Comments on: Why Japan’s temp workers now read “The Factory Ship” (Kanikosen) http://www.japannavigator.com/2008/07/04/why-japans-temp-workers-now-read-the-factory-ship-kanikosen/ Guide to Japan by Ad Blankestijn: Sake and food, Kyoto and travel, literature and intercultural affairs. Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:46:07 +0900 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: 79-year-old Marxist novel becomes bestseller | Japan Probe http://www.japannavigator.com/2008/07/04/why-japans-temp-workers-now-read-the-factory-ship-kanikosen/comment-page-1/#comment-2574 79-year-old Marxist novel becomes bestseller | Japan Probe Fri, 22 Aug 2008 23:06:15 +0000 http://www.japannavigator.com/?p=684#comment-2574 [...] more info, check this article at Seek Japan and this post at Japan Navigator. Readers of Japanese can also check out the entire text of the novel on this [...] [...] more info, check this article at Seek Japan and this post at Japan Navigator. Readers of Japanese can also check out the entire text of the novel on this [...]

]]> By: HW http://www.japannavigator.com/2008/07/04/why-japans-temp-workers-now-read-the-factory-ship-kanikosen/comment-page-1/#comment-2189 HW Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:51:46 +0000 http://www.japannavigator.com/?p=684#comment-2189 Well, you almost made the point there at the end of your analysis when you talk about the "model middle-class" society - because that is an oxymoron in itself, really. How can a WHOLE society be a model of middle-classness? Get my meaning? Thus, the basic fascination with this novel is the pure and simple romanticized notion that a bunch of ordinary hard-working guys can band together to form a bond and become a team, a group, a society, and *gosh* dare I say it - Comrades. And even if these guys all lost their job and didn't have a home, nor any money or any of these "comfort" things, and *gosh* must I point out these things - "they have each other" - and together they can stand up to the leadership status quo at hand. Well, that's all very poetic, ya know, these notions. For the people now to be reading a book written by a young man who died when he was 30 in prison, for being too intelligent and not succumbing to the ideals of the politicians and leaders of the time - all these things just add up to some part of modern readers' nostalgic sense that may be the answers lie in studying how things were able to change back in history to get to where we are now, this in turn teaching us how to move forward from here. Well, you almost made the point there at the end of your analysis when you talk about the “model middle-class” society –

because that is an oxymoron in itself, really. How can a WHOLE society be a model of middle-classness? Get my meaning?

Thus, the basic fascination with this novel is the pure and simple romanticized notion that a bunch of ordinary hard-working guys can band together to form a bond and become a team, a group, a society, and *gosh* dare I say it – Comrades.

And even if these guys all lost their job and didn’t have a home, nor any money or any of these “comfort” things, and *gosh* must I point out these things – “they have each other” – and together they can stand up to the leadership status quo at hand.

Well, that’s all very poetic, ya know, these notions. For the people now to be reading a book written by a young man who died when he was 30 in prison, for being too intelligent and not succumbing to the ideals of the politicians and leaders of the time – all these things just add up to some part of modern readers’ nostalgic sense that may be the answers lie in studying how things were able to change back in history to get to where we are now, this in turn teaching us how to move forward from here.

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