[Riichi Yokomitsu's "Machine"] The shock that God was already depicting the 'frog-ization' phenomenon 94 years ago. [Reading Notes]
Due to the global pandemic, schools across the country were closed, and having gained some free time, I started keeping reading notes.
Instead of recording every book I read, I handwrite notes focusing on the ones I feel I want to remember.
Even now that COVID has passed and our previous daily lives have returned, this habit of keeping reading notes hasn't changed.
Recently, a new process has been added to my reading routine of reading and writing: 'creating articles on note'.
I've featured several books so far and have kept the article format consistent for my reading notes, but...
No, I'm just going to write however I want. In prose.
I had been creating sections by referring to general book review sites and blogs, but honestly, it's not interesting. I'm not running a book review blog.
What I thought after reading it, what kind of personal experiences it connected to, what actions I'm going to take—that's what's important, right?!
Because, feeling something after reading is an extremely subjective act, after all...
I realized that after writing my review for the Creative Awards.
It is my masterpiece to date.
When I finished writing it,'Ah, I've won the Best Reviewer Award with this.'I thought. Truly.
I'm not saying this because I got a 'congrats' notification; I genuinely thought so.
So, I've decided to attend the awards ceremony with my section manager.
This is truly the first time I've ever posted a link to my own past articles for the purpose of promoting them by saying 'read this'.
If you want, you don't have to read this article or any others, but I want you to read just this one.
I feel like it's more of a back-alley essay than a review, but everyone's reviews are essays anyway. I don't know, though.
By the way, what should I wear to the awards ceremony?
A sushi-patterned skirt is too casual, and since I won the Best Reviewer Award thanks to my section manager, maybe I should go with a formal mushroom pattern?
Maybe I'll have a mushroom-patterned kimono made. The ceremony is in autumn, so it seems appropriate in terms of the pattern.
What are you talking about?
(The preamble is long as usual)
This is my first time reading a work by the god of literature, Riichi Yokomitsu.
I've read plenty of entertainment novels, but as someone who has hardly touched literature as art, every day is filled with fresh encounters when I try my hand at pure literature.
First, I read 'Machine,' which is said to be a work without which one cannot talk about Riichi Yokomitsu.
The summary is as follows.
'Machine' is a short story by Riichi Yokomitsu. It is an experimental novel that makes full use of new techniques and is a representative work of Yokomitsu, who established his literary originality and gained attention. It is a story told through a monologue, detailing the process from the suspicion and strife between workers at a nameplate factory where 'I' work, leading to a serious conclusion, as seen through the psychology of 'I'.
It was first published in 1930 (Showa 5).
At this point, this god has the 'I' in the story say this.
However, from my perspective, the mansion that would be indignant at being laughed at by me had already shown its flaws first, and it was a dead end; it seems that the more people move, the more they show their flaws, and I, who was laughing while looking at the mansion, had also completely come to despise him before I knew it and could no longer even laugh, which ultimately was because he moved when he was of no use at all.
A little before this scene, 'I' is fascinated by the competence of a craftsman named 'Yashiki' who came to help at the factory, and at the same time, harbors feelings akin to an inferiority complex that he is being 'looked down upon'.
The monologue of 'I' quoted above is what he says when he sees 'Yashiki'—who you could say he has a one-sided love for, in a way that leaves him feeling pushed around—being subjected to violence by 'Karube,' another worker at the same factory.
To put it very simply,
'I laughed a little when I saw the person I like getting beaten up by a senior at work, but the weird move he pulled while that was happening was just not it.'
That's what it means.
This is the frog-ization phenomenon!!
God has been capturing and depicting the frog-ization phenomenon for 96 years.
I understand that feeling. I do too.
When you were in elementary school, haven't you ever had the experience of starting to dislike a boy you liked just because you saw him getting scolded by a teacher?
I have.
When you were in junior high school, haven't you ever had the experience of saying 'That's the worst. Let's break up' just because your boyfriend told his friends that you kissed?
That feels like a story I've heard somewhere.
You see some part of the person you like that's a bit uncool or off-putting, and you end up hating everything about them.
But I think it's only because it was named the 'frog-ization phenomenon' in the Reiwa era that we became able to empathize and say, 'That happens, right!'
Everyone naturally has these kinds of feelings and experiences, but because there was no name for it, we couldn't talk about it as a common context, and it wasn't even recognized as something to talk about, so it was just swept away, wasn't it?
This god unleashed that into the world with exquisite timing, 93 years before it became a phenomenon (the frog-ization phenomenon became a hot topic in 2023).
Did he come from the Reiwa era? Is he a time traveler?
Whatever. He's a god, after all.
(Excerpt from my reading notes below)
Frog-ization phenomenon! In this era?!
I felt like my sleepy head had been punched by the god of literature.
That's what it felt like.
There is a scene in the story where the protagonist is beaten up by Karube and has his head buried in aluminum shards, and at that moment, it was my head that was being beaten.
Suspicion grows from the workers probing each other's intentions, a noise that doesn't become a harmony is born as dissonance, and eventually, it reaches an irreversible end.
The process is described as a monologue by 'I,' but the perspective doesn't seem to be just one.
While it vividly depicts how 'I' is drawn into loyalty to the factory owner and suspicion of his wife, Karube, and Yashiki, there also exists an 'I' that calmly watches and analyzes that 'I'.
The reader visits the dim, chemical-dripping nameplate factory while going back and forth between 'I' as the subject whose thoughts and emotions sway, and 'I' as metacognition.
The hard-edged writing style, which excludes paragraph breaks, commas, and periods, is reminiscent of the aluminum that buried 'I's head, or a smooth nameplate.
And while you follow the text without the organic act of breathing, you are led to the conclusion as if everything were a chemical reaction equation, without a single error, excess, or deficiency. It's supposed to be a calculated world that ends cleanly, but it's uncomfortable.
Humans probably wouldn't be okay without a certain amount of fluctuation, carelessness, and ambiguity.
⬇️Heisei-era frog-ization phenomenon
⬇️An article about reading the same work. It's tough to read it by relating it to oneself.
⬇️66-Day Writing & Running 2nd Season Begins!
66-Day Writing x Running <<Season 2>>
・Post an article every day for 66 days from 6/27 to 8/31
・Tweets are okay. No character limit
・If you miss even one day of writing, you are immediately expelled from the magazine
・Add '#66DayWritingRunning' to your articles
・Add articles to the 66-Day Writing & Running magazine
・No mid-way participation allowed
・Participation is free
*You don't have to be a member of Yasu's 'After-School Writing Club' membership
Since tanka is allowed, I will participate.
I was already doing activities for the 'One Poem with an Image' group on days when I didn't have articles anyway...
Recently, tanka has become genuinely interesting.
I feel like literary language isn't my style, and even at my age, I'm still dragging around my high school girl poet days, but that's also interesting.