The 1972 Era Review Comes Back Around to Me
The phrase 'comes back around' is a convenient one. However, there are times in this world when things do indeed come back around.
I read a book that was completely unplanned. Why did I end up encountering it? The story follows a complicated path.
Looking back, in late February, an article was posted.
I pondered the exchange of affection between the couple behind the words of this article, and while looking on with half-envy, I set a goal for my next life to keep playing with someone of the opposite sex who shares my hobbies, thinking, 'I feel that being able to fight over shared hobbies is also a kind of happiness'.
And I was surprised that the husband's introduction of the book to his wife, which had been left unread for about half a year, was not filled with anger, but was actually so polite and overflowing with affection that it made me want to pick up the book myself.
I will borrow the original text exactly as it is here. The following is a quote.
● '1972' Yuzo Tsutsumi
When I was a kid, Saori Minami, who was from Okinawa before it was returned to Japan, sang '17-sai' on her first Kohaku Uta Gassen. On the night of that same day, the first murder in the United Red Army incident was confirmed.This happened on December 31, 1971, but oh, that's right, it was that kind of era. Things like this are written in '1972'.
In this book, I learned about the concept of multi-history'. Usually, people think of music, movies, and literature separately, like music history, film history, and literary history.
But people who lived in that era remember 1972 or 1973 by including everything—movies, music, world events, and even the headlines of weekly magazines.
This is that kind of book.It's a book that doesn't talk about history along a vertical axis, but rather slices 1972 into a cross-section and summarizes it from the perspective of what happened that year and what kind of year it was.The 1972 that Yuzo Tsutsumi perceives is the year the high-growth period ended. It is the year when the tremendous change toward a new era was completed. 1972 is truly the 'end of the beginning' and the 'beginning of the end'. You will understand what that means when you read it.
What do you think? Can you say this to a wife who has had it 'unread for half a year'? At the very least, I don't feel like I could speak so politely and selflessly, and as I read the article, I thought that the world is overflowing with happiness.
Even up to this point, I had already 'wanted to pick it up someday'.
|However|
The story takes a sudden turn.
One of the indirect causes of the fight over not reading it was that I had become interested in reading Kenzaburo Oe.
Because of my influence, he said.
'Oh my god'
While surprised by the 'Oh my god' that had come out of my own mouth for the first time in a while, I no longer had the composure to tell my suddenly appearing self that I was a sinful man, or to think that it might be some kind of mistake. I stepped away from the article, and after calming down, I decided to read it again.
Unlike before, the state of the couple's fight, which should have been happy, had completely changed in my mind to, ''Why won't you read it!!' 'Why won't you read it!!' 'Read it already!!''.
I named this 'sudden loss of self as a party involved'.
For some reason, struck by a sense of guilt as if I had been caught cheating, I decided: I will read it. I have decided that this is a book I should read.
I have written at length, but this is where the main topic begins.
I am glad I knew how to read this book as a multi-history, as mentioned in the introductory recommendation. Since I was born in 1982, I can only know about the end of the period of rapid economic growth and its history through literature.
As time passes, history is increasingly simplified. The period of rapid economic growth. As you can see from this term, it is all summed up in that one phrase.
For me, this book was like a mystery novel. It explores sex work, the economy, incidents, sports, and music, all lined up on the same timeline.
It goes without saying, but I learned that no one can know the whole story. However, I learned that just a little bit, subtly and delicately, they are connected side by side. I learned that there are moments where we are experiencing the same timeline.
To understand connections, people sometimes use major events as a subject.
"What were you doing at that time?"
I felt that this is an act of confirming to each other that we both existed on the same timeline.
This method of critiquing an era by lining up and verifying what happened really makes me feel that facts are interesting.
As someone who did not experience it firsthand, I experienced 1972 through this book, and perhaps in the future, I might
"I recently learned about 1972, but what was it actually like at that time?"
I might ask that. I felt this book was like a big diary of 1972. If you peeked at a page of someone's diary, you wouldn't necessarily take everything written there at face value.
Therefore, rather than whether this book about 1972 is factual, I think it is enough if it is a fact for the person who reads it. Memories can be explored, and people can empathize. Everyone is doing different things in different places, but I suppose we are a collective.
Because that time must have certainly existed.
What are you talking about?
I realized that people are fickle. Having read it and having it come around to me, I am hesitant about whether I should give this book as a gift when I meet Haruka-san.
However, I probably won't do that.
Because I would suddenly lose my sense of being involved🤣
Hoping that 1972 comes around to everyone in 2023.
It's already been half a century.
いいなと思ったら応援しよう！
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