Superlative collection of salarymen's struggle and author's originality (5/5)
I
first read Tsutsui's work in Kurodahan's anthology Speculative
Japan (2007) with his short
story “Standing Woman” (1974/1981). Each time I read the story, a
new layer of relevance or context is added; the work is interesting,
unique, penetrating, and thoughtful. While researching Tsutsui's
work, I came upon a collection of his—Salmonella Men on
Planet Porno (2006)—that was
entirely translated by the talented Andrew Driver. Nearly all the
stories uphold the same four adjectives, making is a superlative
piece of collected fiction, some of which is also science fiction.
The
most insightful of the stories (i.e., “Rumours About Me”, “The
Very Edge of Happiness”, “Commuter Army”, and “Bad for the
Heart”) are specifically about the life and trouble of salarymen.
These capture of the essence of the modern urban life of the common
working man, the man who earns a decent living in an otherwise
indecent world—that of the corporate world, the slow grindstone of
morale driven by the gears of money and so-called progress. I love
these stories and “The Very Edge of Happiness” has vaulted itself
onto the top ten stories
(non-novel) of all-time:
This review (about 5,500 word in total [you've been warned]) of the collection Salmonella Men on
Planet Porno includes
the following stories:
------------
The
Dabba Dabba Tree (1973/20006, short story) – 4/5
Synopsis:
A husband and wife find themselves frustrated by an awkward inactive
sex life until one their father’s gifts them with the Dabba Dabba
Tree. Set near the bed, when asleep, each live a vivid dream where
they experience sexual freedom; they imbibe in their lust knowing
it’s only a dream. The dream state is a dangerous haven for others
as they are mere figments, but soon their neighbor claims his own
tree and covets the man’s wife.
Analysis:
No one has ever said that consistency is the spice of life, nor have
they said that familiarity breeds excitement. Likewise, the husband
and wife in “The Dabba Dabba Tree” have found themselves stuck in
the rut of marital gridlock. Their passions have drained and the husk
of a salaryman and a housewife remain, both of whom the light of
inquisitiveness hasn’t shined for a while.
Bound
by expectations and consequences, many of our everyday choices
reflect a rational, complacent mind meandering through familiar
routine. As humans are so-called creatures of habit, this cycle is
difficult to break but the breaks are exactly what is needed so that
we don’t become stagnant and complacent. The odd conical tree
featured in the story is given to the couple by one of their fathers,
a member of their history who wants a grandchild and understands the
schism of marital stagnation. The gift: a deviation from the norm.
As
the tree at their bedside is a deviation from the sleep time norm, so
too are their dreams a deviation from their realities. Both husband
and wife imbibe in their nighttime reveries of passions, only to wake
and realize they’re being intimate, yet they both wish to return to
their dreams—an indication that their ethereal fantasies trump
their shared reality.
------
Rumours
About Me (1972/2006, short story) – 4/5
Synopsis:
As a common office worker in Shinjuku, Tsutomu Morishita is shocked
to learn that his daily routine and insignificant transgressions have
become major news on TV, on the radio, and in print. Every details of
his life, aside from this vented frustration at the media, is somehow
published for all to see, especially his attempts at dating the
office girl named Akiko. As a nobody
who has unwillingly become a somebody,
Tsutomu must stop this.
Pre-analysis:
Though the short story is more than thirty-five years old, it has
relevance to the modern times in regard to responsibility in
journalism. Chapters in textbooks have been written about this;
entire books and meta-news stories have covered this, but Tsutsui’s
story hits the sweet spot on this little-dabbled-with theme for
speculative fiction.
Analysis:
We’re all the center of our little, personal universes (unless
you’re totally in love and have someone else as the center of your
universe, then you’re really a lucky chap). Our dalliances,
milestones, and routines are the passing tickertape of what we call
our lives—we alone are the readers of that tickertape and think
others would have little interest in our undecipherable lives.
