Monday 25 March 2013

The Book of Human Insects

Osamu Tezuka, 1970-71 [Mari Morimoto, 2011]
(March 2013)



I am by no means a manga or anime fan. They’re as valid art forms as any other, I suppose, but my experience of them is incredibly limited. I’ll occasionally joke that Neon Genesis Evangelion is the reason I first came to Japan, but that’s a story for another time. And a lie.

It is though the only series I have anything more than the most cursory understanding of, but I’ve lived in Japan for a good few years and it’s virtually impossible not to absorb some of the tropes and aesthetics of manga and anime simply through the slow, homogenizing pressure of cultural osmosis. So you’ll know this guy, and you’ll know his work, even if you don’t know you know him. Osamu Tezuka created Astroboy, and his now archetypal style – big eyes, long limbs, childlike faces, and absurd mouth-gaping expressions of surprise – is on full display here.

It’s incredibly jarring. For me, at least. I’m clearly fine with comics that tackle the less fluffy side of human nature, but this is a hugely cynical and bleak piece of work decked out like a Saturday morning kids’ cartoon. Imagine a never before seen story by Hergé was discovered that revolved around Tintin developing a crack addiction and his subsequent spiral of depredation and humiliation, leading to an inevitable nadir where he’s forced to turn tricks for drug money and pimped out by Captain Haddock. Or a lost Goscinny and Uderzo draft where Getafix just gives up on the whole ‘magic potion’ lark and starts a meth lab. Requiem for a Dream starring Calvin and Hobbes.

The antiheroine of Human Insects is Toshiko Tomura and is she ever a nasty piece of work. Seducing men all over the shop before stealing their ideas, passing them off as her own and either killing their originators or driving them to suicide.

Now, it’s sometimes suggested, not least by me, that in terms of gender politics Japan is about two to three decades behind ‘The West’. It’s not an entirely watertight concept, but it’s still pretty robust. If you bear in mind that this was originally published in Japan in 1970, and then factor in that time-lag, you’ll have a pretty good idea about how this particular female protagonist is portrayed. This book is very much of its time and place.

Aesthetically that means you get late 60’s fashions depicted by manga’s ur-stylist, which makes this perhaps the kitschiest thing I’ve ever owned. It’s very cool indeed, if you can ignore the Rule 34 vibes of certain sections (you can’t though, you really can’t). Ethically, however, it’s so very, very far from even being within sniffing distance of cool. The blurb describes it as ‘a prescient critique whose actuality registers only today.’ I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean exactly, or even at all, but unless today’s actuality consists solely of conscienceless women out to deceive weak and venal men through calculated deployment of their evil, thieving vaginas then I’m not sure it’s a claim that holds much water.

In truth, it’s actually quite an interesting angle for a story; noir from the femme fatale’s point of view. The trouble being that the femme fatale is normally nothing more than a cipher who exists solely as a device to motivate the protagonist and impel the plot. If you shift that character front and centre then you’re actually going to have to give her a, well… a character. Or at least one more nuanced than ‘bitch’.


11 comments:

  1. Time to generalize. Japanese literature, manga and movies all have characters without depth, and protagonists often venal. Don't know if it is a literary problem, or a cultural problem as I suspect. Don't care enough to read any more of it, though.

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    1. Japanese things aside, could you give me a good example of a character who isn't and is lacking depth? Hopefully something I have read before. What consists of depth? I am not trying to be a annoying shit either.

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    2. You two gentlemen seem to have a more extensive grounding in the Japanese 'classics' than I do, so I'll leave you to thrash it out between yourselves.

      Almost. It's quite tempting to agree with Ant's generalization and ascribe it to the form over function issues with Japanese society. But as I said, I don't have a large enough sample size to really say either way; those I have read have seemed neither more nor less so than literature from other countries. Maybe that's just a selection bias in publishers producing translations of works they think will sell though, I don't know.

      I'd be interested in your answer to momtaro's question too, so I'll keep the urge to play along with that in check for now ;)

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    3. Kamo, I have never really been able to critique things like that, I just read a book and either like it or don't based on the story, how it makes me feel and getting a feeling of association with the characters. I like dark and serious shit because it makes me feel better about having a dark and serious side myself. I wanted Ant to give me some examples of depth in books outside of Japan too.

      I am hardly versed in the classics, I have read three novels and am onto my fourth. I don't really know what I am talking about with any book and usually forget most of it a little while after reading it.

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    4. There's no one right way to enjoy books (or anything else, for that matter). Whatever works for the individual is fine. Liking the stories and characters is a pretty good place to start. In fact quite a good chunk of the canon would be considerably improved by if the authors had remembered that simple fact.

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  2. 6 years of listening to bizarre workplace sexual harassment stories from Japanese women among other things leads me to believe it's about 25 years...the gap I mean. I know what causes a lawsuit in Hawaii and it doesn't activate here...and as much as I dislike bullshit lawsuits we come up with in America...Japanese women could use some litigating if it instigates change for no other reason than for a money saving venture....respect as a venture....whatever....by any means necessary!

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    1. Money saving venture indeed. Money making in fact. It's not just the harassment, but the Japanese working environment on the whole is so female unfriendly. Half the workforce is written off in a country that desperately, desperately needs more workers of any stripe to maintain it's standard of living. 25 years seems about right.

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  3. Another fine, progressive tract from Vertical Press I see! They are like Haikasoru's creepy uncle, the one with a comb-over and three divorces under his belt. (Maybe I am being a bit harsh?)

    I have to confess my own general ignorance of anime, except that I have long harbored suspicions about Evangelion, ever since I dated a girl who rated it just ahead of The Bible on her most influential works list.

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    1. In fairness, Evangelion does draw on Christian mythology (Lilith, the Apocrapha, etc) to a surprising degree. I suspect that's not what she meant though.

      I think this is the only Vertical Press title I've read, but there were a couple of others on the shelf and this definitely looked like the least bad of the bunch, which I suppose tells you something.

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    2. This is the same girl who wanted to decorate her wedding with pictures of famous anime couples and wasn't going to let the groom shut her down. Needless to say, that relationship didn't last very long.

      Parasite Eve is Vertical, as is the Guin Saga. Seems like there's more, but I'd have to actually check their webpage to find out.

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    3. Lucky escape for the prospective groom, it would seem. Better to find out before the wedding than after, eh?

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