flos book selection-convenience store human

Title: Convenience Store Human Room

Author: Sayaka Murata

Publisher: Yuezhi Culture

Introduction

Keiko Furukura, a 36-year-old unmarried woman, was judged to be abnormal because she had been emotionally weak since she was a child. Therefore, after college, he did not get a job because of "rehabilitation", but worked part-time in a convenience store for 18 years. I have always followed the convenience store employee handbook to play a normal person, and found various fragments from different colleagues to make myself more "three-dimensional". Of course, these efforts are actually full of flaws, but 18 years have passed by just pretending to be normal. However, family members began to make small comments about this, such as "Why haven't you changed?" "Can you be normal?". After meeting a strange man Bai Yu, he found that his outlook on life began to be unstable. But it was also the already problematic relationship between her and Bai Yu that made her a "normal person" in everyone's eyes.

At this moment, Gu Cang found that everyone's attitude towards her suddenly changed a lot. Only then did I realize that everyone had always regarded her as an outsider and a weirdo. Gu Cang also gradually began to understand what Bai Yu's words meant, and began to know what he was facing. Only by trying to find a job and try a different life would he be accepted by the society. But when she stopped working as a convenience store clerk, life was completely out of order. She lost her schedule to manage the rhythm of her life, and she lost the guidance and platform of the clerk that made her "normal". In the end, when she tried to go to the interview, she couldn't help it as soon as she heard the voice of the convenience store, gave up the change and decided that she was "the world of convenience stores". At this moment, even Bai Yu, who everyone thought was abnormal, couldn't bear to turn around and leave.

experience

I put it on TBR because it was pushed on Instagram, and after more than a year, I finally have time to read it. This is the first time I read Sayaka Murata's works, and I will read her works again. Because the text makes people very comfortable, and the rhythm is also very relaxing and easy to grasp.

Keiko Furukura:

A strange outlier who has always been seen as different because of his different minds, and has been treated everywhere for years. After finally passing through the first and most malicious place for "different" - school, Gukura has been working part-time in a convenience store for 18 years after graduation, citing physical discomfort as a reason. With the employee handbook of the convenience store and the fragments of the colleague, he established a character design, so that he can live a normal life. It can be said that life is the state of work. And no matter how hard she tries to learn "normal", the society is actually full of malice behind her. The saddest thing is that the maliciousness slowly disappeared after she made the most questionable decision to take care of Bai Yu. Because she finally finished the last piece of the puzzle that society expects of adult women, the relationship between men and women. Society will find all sorts of excuses for such behavior, as long as you fulfill the expectations, even if the fulfillment method is problematic.

I have a certain resonance with Keiko's state. It's not because of society's expectations and pressures on women. I think it's fortunate that I can face them. What resonates is the "abnormal" part, and the feeling of being occupied by a job in every cell. Keiko was very upset and gave up the interview before the job, I can insert my own experience into it. Because he is an "abnormal" human being, he can only be a "creature" like a salesperson in one profession. Once he leaves that circle, he will have to rebuild his own elements to fit in. This is a scary process. There is also the kind of person who loses the sense of achievement after leaving the identity of "biological" until he can re-engage that job and become that "biological" again. These are the feelings I have personally experienced.

There is also the difference and feelings inside and outside the circle. I am very aware of what I face when socializing, and I see it. It made socializing seem like a house drink, I was trying to pretend to be normal and some of my "friends" were trying to pretend to be on good terms with me. This happens every day, and it's really tiring. And those malicious words and proposals that seem to be full of good intentions, I also hear numbness in my ears

White Feather:

Appeared in the middle after completing the profile of Keiko, and appeared later but was an important person. He has a great misogyny and anti-social personality, and has a kind of hatred for everything in society. I think that as long as I can be nurtured, I will succeed in online entrepreneurship one day, but I don't care about my ability. An enormous amount of research has also been done on gender stereotyping in society, of course with the motive of self-rationalization. In the end, she accepted Keiko's suggestion and was taken care of by her. In the name of helping Keiko fulfill the "requirements of society", she lived in Keiko's house to avoid debts and escape from reality. In the end, facing Keiko, she gave up when she had the opportunity to change herself and turned away disdainfully.

If Keiko’s part is about the society’s malice towards people who don’t fit in with women’s roles and ideas, then Bai Yu’s writing is about the society’s stereotypes of men and women, the stereotypes of people’s lifestyle choices, and personal development. impact and limitations. This has value all over the world but it is especially serious in Asian societies.

Therefore, the text that resonates most with me is Bai Yu's cry. Those crazy words that seem to be defeated dogs are actually the hissing of people who are different from the social framework. In today's social world, it seems to be very diverse, but in fact, it is becoming more and more stringent for people who are different from the general trend of society. What one can do in order to lash out at different people is more and more malicious. Hakuba used the Jomon period as a metaphor for the present, and I think those years are at best to expel or kill you. But modern society does not have such a mechanism, and as a result, different people are treated like mental torture. In fact, the world has become more cruel, and different people will eventually be crushed into characters like Bai Yu/Gu Cang, facing the sad end of life.