When
the live of a salaryman nobody
instantly becomes a salaryman
somebody,
his first reaction is frustration rather than exultation as he is the
unwilling specimen of the carnivorous news media. He tries to go
about his daily routine, but as soon as his actions pass through
time, the media picks up on every nuance; people change their manner
around him, yet he strives to keep his life balanced—an
over-conscious balancing. Like paparazzi, he discovers them under his
floorboards, in the closet, and in the gap of the recessed ceiling.
Every
detail of his life exposed save one, he finds it odd that the news
won’t report it when he confronts them. His frustration with the
meddling and the exposure drives him to directly confront the
editors. Hostile silence? Pinched closure? Amicable agreement? The
man ruminates the possible conclusions but one thing is certain: he
can’t live his life under the microscope of the media.
------
Don’t
Laugh (1975/2006, short story) – 3/5
Synopsis:
The gravity of Saita’s dilemma sounded serious and sincere over the
phone, so his friend rushes over to his house to console him.
Actually, Saita has invented another machine, adding one more to his
growing list of patents. But when Saita breaks the news that his
invention is a time machine, the duo break into a fit of hysterical
laughter while looking at and, later, using the same contraption.
Analysis:
This is an odd little story and the shortest story of the entire
collection. Though only seven pages long in my e-book edition (oh how
I wish I could track down a print copy!), it has sixteen lines of
“Wahahahahaha!” Their canned and projected laughter is such an
steady part of the story that the reader, too, smiles at the curious
unfolding of the story.
The
man’s initial burst of laughter, even after a warning to not laugh
while he himself was giggling, is at Saita’s news that he had
invented a time machine. Through the man’s suppressed snort, Saita
laughs first and soon fits of laughter flow through the story. While
the man inspects the machine with Saita, all the while laughing their
heads off and clenching their stomachs in pain, the machine
actually does transport
them back in time a minutes.
While
it seems linear enough, the truncated ending feels like an
uncompleted Kafka story, left open to interpretation. As they travel
those few minutes back in time, they witness themselves through the
floorboards above: Saita paces, the man walks in, a short
conversation ensues, and they burst out in amusement. They suppress
their laughter as to not to disturb their prior selves below. Will,
then, a time loop establish itself? Will they meet themselves and
proceed with further laughter?
------
Farmer
Airlines (1974/2006, short story) – 4/5
Synopsis:
Two men are on assignment for an unpopular men’s magazine doing a
story on uninhabited islands in Japan. Their story takes them to Tit
Island, home to terraced farms but without any permanent farmers.
Taken to the island by boat before, the writer and his photographer
become stranded on the island during a typhoon. They seek shelter in
a lean-to hut and discover two drunken farmers and an ominously
sounding airline service to the mainland.
Analysis:
Friction between the journalist and the photographer had already
started even before going to the uninhabited island, but when their
matters go from strained to taut, the friction between themselves
threatens to tear them apart. They are both city folk in obviously
odd circumstances: on a terraced farm of an unpopulated island,
thrashed by the winds of a typhoon without hope of rescue, and the
only help they have are from two drunken farmers—not an ideal
situation is any regard.
The
journalist is the flexible type with an adaptive personality; he
finds the country way backward but can find value in its simplicity
and function. In contrast, the photographer is the finicky type with
a resistive barrier of experience he finds the country way barbaric
and only sees the negative, the disastrous, the inexplicable
unnaturalness of their way of life.
The
journalist is the active force in their rescue; reluctantly, he
agrees to fly on the ramshackle airplane with the unqualified pilot
and remains calm even when they fuel up at a roadside gas station.
The photographer, however, is at his wits end through the entire
journey and refuses to take the last flight to salvation. For the
reports open-minded tactics at saving his own life, his efforts are
unrewarded… which is more to say than for the photographer.
------
Bear’s
Wood Main Line (1974/2006, short story) – 3/5
Synopsis:
On a personal quest for the best buckwheat noodles, one man takes a
long train ride. On that ride, a kind fellow traveler informs him of
a little known train line that could save him four hours of travel
time. The Bear’s Wood Main Line seems to be owned and operated by
the man’s clan but he’s evasive about their responsibilities to
the Line. Atop the hill, the man’s family is hosting a wake, yet
their giddy ways enliven his unparticipative state.
