233:: "It is a complex story set in a near-future Japan threatened by the melting polar ice caps. The protagonist, Professor Katsumi, has been in charge of developing a computer/information system capable of predicting human behavior. Fatally for him, this system predicts his compulsive refusal to go along with his associates and his government in the creation of
210:
professor decides to avoid politics and try to foresee the future of an individual. A man is picked, apparently at random, only to be murdered before he can be programmed, but the computer can still read his mind. The resulting involvements are complicated by a climatic shift – Inter Ice Age 4 – that
31:
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Scholar Robert L. Trent writes of the novel's themes: "Genetic engineering succeeds in creating an aquatic human, but people feel the sapping of their own sense of identity as people, since after the flood, only the aquatic humans will be 'people'. As one can see, the crisis of alienation and the
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children, adapted for life in the rising seas. Most of the novel, narrated by
Katsumi, deals with a philosophical confrontation between his deeply alienated refusal of the future and the computer's knowing representations of that refusal and the alternatives to it. The resulting psychodramas
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Plot elements include submersion of the world caused by melting polar ice, genetic creation of gilled children for the coming underwater age, and a fortune-telling computer predicting the future and advising humans how to deal with it. Because a similar computer in Moscow is being used to make
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calls the
English translation of the novel "flat" and "featureless", but notes that this "could not smother the miracle of use of biology to attack racism at its very root, asking what will be our attitudes to those whom we ourselves design for life in alien habitats?"
282:, 1970) that marked a real turning point for SF in Japan. Incorporating hard-science elements on a scale that no Japanese novelist had attempted, Abe nevertheless pushed the story toward a disturbing, almost surreal conclusion. A number of critics have identified
310:, 'linking apocalyptic science fiction and metaphysical detective/mystery stories through antiphonal narratives, alternating "science" and "mystery" to yield reciprocal modes of displacement.'
274:, Christopher Bolton writes: "Abe's work in the 1950s included short stories about robots, suspended animation, and alien visitation, but it was the 1959 publication of his novel
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as Japan's first full-length science fiction novel, and a work that helped jump start
Japanese interest in the genre."
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include a mysterious murder and the enlistment of his unborn child into the ranks of the mutated water-breathers."
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was the first
Japanese science fiction novel to be translated into English, in a 1970 translation by
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In his introduction to a pair of Abe's essays published in the
November, 2002 issue of
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343:"Japanese Science Fiction in English Translation" by John L. Apostolou,
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Tech
Anxiety & Apocalyptic Paranoia in Post-WW2 Japan: Kobo Abe’s
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the book became the first
Japanese science fiction novel to appear in
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102:
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article which also includes some of Abe Machi's illustrations
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162:
122:
533:
Encyclopædia
Britannica 2005 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD
404:"Not just a Gibson Clone: An Interview with Goro Masaki"
296:
as a 'metaphysical detective story', comparing it with
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crisis of identity are great concerns of Abe Kobo."
554:(Lists the Japanese editions plus all translations)
441:
726:
339:
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308:Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
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347:, volume 25, number 1, spring 1984, page 84.
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612:
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566:(only lists English language translations)
444:The Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
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507:Rzepka, Charles J.; Horsley, Lee (2020).
241:
206:political forecasts, the institute of a
727:
249:Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
619:
593:
564:Internet Speculative Fiction Database
552:Internet Speculative Fiction Database
477:. University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
475:"Abe Kobo: A Study and a Translation"
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169:originally serialized in the journal
448:. New York: Harmony Books. pp.
200:
439:
427:The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
390:The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
363:Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi)
222:The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
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472:
420:
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745:Japanese science fiction novels
712:The Man Who Turned Into A Stick
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369:Public Library. Archived from
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1:
494:Two Essays on Science Fiction
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35:Cover of 1st Japanese edition
510:A Companion to Crime Fiction
290:A Companion to Crime Fiction
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740:1959 science fiction novels
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496:. Science Fiction Studies.
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429:. Orion Publishing Group.
392:. Orion Publishing Group.
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130:Published in English
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40:
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219:In the third edition of
271:Science Fiction Studies
211:puts Earth underwater.
653:The Woman in the Dunes
513:. Wiley. p. 319.
235:genetically engineered
189:, in a translation by
16:1959 novel by Kobo Abe
562:title listing at the
550:title listing at the
488:Bolton, Christopher.
242:Literary significance
637:Beasts Head for Home
373:on 17 November 2012.
225:, author and critic
661:The Face of Another
440:Ash, Brian (1977).
51:Original title
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735:Novels by Kobo Abe
357:Liukkonen, Petri.
256:author and critic
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693:Kangaroo Notebook
677:Secret Rendezvous
305:Haruki Murakami's
201:Plot introduction
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119:Publication place
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406:. Archived from
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322:E. Dale Saunders
276:Dai yon kanpyôki
195:E. Dale Saunders
155:Dai-Yon Kampyōki
110:Publication date
67:E. Dale Saunders
57:Dai-Yon Kampyōki
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571:Inter Ice Age 4
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473:Trent, Robert.
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314:Inter Ice Age 4
298:Andrew Crumey's
294:Inter Ice Age 4
284:Inter Ice Age 4
280:Inter Ice Age 4
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231:Inter Ice Age 4
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159:science fiction
150:Inter Ice Age 4
139:Media type
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93:Science fiction
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23:Inter Ice Age 4
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669:The Ruined Map
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540:External links
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490:"Introduction"
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410:on 2008-03-16.
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421:Clute, John.
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345:Extrapolation
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535:: "Abe Kōbō"
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459:0-517-531747
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215:Plot summary
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367:Kuusankoski
365:. Finland:
301:Mobius Dick
73:Illustrator
729:Categories
423:"Abe Kobo"
386:"Abe Kobo"
359:"Kobo Abe"
328:References
292:describes
229:writes of
227:John Clute
63:Translator
620:Works by
258:Brian Ash
161:novel by
99:Publisher
76:Abe Machi
622:Kōbō Abe
320:scholar
318:American
193:scholar
191:American
167:Kōbō Abe
163:Japanese
153:(第四間氷期,
103:Kodansha
84:Japanese
81:Language
45:Kōbō Abe
574:at the
254:British
246:In his
187:English
165:writer
715:(1957)
696:(1991)
688:(1984)
680:(1977)
672:(1967)
664:(1964)
656:(1962)
648:(1958)
640:(1957)
629:Novels
517:
456:
41:Author
704:Plays
208:Tokyo
181:. In
173:from
171:Sekai
142:Print
123:Japan
89:Genre
55:第四間氷期
515:ISBN
454:ISBN
303:and
183:1970
179:1959
175:1958
134:1970
114:1959
450:261
177:to
731::
492:.
452:.
425:.
388:.
361:.
336:^
324:.
252:,
197:.
613:e
606:t
599:v
523:.
462:.
278:(
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