Natsuko Imamura, Asa: The Girl Who Turned into a Pair of Chopsticks

Imamura's book is comprised of three short stories each that blur the outlines of what we think we know to be the human experience and what it means to be live and survive. The body morphs into non-human form, yet consciousness, sentiment and attachment remains. The goal of life to endure is challenged at its very core. Abjection is peppered throughout Imamura's stories: her protagonists—grimy, mouldy, dirty, stinky—and their transformations sit outside society and what we take to be normal, and evade not only what is acceptable but also what is possible. 

In this opening passage of the afterword, Murata describes the strange, but also the unnamed/unnamable experience of life, our bodies and our environment that happens outside or beyond language and words we can have available to us to describe them. 

Two surrealists painters mentioned in Lauren Elkin's novel Scaffolding

Remedios Varo (1908-1963)

Kay Sage (1898-1963)

Psalm 27 for Elul

There are a number of translations of Psalm 27, which gets recited each day during the month of Elul - the aim is a different word or phrase resonates with each reading. 

As an agnostic Jew, this translation by Rabbi Brant Rosen, which relies less overtly on the reader's confident faith in God, offers instead a proclamation in the second person and leaves some ambiguity as per the receiver.

Psalm 27: you are my light and my hope

you are my light and my hope
why should i fear?
you are my life and my strength
so why do i tremble?

when i contemplate surrender
to my dread of the unknown,
i hold tight to you
and your strength gives me strength.

i only ask one thing of you,
just this one thing:
that i may be welcome in your house
all the days of my life,
to dwell in your innermost place
in safety beneath
the softness of your wings.

be my shelter when
i am wracked by hardship and disquiet,
offer me sanctuary and from there
i will sing hymns to the darkness
with openness and love

do you hear my song?
do you hear me when i cry
to you?
do not turn away –
i seek you endlessly,
i turn constantly toward your light.

in my darkest moments
of this i am sure:
i will never be alone,
yes, even if my father and mother
abandoned me, you will be there
to gather me up

guide me in your ways,
lead me down the paths
of wholeness and peace,
remind me that no matter
how far i may stray
there is always a road
to return.

though i don’t always see it
i will ever trust in your goodness
right here
right now
in the land of the living.

hold on to your hope
and be strong.
the time of our return
will soon arrive.