Kobo Abe - Woman in the Dunes, The - 8

[PolarisDiB]

Woman in the Dunes, The

I saw Teshigahara's adaptation of this recently at Ye Locale Independent Cinema, and absolutely loved it. Curiosity brought me to my roommate's copy of the book, and here we go.

This book reminded me a lot of No Exit, in that it's a very good story that is also a philosophical struggle within an enclosed space, forced into a relationship with an arbitrary person. Kobo Abe's desire, though, is to detail post-occupation Japan as a place that has lost its roots and is struggling constantly against sand. The research in it is pretty good too, as the theme and symbolism of sand is backed up by true geographical properties of sand. The word sand appears in this book often and is rarely replaced by "it". I think this book may use the word sand more often than any other book of fiction.

There's one thing I don't really get about it. The man, Jumpei, waxes very philosophical about everything. So it's only natural that he waxes philosophical over sex as well. But I don't understand in the least what this book is actually saying about sex. In this book, sex transcends act, relationship, and intimacy and becomes this complicated thing beyond the initial power play it represents. I almost want to complain about overthinking sex, but I might just not have understood what it was intending to say. Perhaps anyone else who has read this book can enlighten me.

--PolarisDiB


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[Darb]

sex ... becomes this complicated thing beyond the initial power play it represents

The author portrays sex as a power play ?

[Redstar]

sex ... becomes this complicated thing beyond the initial power play it represents

The author portrays sex as a power play ?

Isn't that what sex always is?

[Darb]

Not if you're truly in love, no.

[Redstar]

Not if you're truly in love, no.

Even then it's a power play.

(I should probably mention I'm being facetious on both counts)

[Darb]

I've had a lot of hardships in my life, but one of the few gems I've been blessed with have been numerous moments of true love.

[Redstar]

It is one of the driving forces behind actually staying alive, and I'm glad you've experiences it. I've been in love before, for my short life, but I appreciate it for what it was.

[PolarisDiB]

The author portrays sex as a power play ?

Spoiler: show

Though sexually attracted to the woman, and the woman likewise attracted to the man, the man cannot initially allow himself to have sex with her or admit defeat and entrapment at the hands of the society. Later, after they have in fact consummated their attraction, the leaders tell the man that he can walk about freely if he has sex with the woman in front of them. Though the woman is usually demure and passive about all of his sexual advances, at this point the woman refuses and resists.

I read these moments as sexual power plays. Plus there are moments when Abe describes sex as

Spoiler: show

buying and selling, as when he compares a condom to packaging

and

Spoiler: show

two people having sex as watching themselves have sex with the other rather than truly consummating a love for each other.

What I'm unclear on is exactly what Abe is saying about sex. He seems to find it very fascinating but I can't tell if what he's saying is in criticism or even if he is actually expressing sexist sentiments. I do not think that the character of the woman is that well expressed, but that could also be understood because the man is so introverted and philosophical that we never really do get a good look at the woman's character (the issue of the untrusty narrator rears its ugly head once again). In the movie, these relationships were more clear because there was some distance between the man's personality and what the audience sees. In the book, this is not so. It's two very different approaches towards the same relationship, and I am not sure the movie serves as an objective interpretation. I believe that some of Woman of the Dunes is up to interpretation, I just don't know what I really get from it. I much rather prefer the long ongoing text that analyzes and re-analyzes the symbolism of the sand.

--PolarisDiB