This book is weird and good. The factory is on an expansive campus with its own strange animals, and the people working jobs there have no clear sense of what they're doing. The description of animals is Vandermeer-esque.
I also appreciate that one character draws a parallel between the factory's campus and the Tokyo Imperial palace, both of which the character speculates might have their own entire ecosystems. The palace is surrounded by a mote, but the boundary around the factory is not so clear (another moment when the book reminded me of Vandermeer/The Southern Reach).
If I had had the time, I would have finished it in one sitting. The author doesn’t hold your hand to help you understand the slightly unconventional structure of the story but instead allows you to wander and explore the factory as if you were in it. Fantastic read!
A surprising satire of working life in contemporary Japan
3 stars
Like the other works of hers that I've read, The Hole and Weasels in the Attic, Oyamada begins by easing readers into the situations of her characters. Before long, though, their worlds begin to unravel. Following four characters in their strange occupations on the enormous campus of an unnamed factory, Oyamada builds suspense as questions about the factory mount and the surreal becomes more and more real.
"Me and my work, me and the factory, me and society. There’s always something in the way. It’s like we’re touching, but we’re not. What am I doing here? I’ve been living on this planet for more than twenty years, and I still can’t talk properly, can’t do anything that a machine can’t do better. I’m not even operating the shredder. I’m only assisting it. I guess I’m working, but it actually feels like I’m getting paid money I don’t deserve, like I’m surviving on money I haven’t earned. It didn’t feel like time was moving, but the clock on the wall said I’d been at work for three hours."
"I thought I’d been giving it everything I had, but what I thought was my everything had no real value."
I think this book should be read alongside 1984 and Brave New World. It's that important, and oh my, is …
"Me and my work, me and the factory, me and society. There’s always something in the way. It’s like we’re touching, but we’re not. What am I doing here? I’ve been living on this planet for more than twenty years, and I still can’t talk properly, can’t do anything that a machine can’t do better. I’m not even operating the shredder. I’m only assisting it. I guess I’m working, but it actually feels like I’m getting paid money I don’t deserve, like I’m surviving on money I haven’t earned. It didn’t feel like time was moving, but the clock on the wall said I’d been at work for three hours."
"I thought I’d been giving it everything I had, but what I thought was my everything had no real value."
I think this book should be read alongside 1984 and Brave New World. It's that important, and oh my, is it real.
How is the psyche effected when our value is tied to our work, and yet full time positions are being replaced by temporary positions and contract work? How are we supposed to identify with a company that doesn't identify with us, or find meaning in meaningless work? These questions are explored as we follow three workers in a sprawling, nebulous factory that the whole town seems to depend on.
If you're a worker in the 21st Century, you absolutely should read The Factory. My only gripe was the formatting; I am unsure if the lack of indentation was a result of translation or an intentional choice by the author, but the walls of text were exhausting.