Analysis:
The common notion of not talking to strangers on public
transportation spans nations—it’s as true in America as it is for
Thailand as it seems to also be true for Japan. With the exception of
one notable bus journey sitting next to beautiful women (OMG, she had
the sexiest voice I’ve ever heard but she also had the longest arm
hair), conversations engaged upon a train usually meet with someone
demanding something from me (my sandals), being awkwardly invited to
the bathroom for a smoke (stale, hand-rolled Thai cigarettes), or
being talked at for hours (much of it over my head).
The
man who takes the train journey for the simple pleasure of perfect
buckwheat noodles meets his fate when he speaks to a stranger on the
train. The stranger’s advice seemed innocent enough—save a few
hours of travel time—but the man’s first fault was accepting this
advice. His second stumbling block was accepting an invitation to
join the funeral festivities at the top of the hill, in which the
family members performed a ridiculous song and dance. Everyone,
including the man, were enraptured with laughter at the sight and
sound of the dance. When everyone had their turn—each slightly
altering the vowels to the song—the man felt he had to confidence
to participate. This participation was his third fault which has
long-reaching unforeseen consequences for him, the family, and the
nation.
Therefore,
decisions made on public transportation should never include the
advice of strangers; otherwise, you may inadvertently place your
entire country in peril. Listen to your mother: “Don’t talk to
strangers.”
------
The
Very Edge of Happiness (1973/2006, short story) – 5/5
Synopsis:
A life dedicated to his work, one man’s unfortunate outcome also
sees him living with his mother, wife, and son. Usually tetchy, once
a month, circumstances get the best of him and he treats both his
wife and son abusively. His numbness is confirmed when he, and
others, witness a mother beat her child to death in a bank. This
emotional fatigue extends to a long holiday where car traffic and
foot traffic wear all tempers and souls thin.
Brief
Intermission: Along with Tsutsui’s “Commuter Army”, “Hello,
Hello, Hello!”, and “Bad for the Heart”, this is the other
short story based on the daily struggles of Japan’s symptomatic
social pit of the salaryman. I’m a sucker for the salaryman-type
stories: e.g., Ryo Hanmura’s “Cardboard Box” (1975/1980),
Hiromi Kawakami’s “Mogera Wogura” (2002/2005), Mayumura Taku’s
“I’ll Get Rid of Your Discontent” (1962/2007) from Kurodahan
Press’s Speculative Japan
(2007). But out of all them, “The Very Edge of Happiness” is the
most powerful, the most visual, and the most gruesome. One of the
very best
short stories I have ever read!
Analysis:
The inhumane pressures of work take their toll on one man. Though he
has a family, no one would call him a “family man”, as he strikes
his wife and places his baby son in a scalding bath. These instances
of abuse don’t touch his conscious as he remains coolly and cruelly
detached from any emotion. His systematic frustration, anger, and
abuse boils over into a holiday in which everyone seems to be
flocking to the same destination; slowly yet progressively, the
masses of flesh press forward toward the sea. Over the roads, cars
amass; through the trees, bodies press against each other; on the
sand, only one direction remains as the momentum of the horde presses
on; and now ankle-deep, hip-deep, and shoulder-deep in the water,
something is amiss. All of this progression results in only forward
momentum—bodies line the seabed and yet, the only way is forward.
------
Commuter
Army (1973/2006, novelette) – 4/5
Synopsis:
A Japanese man is the branch manager for an arms manufacturer that
has supplied five hundred rifles to the Galibian side of the
non-Japanese war. To entice recruits, the Balibian army has hired
part-time soldiers who can commute home after a battle…if they
don’t die first. The manager is mildly interested, but gets thrown
into the war so he can fix the rifles that his company produced,
earning him a second salary as a non-combatant.
Analysis:
The title itself is perfect in its simplicity and directness.
Q:
Which came first: the corporation or the military?
A:
The military.
Q:
When the corporation evolved, from what did it evolve?
A:
The military.
Q:
From what is corporate governance structured?
