full essay)
On O'Connor's interest in cartoons:
Example, with the following caption: "I don’t enjoy looking at these old pictures either, but it doesn’t hurt my reputation for people to think I’m a lover of fine arts.” From Flannery O'Connor, Cartoonist)
Reading assignments for O'Connor (read during Jinsei) are here.
人生の親戚 — "so it will not make us mad" (Chpt 4, English 61)
Chuck writes:
K imagines Marie's former husband writing "so it will not make us mad." This refers to Lady Macbeth's line in Scene II Act 2 of Shakespeare's Macbeth: "These deeds must not be thought / After these ways; so, it will make us mad." (Source: http://shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/macbeth.2.2.html). I don't know the play well, but I think she is referring to the fact that Macbeth feels guilty about being involved in a murder and remembers how the murdered called out to God's grace for salvation, but that he felt he was the one who needed to hear/say "Amen" as well. His wife urges him to not feel guilt for these deaths. In such a way, Marie's husband seems to be writing as a way to disassociate himself from his children's suicide by a sort of cathartic process.
人生の親戚 — Coleridge: "Remorse is as the heart, in which it grows ... " (Chpt 4, English 64-65)
"Remorse" is key for Jinsei. Do not skip over this entry!
The above lines are from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's successful 1813 play titled "Remorse", Act 1, Scene 1 (Setting: "The Sea Shore on the Coast of Granada. Don Alvar, wrapt in a Boat Cloak, and Zulimez <a Moresco> both as just landed.") Zulimez speaks these lines.
Don Alvar is older brother to Don Ordonio who tried but failed to kill him (and who, Alvar also believes incorrectly, has stolen his wife). This event precedes of the beginning of the play and is now remembered as Alvar and Zulimez arrive at the land where Ordonio lives. Zulimez, Alvar's faithful attendant, thinks it is time for Ordonio to meet his deserved fate. Alvar, on the other hand, seeks to save his brother by leading him to feel proper remorse:
"I should rouse within him
REMORSE! so that I should save him from himself."Zulimez counters with the stanza quoted in the text. The gist of it: those who are gentle of spirit can find, through the pain of remorse, the desire to repent but those who are of bad character will only be further poisoned by their remorse.
The full play is at Google Book: Remorse: A Tragedy in Five Acts.
A rather confused summary was found, to wit: "well, i think it is about Ordonio, the younger son of Don Valdez, who had [should be: "tried to have"] his brother Alvar killed by some mercenaries on sea.It failed. Now Alvar is back after years of fighting for (i guess) Protestants in some other country. However, he is not going to revenge himself on his brother. Here, Coleridge introduces the virtues of Christian forgiveness. Alvar is in Moorish disguise and in a scene in Don Valdez's castle he shows them a painting showing the scene of his own failed attempted murder. I forgot to tell you that Alvar had a fiance, named Teresa, who is still faithful to him and believes that he's still alive. Mercenaries had told Alvar that Teresa married his brother, but it was a lie. In short, Alvar manages to make his brother remorseful of his deed at the end of the play, though Alhadra, the Moorish woman whose husband had been murdered by Ordonio takes revenge by killing him. Alvar's identity is revealed at the end of the play when he is reunited with his lover Teresa." (Yahoo Answers)
"Remorse" (the play's title) is, in Ōe's original, 『悔恨』（ かいこん）glossed with the furigana レモース. Definition of 悔恨：自分のしたことをくやみ残念に思うこと。
"Poison tree" in the original is 毒の木, with furigana ポイズン・ツリー.
Chuck writes: An English lyrical poet and philosopher who often wrote a collection entitled "Lyrical Ballads" with another poet William Wordsworth, which opened up the English Romantic movement. Here's a full text scan of a nicely aged version of his play Remorse, written in 1810 when Coleridge was contemplating suicide: [Chuck's url here matches that listed above, to wit: Remorse: A Tragedy in Five Acts.] I think that the portion quoted in Oe seems to emphasize that this 'guilt' that Marie especially feels (but that Oe suggests is perhaps a necessary characteristic of human consciousness) can be constituted as something good ("of true repentance") providing salvation, or bad, a "poison-tree" which makes life appear like a hell that one needs to escape. K imagines that both Marie and himself are people who have a 'poison tree' alluding to the fact that they both have something to be remorseful over.
人生の親戚 — "colegio" (Chpt 4, English 64)
Chuck writes: 'Colegio' means 'school' in Spanish and Portuguese.
人生の親戚 — Gerald and Sara (Murphy): "Dear Gerald and Sarah [should be Sara]," (Chpt 4, English 66)
Jetsetters of their time. Widely seen as the models of Nicole and Dick Diver of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night. This couple has a wiki. Interesting but not relevant, much, to our story.
Chuck writes: F. Scott Fitzgerald (wiki), an American novelist active in the roaring 20s and time of jazz (thus, contemporary of Betty Boop), is writing to his expatriate, high-class friends Gerald and Sara Murphy, who had recently lost there children. In this letter Fitzgerald writes about inconsolability in life as being opposed to peace in death, but also refers to the idea that deep grief might be the same sort of stuff as joy. Good memories of the children are a part of their personal histories and will always be available to be brought into the 'now' just like we see Marie do with sweet memories of her children later in her meditations with the aim of feeling the density of time.
Howard writes: I also found this about the letter by Lincoln that Fitzgerald mentions in his own letter on page 66.
A description of the letter is:
The text of the letter (from Wikipedia) is:
The Bixby Letter was a letter that Abraham Lincoln wrote to a Union mother who is commonly believed to have lost five sons in the war on November 21, 1864. It was printed in the Boston Evening Transcript the same day, and is considered one of Abraham Lincoln's finest pieces of writing. However, there is some debate as to whether it was Lincoln himself who wrote it or his personal secretary John Hay.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.Dear Madam,
I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,
A. Lincoln
人生の親戚 — Andrei Bely's The Silver Dove (novel, 1910) (Chpt 5, English 68–69)
Bely's wiki
Google books (preview): The Silver Dove
The Silver Dove is a strangely evocative work, and resonates well with Oe's world. That is, this book isn't random; its makes a lot of sense as a book that Oe would enjoy, and the topic of a seductive, evil (?) woman, member of a secret sect, is not so far from the world of Jinsei. Dove seems kindred to Oe in some of its use of evocative symbol rather than realism (example: the village road: "White road, dusty road — on and on it runs in a malevolent grin." … "The road slices through the big green meadow of Tselegeyevo in a malevolent grin. An unknown power drives all manner of folk along it …"), its portrait of village life, and a sense of mystery (the presence of things unknown and powerful and, usually, foreboding).
The "pock-marked" that describes the woman Matryona (as well as Esther of Dicken's Bleak House, Oe notes) is a specific Russian word. Read here for interesting details.
From Chapter 1 (p. 40-41), when the protagonist first encounters the woman Matryona whom Oe mentions:
With these thoughts he [Daryalsky, engaged to be married but who will be seduced by Matryona, member of a secret sect, to produce the sect's offspring] went into the church; the smell of incense, mixed with the smell of fresh birch branches, of a crowd of perspiring peasants, of their blacked boots, of candle-wax and ubiquitous red calico, struck his nose with a pleasant sensation; he had settled down to listen to Aleksandr Nikolaevich, the sexton, whose voice, from the choir on the left, was beating out a drum-roll—when suddenly from a distant corner of the church his eye was caught by the movement of a red shawl with white dapples over a red cotton bodice; a peasant woman gave him a penetrating glance; he was about to say to himself: 'There's a woman for you!', to clear his throat and assume a dignified air, in order to forget everything and start bowing in prayer to the Queen of Heaven, but . . . he did not clear his throat, he did not assume a dignified air, and he made no bow at all. His breast was seared by a sweet surge of unutterable dread, and he was unaware that the color had left his face, that, pale as death, he could barely keep his feet. Her browless face, covered in large pock-marks, had glanced at him with cruel and avid agitation. What it was telling him, this face, and what in his soul had responded to it, he did not know; there was just the movement of a red shawl with white dapples on it.
