Oe, A Personal Matter
The first couple of pages I read of A Personal Matter had me confused and wondering what was going on. At first you think that a man is travelling alone, trying to find a map, then there is this excerpt of a woman in labor, then back to the maps. It had me wondering what this “Bird” was doing out instead of being with this woman (whom I assume is his wife) when she needs him most. Bird seems to have an outlandish take on the world at his age. Though he is an older man, he sees the world (and even acts) as a child.
Through the entire book there were uses of some words that seemed a bit off to me. On page 18, when the doctor asks Bird if he’d like to “see the goods” when referring to his child, it seemed as though the child was not human, and I hope the author wrote it out to be like this, as it is rather unsettling. Also on page 23, when Bird asks if the doctor is a neurologist the doctor replies “Oh no, I’m an obstetrician. There are no brain men at out hospital.” this made me feel like no one really cared for the situation at hand. By not using the terminology correct words for what a certain job is called, it makes the reader think that the character doesn’t care. It’s like telling a patient who has a lung cancer that they have “those big things in your lungs that are bad.” The patient would think that their doctor didn’t care about them- or thought that they were stupid.
Though I’m glad that this book had the classical ‘good ending’, I was kind of hoping for something less predictable, as the author himself added some rather unpredictable things in the book. I’m also glad that this is somewhat related to the author’s life- as his child was also born with a brain hernia. Though I didn’t really enjoy this book, it is a great example of how literature has developed since the Second World War, especially in Japan.
jpn400 
As a fan of this novel, I find your thoughts on what Ōe has to say about Japanese culture and the modern world very inquisitive. I may be wrong, but it appears the way Bird’s convoluted, self-deprecating perspective on life and the bureaucratic flow of the hospital lingo pulled you apart from enjoying this story. I do find it a bit tough of a situation to sit through, reading Bird get himself into all these cerebral and corporeal dilemmas; however, I must understand that Ōe is pushing his reader to face the harsh realism that comes out of his words. It could very well be that Ōe’s choice in using this hospital terminology was because that is how the confrontation with his doctors went amidst the birth of his son Hikari.
Also, your dissatisfaction in his story strengthened with the clichè “classical ending.” Perhaps you were thrown off with a conventional ending because you expected more surprising turns in the story. Throughout my time reading, I expected a surprise ending simply because of the radical nature of his prose. The end may have been “classical,” but it was by no means predictable simply due to the fact that we both were expecting (and received) surprising turns in events. For the record, at the rate Bird was going, the predictable ending would have been his death by suicide or accidental manslaughter.
I as well was confused in the beginning of the novel. I really liked how Oe was able to compare people by using animals. It showed the caged feeling. I do feel that this reading was dark and it was bringing out the truth that no one wants to hear
It’s good that you bring up some of those specific passages of unsettling word choice, and now as I relook at them I see quite a few more that I originally missed. I definitely think that it was intentional by Ōe to make these scenes seem harsher to the readers (why specifically can be debated or inferred multiple ways). As far as the ending goes, I do agree that it seemed a little conventional, though as another commenter pointed out, one could argue that this “conventional” ending was out of place, simply because the rest of the book was so unorthodox.
You make a good point. For a very emotional book. Bird seems to be one of humanities less emotional people. These comments make him seem distant from people, thinking of them as objects in his life. This book shows even someone removed as Bird can be affected by tragic outcomes.
On the matter of enjoying the book, I think that may be the point. A lot of realist literature has this feeling of not enjoying the novel, yet subconsciously we like it for its frank view on contemporary life. I’m not sure if that’s how you feel about this novel, but it’s definitely the feeling I got.
On the word choice, it’s very much intentional to bring out how we as humanity view those who are different from us as monsters or not human. We always use derogatory terms for those who are different from us to make us feel better about being the same species as this supposed monster. We can’t get away from it though, as evidenced by Bird feeling insulted when the old lady commented on how cute his child was when wearing the hat to hide the lump on its head.