Tolton
After having seen both film adaptations of the novel, I figured it'd be worth a read. The central metaphor of an imagined past in the present, living through memories that never were, as ghosts haunting and draining life from the dream flaneur, shows so well an aspect of depression I haven't seen explored much in media. There are few things more tempting than giving hours of your life to fantasies satisfying an impossible desire: to have dinner with someone no longer here. Desire is fulfilled without movement, without even needing to leave bed. It's an act that takes more than it gives.
The book doesn't offer much past this and, at least as a translation, is the worst iteration of the story. It might as well have been a screenplay, seeing as Obayashi's The Discarnates re-creates the book beat for beat, with dialog being picked directly out of the book. Yamada (or Lammers) doesn't have the literary chops to lean into what language affords a story over film. Action follows action without space or interiority. The twist at the end is more confounding than affecting, and leaves the story worse off.
If you've found the book through All of Us Strangers, just watch the Obayashi adaptation. You're not missing much.
After having seen both film adaptations of the novel, I figured it'd be worth a read. The central metaphor of an imagined past in the present, living through memories that never were, as ghosts haunting and draining life from the dream flaneur, shows so well an aspect of depression I haven't seen explored much in media. There are few things more tempting than giving hours of your life to fantasies satisfying an impossible desire: to have dinner with someone no longer here. Desire is fulfilled without movement, without even needing to leave bed. It's an act that takes more than it gives.
The book doesn't offer much past this and, at least as a translation, is the worst iteration of the story. It might as well have been a screenplay, seeing as Obayashi's The Discarnates re-creates the book beat for beat, with dialog being picked directly out of the book. Yamada (or Lammers) doesn't have the literary chops to lean into what language affords a story over film. Action follows action without space or interiority. The twist at the end is more confounding than affecting, and leaves the story worse off.
If you've found the book through All of Us Strangers, just watch the Obayashi adaptation. You're not missing much.