A:
The military.
In
regards to the overarching organization of the corporation,
structurally, the hierarchies are the same; motivationally, the
directives are the same: infiltrate, dominate, and destroy. When a
company cannot full the demand and/or depend upon its full-time (FT),
well-benefitted staff, it turns toward Option B: the part-time (PT),
less-benefitted staff and, as a result, the less-motivated and
less-relied-upon staff. Upon the capitalist mantra: Where there’s a
niche, there’s a need; where there’s a pitfall, there’s a
profit; where there’s a placement, there’s a peon.
You
enter the army as a private only to work your way up the ranks to
become more disciplinary and regimental, only so that your
subordinates do the same—the rule, the law, the governance. As a
novice/private grows through the ranks, they become immune to the
progressive dehumanization of the process. Where accuracy and
lethality become paramount in the military arena, demographic
specificity and growth become dominant in the corporate world; where,
in the military, human lives are an indication of enemy loss or own
loss, money, in the business world, comes as a profit or a loss. When
the two spheres of influence intermesh—the militant world and the
corporate world—circumstances become a bit dicey.
Soon,
in the regional war outside of Japanese influence, there’s a local
need for soldiers on the PT basis. As a Japanese non-combatant, the
man considered himself outside qualification for being a PT soldier.
He could have used to money but, when weighing the options, possible
death by gunshot on a battlefield doesn’t seem all that appealing.
When his company sells faulty rifles, he once again considers himself
unqualified for the job of repair because of the pride of his
hierarchical position in the company, yet someone must be sent to do
the repairs. His superiors send him off to war as a non-combatant.
Regardless
of his corporate position, he is sent to war. Regardless of his lowly
status in the war, he is sent to the trenches. Here, “the trenches”
take on a dual meaning: the frontline of the war effort and the
frontline of his corporation’s activities. Whether on the frontline
of his work or at war, his wife can still visit him to bring him
lunch.
------
Hello,
Hello, Hello! (1974/2006, short story) – 4/5
Synopsis:
Just a salaryman, one man and his wife casually save money for a home
and retirement—eventually—, but are tempted by simple luxuries.
As they discuss buying new clothes at the breakfast table, a man
enters their home uninvited and announces himself to be from the
bank’s Household Economy Consultants. Each time they face a
monetary choice, he mysteriously pops into their home denouncing
their activities and urges extreme frugalness.
Analysis:
In a time—well, ever since rampant capitalism has been around—when
we are urged to buy, buy, buy, there is rarely the voice of reasons
that tells us to save, save, save. Even if money were saved in the
bank, the interest rates in bank deposit accounts are atrociously
low; saving money is just as good as wasting it. Investment, however,
is a wise choice if a family is able to use their salaries toward a
larger purchase… as they say, you need money to make money and not
everyone has the free cash to make more cash.
So,
people just end up stuffing money away in piddling bank accounts,
saving it for a purchase of land and/or a house. Mortgages inflate
rapidly with interest and cut into salaries, so it seems that
accumulating money is the only way, but even that it uncertain when
currencies devalue or markets crash or banks fold. Regardless, you
count your pennies and spend your dollars.
In
“Hello, Hello, Hello!”, their efforts to save money are hampered
by whims of indulgence. Guilt weighs thinly until guilt manifests
itself in the form of a Household Economy Consultant. Pennies are
saved at the cost of happiness, an emotion which is also the goal of
the same saving; but true to a bank’s loyalty to customers—or
lack thereof—they see no progress in their saving as the man, who
had told them to be so thrifty, disappears. The family of two aren’t
the only ones stumped or victimizes by his disappearance.
------
The
World is Tilting (1989/2006, novelette) – 4/5
Synopsis:
The city of Marine City is floating in the sea and uses pachinko
balls as ballast, which were used in a checkerboard arrangement under
the city at the mayor’s expressed command—Fedora Last. Now, after
a typhoon, the island city tilts three degrees to the SSE—an
obvious listing for a professor and engineer. Regardless of expert
advice, the female mayor and her housewife retinue vehemently deny
any such tilt, even as it passes twenty degrees.
