November 8, Melissa LaRochelle

 The flying Tobita sisters: I really liked this story. Once again with Kobayashi, we get a story with historical context and a narrator that keeps the ideas of their ancestors with me through their daily thoughts. It seems the whole time they may be strongly against the idea of the Tobita sister’s running while everyone else is morbidly curious. But it ends up not being disapproval, but envy. Our narrator is envious because she can’t physically do what the sisters are doing. Until she tries. It’s really lovely to see the breaking of norms. Just because your ancestors wanted something for you doesn’t mean you have to want it. Not even that you don’t want it, maybe you just don’t want to take the easy way out all of the time. Sometimes struggle can make you stronger. So we can appreciate things being made easier for us; planes, wings; we can still challenge ourselves to get on our feet and stand on our own.

Meditations on green: I liked this story a lot as well. We deal with the scientific and religious aspects of life and evolution. We see someone experimenting with these single cell organisms, questioning if they have souls or if they are still the same being when they split. I’m personally not religious because it gives me an existential crisis, but it’s more digestible when examining it in another species. The interesting thing though, is that since they’re examining a creature that can’t communicate, they don’t really have a way of knowing about it’s soul or it’s sense of enlightenment. One can’t trace these things through science. A more accurate summary of their work would be “shortening the lifespan of the unkillable” or something.

First Rate Material: Ewwww. I am curious how the fiance came to develop this idea of using human parts as material as “barbaric” when in their society, it is normal. I thought maybe his family would all feel the same but then they didn’t. It was kind of revolting to me, even when it was meant to sound beautiful.

Mogera Wogura: Okay so this is a world primarily of humans but we have these characters who are like magical japanese moles i guess? But it doesn’t seem like they’re the only animal-humanoid creatures because the mole man mentioned a mother having “puppies” and “barking” at his wife. Is there a separate animal world that functions like the human world? Also what’s with the shrinking humans?

A Peddler of Tears: Now this is “barbaric”. She is tearing herself apart for the benefit of a man who isn’t even with her. And he doesn’t even seem to notice, given the fact she is still doing this for him. She gave up her life for a random musician (honestly this seems to be a canon event for a woman in their 20s). It’s so sad. It’s even more sad that she’s so happy to do it.