Week 4: The New Weird

Week 4: The New Weird


For this topic, I read "A Souvenir from Japan", "The Neglected Garden", and “The Snow Child”. Like the title, they are pretty weird stories. I started with "A Souvenir from Japan" and I didn't really understand it. That's why I tried something else and I read " The Neglected Garden". I still didn't quite get it, but maybe a bit better compared to "A Souvenir from Japan". “The Snow Child” feels like a more metaphoric version of the Snow White story.

"A Souvenir from Japan" seems to be a story about a Caucasian lady that lives in Japan and feels like an alien? A lot of the descriptions are observations. Even during the intimate moment in the hotel, it feels more like an observation too. She talked about the legend of Momotaro as something really alien for her, not just foreign. It feels kind of weird for me. Maybe because Momotaro is one of the folktales I grew up with and it feels weird to read the description in such an alien way or just in a weird way. But I got a sense that this lady has settled down after a while and more sympathetic for the things around her.

“The Neglected Garden” feels really creepy. I found myself wanting to skip many parts because of the gruesome description. I wonder if what happened to Anne, the way she is supposed to be dead but not, is like a metaphor for someone who’s dead inside but continue to lives on? Maybe she hurts herself physically because of the stress. The neighbor’s reactions are also weird because they seem to care but at the same time, not really? They just observe Anne, feel pity, but they don’t really do much to help her. They just choose to ignore the man. For the ending, I wonder if it’s a representation of a guilt seems the woman seems to mock the man with a smile.

“The Snow Child” seems pretty close to the original Snow White concept wise. I can see the same description of the girl and elements of jealousy. Instead of the mother wanting a daughter as white as snow, as black as wood, and as red as blood, it was the father who wanted her. In the original Snow White, the step mother was jealous of Snow White while in this version, the mother herself was jealous of Snow White. I think this is pretty interesting because it’s like the condensed version of the original Snow White. It is also interesting that when I read this version, it feels rhythmic until the very end. It’s a pretty fun read because of that.

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