Life Ceremony, today’s absurdity and staying sane

I am reading Sayaka Murata‘s collection of stories, Life Ceremony. The stories describe futuristic societies you can’t imagine could ever become reality. Furniture and clothing are made from the remains of deceased people. Artificial insemination is the norm. Raising children is paid out to specialized organizations. A girl keeps a man as a pet. After a death, the deceased is ceremoniously prepared and served to the bereaved, who proceed to insemination after the meal to fulfill life’s circle.

All this seems ridiculous. Like a democratic society as seemingly impossible as one in which a president has the power to acquit convicted criminals. In which billionaires conspire to ensure they get richer and can draw even more power to themselves. In which a self-proclaimed genius running a car company has no qualms about making a Hitler salute. A Brett Easton Ellis novel turned into reality.

Staying informed is important, but the constant barrage of horrific news from a government populated by narcissists can be overwhelming. Sometimes, it’s necessary to take a step back for the sake of our mental well-being.

Let’s instead focus on the beautiful things people make. Like books by Sayaka Murata’s.

In Color In Japan by Shin Noguchi

This is the new edition of Shin Noguchi’s book In Color In Japan, which appeared first in 2020. I saw this first edition from my friend Bouwe just after I had received my copy of the new edition. I did not compare the selection of the pictures with those in the new edition. The print quality of the pictures in the new book, however, was obviously so much better than the print quality of the pictures in the first edition that I would safely state it is well worth buying the new edition even if you already have the old one.

Shin Noguchi is broadly known under the category of street photographer, and he is a member of the street photography collective Up.

Avoiding the definition-question of street photography and its slur of religious and esthetical fundamentalist discussions, I would say that Noguchi’s style and subject matter are much more in the realms of Luigi Ghirri and William Eggleston, with the humoristic twist of Martin Parr. Noguchi combines this with personal documentation of his family life, which is intimate and loving. In general, when Noguchi captures people, he does this with a lightness and compassionate feel. He never gets negative or vicious in his depictions.

You find strange objects in Noguchi’s images: a tram behind a fence, a car stuck on a staircase in a park, large balls in a garage box, one white, one red, a dog dressed up as a lion in the street of Tokyo. What is going on in Nogochi’s world?

Noguchi observes the world around him and finds its oddities. He views his Japanese environment like a stranger. He could be a tourist in his own country. With a minimalistic approach, he captures a KFC shop front and a fluorescent light bar in a red room (a clear reference to Eggleston) with the same curiosity as typical Japanese situations like people dressed in manga suits in the streets of Tokyo and ladies in kimonos. He finds pictures in a torn curtain, a spot of light in an empty sports hall, and a picture of a billboard in front of Mount Fuji, displaying Mount Fuji itself.

Noguchi is not your typical street photo hunter. He is a craftsman who creates remarkable pictures from the unremarkable, with great precision and skill.


Turtles All The Way Down – John Green

Turtles All The Way Down - John Green

On the plane from Miami to home, I watched the movie adaptation of this book. I probably watched half of it because of the self-prescribed high-melatonin-dose-induced half-sleep.
Regardless, I dare safely state that the book is much more enjoyable.

Aza, a girl with an obsessive awareness and fear of bacteria in her body, goes through her teen life.
She falls in love with an old friend she was friends with in her early youth. His father is now a billionaire. He goes missing.
Daisy is her best friend. Aza and Daisy search for the father, and in the end, they find him, dead.

John Green is a writer who can create moving stories without falling into traps of cliches or annoying theatrical emotions.