this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024
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“Alright, class! We’re gonna read a story about a guy who locks himself in a hotel room with a decked-out kitchen, a surgery machine, and every prosthesis one could need, and this guy is gonna eat himself from the bottom up and describe it in careful, emotional, joyous detail!”
Yeeeeah, fuck that shit, decades later.
“The Savage Mouth” is the English title, by Komatsu Sakyou.
I have a similar reaction, but it was to “The Yellow Wallpaper”, about a woman locked in a room for a long period of time to deal with her mental health, and the solitude drives her quite insane. In quite haunting detail.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yellow_Wallpaper
Fun historical note: many yellow paints and dyes used in that time period had some sort of neurotoxic heavy metal (probably mercury, IIRC) that actually caused or at least exacerbated symptoms of mental illness. Many of these compounds were relatively safe to use as paint in England, but when used in warmer, humid climates, they broke down and caused hallucinations as well as respiratory complications that caused the patients to be bedridden (further worsening the symptoms).
Lead makes yellow and red paints have a wonderfully bright colour.
Many children’s toys had lead paint because of course the kids liked the brighter colours.
Kids also love to chew on toys… and the lead paint even tastes sweet. It was always a recipe for disaster.
Lead is definitely used in lots of old paint, but I seem to recall that this one specifically was mercury-based as mercury can induce schizophrenia and hallucinations, whereas lead's neurological effects are in the "makes you dull and slow" camp.
Also, lead was mostly used in the 1900's, IIRC. Before that they used even nastier stuff like mercury, arsenic ( I think arsenic in the paint was the cause of death for Napoleon Bonaparte) and chromium.
But then I'm not an MD or a historian; just a chemist trying to recall all of this from bits and pieces I've read over the years, so I might be way off base with some of the specifics.
Apparently it was stomach cancer that did Napoleon in, though arsenic was suspected.
Lead in paints and even makeup can be traced back to the Roman Empire. It was popular long before the 1900’s!
That’s really interesting, thanks for sharing! I wonder if the author knew that, or if yellow was just used a lot.. (I’ve seen occasional older advice to paint kitchens yellow to make them “feel sunny”, but imho that’s not an easy color to live with. My mom had a patterned yellow antique couch that was just absolutely hideous.. but it was the style at some point…)
Granted I haven't read that story in a long time, but I think they knew about any of this at the time the story was written. However, I seem to recall that this was a fairly autobiographical story about the author's experiences with post-partum depression and the "treatment" thereof, so it might just be that the cost the yellow wallpaper because it mirrored her experiences
To be fair I think The Yellow Wallpaper at least has a fucking point instead of … what the fuck…
Omg.
I got pictures of the text in English, further down my comment history. CTRL-F “autocannibalism”. I don’t have any Japanese copies, that was a long time ago.
Buddy no
Hot.
Very fun, gonna try to get ahold of it. Thanks!
Mang, if you want me to, I can just post it.
Yes please
I think everything here is in order and nothing’s missing, but I’m not about to reread it and find out.
What a delightful little read! Thank you so much!
Highschool me would have LOVED to be assigned this. What grade were you in?
Fifth year or so. Something a teacher shared with me, that they probably shouldn’t have. It wasn’t mainline coursework, they just thought I was smart.
(Nope. Not smart, just have attention issues and look really smart at some things, and helplessly incapable at others.)
Love you thanks!!!
Icky!
There was a Stephen King short story called Survivor Type where a doctor gets stranded on an island and eventually begins eating himself for sustenance. The story is told through the journal he keeps as he becomes more unhinged.