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Vanishing World

Love, sex, and wombs for all

In the vein of her previous gloriously odd books, Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata is one for accidental contrarians, those who don’t set out to defy convention but find themselves unable to flourish within the parameters of societal norms. Here, we meet Amane, a young Japanese woman in an era where marital sex is practically taboo, and children are conceived via artificial insemination for reasons of convenience and hygiene. Amane’s conflict arises from the shameful fact that she, herself, was conceived by the positively barbaric method of sexual intercourse. Navigating her way in this sterile world, Amane has questions to ask and experiments to conduct.

We begin with Amane’s earliest recollections, in particular  the day before Sex Ed class at elementary school, when Amane’s mother first hurriedly reveals the facts and mechanics of her daughter’s conception. Having grown up with her mother’s old-fashioned stories of princes and princesses falling in love and the assertion that she was born because ‘Mummy and Daddy loved each other very much’, Amane is simultaneously receptive and revolted.

The next day at school brings alternative facts, in the form of videos about artificial insemination and a puzzled Amane repeats her mother’s revelation to an appalled teacher. Breeding through copulation has been shunned for decades now. In fact, adolescents are automatically fitted with contraceptive implants, this makes Amane’s mother something of an unexpected renegade.

Within days the news has spread around school and Amane is being taunted. Confused by her own emerging sexuality, she decides to follow her instincts and discover her ‘own truth’, however hard this may prove to be.

Murata’s extraordinary novel of ideas expands on her familiar themes of conformity (and rejection thereof) and notions of normality, her pushback against proscriptive living raising some interesting questions about societal constructs.

In Amane’s world, susceptible teenagers are encouraged to develop intense crushes on manga and anime characters, a safe way to redirect their sexual urges. As one perceptive teenage pal puts it:

‘…all sorts of anime characters have been created for our sexual gratification. They’re just consumables to help us process our desire…It won’t be long before nobody bothers to have sex any more. It’s very unhygienic after all.’

As Amane moves into adulthood and marriage, she sets herself the very modern goal of artificial insemination, and en route to this, true to her word, she explores her own sexuality (although only extramaritally, as sex in marriage is considered to be practically incest. Spouses belong firmly in the platonic zone). In the meantime, scientific progress is delivering artificial wombs for men. At last, women can share the burden of pregnancy and childbirth. What implications could this have for the family unit? Is this the dawn of true equality?

Amane is determined to find out. Meanwhile, her mother hovers accusingly in the background, convinced that her corrupted daughter will eventually embrace conventional old-school romance and family life.

Typically bizarre and provocative, Murata’s writing always gets the brain fizzing. Her triumph here, is in reminding us that we’ve all, in fact, been subject to a dose of societal brainwashing.

Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata is translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori and published by Granta Books.

If you like this, see also Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata.