Reading the air | Thoughts after reading "Junji Ito's Cat Diary of Xiaosi & Xiaoliu"

Book Title: Junji Ito's Cat Diary Si & Liu Author: Junji Ito Translator: He Yirui Published by: Cutting Edge Publishing Edition: 1 Edition 5 Print Date: December 2009 Price: NT$150

Junji Ito is synonymous with horror comics. The works that impressed me most are "River Rich", "Whirlpool", and the short story "The Human Chair". In addition to the oppressive painting style of Junji Ito's horror, in the plot, the trivial daily life is deflected out of control for trivial reasons, which is also an important component in constructing its horror. This daily life is the daily life that you and I have. It seems stable, but we don’t know when it will be broken. It’s very scary.

Of course, as a cat slave, my favorite work is not horror comics, but "Junji Ito's Cat Diary" (is this a bias to some extent?). This book was reprinted in March this year, and I think it has been a long-lasting favorite.

I remember that when I read this book (please see the publication date above), I had only been living with my cat owner for two or three years. I had officially passed the running-in period and had just become a cat slave. There are many places inside that will make cat lovers smile knowingly and say, "Yes, that's right, that's it." Another place that made all the cat lovers in our room nod their heads is the demon cat from Junji Ito's house. (Original words of Junji Ito) He looks so much like my little white guy! (please refer to the cover photo)

What's scary(?) is that the personalities are a bit similar.

Xiaobai is a relatively shy cat and does not take the initiative to get close to people. For a long time, they have maintained a distant connection with each other.

Like the demon cat Xiaosi, Xiaobai will crawl silently around the house, often scaring people, especially when roommates are sitting around the living room watching ghost or horror movies. When a breathtaking scene was playing on the screen, something soft and fluffy brushed against the calf... The horror movie experience was now upgraded from 2D to 4D, and the level of horror was off the charts.

Or when I woke up in the middle of the night and was severely myopic, I saw a pair of golden eyes staring at me at the end of the bed in the dark...

Or maybe you feel difficulty breathing in the middle of the night, wake up and find that your body is numb and unable to move, and you are secretly wondering if you have been wandering around too much and finally encounter..., and then you are stepped on, and the numb place turns into a sobering one. pain.

The experience of living with cats, which is rarely recorded by any family, is presented in the cat diary by Junji Ito. We seemed to know each other, like parents sharing parenting lessons, except we were talking about cats.

The stereotypes of the aloof cat and the aloof horror cartoonist are shattered into pieces in this comic. Unexpectedly, Junji Ito is a bit nervous and timid; not surprisingly, cats are not arrogant and indifferent creatures.

At the same time, it also provides a small window, allowing me to see the way Japan raises cats from the end of the 20th century to the 21st century: it has changed from free-ranging by the ancestors (please refer to "Cat Novel Collection") to indoor breeding. There is a story about Xiaosi opening a screen window and running away. Ito Junji said: " Normally I would never let the cat go out. After all, the national highway is nearby, and it is possible to get infectious diseases from wild cats. " This is indeed a city. The reason why most cats are indoor cats is that car accidents and infectious diseases will threaten the life safety of cats. Protecting the safety and health of cat owners is the most important task of us cat lovers. In the end, of course, Xiaosi was found in a nearby factory, and then the defenses were strengthened (hidden locks were installed on the screen windows and sliding doors).

My little boy can also open the screen door.

The apartment we live in is on the 5th floor. There is a small balcony in front of it. Since it faces north and south, the balcony often gets sunlight. This also makes Xiaobai unable to resist the temptation. He opens the door and goes to the balcony to absorb the essence of the sun and the moon.

At first, Xiaobai was not very good at opening the door. Once, he hung on the screen door like a spider cat(?). When someone found him, he wanted to jump down. With a hook of his claws, he actually tore off the entire screen door. Later, I had to find someone to mend the gauze without telling the landlord. After that, Xiaobai finally learned to open the screen door and would walk up there by himself from time to time. There are iron windows on the balcony, and the panes are either big or small. Xiaobai will jump on the window sill by himself in search of a better view. However, I once stepped into the air and almost fell. Later, he was forbidden to go to the balcony to play by himself and had to be accompanied by a slave. When we go out, we jam the screen door from the outside. When sleeping at night, the inner glass door will be locked.

Cats are masters at opening doors. All the doors that appear in the home, including screen doors, room doors, cupboard doors, drawer doors, and refrigerator doors, all have the blood and tears of cat slaves, as well as various subsequent defense methods.

There is also the door to the human heart, which is always opened easily by cats. We have no way of defense, neither can we prevent cats from entering, nor can we prevent cats from leaving.

As Junji Ito said in his book: " The demon cat is here! The demon cat has come to my house with a curse! "

These cats have magical powers that make us happy to be slaves.

postscript:

In order to share this book, I dug it out of the bookcase and re-read it. It turned out that the "real leather" of the book (to use Jiang Ge's expression ) actually contained two four-frame comics, which was a great surprise. Although most people buy e-books these days, the fun of traditional books cannot be fully presented by e-books.

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