In today's episode, Crow is late (once again) to bring us the story of Niki Junpei. Or, rather, Niki is here to bring us the story of Niki Junpei, because he's going to be our guide through Kobo Abe's desert of horrors in The Woman in The Dunes!
Abe has long been described as 'The Kafka of Japan'. Although, honestly, that's taking away from the brand of surrealism he brings to his stories, which we will be taking a look at as we follow Niki (an etymologist out to discover a new species of beetle) to a fishing village somewhere in the desert shores of Japan. Having long been abandoned by officials, its houses have fallen into despair, with villagers relying on what odd plants they can harvest in the arid environment and, presumably, fishing. As night falls, we're forced to take shelter in one of the odd homes of one of the villagers who welcomes us in with open arms. We'll be back by tomorrow this time, everyone, I promise! So grab your flap caps, your desert boots, your butterfly nets, and...pack enough water to last a while...
Just in case.
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Sources:
Sound Effects and Music from Pixabay, SoundEffectsFactory, and a huge, huge shoutout from our itty bitty podcast to Michael Ghelfi Studios for letting us use their Desert ambience tracks for this episode.
Intro music: Beeckmans: Hymne for Theremin, Oboe, String Quartet and Piano (2018) - The Alba Septet (Listen to the whole thing on youtube, you'll thank us later).
Outro music: Magic Hour by Three Chain Links
References:
A Study Guide for Kobo Abe's "The Woman in the Dunes" by Cengage Learning, Gale.
Kobo Abe info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Db%C5%8D_Abe
Fake Fish: The Theater of Kobo Abe by Nancy Shields
Ars technica (TRIGGER WARNING FOR PEOPLE WHO HATE BUGS) https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/09/gangs-of-beetle-larvae-lure-fathers-of-their-next-meal-into-sex-trap/