Shimeji Simulation Book Club: Chapters 1-3
The prussianbluehedgehog group has recently finished translating chapters 1, 2, and 3 of Shimeji Simulation into Toki Pona. You can read their translation here. For those of you who can't read Toki Pona[0], there is an excellent (also fan) translation on Mangadex in English (not made by prussianbluehedgehog).
You'll notice that Tsukumizu (the author and artist) makes a large amount of literary references. Certainly enough to have a... book club! Yay! Read with us, it'll be fun!!!
Here, I'll write some brief reflections on the referenced books in the first 3 chapters, followed by thoughts about how it relates to the manga. If you read any of these books and would like to share your own feelings, please email us[1].
Chapter 1: The Old Man and the Sea
How to cope with life
This novella by Ernest Hemingway was read by Shimeji, and can be prominently seen in the second-to-last panel of the 4th page of the chapter 1. In the subsequent panel, Shimeji thinks sadly about the marlin getting eaten.
"The Old Man and the Sea" is fundamentally about the universal human experience of giving it your all and being in a worse position than before; of getting beaten down for no good reason at all. The titular old man, Santiago, hasn't caught any fish in a long time. This is bad, because he is a fisherman. He goes far out to sea, and snares a ridiculously large marlin on his hook. He fights it for several days and nights. When he finally reels it in, some blood in the water alerts swarms of sharks, which despite the best efforts of the old man (he kills several), bite off all the flesh. When he returns to shore with the skeleton, tourists don't even know what creature the skeleton is from.
On the book itself, is it good? The prose is simple, and maybe a little tiresome to read. But somehow, Hemingway uses this to make you feel exactly what the old man is feeling. I felt the pain the old man felt when the line cut into his hands, or his hands cramped. I felt his fatigue every night, and his despair when the sharks ate his catch. It became my favourite book the second I finished it[2]. It still is. So yeah, it is good, Very Good.
The book and Shimeji Simulation share many thematic similarities. Both explore how we should respond to adverse situations. Hemingway, through his book, clearly has an opinion: "A man can be destroyed but not defeated", or in other words, don't give up! Your efforts justify itself, regardless of the results. You cannot be miserable if you refuse to consent to be miserable. A semi-stoic philosophy. Shimeji Simulation, on the other hand, (imo) is more open ended, and explores many responses, including nihilism (most obvious in Mogawa) and the milder apathy (Shimeji), though both are ultimately rejected by the characters. Both brilliantly stir an emotional reaction, and both convey the feeling that we are not alone in feeling the way we do.
Both (but especially Shimeji Simulation, with the hole digging machine and Shimeji's older sister's inventions) are now especially important to read and reflect on, with the rise of "AI" and the general trend of ownership turning into rentership. With these worries already posing an existential threat to human livelihoods, creativity, and meaning, how do we manage?
That is obviously a complicated question, and one for another time[3]. I personally found both the old man's grit, and Shimeji's indifference to death admirable.
Chapter 2: The Catcher in the Rye
Cynicism vs. Apathy
"The Catcher in the Rye", by J.D. Salinger, can be seen very faintly as a book Shimeji is reading in the last panel of chapter 2.
This book is alright. It seemed to me like the protagonist, Holden, an angsty American teenage boy, was supposed to be at least somewhat sympathetic, but I did not think so. I found him and his narration mildly annoying. To the book's credit, it covers themes that for whatever reason, don't seem to be present in other similar coming-of-age genre books, such as alienation, uncertainty, and confusion. I guess since the book is written from the perspective of Holden, the annoying style shows his emotions and frame of mind well.
On the surface, Holden and Shimeji seem similar. Both previously suffered some kind of unpleasant event (the death of Holden's brother, the incident that made Shimeji dislike school, mentioned but unelaborated upon in chapter 1). Both are youths that are isolated from other people, and are unsure of their place in the world.
They are fundamentally different, however. Holden's misanthropy is a reaction to his attempts at connection with others failing. He is angry about others not acting the way he expects him to, and believes that they are in the wrong, that adults are all "phonies". After failing to find what he wants (meaning, sex, or friends), Holden believes the solution is just to run away and minimally interact with others. He prefers the innocence of childhood (his younger sister is the one who ultimately convinces him not to run away), and behaves in a childlike manner[4]. He is both cynical and naive.
Shimeji's misanthropy is not misanthropy at all. Shimeji doesn't hate anyone, she just does not believe that interacting with others has any real value. She is apathetic to most things, but is not a nihilist, not cynical, and not naive. After all, she did presumably study for the senior high school exams, and she does go to school. I initially interpreted Shimeji going to school and going along with Majime's antics as a deep but hidden desire to connect with others (ie, apathy is not her "true" nature), but I now think otherwise. Shimeji strikes me as a person who thinks life is a bit of a chore. She wants to take the path of least resistance, and have everything pass by quicker. So, she indulges Majime, and because of the norms of modern society, goes to school. Of course, her character eventually changes, and she finds value in her friends and Majime. Holden does change a little by the end, but whether the change is significant is questionable.
Chapter 3: Alice in Wonderland
Acknowledging changing circumstances
This short children's book, by Lewis Carroll, is a little different from the other two. On the last page of chapter 3, Shimeji compares Majime leading her to join the bizarre hole digging club to the White Rabbit leading her down the rabbit hole to a bizarre world.
It is a children's book, it did popularise surreal fiction, and it does have immense cultural influence, so I won't be overly harsh. It wasn't a bad read by any means, but I was glad it was only twelve chapters. The poems did start to grow on me by the end though, and some parts were amusing[5].
I took most of it at face value, though clearly the author put in some critiques (for example, the Duchess' obsession with everything neededing to have a moral, is probably a jab at childrens' education at the time).
What stood out to me most was Alice's reactions to the strange situations she found herself in. While she wasn't a stoic[6] (she cries a small lake of tears), she seems to adjust surprisingly well. As children, the world defies our idea of how it ought to be, or how we are told it is; so maybe this is not much different for her. When reading Shimeji Simulation, I noticed the characters seemed similarly nonchalant and adaptive, at least relative to their situation of the fabric of reality changing completely. Shimeji may have been apathetic from the start, and never had that firm an attachment to the previous reality, but the nonchalantness is true for everyone. The world of Shimeji Simulation seems to be one much more laid-back and less stubborn than ours.
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[0]: Why not? How unusual. wasona is a great way to learn
[1]: xrussianfanclub [at] xrotonmail [dot] com, xrussia [at] xrussia [dot] dev, except change all x's to p's
[2]: Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" must too, be recommended
[3]: Hemingway ended up killing himself after suffering from injuries and sickness. I fear this may be insensitive, but I wonder if he would have considered this contrary to the values expressed in "The Old Man and the Sea". I don't know, but I don't fault him for doing what he did
[4]: There are many instances, but the title of the book being Holden's mishearing of a poem proves to me Holden's childlike nature
[5]: I normally like puns and wordplay (Shimeji Simulation has tons!), but I only found one or two funny...
[6]: In the colloquial sense