Just when I thought The House of the Sleeping Beauties was disturbing enough, Earthlings came and bestowed us with pedophilia, murder, rape, and cannibalism. The story was written through the point of view of Natsuki, a young girl turned woman who believed herself to be an extraterrestrial being hailing from planet Popinpobopia. Throughout her childhood, she is accompanied by her magical-teacher-plushie Piyyut who bestows her with questionable guidance and magical powers. The plot was all chūnibyō until it was revealed that Natsuki was dealing with sexual harrasment from Igasaki, an attractive university student who taught part-time as a cram school teacher. The helpless Natsuki initially sought help from her mother, but what she received wasn’t help, it was denial. Her coping method was unique, she married her cousin Yuu and swore to each other that they’d “survive, whatever it takes” (p. 15). The two kids were caught having a consensual sex during Obon and was separated from each other. Rather than explaining why their actions were dangerous both physically and mentally, the adults shunned them as it was deemed bad by society. It’s never about oneself, it’s about fulfilling the society’s standards. The factory’s standards. Perhaps the constant pressure to be a cog numbs her emotions as she seems awfully indifferent, an “anthropological distance the narrator maintains from her subjects'' (Millet, 2020).
Few years passed and the adult Natsuki is now married to Tomoya. Interestingly, the marriage was contractual as it was for the sake of escaping the constant nagging from their families. I can personally relate to this as the dreadful question of when will you get married keeps haunting me every time I go back home for Christmas. We all approach life differently and I don’t see why one must be chained down by particular ideals simply because society deemed it as the right thing to do. Having babies is crazy expensive nowadays anyway.
References:
Murata, S. (2020). Earthlings: A Novel (G. Takemori, Trans.). Grove Press.
Millet, L. (2020, October 6). To Sayaka Murata, Nonconformity Is a Slippery Slope. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/books/review/sayaka-murata-earthlings.html
Murata, S. (2020). Earthlings: A Novel (G. Takemori, Trans.). Grove Press.
Millet, L. (2020, October 6). To Sayaka Murata, Nonconformity Is a Slippery Slope. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/books/review/sayaka-murata-earthlings.html
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