… Daryalsky was just coming up to the cross, and the priest was holding it out to him with one hand and with the other reaching for the communion bread, when suddenly the wondrous woman's gaze scorched him again; her red lips, faintly smiling, quivered slightly, as though freely quaffing of his soul; he had no recollection of kissing the holy cross, nor of the priest's invitation to partake of pie, nor of his own reply; all he remembered was that the pock-marked peasant woman had laid claim to his soul. …
A pock-marked peasant woman with browless eyes, a hawk: this was no tender flower, burgeoning in the depths of his soul, no daydream, morning light, or honey-scented meadow-grass; a stormcloud, a tempest, a tigress, a werewolf, had entered his soul in a trice and was calling him; the faint smile of her soft lips aroused in him a gentle, drunken, dull sweet sadness, laughter and lasciviousness: so it is that the recesses of a millennial past, opened for a moment, restore the memory of that which never happen in your life, call forth an unknown face, so terrifyingly familiar from your dreams; and that face rises up as the image of a childhood that never was but nonetheless took place; that is the sort of face you have, pock-marked peasant woman!
Chuck writes: Andrei Bely was a Russian novelist and poet (1880-1934), well regarded for his novel Petersburg. He wrote some influential philosophical essays on geometry and probability, and was particularly interested in the concept of 'entropy'. (Bely's wiki) His first novel Silver Dove (mentioned in Oe) is a story largely about dualisms: "intelligentsia and the folk, spiritualism and eroticism, rationality and instincts." (Source: http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/bely.htm). It is from this novel that Oe gets the character Matryona, whose pockmarked face acts as embodied and external, symbolic evidence of the suffering she has gone through.
John writes: I read this over the summer of 2010. What an interesting work! The sense of forbidden sexuality and the odd structure of cult-thinking are very strong in this work, and the imagery is super evocative. I think the sexuality has found its way into Marie, exploring cult ways of thinking has already become a theme for Oe and will be the centerpiece of Somersault, and the system of images that are so poetic and just larger-than-life feelings sometimes I do not see in Jinsei but I do think Oe would love them.
人生の親戚 — Huichol Indian yarn painting (Chpt 5, English 74)
Chuck writes: The Huichol are an indigenous population living in mid-to-western Mexico. Their yarn paintings are brightly colored square tablets often with ritualistic imagery on them. (Source: http://www.huicholyarnpainting.com/). I suggest doing a google image search, the results are pretty cool. The cactus that Marie refers to is the peyote cactus which has hallucinogenic chemicals in it, and is used in shamanistic ritual. I think that drugs have an interesting role in this story because they represent the possibility of access to unfamiliar spiritual ideas through a very material route, a sort of 'incarnation'.
人生の親戚 — Balzac's Le Curé de village (Chpt 5, English 79)
Chuck writes: Honoré de Balzac was a French playwright and novelist of the first half of the 19th century who wrote an extremely large amounts of works with multi-faceted, complex characters. His influence essentially founded a tradition of 'realism' in European literature, which would later have direct influence on William Faulkner. This particular novel is translated into English as The Village Rector ('rector' here meaning: religious authority/leader/teacher) [Full view of 1893 English translation at Google Books The Village Rector — jrw] and is one of the novels concerning scenes from country life from Balzac's ridiculously large 100+ novel collection called La Comédie humane. A character appearing in this text, Véronique, who Oe compares to Marie and Matryona from Bely's The Silver Dove, is a women restored to purity by confession, i.e., is healed from a 'good' form of remorse. K's wife does not like this parallel being projected onto Marie because Marie 's suffering was due to a tragedy she was not clearly responsible for and not a sin she was the cause of, so 'confession' doesn't seem like it can help her. That Véronique goes to Limoges (a french town and commune [p80]), however, seems to foreshadow Marie's leaving to a commune. Wikipedia on Limoges: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limoges)
人生の親戚 — zainichi [Koreans] (Chpt 5, English 81)
Chuck writes: Zainichi (在日) is the short name for Koreans who have long lived in Japan, often acquired Japanese citizenship by intermarrying with Japanese citizens (other naturalization processes have been allowed only since 1985). As we have seen in several Oe stories, they were forced into mandatory labor during WWII. Many Zainichi were originally brought to the Japanese mainland in 1944 to meet the Japan's shortage of labor. The wikipedia article about this ethnic group is quite extensive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koreans_in_Japan
人生の親戚 — sackcloth (Chpt 5, English 85)
Ariella writes:
Sackcloth is a rough, coarse cloth made of camel's hair, goat hair, hemp, cotton, or flax. It used to be worn as a symbol or public display of extreme grief, remorse, or repentance. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sackcloth)
In Biblical history, it was a black cloth worn by mourners to express grief or as a sign of repentance and humility. The addition of ashes was a further symbol of personal abhorrence and shame. Interestingly, these types of declarations can be a way of pleading for compassion and grace from God.
By way of example...
'Jonah 3:4 On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned. 5The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. 6When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish."10When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.'
(http://www.keyway.ca/htm2002/20020421.htm and http://www.bibleplus.org/love/love.htm)
人生の親戚 — Dickens' Bleak House (Chpt 5, English 85)
Chuck writes: Charles Dickens wrote Bleak House (regarded as one of his finest novels) from 1853-1854, publishing it in monthly installments of 4 chapters or so each. It is distinguished among his books for having a very complex plot and many minor characters with related sub-plots, a complicated style perhaps reminiscent of Oe. This book is a criticism of England's Court of Chancery, whose law process Dickens found arcane, and contributed to a movement to enact legal reform in the 1870s. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleak_House
人生の親戚 — Tagalog for "cosmic will" (Chpt 6, English 88)
Chuck writes: According to an online translator, "cosmic will" in Tagalog [Filipino — jrw] is "kosmiko ay". (http://www.stars21.com/translator/english_to_filipino.html)
人生の親戚 — O'Connor with crutches and peacocks: (Chpt 6, English 93)
Chuck writes: Flannery O'Connor with crutches and peacocks possibly refers to this image:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_khYoWIBgmBI/SqaGOfAanbI/AAAAAAAABaQ/J4X1oDBVQz0/s1600-h/Oconnor2.jpg
… or, maybe this one:
http://flagpole.com/images/jpgs/2009/02/25/Reader-FlanneryOConnorWithPeacock_b.jpg
人生の親戚 — Blake's Orc, a portrait of which is above Marie's desk (Chpt 6, English 93)
Orc seems to be a good metaphor for Marie (Himiko, of course, also had Blake illustrations above her desk, Chpt 4, English 43):
"Orc (a proper name) is one of the characters in the complex mythology of William Blake. Unlike the medieval sea beast, or Tolkien's humanoid monster, his Orc is a positive figure, the embodiment of creative passion and energy, and stands opposed to Urizen, the embodiment of tradition. ... Orc is described by Blake as 'Lover of Wild Rebellion, and transgressor of God's Law'. He symbolizes the spirit of rebellion and freedom, which provoked the French Revolution." (Wiki: Orc [Blake])
The below image is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blake_America_12.jpg
Chuck writes: Orc, a character in William Blake's mythology: Oe explains that the character of Orc personifies youth; Blake defines Orc as a 'Lover of Wild Rebellion, and transgressor of God's Law'. K wrote a novel in which he tried to connect metaphors from Blake's poetry and Illuminated Plates to the inner life of his son Hikari. Orc's role in Blake's mythology seems to be quite similar to what Marie says she wants to do in K's dream: to rebel against what God has given her by doing the opposite of the so-called 'good' that provides. [This theme becomes central to the story of the cult in Somersault, 『宙返り』 1999] There seems to be some sense that the idea of truly forgetting a trauma in one's past would be an act of such Orc-like rebellion, in that it pushes away the life that God gave you and in doing so heals you--which connects to the idea of 'youth'. (I think that the image on Marie's desk might very well refer to the image in this Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orc_%28Blake%29 [which is the image I have already inserted, above — jrw]) Concerning Blake's illuminated plates: some of the most popular where "Songs of Innocence and Experience" & "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell".
