DUDES KOBO ABE IS CRAAAAZAAAY
Kangaroo Notebook!

I think Wynand suggested this book...I think. If he did I failed to realize how awesome this book might be.

From the wiki page (which is, let's face it, where all the world's information comes from now a days) an office worker discovers a patch of radishes (one of my favorite foods. I have so few favorite foods) growing on his leg. OH NOES! He rushes to the hospital only to be directed to HELL VALLEY. There he encounters an assortment of fucked up shit like vampire nurses.

I have got to read this book pronto! Right now! This very instant! Well, after I order it and finish A Farewell To Arms.

Anyone read Kangaroo Notebook? Is it as great as it sounds?

OH! Box Man!

This is the record of a box man.
I am beginning this account in a box. A cardboard box that reaches just to my hips when I put it over my head.
That is to say, at this juncture the box man is me. A box man, in his box, is recording the chronicle of a box man.
-- Kobo Abé, The Box Man

About a homeless guy that lives in a box, not only sleeps but actually lives, moves around in his box. Kojima, Metal Gear Solid dude has cited Kangaroo Notebook as inspiration (I know this from the Wikipedia page) but I bet he got the idea of those damned cardboard boxes to hide in from Box Man.

I need to read Box Man too.

Kobo Abe started out his literary career all serious but developed this great absurdest attitude about everything. Fish children, radish legs, men who live in boxes, giant toilets...yeah, man was crazy. Crazy awesome.




Seriously, Kobo Abe is fascinating. His style tends to be stiffer (snort chuckle) than I really care for; it's the story itself and not the style that really draws me to his works. Most of his protagonist tends to be 'the Scientist', (seems to be at least from the other synopsis I've read. So far, I've only read two Kobo Abe books) The scientist character prepares the reader for the detached narrative of the book. Kobo Abe wasn't concerned with literary style (unfortunate because I adore literary style) instead he was concerned with ideas and getting his point across. (the same could probably be said of Ayn Rand but I doubt I'll ever read anything else of hers because of it)  Dr. Katsumi was in over his head but it was the scientist in him that had him moving forward in the quest for answers, well that and his fish baby. It seems that all Kobo Abe wants to do is to discover the underlying reason of why humanity acts as it does. The story that encompasses this quest grows more and more absurd with each book. Woman in the Dunes wasn't all that far fetched but Inter Ice Age 4 was. Kangaroo Notebook sounds absolutely ridiculous and Box Man astoundingly absurd. The meaning of each book, I'm sure, will be explored and expounded even if one man has radishes growing on his legs.

I suppose to be a good existentialist writer you gotta work in the absurd, but I won't elaborate on that since I haven't really given much thought to philosophy since high school.