Legend of Japanese science fiction Izumi Suzuki’s dystopian short stories, in first English translation, play on gender relations and overpopulation
- The characters in Terminal Boredom inhabit a range of worlds, often overpopulated and with dystopian policies to address the problem of too many people
- Science fiction is often said to reflect the time in which it is written, and Suzuki’s covers population concerns, youth ennui and gender relations
Terminal Boredom by Izumi Suzuki (translated by Polly Barton, Sam Bett, David Boyd, Daniel Joseph, Aiko Masubuchi and Helen O’Horan). Verso
Izumi Suzuki was a “model and actor” in so-called pink films (soft pornography), a “counterculture icon” and legend of Japanese science fiction, whose life was intense and death tragic. Terminal Boredom is intended to be the first of a series of her books to be translated and published in English, with a second collection already in the works.
Of course, one should not judge a book by its cover or an e-book by its filename, but why – if you wanted a new readership to discover these works – would you name the collection Terminal Boredom (after the final story of the seven)? With this first appearance of the tragi-iconic Japanese author in English, the collection title might have highlighted other, non-boring aspects of Suzuki’s concerns: “Women and Women” or “You May Dream”.
As one character in the title story comments, “No s***, Sherlock.”