About Soseki Natsume's "I Am a Cat"...what I want to say is...

"I Am a Cat" is probably Soseki Natsume's most well-known work today, right? At the same time, it is also the masterpiece that made him famous in the first place. Perhaps most ironically, however, I think I Am a Cat would also be the most misunderstood of Natsume's work. Or at least, he is the most misunderstood work.

There are two reasons for wanting to write this article. The first one came from the previous year, when I saw a new translation of "I Am a Cat" by a certain publisher in a bookstore one day, which represented the "I am a cat" in the cat's narrative tone. " is replaced by "this meow". Second, a recent chat with a friend made me feel desolate.

The reason why I feel so desolate is that I deeply understand that for most people, "I Am a Cat" is probably just a fun entertainment work at most. What they see in it is always a cute and dashing cat, but not a person full of depression and sadness.

It is often said that "I Am a Cat" is a bible for cat lovers. My idea is just the opposite. From the current point of view, it is better to say that "I Am a Cat" is the greatest vigilance against the so-called "cat slaves".

Think about it, how many cat owners are still willing to let the cat go out for a ride? Not even to name him?

It might be a coincidence, it might not. I've always thought that one of the most intriguing things about "I Am a Cat" is that the cat doesn't have a name. He just kept using "I" to describe the world, people, trivia in his eyes. His life is not quite like a so-called family pet, but like the protagonist of Natsume's other works without a job, wandering outside all day, no one cares about him when he gets home, and treats him as a burden that can't be explained clearly. Therefore, Natsume often mocks himself as a "high-level vagabond".

Hmm~ I think many stray cats outside may think so~

The same is true for this cat. The owner doesn't name him, and he doesn't play with him often when he gets home. He just lets him run around by himself without disturbing him. This makes me, who likes to watch cats, often feel curious, and occasionally involuntarily imagine in my heart: How does Natsume interact with a cat that he keeps but has no name when he is usually at home?

The most subtle part of this is that it seems that Natsume keeps a more ambiguous distance between himself and the cat.

At first glance, "I Am a Cat" is written about a cat, but it is actually a certain self of Natsume. by means of projection.

Why not have a name? This is first and foremost to desocialize oneself, to temporarily lose one's identity. Just like the vagabonds among the "higher vagabonds". Only in this era of change can we find a new perspective and re-look at the society at that time.

Why choose cats? I think there is another intention: to give up and become a so-called "human". Or, give up and become the "normal person" in people's eyes, and the "modern person" who emphasized "progress" at that time.

In fact, what Natsume wants to write has never been the cat, but the self who has been suppressed by the times and life to the extent that he has to hide in the form of a "cat" in order to gain a breathless life. And you can say that "I Am a Cat" is actually about a person who is so repressed that he can only use cats to describe his world-weariness. But the problem is that even so, the "I" in the shape of a cat still has some realities that cannot be avoided and cannot be ignored.

At the end of the novel, "I" the cat accidentally fell into the water and drowned. I don't know if the water in the bucket is also a "reality". I only know that maybe through the death of the cat, Natsume and the people who read Natsume's works may be able to get a kind of rebirth...

(This article was simultaneously published on the square grid blog: the laboratory of literature )

https://vocus.cc/1111/home

Further reading:

https://vocus.cc/1111/5e31e749fd89780001260f99

https://vocus.cc/1111/5d473e03fd89780001cb8938