Ito Keikaku "Slaughterhouse Organ" Synopsis and Impressions - My most favorite science fiction novel that I highly recommend!
Introduced here is "Slaughterhouse Organ" by Keisuke Ito, published by Hayakawa Shobo in 2007.
... I am now in awe that the day has finally come when I can introduce this work on this blog.
This is the novel I would say is my most beloved work in the last few years.
The title is "The Slaughterhouse Organ," a phrase that would not be familiar to a monk's blog, and I have not had much of a chance to introduce this work until now, but with the current trend of German-Soviet war, Cold War, and dystopian novels, I thought it would be a good time to introduce it. I am now finally going to introduce it to you.
Let's take a look at the book.
After 9/11, the "war on terror" reached a turning point. While the developed world has moved to a system of total control and eliminated terrorism, civil wars and massacres are on the rise in the less developed countries. U.S. Army Captain Clavis Shepard heads to the Czech Republic in pursuit of John Paul, the mysterious man who has always existed behind the chaos. ...... What is his purpose? What is the "organ of slaughter" that causes genocide? The best fiction of the ZERO'S era, depicting the crimes and punishments of our time.
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I first encountered this film through a commercial for it that happened to be playing on TV.
I think it was probably a shorter version of this commercial, but I remember thinking that there was something about it that stayed with me, and I thought, "Hmmm, there is a movie like this.
However, I never saw the film, and at some point I forgot about it and more than half a year passed.
And then, as I was strolling through the bookstore as usual, a book suddenly caught my eye.
That was "Slaughterhouse".
At that moment, I suddenly became interested in the book, "Oh, that movie had an original story...!" I suddenly became interested in the book.
This must be read now."
I immediately bought the book and hurried home. I did not immediately start reading it.
...Let's be honest.
For some reason I had simply put this book down without reading it. It is true that I had other pressing books I needed to read, but for some reason I never got around to them, even though I had come this far.
Strangely enough, from here on another few days passed and it was not until the fall of 2017 that I finally got around to reading it.
And when I finally started reading it, I was immediately gripped from the get-go.
'I don't know what it is. But there's something different about what this guy said...!"
I was quickly hooked and from there it was all rage.
And most surprising of all.. the issues discussed in this novel."is "That's what I was thinking at the time."The result was that there was a surprising overlap between the two.
I am sure my readers have no idea what on earth I am talking about.
To put it bluntly, exactly what I had studied and what I was interested in pursuing at the time was depicted there. For example,
From where and to what extent am I the unique consciousness that is 'I'?"
Where is Hell?"
"Human consciousness is also defined by the matter of the body, and by analyzing and stimulating the brain, we can create specific thoughts and states of being."
Humans and animals are not inherently separate entities."
The Invisible and Powerful Forces that Move Us. The connection between religion and myth."
Terrorism, war, technology, neoliberal economics, globalism, private military companies, environmental destruction, poverty."
And there are too many others to mention.
What surprised me most of all was the existence of the countries in which the novel takes place.
At that time I had already begun planning my 2019 round-the-world trip. I envisioned the trip as the culmination of my exploration of "what religion is" and "what human beings are" that I had been studying since I was a student.
The route will ultimately be Tanzania, Turkey, Israel, Poland, Czech Republic (Prague), Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo), Croatia, Italy and Vatican, Spain, USA (New York and Washington), and Cuba.
If you have read "Slaughterhouse Organ," you will know what I mean.
That's right. The countries I visited and the setting of "Slaughterhouse" coincided beautifully. This film also features the United States, Prague, Sarajevo, and Tanzania as major stages. Mumbai, India also plays a very important role in the film, and I also visited there, though only in transit.
I was shocked by the surprising overlap between my themes and interests and those of Keisuke Ito's work. I was shocked by the fact that even the country the main character visited was the same country as mine. I wondered, "How is this possible? I thought.
And interestingly, at the stage when I first saw the Slaughterhouse Commercial and bought the book, I was still not thinking about the trip.
I am starting to read this book after I have thought about and planned my trip.
It is entirely coincidental that I did not read this book and left it at that. But the horror of this coincidence gave me goosebumps.
Am I going on this journey to go? Does this work encourage me?
I became incredibly engrossed in this piece and read it over and over again. No matter how many times I read it, I never get tired of it. I love it more and more each time I read it.
I decided to make this book my companion for my trip around the world.
I planned to travel with only carry-on luggage, so my luggage had to be as small as possible. Even taking just one book with me would be fatal.
