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A review by stephkallas_
The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa
5.0
This is not a feel-good book. It doesn't progress how you want, nor end how you want.
But I can't get it out of my head.
*Spoilers*
My main takeaways:
1. Discomfort is replaced by ignorance. The most obvious example I can think of was when the legs disappeared for the first time. The people were uncomfortable, they knew more was coming. Yet somehow as more body parts disappeared, that discomfort too.
- But I think this is how it is in our world. I feel utterly uncomfortable with the state of things in Gaza and Sudan, yet in the spirit of preserving my sanity I consciously choose to skip videos of the suffering children, I consciously choose not to read about it, and I consciously choose to look away. I do this because, "I have no control of the outcome. I can't make a difference."
But I think that's what Ogawa opposes. To say these things is simply a cop out. Like the typist who had the choice to knock back and escape, she was paralysed in fear and inability. We are members of this society, and have merged with the "dark room" in which we no longer feel the ability to escape.
2. If the world continues as we have been, we accept the loss of our voice, our limbs, our autonomy - and we disappear. Allowing the continual violations, means that eventually our world will become unrecognisable.
I know this is a book that requires more than one read. So many of the ideas have undoubtedly gone over my head. More than the writing itself, I think this book is so fundamentally brilliant because through simple narrative it parallels the unseen issues within our society.
But I can't get it out of my head.
*Spoilers*
My main takeaways:
1. Discomfort is replaced by ignorance. The most obvious example I can think of was when the legs disappeared for the first time. The people were uncomfortable, they knew more was coming. Yet somehow as more body parts disappeared, that discomfort too.
- But I think this is how it is in our world. I feel utterly uncomfortable with the state of things in Gaza and Sudan, yet in the spirit of preserving my sanity I consciously choose to skip videos of the suffering children, I consciously choose not to read about it, and I consciously choose to look away. I do this because, "I have no control of the outcome. I can't make a difference."
But I think that's what Ogawa opposes. To say these things is simply a cop out. Like the typist who had the choice to knock back and escape, she was paralysed in fear and inability. We are members of this society, and have merged with the "dark room" in which we no longer feel the ability to escape.
2. If the world continues as we have been, we accept the loss of our voice, our limbs, our autonomy - and we disappear. Allowing the continual violations, means that eventually our world will become unrecognisable.
I know this is a book that requires more than one read. So many of the ideas have undoubtedly gone over my head. More than the writing itself, I think this book is so fundamentally brilliant because through simple narrative it parallels the unseen issues within our society.