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A review by alexauthorshay
Genocidal Organ by Project Itoh
3.0
I don't really know where to start... It was really different than what I usually read, and I don't know if that's just because I don't read much military-focused fiction or because it wasn't written in English originally, so it would have been written to the style/customs/culture of the original language. I can't say how much liberty the translator took when 'converting' the book, so I don't really want to claim that Itoh said certain things because maybe he didn't, maybe it's the translator putting those words and themes in.
That said, you can't read this translation of it and not talk about themes. As relevant as all the things the book talked about were, it was taken to such an obvious point as to be kind of irritating. Other characters would make a comment and the narrator would go 'oh yeah that's because Americans are shitty and we do X all the time'. And the narrating character was an American. So this feels sort of like a none too subtle jab at America, both as a country and as a political statement. And the narrator being American made it feel so much less believable. Because he was so aware of the ridiculousness and the atrocity, and analyzed all these things to death for pages on end, but still did them. His inner thoughts were simply endless permutations of what other people said to or around him, to the point that they could say one thing, he would internally disagree, they would say something else, and suddenly he agreed with them (accompanied with a page long explanation of why), only to later think about the issue himself again and come to yet another position about it. Maybe that wish-washiness was part of the point, but holy crap was it ever annoying.
Which leads to the fact that the narrator himself seemed to have no personality because of the fact that he kept changing his own opinions so much. Again, maybe part of the point, but it was very distracting and I never got into him as a character because there was no character there to get into. The plot was the same. Things happened, intense things, sometimes even interesting things, but so what? Every writer's toolkit I have ever used always says that events need to be related, A causes B causes C and so on, or else it's just a collection of events that happen. While the events in this book were related, it felt so tangential at times, or was left so unexplained, that I didn't know why the army guys were going to these places half the time.
Which did mean that I never knew what to expect. But there needs to be a balance there, between surprise and predictability. The next events have to seem possible. I just went along with this book really because I had no idea what to expect, and not in the good way--I had no idea where this book was supposed to be taking me or why, and I was getting cynical, snide, blank faced social commentary along the way. The themes addressed are by no means wrong or even exaggerated, but I had a headache when I finished from how many times I was beat over the head which each of the numerous themes addressed.
The tech was really neat, living bioflesh and nanotechnology (though the bioflesh seems a heavy metaphor for animal/environmental exploitation), but it could have been explained better. The tech and the setting were both rather neglected, to the point that you didn't really know where the scenes were taking place or what the objects being described looked like. The narrator, having lived that kind of life so long, wouldn't have to describe them to himself of course, but there are some liberties you can take within first person narration that allows you as an author to describe things despite that.
The concept of the grammar of genocide was also really neat. I don't know how realistic it is, but it was made fairly believable within the context of the book. I say fairly because, like everything else, it wasn't described all that well. Even with the narrator and his nemesis having chapter long discussions about how the grammar works, it's never put into concrete words or instructions, left to vague metaphors and similes. His nemesis has a bad habit of talking in circles and I feel like a lot of open strings and asked questions were left unanswered because of that.
It's books like these that made me wish I could read the native language--to see how much liberty the translator has taken with the text.
Why am I giving it 3 stars instead of the 2 I would normally give from a review like this? I can't totally say. The execution was far from excellent, but I don't want to judge the "actual" book based on its translation. The concept was intriguing, and there were unique elements in the book that I probably would never come across in mainstream American fiction. As much as I complain about the book, it wasn't crap. It was just okay. There was a lot I didn't like about it, but it was also very different from my usual and in that way it was kind of nice.
That said, you can't read this translation of it and not talk about themes. As relevant as all the things the book talked about were, it was taken to such an obvious point as to be kind of irritating. Other characters would make a comment and the narrator would go 'oh yeah that's because Americans are shitty and we do X all the time'. And the narrating character was an American. So this feels sort of like a none too subtle jab at America, both as a country and as a political statement. And the narrator being American made it feel so much less believable. Because he was so aware of the ridiculousness and the atrocity, and analyzed all these things to death for pages on end, but still did them. His inner thoughts were simply endless permutations of what other people said to or around him, to the point that they could say one thing, he would internally disagree, they would say something else, and suddenly he agreed with them (accompanied with a page long explanation of why), only to later think about the issue himself again and come to yet another position about it. Maybe that wish-washiness was part of the point, but holy crap was it ever annoying.
Which leads to the fact that the narrator himself seemed to have no personality because of the fact that he kept changing his own opinions so much. Again, maybe part of the point, but it was very distracting and I never got into him as a character because there was no character there to get into. The plot was the same. Things happened, intense things, sometimes even interesting things, but so what? Every writer's toolkit I have ever used always says that events need to be related, A causes B causes C and so on, or else it's just a collection of events that happen. While the events in this book were related, it felt so tangential at times, or was left so unexplained, that I didn't know why the army guys were going to these places half the time.
Which did mean that I never knew what to expect. But there needs to be a balance there, between surprise and predictability. The next events have to seem possible. I just went along with this book really because I had no idea what to expect, and not in the good way--I had no idea where this book was supposed to be taking me or why, and I was getting cynical, snide, blank faced social commentary along the way. The themes addressed are by no means wrong or even exaggerated, but I had a headache when I finished from how many times I was beat over the head which each of the numerous themes addressed.
The tech was really neat, living bioflesh and nanotechnology (though the bioflesh seems a heavy metaphor for animal/environmental exploitation), but it could have been explained better. The tech and the setting were both rather neglected, to the point that you didn't really know where the scenes were taking place or what the objects being described looked like. The narrator, having lived that kind of life so long, wouldn't have to describe them to himself of course, but there are some liberties you can take within first person narration that allows you as an author to describe things despite that.
The concept of the grammar of genocide was also really neat. I don't know how realistic it is, but it was made fairly believable within the context of the book. I say fairly because, like everything else, it wasn't described all that well. Even with the narrator and his nemesis having chapter long discussions about how the grammar works, it's never put into concrete words or instructions, left to vague metaphors and similes. His nemesis has a bad habit of talking in circles and I feel like a lot of open strings and asked questions were left unanswered because of that.
It's books like these that made me wish I could read the native language--to see how much liberty the translator has taken with the text.
Why am I giving it 3 stars instead of the 2 I would normally give from a review like this? I can't totally say. The execution was far from excellent, but I don't want to judge the "actual" book based on its translation. The concept was intriguing, and there were unique elements in the book that I probably would never come across in mainstream American fiction. As much as I complain about the book, it wasn't crap. It was just okay. There was a lot I didn't like about it, but it was also very different from my usual and in that way it was kind of nice.