But I really wanted to take this book with me! I managed to get it into my carry-on bag with a sense of "this is the one book I would take with me to a desert island.
That is how much this book means to me.
...but then why did I fall in love with this book so much?
As I mentioned earlier, of course I resonated with the themes and ideas discussed in the novel.
But what was even more significant, I think, was Keisuke Ito's unique storytelling style.
The commentary at the end of the book on the narrative had the following to say about it. It is a bit long, but it is important to understand the characteristics of this novel, so I will read it carefully.
The story takes place in the near future (probably around 2000), when Sarajevo was destroyed by a Moslem fundamentalist's homemade nuclear bomb and the "war on terror" entered a new stage. The developed countries seem to have gained security in exchange for freedom by thoroughly monitoring their citizens, but on the other hand, civil wars and ethnic conflicts begin to occur frequently in the developing countries.
The first-person protagonist, "me," Kravis Shepard, is a captain in the U.S. Intelligence Corps' Special Search Group i Detachment, which specializes in assassinations. Through psychological manipulation and high-tech equipment, he becomes an excellent killing machine, infiltrating conflict zones to carry out his missions. A new target emerges: John Paul, a mysterious American who is always visible behind the unexplainable massacres that occur in various regions. In pursuit of his shadow, "I" go to the scene of the tragic massacres. ...... (Omitted).
The framework of the novel is an international military conspiracy suspense. From the opening battle scene, in which a mountain of corpses is piled up, the novel grabs the reader with its intense detail. (When I first read the novel, I was strongly reminded of Lucius Shepard's "Wartime Life," which depicted war in the near future using magical realism, which the author had not read at the time he wrote "Slaughterhouse"). ) The unaffected narration by the emotionally stunted "Me" is impressive. This style of writing, which is not suitable for war action, seems to have been the author's intention from the beginning. In an e-mail interview with the online science fiction magazine "Anima Solaris" (http://www.sf-fantasy.com/magazine/interview/071101.shtml), the author said
From the very beginning, I had decided to depict war in the first person, and that the main character is not mature because of technology that makes maturity impossible. The concept was to portray the war in the naive first person, where maturity is blocked by a certain kind of technology, even in the midst of the overwhelming reality of the battlefield, a reality that is almost impossible to describe. (Omitted).
Aki Sato, who has been a regular reader of Keisuke Ito's blog, wrote about "Slaughterhouse Organ" in her web diary (http://tamanoir.air-nifty.com/jours/2007/07/In the following paragraphs, the author comments as follows.
...... I was struck by the delicacy of the book when I first read it. Of course, the subject matter is as amazing as the title and the cover, but in spite of that, it is so delicate that it is almost impossible to find in other books. It is the opposite of most of the other works that try to be delicate, but in fact are very crude and crude. It is a delicacy toward the reality behind the subject matter. （Slaughterhouse" is not a mere near-future science fiction, nor does it end with a novel about NV military action, but a novel that picks up, looks into, and talks about the most serious matters of the here and now - a novel that talks about what is happening in the world where you and I live right now.
Hayakawa Shobo, Keisuke Ito, "Slaughterhouse [new edition]" p412-415
As mentioned here, the subtlety and naivete of the words spoken through the main character Shepard. This is the flavor of Keisuke Ito.
Keisuke Ito dares to introduce a sensitive and naïve narrative that is not military-like in the heavy worldview of this novel. It was a perfect fit. I was struck by this narration.
This narrative is a novelized novel by Keisuke ItoMetal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the PatriotsBut it is alive and well.
This is a novel written in the form of a narrative by Snake's sidekick Otakon, and the unique first-person narration that was so brilliant in "Slaughterhouse Organ" shines through there as well.
Keisuke Ito's sensitive storytelling is unique.
If you liked Keisuke Ito's narrative in this work, his gem of a short story collection, "The Indifference Engine," is also highly recommended. It contains a variety of masterpiece short stories that are directly related to the Metal Gear series and "Slaughterhouse". It is also extremely interesting. It is a must-read for "Slaughterhouse" fans. I highly recommend it.
If I were to list my favorite parts of Keisuke Ito's "Slaughterhouse Organ" one by one, it would be a very long dissertation. If I were to list my favorite parts one by one, it would be a long dissertation. I have read it more than 10 times and I never get tired of it. It is my favorite work.
I would highly recommend this work.
The above is a synopsis and my impression of Keisuke Ito's "Slaughterhouse Organ" - my most favorite science fiction novel that I highly recommend! I highly recommend it!
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