The World According to Mieko Kawakami

A video essay on the novels of Mieko Kawakami. Subscribe to the channel for more video essays.

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Description:
Earlier this year, I read Breasts and Eggs, a feminist novel by the author Mieko Kawakami. The book begins with Natsu, an aspiring writer, visiting her sister Makiko, in the city of Tokyo. Makiko is struggling with body issues and is tossing and turning over whether to get plastic surgery, in the form of breast augmentation.

In the bathhouse, Makiko describes, in detail, everything she thinks is wrong with her body. Her sister Natsu watches her undress, questioning what it means to be beautiful.

There are many reflective moments like this in the book, moments that point out the fractured nature of the time we are living in, with a growing gap between men and women and an imperative on women to be perfect at all times – and yet, at the same time, a growing confusion on what it means to be perfect.

Over the last couple of weeks, I read a few of Kawakami’s stories, trying to understand exactly what she thinks is tearing us apart. I re-read parts of Breasts and Eggs, and the shorter novellas, Ms Ice Sandwich and Heaven. In each case, I was taken in by the way Kawakami represents the downtrodden in society, the poor and the bullied, the beautiful and the mundane. It struck me that she could see something that I am missing, and so I sought to understand her perspective. This is the world according to Mieko Kawakami.


Image by: @SeerLight
Music by: Bensound

#kawakami #novels #literature