Pre-analysis:
“The World is Tilting” is a story that takes place entirely on a
floating city named Marine City, which floats in the Pacific Ocean.
When the very land beneath their feet begins to tilt, the heads of
government turn a blind eye toward the oncoming dilemma with humorous
and sad conclusions. On a similar note, Masaki Yamada’s novel
Aphrodite also
has a floating island city with the same name as the novel. This
novel has a more somber tone with the head of government seeing the
downward spiral of the city’s fate and takes steps to protract its
lifespan accordingly.
It’s
a popular fact that Tokyo-Yokohama has the world’s largest
metropolitan population—around 37 million people, which is 11
million more than Seoul at #2. It’s not particularly dense when
comparing it to such squalid cites as Dhaka or Jakarta; actually, the
population density of the metro area is equal to that of Barcelona or
Prague.
Analysis:
But take Tokyo proper into consideration: the perpetual
modernization, the rat race of salarymen, the twin bindings of
constraint and conformity. When the city becomes cramped, the way of
life becomes constrained, and friction builds, the only way out of
the fiery cauldron of pressure is outward… outward to the
countryside when the inevitable sprawl of metropolitan Tokyo will
eventually probe with its grimy fingers or outward bound upon the
ocean? If freedom from the strains of urban life is the aim, then the
only direction is the ocean, where a city can float on its own
buoyancy, live by its own rules, and contemplate its own navel if it
very well pleases.
Escape
from the complacent chaos of an organized city life into the budding
chaos of a fledgling semi-anarchic city life. While visions of
sugarplums and bucolic bliss may dance in the heads of the city's
disfranchised, another reality awaits them on the opposing side of
their chosen life—life elsewhere takes just as much effort and care
to maintain as the city. As a city may teeter on the brink of
disaster due to social inequality or natural disaster, strong central
governance can overcome these urban hurdles.
Now
take the “floating city” in the context of a salaryman: he's an
island unto himself and he has many inner workings, but one priority
is key: remain afloat, stay balances, don't flip. However, the nature
of the salaryman is an unbalanced one; too much work, not enough
play; too much pressure, not enough release; too much conformity, not
enough individuality. While the salaryman's waking consciousness (the
engineer and scholar) is aware of the dangerous tilting, the
sub-conscious (the finicky mayor, Fedora Last) ignores the problem as
just another common symptom of life in general.
From
the demanded conformity to the institution comes the learned
conformity of the mindset all-is-normal and
nothing-to-see-here-folks. In the case of Marine City, this
conformity and complacency is a recipe for disaster.
------
Bravo
Herr Mozart! (1970/2006, short story) – 2/5
Synopsis:
With a random smattering of scattered data, a biographer pieces
together a bizarre picture of Mozart’s life. Little known
extrapolations include the fact he was born with only three fingers
but later only had a single digit; he was born at the age of three
and never had a mother; he once fancied Maria Antoinette but lost
her; and become involved in an orgy in which he married the
unfavorable of the three sisters.
Analysis:
As the synopsis read, this is one odd short story, which isn't even a
story in most regards, yet there is a story—it's not a story of
cause and effect like most fiction, but it's a very brief glimpse of
factoids. I'm not even sure if this story has any reflection of
societal pressures, Japanese culture, or other miscellaneous
pertinent issues. It just places itself into the bizarro sub-sect of
fiction.
As
the synopsis reads, the story itself reads like a glued together
mini-biography based on a grab bag selection of facts stitched
together by nothing more than the intuition of a twisted mind. It's a
nonsensical look at his life (e.g., his menage a trois [or was it
quatre?] with some Italian sisters), twisted in too many ways to
number, and filled with absurdist humor (e.g., born with three
fingers yet played with only one later in his life). It's brief
glimpses of humor are an odd contrast to the rest of the collection,
each of which have morale, be it blatant or subtle.
