Sei Ito (author: 1905-1969)：one of the most famous Japanese novelists and critics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sei_It%C5%8D
Excavation (title of the novel)
Men are charged with the mission to sire many women. However, because of the institution of marriage, they are socially obligated to observe monogamy. So many contradictions arise.
The problem is adultery and cheating.
Women use sex as a weapon to attract men and lead them to marriage. Men also fall into this trap. However, the institution of marriage is not compatible with men’s physiology.
In this book, the author draws on various examples to illustrate how men are vulnerable to women and how easily they can fall into women’s traps. Both parents and children have the same DNA. And to live, this author seems to be saying, is to seek this sexuality.
He also seems to be saying that after sexual fulfillment, the only thing left for human beings is death.
He seems to be saying that other acts do not have much meaning.
This seems to be a rather nihilistic, Schopenhauerian view of life. Schopenhauer refers to sexual desire as a kind of demon that has taken up residence in human beings. He says that this is what makes people’s lives go haywire. He also says that we can rest assured that we will be free from it in old age.
However, this is not true, according to the author and my own experience. The reality is that both women and men will have to deal with this problem as long as they live.
@The theme of the book is:
People are beings who have no control over their sexual desires.
The institution of marriage is inherently contradictory due to differences in male and female physiology.
Life has no inherent meaning when considered rationally.
The way of life according to this instinct is the way it should be, and human beings end up with a cruel death.
and so on.
@What impressed me:
-At fifty-four years old, even in the sunset of life, the deception of doing things with women still happens.
-Even in a second-rate life, the content of life is the same.
-Only a child can weep over the death of a relative (regardless of economics, morality, or the ways of life).
-The urge to take for oneself the fallen ear by the road is stronger than ever.
-The woman’s body seemed to have no crevices, no guilty or unclean parts.
-All the women seemed to be wary of a man’s approach and would say meaningful things in a discreet and shy manner. But that is usually empty bait.
She boldly and quickly accepts the deal of marriage, only to become a married woman.
-Women vie for their prey one by one:
that was the way of human life.
-There were three affairs in this novel.
-Her idealism: a man must have perfect character and superior talents to ensure the happiness of a woman – there is no such man in the world. Yet women will seek only the man of their own image and will never stop thinking that the man in front of them is a fake.
-There is freedom in the old age to move in either direction of desire or restraint.
-The attraction of a woman’s body, which is really all made the same, has the same kryptonite, and ends up working in the same way.
-We used to long for the famous, but when it comes to a real life, it is a hard life, unpleasant, and a constant drag of falsehood.
-People who do not try to take advantage of others in a meritorious way are treasures.
-God gives woman the pleasure of renouncing self for the sake of a new being, a child.
-A powerful spring is at work inside the man, seeking the adventure of the affair.
-Men take delight in sex for the secret depths of the female personality that is abandoned and exposed to them (even when young). It is the pleasure of owning a persona of the opposite sex who has faith us men.
-Keizo ( the protagonist of the novel)had not become a real thing to anyone.
-If he took off the status and income that women counted on, they would not come after him.
-Everyone in life was trying to go as fast as possible, to overtake what was in front of them, to get some advantage before others, and to show it off to others. All that was empty, and when we come to the verge of death, we realize that we have nothing left in our hands.
-It calmed the clan that he died at the age of 81.
-Each and every one of them had a rueful look, as if they were starving for happiness, struggling to live, and waiting their turn.
-Men of the world ruin women, while doing what is natural in their nature. Do not marry. It is a terrible trap that is bound to ruin the other.
-Don’t be afraid of what exists.
-Think as you see fit.
