Book review·Book review｜Convenience stores have seen all the chains of social contempt in eighteen years

Literature is also reborn. Once, when I was a child, I read many Japanese detective short stories over and over again, and they all seemed to be related to stations, time, and platforms; later, when I was young, my understanding of Japanese literature stayed on the bookcase at home and was secretly squeezed aside. "Norwegian Wood" and "The Lost Elephant". The 1980s and 1990s were already the era of scar literature after the Cultural Revolution. However, on the one hand, it was the exploration of sexuality in books, and on the other hand, it was the shame of readers who came through the Cultural Revolution. Therefore, while reading Haruki Murakami, Watanabe Junichi still wants to hide these words. "Sex" is a taboo and cannot be written or spoken. The more taboo it is, the more it captivates the hearts of ignorant young people. At that time, I thought that those books represented Japanese literature.

actually not. I actually fell in love with Japanese literature when I started reading the English translation, rather than the Chinese translation, which may be more similar in language. I call this rebirth, because it is in the field of literature that I regain my own taste and aesthetics that I have established.

In contemporary Japanese literature, in addition to Haruki Murakami, I have seriously read the works of two women: Mieiko Kawakami and Sayaka Murata.

It was a coincidence that I read Murata's " Earthling ", but I became a loyal fan of Sayaka and bought her debut novel "Convenience Store Woman" to read. I bought it because I was attracted by the blurb of the book. Blurb writes about a thirty-six-year-old woman who has worked in a convenience store for eighteen years. Her parents, sisters and everyone around her think her life choices are problematic, but she is very happy. Should you change your life choices for others? What choices will the protagonist in the book make for his own happiness? I suddenly felt like I was in the same predicament? Maybe it's slightly different, at least I have a partner, baby, and friends who love me, but she in the book is facing many difficulties. What’s even more interesting is that the author himself actually worked in a convenience store for eighteen years, became famous through this book, and became a full-time writer after winning an award. So, is the convenience store woman she writes about herself?

The two novels by Sayaka Murata that I read both torture Japanese society in a very strange way, and at the same time raise questions to readers-what is the meaning of the individual? In the face of social pressure, can a person stick to his own boundaries, and what kind of experience does it mean to stick to boundaries?

1. Confrontation between society and people

The narrator is a single woman who has worked in a convenience store for eighteen years. She has been different from the people around her since she was a child, and working in a convenience store has employee rules to follow, which makes her feel like she has been reborn. From "Planet Earth" to "Convenience Store Woman", Sayaka still expresses her novel pattern. The protagonist is a child who was out of place since childhood. When he grows up, in order to integrate into society and make people around him feel normal, he does social things. A more widely recognized work, this woman's sexual and other desires are abstracted from Sayaka, amplifying the conflict between the individual and society.

The narrator’s cry is heard from the beginning of the story, how can one become a member of society? Society has no room for "foreign objects". The feeling of frustration throughout the article is very prominent, and at the same time, it also makes me, as a reader, feel the pressure that I am still familiar with. As a woman who works in a convenience store, the narrator makes no secret of the disdain and disrespect from many customers, as if she is abnormal if she does not use the convenience store job as a springboard, does not get married, and does not have children. A group of people who do not deserve to exist in society and need to be eradicated. The narrator, Keiko, works hard to imitate the lifestyle and tone of voice of others. She seems to have gained a layer of invisibility through such imitation and cover-up. However, the appearance of a marginalized person pushes her out of her comfort zone. This fringe is a social Darwinist who goes too far and sounds and looks like a hopeless loser who wants to use and manipulate Keiko for parasitism through his extreme disdain for her. This diaosi brought the confrontation between society and people to another level in Keiko's eyes. He hopes that Keiko will quit her job at the convenience store and find a new job to support him, who is living as a parasite in Keiko's home. He will pretend to be Keiko's partner to the outside world, thereby helping her get rid of the pressure to marry and the strange eyes from relatives and friends, and flatter her. It’s called: the best of both worlds.

Keiko began to notice that when others found out that she was living with a diaosi, her sisters, parents, and colleagues all showed unusual appreciation and excitement, exclaiming, "You are finally normal." When I read this, I felt that everything described by Sayaka was very familiar, and everything was with me. What's more, after such a performance, you have to say, we have never been like this, we have always cared about your well-being⋯⋯

I began to think about the intolerant Japanese society described by Sayaka and compare it with the Chinese society I know. When a series of terms such as "leftover women" and "older women" are created and widely used, the entire society recognizes this "intolerance". The limitations of women or anyone in independent choices come from all aspects of family and society. The final and saddest thing is to internalize it and come from yourself. Sayaka's Keiko begins to take shape in this internalization.

I don’t know if you want to stay in such a society, but I can’t stay there for even a minute. I used to tell myself at every age that such a lot of pressure is needed at this time, of course blah blah, but my body and mind finally collapsed and told me to be kind to myself, and to those who continue to deny themselves, No matter who it is, stay away, let alone the entire society. Of course, it's not that easy. If the whole society puts pressure on you, I naturally know how many people choose to commit suicide... So, I am lucky.

2. Human nature and animal nature

Keiko tried the parasitic life proposed by diaosi for a while. In this kind of life, the food Keiko prepares for diaosi every day is called "feed", and the content of the food is described as feed. This is the second characteristic of Sayaka's works, her discussion of the boundaries between human sociality and animality. Similarly, in "Earthling", the final scene where cousin eats human flesh together removes human sociality in an extreme way, and human nature and animality are extremely blurred.

It must be said that Sayaka has undoubtedly set this as the iconic theme of her novels, which is particularly worth pondering, but also gives people an uncomfortable feeling. This feeling is a bit like the feeling of cringe in British literature or TV, but it is also marked with the unacceptably sick mark of Japanese literature explore.

Sayaka achieved "writing freedom" through this book and no longer had to work in a convenience store. Is Keiko in the novel really her? After reading the novel, I seem to keep hearing the sound of convenience stores. I really want to go to Japan and experience the feeling of convenience stores.

I like Sayaka's work. Both novels use particularly extreme methods to reflect the tears imposed by society on ordinary ordinary people. Every ordinary person continues to live with these scars, in their own way, in a way that society does not tolerate, and in a way of resistance. ⋯⋯