人生の親戚 —Beethoven's 9th Symphony: (Chpt 6, English 94)
Chuck writes: The opening of this symphony is inspired by a 1785 poem by Freidrich Schiller called "An die Freude", often translated into "Ode to Joy", which celebrates the unity and brotherhood of all of mankind. By the time Beethoven wrote this symphony, he was entirely deaf. I think that Oe must have been aware of this, and that he likely chose this piece to harken to Marie's debate with Little Father about the 'sensible' and 'intelligible'. Here, Beethoven no longer has any 'sensible' connections to the piece he is composing (because he cannot hear it) but nonetheless can compose masterfully as informed by his intellectual understanding. In this case as isolated from the rest of Beethoven's life, it is clear that 'logos' (what can be intelligible) is the origin of his expression; but, one has to wonder whether that logos wasn't first informed by actual sensible experiences of music beforehand. Here is a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-mvutiDRvQ
John writes: The symphonic movement that most of us know the best from Beethoven's 9th is the last, and it this movement that is based on "Ode to Joy". It is some of the most inspirational music I know, maybe the most inspirational music. It was not finished, and sort of trails off at the end, but it is still brilliant, and, as Chuck writes, composed by a man now deaf. Beethoven's 9th is holiday music in Japan — one can often hear it during New Year concerts. Here is a link to that portion of the final movement that sings the lyrics to "Ode to Joy". It projects them both in the original German and English while playing the movement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pbMUEHvoAo
John continues: For more on Beethoven's deafness, a condition that might have been caused by beatings from his father while young, go here.
人生の親戚 —jeepny (Chpt 6, English 95)
Chuck writes: A popular form of public transportation in the Philippines that have become somewhat of a national cultural icon there. Originally, they were constructed out of US military jeeps left over from World War II. Often, they are painted with bright colors much akin to Huichol yarn paintings. Here's a picture:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3228/2475321135_78e428875b.jpg
John writes: And here's another one
人生の親戚 — "papier-mache bears, a traditional Filipino handicraft" (Chpt 6, English 95)
There is a traditional art called taka, a paper mache craft that uses carved wooden sculptures as a mold -- this is referenced in Coz's dream of the heirloom mold that was abandoned in favor of mass production techniques. These paper mache products are typically painted in primary colors (like the jeepneys and yarn craft). Local subject matter is pastoral but when taka gained exposure from migration, it became produced for export -- namely to Germany, where Coz goes in his story -- and the subject matter was adapted for other markets to include other figures like bears, giraffes, Santa Claus, etc.
In the novel it is called a Filipino handicraft, but in the Philippines it is a folk art that originated and is mainly produced in Paete, a town in the Laguna province. Paete is considered one of the last remaining strongly artistic regions in the Philippines, giving credibility to Coz's and his troupe's inclination to theater. Paete was actually founded by Franciscan friars, and is a pilgrimage site with religious significance to Catholics as a site of a miracle of St. Anthony the Abbot. Considering Coz's role in Marie's journey, it may be interesting for readers to know that the patron saint of Paete is St. Joseph -- husband of Mary, mother of Jesus -- who is also the patron saint of workers, immigrants, the sick, against doubt and hesitation, and of a happy death.
I also want to point out that the Franciscan Order, which founded Paete and established the Catholic teachings in Paete (different Orders have differences in disciplines), follow the teachings of Saint Francis of Assissi, one of the most venerated religious figures in history. He was canonised in 1228, and became associated with patronage of the natural environment. St. Francis believed that nature was the mirror of God, By extension that belief created in St. Francis a deep respect and love for all things natural, including his own chronic illness. He firmly believed in brotherhood and embraced people of all faiths, reaching out to and embracing followers of other religions in love. St. Francis was the first recorded person to received the stigmata (1224) and bear the wounds of Christ's passion. The priests who founded Paete were members of the Order of Friarts Minor, the Order directly founded by Saint Francis of Assissi and most closely connected to him. The current pope (as of 2016), Pope Francis, is the first to select his papal name in honor of Saint Francis of Assissi.
(Thank you Athena!)
人生の親戚 — First 15 seconds of Oe Hikari's Blue Bird March (Chpt 6, English 97)
Here.
人生の親戚 — Little Father (usually in the original テューター・小父さん)'s religious sect (Chpt 7, English 105)
"The content of the counselor-leader of the religious group in Jinsei no shinseki is my invention. I was thinking over on my own various ways I might be able to overcome the pain that I was feeling [自分がもっている苦しみ]." Quoted in 『大江健三郎・再発見』集英社, 2001, p. 211, which quotes from 『医師宇上田敏との対談「人間共通の課題としての『障害の受容』」』 Oct. 1990.
人生の親戚 — W.B. Yeat's "The Second Coming" (1919, so post-WWI), the poem (of revolution or terrible change) that so interests Marie (Chpt 7, English 105)
Full text here although almost all of the poem appears, in pieces, within Jinsei.
Some commentary on parts of the poem, as found in it wiki:
In the early drafts of the poem, Yeats used the phrase "the Second Birth", but substituted the phrase "Second Coming" while revising. The Second Coming of Christ referred to in the Biblical Book of Revelation is here described as an approaching dark force with a ghastly and dangerous purpose. Though Yeats's description has nothing in common with the typically envisioned Christian concept of the Second Coming of Christ, as his description of the figure in the poem is nothing at all like the image of Christ, it fits with his view that something strange and heretofore unthinkable would come to succeed Christianity, just as Christ transformed the world upon his appearance. This image points rather to the sinister figure of Antichrist that precedes the Second Coming of Christ.
The "spiritus mundi" (Latin "spirit of the world") is a reference to Yeats' belief that each human mind is linked to a single vast intelligence, and that this intelligence causes certain universal symbols to appear in individual minds.
Chuck writes: Yeats's "The Second Coming": written in 1919 by Irish poet William Butler Yeats, to whom Oe drew natural links with Blake. The word gyre is central to both this poem and Little Father's metaphysics presented to the Center in Jinsei. According to Yeats, the gyres were overlapping conic helixes that represent the ever-present contrary motions that drive forth history. I think that the overlapping of the conic helixes is supposed to show how the unity of historical existence is brought about by an inherent duality. (Here's a pretty good demonstration of the theory: http://www.yeatsvision.com/Geometry.html … also, look at the pictures on this page for a greater appreciation for the sheer complexity of Yeats's theory: http://www.yeatsvision.com/History.html [scroll down! — jrw]) This double-cone gyre cycle is reminiscent of the almost Taoist repetitive cycle that we saw in Man'en through the Nenbutsu dance etc., and even brief moments of imagining future wars and the continuance of life passed individual death in Memushiri and "Lavish Are the Dead". The double-cone cycle also makes intelligible a way to understand Little Father/ the Center's theory that the world is both still in the process of creation and simultaneously nearing its end. The creature whose readiness to bring about destruction is also at the same time the source of world-generation is mentioned in this poem ("The Second Coming"): ". . . now I know / That twenty centuries of stony sleep / Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, / And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" Also, according to Little Father, all of the universe is similarly a cone, where we, always is the 'now' occupy the base and God is the point that 'holds up' the structure of the conic shape, (see p112). The feeling the density of time technique is supposed to draw in the point at the top of the cone (God) towards and eventually into the plane of the intelligible world (the base of the cone). This would void the area of the cone (thus infinite density), so it seems somehow impossible, but according to Little Father, that is what happened when, through incarnation into Jesus, God was both in-the-world and supporting it. Note on the density of time meditation: it seems to involve living simultaneously in many 'now's, almost as if one's own life is a recipe for being more than one soul at a time, which contradicts the passage from Dante that K quotes and agrees with on page 53-54 about the impossibility of multiple souls.
