Sunday 5 April 2020

'The Box Man' - a ‘spell-binder from beginning to end’!

Myriad Musings on the Metaphor!
[Part – 2]
Kobo Abe | The Box Man

Ah well, the covid-confinement has given us all enough scope for creativity, ain’t it? ;-)

Some of us have resolved to try out new recipes by the dozen each passing day, while some of us have resolved to celebrate much our me-space, while yet some others have resolved to up the ante on our ebby corona-quotient, by having a keen eye and a keen ear for any covid-related news and memes as well!


In like manner, some pavapetta litterateurs like we, indulge ourselves on good reads that have a connect with the corona at least in some remote ways, ain’t-o-ain’t we?

To live the moment in sync with the times, in tune with the tide, in harmony with the milieu, in the bestest and most-est possible ways we really could!

A host of Richard Preston reads, Dean Koontz delights, David Quammen’s detective enchants, included!

Well, in this, our present lives confined to our homes, Im quite reminded of a lovely book that we’d discussed much-o-much, back, down the years, on a lovely readers’ group!

The book is again quite metaphoric in its intent! 

Reminds us of Italo Calvino! [On a related vein, I was quite surprised and so thrilled to find Calvino delights by the number stacked up so neat and cute, at Dr. Abdul’s beautiful book collection at his home in Trichy!]

So yup! the Calvino craze is here to stay! More power to you, Dr. Abdul!

The Box Man, a 1973 book by versatile Japanese writer Kobo Abe is one such insightful rumination on meta-living!

This meta-living, for purposes of this post, could also be called, alternate living on an alternate reality!

Much akin to Calvino’s The Baron in the Trees!

And well, the particularly interesting singularity about Kobo’s read is that, while Calvino’s baron - the young Italian nobleman by name Cosimo - resolves to be perched there amongst the trees for the rest of his entire life, Kobo’s nameless protagonist resolves to reside in a box!

Well, for the keen eye, I guess you could see such an amazing connect between the box and the tree, thanks to F. T. Wood, David Crystal, A. C. Baugh et al! [If you’ve got the connect, do ping me fast!]

While we today, in the covid-crises that’s enveloped us, have been forcibly confined within our houses, ;-), or think so, the protagonist of Kobo’s The Box Man resolves to renounce forthwith on the trappings of his routine, mundane life, to live his life from thence on, voluntarily, all by himself, in a cardboard box.

The book has resonances and reverberations on a host of related books that have sprouted up these past decades! However the Kobo touch is so unique in that, as I said just now, it’s so unique!! ;-)

The protagonist who’s been all along living the dreary-drudgy, ordinary life of any middle-class person of his society, one fine day realizes that this life has got him real trapped into what he does not really love doing! And the next moment, he shakes off the clutter, throws off this, his mundane existence, and resolves from then on, to live his everyday existence within the confines of a cardboard box! And this cardboard box, is fully loaded to nourish him with food enough for his needs!

And now the protagonist who doubles up as the narrator says that, he is at last free from the confines and the constraints of a demanding society, and starts living his own utopian living – which, as Scupin Richard has pointed earlier in the post, is his meta-living!

The book has been raved as a ‘spell-binder from beginning to end’!

The narrative begins on an intriguing note, with the narrator presenting his case!

Speaks the box man –

This is the record of a box man. I am beginning this account in a box. A cardboard box that reaches just to my hips when I put it on over my head. That is to say, at this juncture the box man is me. A box man, in his box, is recording the chronicle of a box man.

And then he gives out his intense instructions for making a Box, which are so descriptive and DIY!

I’m sure you’ve not yet heard of a box man. Though there can’t be any statistics, there is evidence that a rather large number of them are living in concealment throughout the country. But I’ve never heard that box men are being talked about anywhere. Evidently the world intends to keep its mouth tightly shut about them.

While this blogger strives to leave no stone unturned in presenting quite a teaser to the book, he also takes much care and concern ;-) to make sure for himself that he doesn’t by any means, give away the story!

So yes! No spoilers for y’all!

It’s a kutty little read much akin to JoLiSea on the pagecount!

Do grab for yourself a copy as soon as possible!

For my part, to stimulate the reader in you, lemme give y’all just a few paragraphs from The Box Man

Here goes The Box Man

Why, I wonder, would anyone deliberately want to be a box man?

Perhaps you think it strange, but there are many amazing cases that explain why-trifling motivations that at first glance are not motivations at all.

A is a case in point.

One day a box man took up residence directly below the window of A’s apartment. Though A tried his best not to look, he did.

No matter how he struggled to ignore the box man, he was very much aware of his presence.

The first feelings that assailed A were anger and abhorrence toward a foreign body that has imposed itself, irritation and perplexity at having his territory encroached on illegally. But he decided to try and wait things out in silence for the time being.

Anyway, he thought the neighborhood busybody, nagging about the garbage disposal or who knows what, would take action. But there was no sign that anybody was about to handle the matter. 

Unable to put up with the situation any longer, he complained to the janitor of the apartment building; but in vain. The box man was only visible from A’s window, and anyone who could manage not to be seen would not deliberately move. As frequently as possible everybody pretended not to sec him.

Finally A went to the police box himself. When the bored officer told him to fill out a damage report, A said that for the first time he experienced something similar to fear.

“Look here”, the officer had snapped. “I suppose you made it clear he was to get out”.

There was nothing for A to do but take action himself. On the way home from the police box he stopped at a friend’s house and borrowed an air rifle. 

Once back in his room, he had a cigarette and calmed down; then he looked directly out the window, and as he did so the box man turned the observation slit of the box straight toward him. There were scarcely three or four yards between them. As if perceiving A’s inner confusion, the box tilted, and the semi opaque vinyl curtain over the window divided vertically in two. 

From within, an indistinct whitish eye was firmly fixed on him. A felt a rush of blood go to his head. He flung open the window, and loading the gun, took aim.

And I guess I’ve upped the ante on your curiosity quotient, at the most appropriate cliffhanger-ish point right at the opening pages!

To be continued…

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