Current Reading

Today, I shall mostly be reading Battle Royale (バトル・ロワイアル), Batoru Rowaiaru, by Kōshun Takami.

This is my Dystopia of the Day; it is also my personal choice of reading matter for the meeting.

Since this is going to be discussed in greater detail on Saturday, I'll simply summarise it here, now.

The plot is this. In an alternate version of history, perhaps one where Japan never lost WWII maybe, the country became somewhat autocratic. Beginning in 1947, the country's Special Task Force has been running what they call "The Program," also known as "Battle Experiment No. 68 Program."

Every year, a class of children is abducted, taken out of society, placed in a remote part of Japan and there, forced to kill one another with a variety of weapons issued to them in their packs.

The aim of this Program is, basically, to instil fear of, and respect for, the authorities.

The novel, published first in 1999 and then expanded and rereleased in 2009, is set in the alternate 1997. —Japan is a member region of a totalitarian state known as the Republic of Greater East Asia (大東亜共和国 Dai Tōa Kyōwakoku), or what we might term "Eastasia," if you can guess the reference.

My breath just seemed clean stole away at the possibility that this could well be the Eastasia of Nineteen Eighty-Four which is at war with Oceania ...

In the novel, a class of students from 城岩中学校 Shiroiwa Chūgakkō, Shiroiwa High School from the fictional town of Shiroiwa in Kagawa Prefecture, is taken on what they think is a "study trip." En route, the bus driver puts on a gas mask, turns on the gas and puts all the passengers to sleep.

When they all wake up, they're prisoners on Okishima Island, also in Kagawa Prefecture. They wake up in a school classroom, with explosive collars around their necks, and told that they must all kill each other until only one person survives. Then they are sent out into the wild, to survive, form alliances and then break them, and to dodge the Danger Zones - where, if they are caught out, their collars will explode. The collars contain microphones and tracking devices, so they know what the students are saying and where they are at all times.

I'm sure many of you will have seen the movie version. It is hilarious in the original Japanese, I can tell you. :)

I will discuss this book in greater detail on Saturday.