人生の親戚 — Blake's "The Mental Traveller" (Chpt 7, English 106)
Chuck writes: (First, here is a link to the poem itself, quite an interesting read: http://www.yeatsvision.com/Mental.html) This Blake poem combines many relevant images concerning innocence, youth, inhabiting world, taking on suffering, messiahs and more. The poem opens with an important notion to Jinsei, which is suffering of the innocent (i.e., being handicapped from birth cannot be seen to be a deserved punishment for a child since he could have not yet sinned). We see an old woman torturing a babe (who turns out to be like Jesus) and gaining youth from his suffering from which the babe then becomes old. Then, the tortured babe makes home in the old women (who has now been made young); their union causes the world to open up and become a dwelling place, originating in the marriage of contradicting opposites. The poem then focuses on the babe's becoming younger and then being born. Here, man and women, as well as old and young, seem to be two competing gyres, whose subsistence comes from their contradictory co-existence. Though predating Yeats, this seems very similar to his metaphysical scheme, as well as the co-dependence of existence on/with non-existence as seen in Taoist cosmology.
人生の親戚 — Spiritus Mundi (Chpt 7, English 107)
Chuck writes: Quoted from wikipedia: "The 'spirits mundi' (Latin 'spirit of the world') is a reference to Yeats' belief that each human mind is linked to a single vast intelligence, and that this intelligence causes certain universal symbols to appear in individual minds. Carl Jung's book The Psychology of the Unconscious, published in 1912, could have had an influence, with its idea of the collective unconscious." (Taken directly from Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Coming_%28poem%29)
人生の親戚 —The Second Coming in the Book of Matthew (Chpt 7, English 107)
Chuck writes: The Book of Matthew is one of four canonical chapters of the first book of the New Testament of the Christian Bible, composed by Matthew, a disciple of Jesus, and incorporating influences from another disciple Luke. Much of this chapter details Jesus's historical life, especially infancy. Here is a link to Matthew 24, which details Christ's premonition and intention for a Second Coming: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+24&version=KJV … Here, Christ explains that the disasters accompanying the apocalypse will merely be birthing pains of a new world. This connects up with the Center's etymological debate over the meaning of "Antichrist". In some way, "Anti-" suggests 'before' so that the apocalyptic times (and the suffering which Marie believes we all are defined by) are an ushering in of Christ. Similarly, "Anti-" seems to suggest 'opposite' so that this suffering that we are is not God, but the opposite which provides us with a world by separation from God; however, if the Second Coming is to arrive, then this 'not-God' quality of the world as suffering becomes a 'not-yet-God' as a suffering that leads up to its own end by uniting with God. The possibility that this suffering or 'not-God-ness' can result in repentance and salvation seems to be what grace is supposed to illuminate in Flannery O'Connor's stories. The related question that concerns Marie is whether this God can be in-the-world and relevant to us as incarnated in flesh — in other words, whether heaven can be on earth, or whether it is always afterward. And, how are we supposed to make sense of Michio and Musan's death if we don't know whether 'heaven' is in this world or the next? Is suicide supposed to be a rejecting the possibility of heaven on earth, or a wanting heaven so much that earth must be escaped?
Chuck continues: On a side note, Matthew 24 compares the Second Coming to a lightning strike when explaining that it will be clear that Jesus has returned and not just a false prophet; this seems to be related to the lightning that Marie apprehended as a premonition and fled in fear as a child. How to respond to this lightning, or alternatively the possibility of a Second Coming, then, becomes an issue that human freedom must take a stance on (as we see in Marie's dream about the lightning strike [p129]). In Jinsei, it seems like it is how one senses and/or understands this lightning that constitutes the world as either heaven or hell. For those interested in Philosophy, this idea of freedom as the origin of suffering and its negation (and of heaven and hell on earth) can be seen in Sartre's Being and Nothingness and yet more concretely in Dostoyevsky's existential novel, The Brothers Karamazov. Jesus says, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away" -- all that remains is pure unembodied logos (the possibility for intelligibility).
人生の親戚 — "Mary Jane" (Chpt 7, English 108)
Virginia writes:
It is a type of strap shoes with low heels and rounded closed toes. It is traditionally worn by young girls for formal occasions. Here is a link to a picture of red Mary Jane:
http://www.google.com/m/search?site=images&source=mog&hl=ja&gl=us&client=safari&q=%20red%20Mary%20Jane#i=50人生の親戚 — Mt. Asama (Chpt 8, English 127)
Chuck writes: Marie asks whether a mountain she sees from pool is Mt. Asama (浅間山), an active volcano that seems to erupt about at a rate of approximately every 5 years. It is 2,500+ meters high and is situated in the center of Hônshû. In 1982, not too long before the original publication of Jinsei, ash from this mountain traveled all the way to Tokyo, 130+km away, which was apparently quite a shock. (This happened again in 2009) Marie asks this after her dream about the lightning bolt, so perhaps she feels she is about to apprehend another natural disaster. Such a natural disaster might be interpreted to be linked to a Second Coming of Christ, which follows an apocalyptic era, so Marie seems to be attuned to the possibility of an eruption in this scene, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Asama). The mountain that she sees, however, is Mt. Takatsunagi.
人生の親戚 — Oni-oshi-dashi (Chpt 8, English 131)
Chuck writes: Oni-Oshi-Dashi (鬼押出し): see http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/浅間山 … and, http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/鬼押出し園 … Apparently there is some ritual in Mt. Asama for devil-extraction (de-possesion) involving the sulfur rocks there. The sulfur, naturally, is an image of the Christian hell, which is shown to perhaps take place on earth in Jinsei. Yet, it is by the same token that healing is possible, as the sulfur rocks seem to be the medium for purification as well. The dual nature of these sulfur rocks reflects that of 'remorse' in Coolidge's play.
John writes: I want to keep Chuck's above thoughts, but Oni-Oshi-Dashi is the location of a 1783 eruption, that has been named based on a local legend that oni pushed out the rough rocks from the volcano cauldron (鬼押出し園は、天明3年（1783年）の浅間山噴火によって生まれた、溶岩の芸術です。火口で鬼があばれ岩を押し出した、という当時の人々の噴火の印象が、この名前の由来となっています http://www.princehotels.co.jp/amuse/onioshidashi/index.html)
人生の親戚 — Brantôme (Chpt 8, English 135)
Chuck writes: Brantôme was a 16th-century French historian. Apparently, his work is thought to be highly embellished, but at the same time has a strong resonance of truth, given that he does not omit information about promiscuous acts from his books. Rather, quite detailed records of cunnilingus and sadomasochism seem to lend his texts a sort of embodied authenticity. Given the rarity of such remarks in his time, he seems to be a big advocate for the body, and one that might influence Marie towards fulfillment of her bodily existence as a source of pleasure, escape from tragedy, and possibly even healing, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_de_Bourdeille,_seigneur_de_Brantôme).
Chuck continues: Additionally, the name Brantôme also refers to a commune in south-western France (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brantôme,_Dordogne), established as a holding grounds for relics (sanctified body parts) of Saint Sicarius, an infant killed in the Massacre of the Innocents by the King of Judeau, Herod the Great as detailed in the Book of Matthew (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_the_Innocents). Since this Brantôme involves certain familiar themes from Jinsei, such as suffering of innocence, communes and the Book of Matthew, I wouldn't put it past Oe that he might also be alluding to this secondary referent of that name.