------
The
Last Smoker (1987/2006, short story) – 4/5
Synopsis:
A well respected and widely published writer is irked by a reporter’s
business card that reads “Thank You For Not Smoking”. As a chain
smoker himself, he denies them the literary interviews and becomes
the butt of growing scorn over everyone who smokes. Tobacco smokers
become persecuted, then ostracized and, finally, they are lynched and
burned. The writer remains one of the last smokers still standing in
a smoker’s haven.
Analysis:
Like election year in America, there tends to be a huge chasm between
two distant sides when it comes to smoking: the die-hard smokers who
claim freedom to smoke and the non-smokers who claim freedom from
smoke. The opposing camps of “freedom” thought are staunch in
their views... but like most views and opinions, there are extremists
and zealots; in society, there are also extremist swings of view and
zealous shifts of policy.
In
“The Last Smoker”, what starts as a anthill of anger turns into a
hill of fury then a mountain of pure hate. The anti-anything
sentiment is often stirred not by the will of the people or their
conscious, but by moneyed lobbies and moneyed media corporations
(co-conspirators or bedfellows?). Public sentiment is stirred
vigorously in “The Last Smoker” where open smokers are harassed,
threatened, abused, tortured, demonized, then outright lynched. From
open smokers to known smokers, the lynching continues while a band of
smokers coalesces; their spirit of fight is subsumed by the whole and
their stash of cigarettes becomes communal.
Tsutsui
plays the absurdist role in “The Last Smoker” in the closing
scenes of the story where an already extreme stance on the matter of
smoking becomes something taken straight from the scene of a
ridiculously gaudy Hollywood-esque finale but with sarcastic
follow-through.
------
Bad
for the Heart (1972/2006, novelette) – 4/5
Synopsis:
Suda is host to an illness of the heart; whether his is a physical or
mental symptom depends on who you ask. Regardless of many doctors’
opinions, he trusts the one doctor’s diagnosis that it’s mental
strain; thereby, he alters his lifestyle to suit the prognosis. His
wife nags and nags, giving him palpitations; his work has assigned
him to a remote island, giving him further palpitations. Now, his
wife will spend eight months with him there and his meds haven’t
arrive yet.
Analysis:
As I'm not a religious person, I'm not a proponent of the power of
prayer. Nor do I superficially subscribe to the common mantra of
“mind over matter”; that expression has become so watered down
that it basically means that same thing as the power of prayer. On a
personal level, I'd like to take into considering two statements of
weakness which encourage me to push through the worse of life:
1.
“Pain is a signal from weak point.”
2.
“Most common illnesses are psychosomatic.”
The
first statement is an obvious statement—if something hurts, then
something is wrong. Take this notion beyond the physical truth: If my
head aches, have I not followed the path of logic? If my stomach
aches, have I not followed the path of intuition? If my heart aches,
have I not followed the path of emotion? This may border on mysticism
and phony transcendental realms without support from the scientific
method, but it's something that guides my thoughts on a conscious
basis.
Now,
in any populated area where you ride public transportation, you'll
see scores of sick individuals any any time of the day, of the week,
or of the season—illness seems to have infiltrated the ranks of the
lemmings of the urban population. Also note, most of these office
workers, toilers of corporate overlords, are slightly overweight and
probably hold down mediocre job titles with a respective mediocre
salary. But what ails them? Are the multiplicity of viruses of “the
cold” the culprit? Or is the mentality of their “lemming-ness”
the true origin of their pathetic state?
A
very old but mind-tingling study
from 1958 once suggested that some aspects of the common cold are
psychological. These psychosomatic symptoms of the cold are similar
to the results of actual sadness, grief, and depression. If these
physical symptoms can manifest themselves from an internal lack of
something, what other common ailments are a result of some common
lack?
Now
take Suda, the victim of “Bad for the Heart”. While most doctors
disagree with his self-diagnosis, one doctor supports his theory of
physical-cum-mental anguish. The treatment for his illness of the
heart—if it were actual, the pill would cure him; if it were
psychosomatic, the pills would still cure him—are simple pills.
Regardless of Suda's knowledge of his own weak condition, he still
goes ahead with plans which may hamper his recovery.
