In this post: A metaphor for the minority experience or a modern take on the adage "better to have loved and lost than to not love not at all?" You decide.
Category: Fast Fiction + Short Story Collections
Ramiah Recommended?
Yes. And buckle up, because this story is a whirlwind.
I thought this was going to be a boring story. I thought the lists and lists that recommended this short story as a must-read were wrong. Turns out I was.
To be fair... "Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey" does start out with some pretty peaceful scene imagery: "Autumn was nearly over, the sun had long since set, and the place was enveloped in that special navy-blue darkness particular to mountainous areas," - tell me reading that didn't instantly calm you. Even more, tell me that you didn't imagine a sunset, mountains, and maybe fallen leaves.
The serenity grows once readers follow our unnamed protagonist into an onsen - hot spring.
That's when we meet the source of puzzlement: a talking monkey. Specifically - and as he shares he's referred to as - a Shinagawa Monkey. Our unnamed protagonist (let's call him Mystery Man) is unsure if he is hallucinating or not, but he begins having a conversation with the Shinagawa Monkey. It is then that this story takes an uncanny approach to depict cultural integration or acceptance for me.
The Shinagawa Monkey is an outcast. In this world, he is written as the only talking monkey, let alone talking Shinagawa Monkey. Humans find him odd. They do not like to interact with him or hire him, so the Shinagawa Monkey has found himself strapped for opportunities to pursue.
Even our Mystery Man is unsure how to interact with the Shinagawa Monkey. When the Shinagawa Monkey asks if Mystery Man would like his back scrubbed, Mystery Man thought: "It wasn’t as if I’d been sitting there hoping that someone would come and scrub my back, but if I turned him down I was afraid he might think I was opposed to having a monkey do it."
As a reader, my mind focused on "having a monkey do it". The specific note that he didn't want to offend "a monkey," called out to me Shinagawa Monkey's identity - moreso, not who Shinagawa Monkey is and more what he is.
This identifier could be replaced with another - any in the protected class characteristics, for example. Race, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability - a group that one identifies within.
When Shinagawa Monkey continues to detail his experience living as an outcast, it serves as further confirmation that Shinagawa Monkey could serve as a representation of segregation, intolerance, and Other-ism.
'They’ve been kind enough to let me work here. The larger, more upscale inns would never hire a monkey. But they’re always shorthanded around here and, if you can make yourself useful, they don’t care if you’re a monkey or whatever. For a monkey, the pay is minimal, and they let me work only where I can stay mostly out of sight. Straightening up the bath area, cleaning, things of that sort. Most guests would be shocked if a monkey served them tea and so on. Working in the kitchen is out, too, since I’d run into issues with the food-sanitation law.'
A sense of gratitude, lack of opportunity, and reality of dejection/rejection due to one's identity are often experiences of underrepresented minorities. Further telling of a URM's experience is a person within a majority group's response to the URM. For example, our Mystery Man reacts strongly to the Shinagawa Monkey's self-expression (e.g. "I’d never in my life heard a monkey laugh. But I guess monkeys do laugh, and even cry, at times. It shouldn’t have surprised me, given that he was talking."), and the Mystery Man'sresponds adversely to a normal social scene (e.g. "Honestly, it felt odd to be seated next to a monkey, sharing a beer, but I guess you get used to it").
That an outsider could have the same emotions, reactions, experiences, and behaviors as those in an in-group is another signal of inequity and/or implicit bias. That an everyday social interaction could be called out as strange simply because the actor is not in the majority points to the absence of diversity, the use of Other-fication, and the need for normalization of diverse individuals in that society.
In other words, I would be remiss to not share that the Shinagawa Monkey's experience highlighted more than just the story of an unusual, talking animal.
On another note, and seemingly out of nowhere, the Shinagawa Monkey becomes a vessel for a loooooooming question: what is the ultimate expression of love, and could that also be the ultimate manifestation of loneliness?
I mean wow, even typing that out sent my brain into a flurry.
This question appears when Shinagawa Monkey's special power - to steal parts of the names of the women he loves - is brought to light. Shinagawa Monkey explains that taking his lover's name is a way to make the woman part of him - it is an expression of love, a sentimental source of motivation on an otherwise dark way. Dually, it is an expression of loneliness in both practical and theoretical terms: practically, the Shinagawa Monkey is alone because he has been cast as The Other in his society; theoretically, the Shinagawa Monkey is isolated because he is acting out of selfishness - his own desire to keep the women he loved forever and acting on it despite the repercussions it has on them.
In his own words, the Shinagawa Monkey explains his rationale as:
'I believe that love is the indispensable fuel for us to go on living. Someday that love may end. Or it may never amount to anything. But even if love fades away, even if it’s unrequited, you can still hold on to the memory of having loved someone, of having fallen in love with someone. And that’s a valuable source of warmth. Without that heat source, a person’s heart—and a monkey’s heart, too—would turn into a bitterly cold, barren wasteland.'
It's a mind-bending question and an interesting take on "it's better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all."
Murakami throws in humor between such serious topics, and it helpfully dilutes the confusion a reader (like me) may have with keeping up with the story and its themes. Murakami's use of stream-of-consciousness writing also keeps the story interesting and the characters entertaining.
Ultimately, as you ponder if the Shinagawa Monkey is a romantic or an egomaniac, a metaphor for a minority experience, or even exists at all, you should have a fun time reading this story.
Read it for yourself here.
Ramiah Reflects
(Please see above!)
Ramiah's Re-read When
Re-read when:
You want to consider if this story serves as a euphemism for acceptance and cultural integration
You want to contemplate the ultimate expression of love or loneliness
You want a whirlwind story experience in a short period of time
Check out my other posts and book notes here.
Until next time!
Montana Houston