人生の親戚 — Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata (Chpt 8, English 135)
Chuck writes: This is the only canonical composition for the arpeggione, a rare six-string guitar bent like a cello, that still exists today (for more on the instrument, see: http://www.bachtrack.com/arpeggione-should-we-fret). Schubert wrote this piece while suffering bad syphilis and related bouts of depression. The song has an up-beat atmosphere, that seems to speak of its origin in some deep suffering, much like Marie's "wide-open" smile. (Here is a link to a recording: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh1PuFo-c_M … here is a recording with a flute, so closer to what is in Oe's text (long load-time): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4U2u5_Cb4U&feature=related) Marie says that this song "fits the mood", perhaps because it encapsulates who she is right now and what she is going through. Without language, it seems like Hikari has perhaps provided the most accurate representation of Marie so far in the story. That is, there is nothing totally intelligible why the song feels right, rather it just feels right (the appropriateness is merely 'sensible', not 'intelligible').
人生の親戚 — Manichaean Dualism & Little Father's insistence on the Incarnation (Chpt 8, English 136-137)
On page 150 (see below) we will encounter a quote from St. Augustine's Confessions. This passage links to that. St. Augustine was a Manichee who believed that God was present in a diffused state everywhere. Part of his conversion from Manicheism to his final view of God turns on the concept of the Incarnation ("God in a human form cloaked in its kind with the highest dignity" — To Know God and the Soul : Essays on the Thought of Saint Augustine by Roland J. Teske [Catholic University of America Press, 2008] 32, an eBrary book)
In this passage, Marie is a pre-conversion St. Augustine, while Little Father has found God.
From another perspective (unrelated to the issue of Manicheism but relevant to the overall structural approach of Jinsei), Marie is searching for God through the path outlined by Véronique in Le Curé while Little Father is traveling the spiritual path outlined by St. Augustine in Confessions.
Chuck writes: First, the origins of the religions: Mani founded the religion by being a common link between three different sects of Aramaic speakers, Judea-, Mediterranean- and Syrian-Aramaic; he lived from 216 to 276AD. 'Mani' is the Persian name for all three dialects of Aramaic. In his principle texts, Mani claimed to have reestablished a pure connection to the universe, a similar one that motivated but got corrupted by the teachings of previous saints including Adam, Zoroaster, Buddha and Jesus. Manichaeism, which remained a prevalent sect in the Sassanian Empire (Middle East) through 400AD, has a dualist metaphysics. There is not one-God in Manichaeism but rather the codependent forces of good (the intellect/soul) and bad (the body/earth). Human life, then, is the incorruptible soul's in the process of being captivated by a foreign entity (the body), and characterized by a constant war between both aspects of the duality. Marie is sympathetic of this view, as it seems to account for human life as involving contradictory forces (soul and body) but never their pure contradictory unity (God?).
John writes: Here is an article on Manichaeism which is pretty informative, including a muse on evil in Manichaeism and Christianity: Iranian Religions — Manichaeism
人生の親戚 — St. John Passion (Chpt 8, English 139)
Chuck writes: is a particularly sentimental piece written by Bach first performed in 1724; it inspired by the suffering of St. John, and is performed with a full chorus. (To listen, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ4Tg6y5dKI&feature=related). The lyrics correspond directly to chapters 18 and 19 of the Gospel of John in the Luther Bible. (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_John_Passion) This particular section of the Gospel has sometimes been criticized as having anti-Semitic themes, which seems relevant to Marie's comparison of Musan's innocence in death to a Jewish child being sent to a Nazi extermination camp of WWII.
人生の親戚 — Swedenborgian Church (Chpt 9, English 146)
Oe frequented this church when he was living in the Bay Area: "Several years ago, when I was staying at Berkeley, I sometimes went to the Swedenborgian Church of San Francisco. When I went this time, although it have been about six years, the young woman (お嬢さん) there remembered me." Quoted in 『大江健三郎・再発見』集英社, 2001, p. 206, which quotes from 『武満徹との対談「正解のヴィジョンにねざしつつ」』 Dec. 1988.
Here is their web site: The Swedenborgian Church of San Francisco in Pacific Heights, a National Historic Monument.
From their web site: "The Swedenborgian Church bases its teachings on the Bible as illuminated by the works of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), a Swedish scientist, inventor, and theologian who made significant discoveries in many of the natural sciences, including astronomy, anatomy, geology, and mineralogy. ... Swedenborg's ideas have influenced people as diverse as Helen Keller, Johnny Appleseed, William Blake, Henry James, Ralph Waldo Emerson, D.T. Suzuki, Jorge Luis Borges, and Dr. Mehmet Oz." And, from another page of that web site: "As a celebrated scientist-turned-mystic whose extensive writings articulated a new understanding of Christianity, Swedenborg's ideas were championed by American Transcendentalist thinkers (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry James Sr., Bronson Alcott) and English Romanticists (William Blake, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Thomas Carlyle)." *Emphasis mine, to advance my thesis that there is a logical network holding together the various individuals alluded to in Jinsei.
From their web site, "The Interior" (emphasis below is added by me, to highlight Oe's love of trees) —
"Inside, a huge fireplace warms the modest dimensions of the nave which is almost as wide as it is deep. There is no paint or gilt. There are no pews, but the seeker is offered a sturdy rush-seated chair.
"Arching overhead are the reddish madrones from the Santa Cruz mountains. Trees correspond to the entirety of the divine life, with roots going deep into the good soil to bring the love of the earth up into the trunk of life. The spreading system of branches represent knowledges of many kinds, that at last bear leaves and blossoms, which are the actual uses and enjoyments of being alive. So within, this temple is of God's trees. The gnarled cypress from the wind-swept crest tells of the vicissitudes of life. There points a flame-like piece of root to things above. Swedenborg himself wrote: "The ancients worshipped in groves, because groves of trees signify heavenly wisdom and intelligence.""
Here is an excellent article (with quite a few Blake illustrations) on the difficult relationship between Blake and the Swedenborgians: William Blake and the Radical Swedenborgians
And, there are some very loose parallels to be drawn between Swedenborg, Little Father, and the Second Coming:
"Swedenborg's religious crisis began with the Journal of Dreams (1743-44), and he had his first vision of Christ on 7 April, 1744....
"He expounded a system of allegorical interpretation of the Bible, in which even mundane events communicate higher truths through correspondences between the material and spiritual planes. He declared that he had been present at the Last Judgement, and that this had taken place in 1757, creating a new Christian church, and considered his religious works to herald this new age of Christianity, and that this was actually what was meant by the Second Coming. He believed in the absolute unity of God, rejecting the orthodox view of the Trinity, and that redemption is obtained by accepting and responding to divine truth through love, wisdom and action....
"Though Swedenborg never made any direct attempt to found a Christian sect himself, a society dedicated to his teachings was created in England in 1787, and similar societies established themselves around the world, known as the Church of the New Jerusalem, New Church or Swedenborgians. Swedenborg's religious works have influenced later writers, including the poets William Blake and William Butler Yeats.
I have visited this church. Here are some pictures from a March 2011 visit, and information from pamphlets picked up inside the church.
The approach
Walking in through the front entrance
Interior
Pamphlets (please read the checked item on the garden, the second of the below documents)
人生の親戚 — The quote from St. Augustine's Confessions (Chpt 9, English 150)
See page 150 above. This passage is related to the initial discussion of Manichaeism there.
This quote comes from St. Augustine's Confessions when he is still living, at age 29, the life of a Manichaean.The quote comes from Book V, 9.16. (page 84 of this Google Book version of Confessions).
(Confessions of St. Augustine, trans. by E. B. Pusey [Modern Library, 1999] 86, an eBrary book)The Jinsei translator has missed a couple of important points. Numbers 1, 2 and 3 below I would like you to read. Number 4 is more marginal and read only if there is time. (It is interesting but not quite as critical for unpacking Jinsei.)
1. "if his cross was, as I had believed, a phantom?" — See the below inserted translation of the full passage but the main point is that Augustine did not yet believe in the Incarnation, therefore a mere body of a human had been crucified and that, of itself, could not possibly be an act that cleansed one of one's sins. It is not that the Cross was false but rather that he believed the one crucified was not actually divine.
2. Read "in my opinion" as "in my misguided opinion as a Manichaean" and the quote makes more sense.
3. Following the quote, askesis appears to be glossed as "the scourge". This is misleading. The topic is not his illness but rather his struggle with it. Askesis is, in Greek, "exercise" or "training" and became the root of "ascetic" and meant, in a religious context "strict training to know God or Truth".
テューター・小父さんは、アウグスチヌスがローマという慣れない場所、「異なっている世界」（レジオ・ディシミリトウディニス）で病気になる「試練」（アスケーシス）をこうむったように、
Little Father, like Augustine embroiled in an askesis in unaccustomed Rome—a regio dissimilitudinis ("unlike world")—that led to illness ...
My translation is not literal but attempts to eliminate the incorrect suggestion that the "scourge" is the askesis. There is a disciplined struggle to understand God and, in that struggle, in a strange place, Augustine falls ill. The illness is not a test visited on him by God, it is just an illness. (The prayers of his mother, far away, will save him from this deathly illness, unlike Little Father, by the way.) This point is important in that illness does not represent the low point, the "hell" from which Augustine encounters Grace. His low point is that he still falsely believes in Manichaeism or, put the other way around, does not believe in the Incarnation.
4. Despite the furigana in the original, the correct phrase is, I think, "regio dissimilitudinis" ("region of unlikeness"). I'm not quite sure Oe intends to use it in its technical sense as the same sort of godless place as Rome was to Augustine. Possibly.
"the region of utter alienation from God inhabited by those who have abandoned God. The phrase regio dissimilitudinis had its origin in Augustine, …"
— Scholastic humanism and the unification of Europe: The heroic age by Richard William Southern (Wiley-Blackwell, 2001) 48
See also a Web page hosted by Washington State University. The author suggests that it is a region misinterpreted:
"The 'region of unlikeness,' then, is not a place that is separate and distinct, it is rather the wrong interpretation of the world and its events. It is a region of the individual mind gone astray, that tries to understand the world literally on its own terms rather than understand the world as it relates to God and to the zero ground of historical meaning, the life of Jesus of Nazareth.
This doesn't sound quite right to me but I'm not that well-informed about St. Augustine (but did study him in grad school a little). The Web site is: here.
BUT, if we return to the problem of imagination (想像力), "not looking at things the right way" is important...
人生の親戚 — 3P (Chpt 9, English 152)
「３P」 in the original. Three-way sexual relationship.
人生の親戚 — Frida Kahlo paintings (Chpt 9, English 160-62)
Henry Ford Hospital (1932) -- notice, by the way, how we are still drawing from approximately the same time period (early 20th century) as Bely, Betty Boop, Magoo, O'Connor, etc. etc.
The Broken Column (1944) (The Dancing ManDuh Bonanza has this image as do many other site, but this one is particularly interesting, I think, because of the commentary and other paintings included.)
Frida holding mirror.
人生の親戚 — Diego Rivera Mural (Chpt 9, English 162 and 168)
Ariella writes:
It is referred to as "Rivera's mural in the Hotel del Prado" on page 162, and then by name, "Dream of a Sunday Afternoon on the Alameda," on page 168.
Full image...
(http://intranet.haef.gr:61/muralists/images/alamedalg.jpg)
...and a close-up of the scene described on page 162...
人生の親戚 — "The Virgin of Guadalupe" (Chpt 10, English 170)
A painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Virgen_de_guadalupe1.jpgThanks Howard!
人生の親戚 — "like the sky in an El Greco painting" (Chpt 10, English 172)
See, for example his "View of Toledo" here (or search on your own): http://www.sedefscorner.com/2012/03/view-of-toledo.html
人生の親戚 — [Marie:] "Even if it's about me, what K writes will be his own story, one acceptable to him—it's only natural, isn't it?" (Chpt 11, English 187)
Since this is a key phrase, I include the Japanese here: 「Kさんは、私についても、自分の物語として了解できるように書くわ、当然のことながら？！」
人生の親戚 — "8 on the Gaffky scale" (In lieu of an Epilogue, English 197)
Also, the Gaffky scale mentioned on page 197 is a numerical measure from G0 to G9 of the amount of tuberculosis bacteria in one's phlegm that is not used anymore, because the amount varies based on factors such as where the sample is taken from and how deep a smear is taken. The source I used was at http://www.jata.or.jp/terminology/k_9.html.
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – General Background: Itami Juzo suicide
From Wikipedia: He died on December 20, 1997[5] in Tokyo, after falling from the roof of the building where his office was located, after the press published evidence that he was having an extramarital affair. The suicide letter he reportedly left behind denied any involvement in such an affair.[6] One theory is that Itami's suicide was forced by members of the Goto-gumi yakuza faction. A former member of the Goto-gumi faction told journalist Jake Adelstein in 2008, "We set it up to stage his murder as a suicide. We dragged him up to the rooftop and put a gun in his face. We gave him a choice: jump and you might live or stay and we'll blow your face off. He jumped. He didn't live." Juzo Itami is the basis for Goro in the novel. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – General Background: Takemitsu Toru
One of Oe's friends. A composer. From Wikipedia: Toward the end of his life, Takemitsu had planned to complete an opera, a collaboration with the novelist Barry Gifford and the director Daniel Schmid, commissioned by the Opéra National de Lyon in France. He was in the process of publishing a plan of its musical and dramatic structure with Kenzaburō Ōe, but he was prevented from completing it by his death at 65.[42][43] He died of pneumonia on February 20, 1996, while undergoing treatment for bladder cancer. He is the basis for Takamura in the novel. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – General Background: Outside Over There by Maurice SendakThe picture book that Chikashi becomes fixated on in the epilogue of the novel. It depicts a young girl named Ida who has to rescue her little sister after she was kidnapped by goblins and replaced with a changeling. Reading this is essential to understanding Chikashi's thoughts in the epilogue. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Tagame (Prologue 1, English 3)
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4014/4593033407_f5e82076cf_b.jpg (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Miniature duralumin trunk (Prologue 2, English 6)
(Thank you Athena!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – "I guess it's really true what they say about crying tears of blood!" (Prologue 4, English 19)
As far as I can tell this is a quote/poem credited to Rumi: "You left and I cried tears of blood. My sorrow grows. Its not just that You left. But when You left my eyes went with You. Now, how will I cry?" (Thank you Athena!)
取り替え子 – "According to Dante" (Prologue 4, English 26)
I think that Oe is referring to Puragorio, the second part of the Divine Comedy. In it, Dante climbs up the Mount of Purgatory. (Thank you Daniel!)取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Rimbaud's Adieu/Farewell (Prologue 4, English 27/28)
This poem will appear again later in the text. This is the last part of a bigger prose poem, A Season in Hell. http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Farewell.html Kafka and max brod Pg 43 (Thank you Daniel!)取り替え子（チェンジリング） – "an etheric double or astral body" (Prologue 6, English 38)
From https://blavatskytheosophy.com/mysteries-of-the-astral-body/ :
"Linga Sharira – called the astral body – is the subtle, unseen "double" of the dense physical body. It is the form, mould, and blueprint upon and around which the dense physical body is built. It comes into existence before the physical body and it only fully fades out and dies when the very last remaining particle of the deceased physical body disappears and disintegrates, excepting the skeleton.
The astral body can also be thought of as the "vital body" or "energy body" of the human being because it is the vehicle through which Prana (the 3rd Principle) flows to the physical body. It is this part of our constitution which is utilised in the activities which have become known as astral travel, astral projection, and so forth. The term "astral" is used in Theosophy simply as a synonym for "subjective," "subtle" or "inner."
