Underneath the Sands

"The Woman in the Dunes" revealed little about Kōbō Abe.

Hiroshi Teshigahara adapted the novel to the big screen in 1964, earning praise at Cannes. Abe was already noticed by then. The author, who passed away on January 22, 1968, once led a hand-to-mouth existence. He was compared to Franz Kafka, which was somehow true. Both writers have a liking to lonesome characters.

Jesse Ball, whose novels and poems were being compared to Kafka, would mention Abe as an influence.

"There’s a great deal of, I don’t know, you could almost call it discomfort that comes in when you’re reading his novels, and I think it ends up being a bountiful kind of discomfort. Part of that is in being able to accept which things can in fact be determined. The larger consensus of culture wants to have this delirious speech that tells us that all these things can actually be known, can be determined, all these things are safe and the world is comfortable - when it isn’t at all. It’s like trying to patch an endless hole. You come up with some momentary truth that isn’t really a truth, which is what a lesser novelist would do. But not Kōbō Abe," he said.

The plot for "The Woman in the Dunes" was straighforward. A schoolteacher went to a remote seaside town in search of insects inhabiting the sand dunes. When the last bus had long departed, the villagers offered him an accommodation. He had no idea that there was something behind their act of kindness.

You and me

The accommodation that the villagers offered was rather unusual. It was located beneath the dunes. A woman lived several feet below, and a rope was the only means of going in and out. The schoolteacher was horrified the following day. There was no rope. The villagers weren't waiting above.

Niki Jumpei was his name, but Abe would often referred to him as the man. Likewise, there was no mention of the woman's name. When she told Niki that his husband and their child perished in the sands, the man wondered if she was telling the truth. Those who were familiar with Kafka's works would sense that they were treading on familiar ground. Here was a woman who was resigned to an endless task of keeping the sands from giving way. The man protested it at first, but he accepted this fate months later. It could be interpreted in many ways. Niki hinted to his colleagues that he needed a holiday. He was struggling with depression, wishing he could disappear from the face of the Earth. A class war could be another interpretation. The other one would be subjective.

What was startling about "The Woman in the Dunes" was how the familiar elements turned a different shade of colors. It won't be due to the seasons, not even the shade of the sun. It would be due to the insects. They could give sensible advice if it won't be making sounds.