If
his illness is psychosomatic, if his treatment is psychosomatic,
don't you think his action which lead to his death are psychosomatic,
too? Can suicide be a purely mental effort?
------
Salmonella
Men on Planet Porno (1977/2006, novella) – 4/5
Synopsis:
Dr. Suiko Shimazaki is pregnant on the planet named Nakamura, but she
hasn’t been impregnated by a man; rather, the androspore of the
native “widow’s incubus” has planted the seed of life in her.
The research team is unwilling to bring the abomination to full term
in six days’ time, so Yohachi must enter the humanoid camp nude to
participate in their obscene activities—to learn the cure—but not
before entering the libidinous jungle.
Pre-analysis
Brainstorm: Modern society is a human invention; it's a man-made
construct based on a long history of beliefs, premises, laws,
superstitions, conquests, interventions, morals, norms, taboos, etc.
Compare this with the animal kingdom where animals, too, have simple
and complex relationships. In the animal world, the societies that
developed are evolution necessities and change very little—no
beliefs penetrate the society, nor the history of their laws, morals,
etc. Aside from the million-year long process of evolution, their
societies are stagnant but necessarily stable.
In
a various (all?) human societies, taboos, in particular, remain a
core part and remain stable regardless of whatever revolutions
transpire. The sexual revolution in America brought sexuality to the
forefront of social importance, but, even nowadays, the topic of sex
is still considered a near-taboo topic of touchy conversations.
Analysis:
In “Salmonella Men”, the Japanese society of the future still
maintains the taboo subject of sex; however, the planet they are on
is filled with nothing but sexing plants and sexing animals—the
planet just screams sex. All around the scientific expedition, the
flora and fauna go through the course of nature, a ravenously
libidinous affair in which everything is a target of desire. A small
number of them continually protest at the lewdness of the planet's
life, damning it all obscene. Consider that the flora and fauna are
going through their motions of evolutional necessity, so why should
that be obscene? It's only obscene to the eyes of the humans, who
have brought subjective views of what is right/wrong, just/unjust, or
good/bad.
The
topic of sex among the men of the scientific camp is less than
taboo—they speak about the women as small conquests, yet the
elderly doctors of the camp have the strongest subjectivity, which is
counter-intuitive because, as academic and medical doctors, they
should be the most objective, detached, and observant; yet, they
consider “Planet Porno” to be a land of absurdity, obscenity, and
indecency. When one woman becomes pregnant, not by one of the men but
by one of those so-called obscene plants, it becomes apparent that
the only solution to her troublesome and very pronounced pregnancy is
to contact the natives--”They went around permanently naked”
(196) and participated in frequent acts of debauchery right in the
open without any sense of shame.
To
learn the secret of stopping or reversing the pregnancy, they decide
to send a member to the native camp, but they have always been
rejected because of their poor manners, which run counter to their
own—the natives glorify the act of sex while the humans consider it
a taboo. They person they need is,
the
kind of person who has no metaphysical conception of the sex act, but
who at the same time has an endless supply of powerful philanthropic
urges towards the sex act itself …. Someone who’s happy to have
sexual intercourse with any partner, no matter who. (202)
They
look to Yohachi—the degenerate pervert, the libidinous lecher, the
licentious deviant, the corrupt copulater—to be able to integrate
seamlessly into the native camp, partake in their various ways of
coitus, and learn the secret of the suspect plant's impregnation of
their camp's female.
So,
regardless of any society's taboos, the taboos are part of
life—everyone know what they are and, in private, these are
unveiled within the secret lives of many. As mentioned before, there
is also a history is social traditions, customs, etc.; this history
serves a purpose even if it's less applicable to today's modern
world. In “Salmonella Men”, the scientists' knowledge of the
“open sexuality” taboo is what brings about the solution and they
use the weakness of one man—Yohachi—to bring fruition to the
conclusion.
While
taboos are part of our society, we all harbor knowledge of them and
use them to our benefit when we feel the need. Bare in mind that,
while sex is a social taboo in many societies, that doesn't stop
advertisers from using watered down sex to sell a product. Taboos can
be a weapon or a tool.