Its main connection point with the physical body is in the area of the spleen and these two bodies that we have are connected with one another throughout each lifetime by a sort of unseen umbilical cord which some have called the "silver thread" or "silver cord.""(Thank you Athena!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – "A certain mid-twentieth-century surrealist poet" (Prologue 7, English 45)
I believe this refers to Rene Char, who Oe refers to in name on page 80. Unfortunately I could not find anything about Rene Char in His Poetry, which is referenced on page 80. Perhaps someone with more French knowledge than me in the future could fill it in. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Berkeley Birches (Prologue 8, English 56)I just thought it was cool that he mentioned them here. We can go outside and look at them. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – "Girl Friday" (Chapter 1-1, English 64)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/girl%20Friday : a female assistant (as in an office) entrusted with a wide variety of tasks (Thank you Athena!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Kenji Miyazawa (Chapter 1-2, English 70)
Kenji Miyazawa was a Japanese poet, but was also a social reformer who tried to make a new kind of farming community. He created the Rasu Farmers Association to improve the lives of peasants in Iwate. You can see a snippet of Outline of the Essential Art of the Peasant here: http://www.kenji-world.net/english/who/reformer.html (Thank you Daniel!)取り替え子（チェンジリング） – "René Char in His Poetry" (Chapter 1-3, English 80)
I believe this is the French book La poésie éclatée de René Char (1994), written by Rosemary Lancaster. This critique does refer to the Marquis de Sade and Baudelaire, as well as Rimbaud. I may be incorrect, since the book description (http://www.brill.com/products/book/la-poesie-eclatee-de-rene-char) makes no explicit mention of connecting to Char's biography, focusing on Lancaster's goal of helping the reader break down the complexities of Char's writing style ("Dans son étude sur la poésie éclatée du poète, Rosemary Lancaster examine comment le texte charien, en rompant avec les normes du discursif, initie le lecteur aux forces insoupçonnées de la langue; à son sémantisme caché, à son potentiel créateur, à son grand pouvoir suggestif. Cette poésie, à première vue rébarbative, est en fait riche de sens imprévus, de formules saisissantes et révélatrices, d'aperçus pénétrants sur la vie, la vocation du poète, le rôle de la poésie, l'art d'écrire.") (Thank you Athena!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Lord Jim 1965 (Chapter 1-4, English 86)
Trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyaorFJUqIY. Juzo Itami actually stared in this movie. O'Brien is probably Peter O'Toole. (Thank you Daniel!)取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Old Parr whiskey (Chapter 1-5, English 91)
Old Parr is a blended Scotch whisky whose biggest markets are Japan and South America. It is a premium whisky in direct competition with Johnnie Walker, which Oe refers to in 個人的な体験, which is interesting and may indicate a change in tastes. "Old Parr" can refer to the brand as a whole, but is also the name of their 15-year-old blend (as opposed to the 12yo Grand Old Parr, or the 18yo Old Parr Superior).
(Thank you Athena!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – "Goro had spent six months acting in a Hollywood film..." (Chapter 1-5, English 91)
Juzo Itami is credited for the film "55 Days at Peking" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056800/), an American film about the 1900 Boxer Rebellion, an anti-foreign and anti-Christian rebellion in China. (Thank you Athena!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Yukichi Fukuzawa and An Encouragement of Learning (Chapter 1-5, English 92)
From Wikipedia: Between 1872 and 1876, he published 17 volumes of Gakumon no Susume ( 学問のすすめ, "An Encouragement of Learning" or more idiomatically "On Studying"[2]). In these texts, Fukuzawa outlines the importance of understanding the principle of equality of opportunity and that study was the key to greatness. He was an avid supporter of education and believed in a firm mental foundation through education and studiousness. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – "Still I can't believe…" (Chapter 1-5, English 96)
Throughout the novel, Oe makes clear remarks about his own nature, whether it be his writing style, calling himself old fashioned, or here when talking about his true nature. I think that we should stop at these moments and take a second to think about what they actually mean. We saw this time of poking fun at himself in JINSEI, but it really comes to life often here. See also page 123. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – "Speech you gave in Stockholm" (Chapter 1-6, English 101)
This refers to Oe's nobel acceptance speech. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1994/oe-lecture.html (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Volker Schlondorff (Chapter 1-6, English 104)
As mentioned in the novel, he is a renowned German director. One interesting thing is that he directed an adaptation of the first two volumes of Proust's In Search of Lost Time. Oe will refer to the last volume later. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Harold Lloyd (Chapter 2-2 English 123)
Lloyd was an actor, famous mainly for silent films. The novel talks about "superhuman level of strength and became invulnerable to pain". This refers to the fact that Lloyd is best known for his extended chase scenes and daredevil feats, many of which he did himself. One of the most famous scenes comes from Safety Last! He ends up holding the hands of a clock outside a skyscraper while escaping the police. A clip of it is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFBYJNAapyk (Thank you Daniel!)取り替え子（チェンジリング） – A Quiet Life (Chapter 2-2 English 127)
This is an actual Oe novel, written in 1990. The movie was released in 1995. It is about a disabled boy and his relation to his younger sister as she takes care of him while their parents are away.
http://asianwiki.com/File:Aquietlife.jpg (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – "Your old novel about the young right-wing activist" (Chapter 2-3 English 128)This refers to Oe's Seventeen and The Death of Political Youth. The activist in question is Yamaguchi Otoya. He commits suicide while in juvenile penitentiary. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Derrida and Barthes" (Chapter 2-3 English 130)Derrida was focused on deconstructionism, while Barthes wrote "The Death of the Author" (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Fujio Akatsuka (Chapter 2-3 English 131)I tried my best to find the exact character Oe was referring to, but I couldn't. I think that it comes from the manga Osomatsu-kun.
(from the reference to the pine tree).
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/20/OsomatsukunDVD.jpg (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – "flash a triumphal V sign" (Chapter 2-5 English 145)
I don't know if this actually means anything, but since we discussed it in class with relation to JINSEI, I think it would be nice to point out the return of the V sign here in CHANGELING. (Thank you Daniel!)取り替え子（チェンジリング） – "a condition he described...as 'gout'" (Chapter 3-1, English 167)
Gout: a disease in which defective metabolism of uric acid causes arthritis, especially in the smaller bones of the feet, deposition of chalkstones, and episodes of acute pain.
(Thank you Athena!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – "content of a medium-length book of his" (Chapter 3-1 English 169)
I think this is referring to The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away judging from the summary of the novel on Wikipedia. Not 100% sure though. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子 – "2・26 Incident" (Chapter 3-2 English 183)From Wikipedia: The February 26 Incident (二・二六事件 Niniroku Jiken?) (also known as the 2-26 Incident) was an attempted coup d'état in Japan on 26 February 1936. It was organized by a group of young Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) officers with the goal of purging the government and military leadership of their factional rivals and ideological opponents. This coup had severe consequences, with increased military control. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Inoue Nissho (Chapter 3-2 English 183)Nissho was a radical Buddhist priest of the Nichiren sect of Buddhism. However he was never officially ordained by the Nichiren sect. His League of Blood consisted mainly of radical university students. They thought that the only way for change to occur was by assassinating elites in power. They are known for the League of Blood Incident where they killed finance minister Junnosuke Inoue and Director General of the Mitsui zaibatsu Baron Dan Takuma. The Wikipedia article are pretty good, but I'm certainly not an expert https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissho_Inoue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Blood_Incident (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Kita Ikki (Chapter 3-2 English 185)
From Wikipedia: A harsh critic of the Emperor system and the Meiji Constitution, he asserted that the Japanese were not the emperor's people, rather the Emperor was the "people's emperor". He advocated a complete reconstruction of Japan through a form of statist, right-wing socialism. Kita was in contact with many people on the extreme right of Japanese politics, and wrote pamphlets and books expounding his ideas (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – "a soaking wet Kogito…loking exactly like a drowned rat" (Chapter 3-3 English 194)
The rat reference comes back. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Maruyama Masao (Chapter 3-3 English 195)Masao's political theories were mainly concerning the prewar militarism and fascism. He was a strong critic of the prewar system. It's ironic how Daio is instead using his theories to advocate for that system instead of denouncing it. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – "...a novella called His Majesty Himself Will Wipe Away My Tears" (Chapter 3-3, English 197)
I'm not sure why the title is translated differently here. Oe wrote a novella in 1972 called The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away (みずから我が涙をぬぐいたまう日). The title itself is a reference, see Bach's Cantata BWV 56 next:
取り替え子 – Bach's Cantata BWV 56 (Chapter 3-3, English 197)The title of Oe's novella, The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away, is a reference to the lyrics of Bach's Cantata BWV 56 - Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen (I will gladly carry the Cross). The cantata itself is referred to in the text of the novella, as a group of militants sing it as they march to the city.
Excerpt from http://emmanuelmusic.org/notes_translations/translations_cantata/t_bwv056.htm :
1. Arie B
Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen,
Er kömmt von Gottes lieber Hand,
Der führet mich nach meinen Plagen
Zu Gott, in das gelobte Land.
Da leg ich den Kummer auf einmal ins Grab,
Da wischt mir die Tränen mein Heiland selbst ab.1. Aria B
I will gladly carry the Cross,
it comes from God's dear hand,
and leads me, after my troubles,
to God, in the promised land.
There at last I will lay my sorrow in the grave,
there my Savior himself will wipe away my tears.From Reiko Tachibana's Narrative as Counter-Memory: A Half-Century of Postwar Writing in Germany and Japan (http://www.sunypress.edu/p-2713-narrative-as-counter-memory.aspx):
"Bach's music is surely made strange by this distorted interpretation: music created for church services becomes recontextualized as martial music, and Bach's "Heiland" is equated with the emperor god, who expects the Japanese to die willingly for him. By having patriotic soldiers sing and misinterpret a Western song, and thus making the episode seem thoroughly peculiar, Oe compels readers to reexamine traditional Japanese notions of an "honorable" death,..."
You can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgk6qUeZW2c
(Thank you Athena!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Blake's "Child with the wings" (Chapter 3-4 English 210)I think that the painting being referred to is the one on the right in the following link http://ramhornd.blogspot.com/2013/05/songs-of-innocence-experience-2.html (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – "dumplings made from glutinous rice, pork, and lots of garlic" (Chapter 3-5 English 218)This is reference to the food in MAN-EN. I just really like these little references and want to point them out. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – "Cogito, ergo sum" (Chapter 3-5 English 218)Descarte's fame "I think, therefore I am". Kogito's name as revealed in the book is a direct reference to this phrase. The phrase creates a foundation for the pursuit of TRUTH, which we know that Oe is always trying to struggle with. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Nakae Chomin (Chapter 3-5 English 218)
From Wikipedia: His major contribution was the popularization of the egalitarian doctrines of the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Japan. As a result, Nakae is thought to have been a major force in the development of liberalism in early Japanese politics. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Rugby Match 1860 (Chapter 4-1 English 229)A direct reference to MAN-EN! I wonder why the translator decided to translate it directly. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Proust's Time Regained (Chapter 4-2 English 238)
It is the seventh and final volume in Proust's In Search of Lost Time. In Proust's world, everyone occupies a range of time due to his or her connection to the past. I think part of Kogito's "Death is Time" comes from this notion of Time. It seems related to the density of time theory we saw in JINSEI (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Bach's Unaccompanied Partita No. 1 (Chapter 4-4 English 251)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16eLsa8tQww
Personal notes: references to death and time on pg. 253 and 254 (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Verdi's Quattro Pezzi Sacri(Chapter 4-6 English 265)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8JnevTX-8Y (Thank you Daniel!)取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Grimmeleshausen's Adventures of a Simpleton (Chapter 5-2 English 278)
Also known as Simplicius Simplicissimus. Plot according to Wikipedia: The novel is told from the perspective of its protagonist Simplicius, a rogue or picaro typical of the picaresque novel, as he traverses the tumultuous world of the Holy Roman Empire during the 30 Years War. Raised by a peasant family, he is separated from his home by foraging dragoons and is adopted by a hermit living in the forest, who teaches him to read and introduces him to religion. The hermit also gives Simplicius his name because he was so simple that he did not know what his own name was.[2] After the death of the hermit, Simplicius must fend for himself. He is conscripted at a young age into service, and from there embarks on years of foraging, military triumph, wealth, prostitution, disease, bourgeois domestic life, and travels to Russia, France, and to an alternate world inhabited by mermen. The novel ends with Simplicius turning to a life of hermitage himself, denouncing the world as corrupt. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Bakhtin and Rabelais(Chapter 5-2 English 279)
These are the authors who we go to for ideas about carnivalesque and grotesque realism. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Henry Ford Hospital and Two Frida (Chapter 5-4 English 295)
Henry Ford Hospital is already on the site under JINSEI, but is worth repeating http://www.fridakahlo.org/henry-ford-hospital.jsp
Here is the link for Two Fridas, including a picture of when it was still not yet finished http://www.fridakahlofans.com/c0290.htm
(Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Rimbaud's Letter to Delehaye (Chapter 5-5 English 304)I found it in the original French. Hopefully one day someone with more French skills than me can do something with it. http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/LettresDelahaye.html (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – fundoshi (Chapter 5-6, English 313)
A traditional Japanese undergarment for men, that was the main form of underwear pre-WWII. (Thank you Athena!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Pale green, banged-up Cadillac (Chapter 6-1 English 320)Can someone call up Derek and find this Cadillac. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Ornamental pomegranate(Chapter 6-1 English 324)
Link to a picture: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/165342/ (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Kafka's Metamorphosis (Chapter 6-4 English 353)
Goro's reference to the man who turned into a bug comes from Kafka's short story, The Metamorphosis. In the story, a man wakes up to find that he has turned into an insect. There actually isn't a translation of the word ungeheur Ungeziefer, so I think it's interesting that Oe posits it as a cockroach (I certainly did when I first read the story). (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Lindbergh kidnapping (Epilogue 2 English 397)
This is the incident that inspired Sendak's Outside Over There. A young child was abducted from his home, turning up two months later dead. Sendak says that the subtext of the story was his childhood anxiety about the Lindbergh case. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Musil's The Man Without Qualities (Epilogue 5 English 417)
From Wikipedia: The novel is a "story of ideas", which takes place in the time of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy's last days, and the plot often veers into allegorical dissections on a wide range of existential themes concerning humanity and feelings. It has a particular concern with the values of truth and opinion and how society organizes ideas about life and society, though the book is well over a thousand pages long in its entirety, and so no one single theme dominates. (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Urashima Taro (Epilogue 7 English 439)In the legend, Urashima Taro saves a turtle who turns out to be the daughter of the Emperor of the Sea. He visits the emperor and the turtle, Otohime. He is given a box, which he is told not to open, and returns to land, where he discovers that 300 years have past. He opens the box, which ends up holding his old age.
I think this might tie into Kogito's battle against the turtle back in chapter 6. Perhaps it serves as a contrast to Kogito's actions.
(Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Vick's Caprice (Epilogue 7 English 441)
http://www.rossroses.com.au/shopping/images/products/vicks%20caprice.jpg (Thank you Daniel!)
取り替え子（チェンジリング） – Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman (Epilogue 9 English 465)From Wikipedia: based on a real incident that took place in Nigeria during British colonial rule: the horseman of an important chief was prevented from committing ritual suicide by the colonial authorities.[1] In addition to the British intervention, Soyinka calls the horseman's own conviction toward suicide into question, posing a problem that throws off the community's balance. (Thank you Daniel!)
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