[Scrap and Build] Keisuke Haneda: What is the excessive addition of care that turns three in need of care into five?

Introduction.

Describes his thoughts on the novel “Scrap and Build” by Keisuke Haneda, winner of the 153rd Akutagawa Award.

I had previously purchased the book on kindle, but was not sure if I had read it or not, and re-read it.

I personally like the way the inorganic buildings on the cover of the book seem to indicate scrap and build, and the way the buildings continue endlessly to the end, suggesting endless care.

Note that this article contains spoilers, so it is recommended to read it after reading this article.

summary

The main character, Kento (28 years old), retired from the company he joined after graduating, and while studying for a certification exam and looking for a job, he and his mother are taking care of their grandfather, who is 87 years old and in need of nursing care but still in good health, and he and his mother feel stressed about his grandfather, who mutters “I want to die soon! He and his mother felt stressed about his grandfather, who muttered “I want to die early” every day. He and his mother feel stressed about his grandfather, who mutters “I want to die soon.” So Kento decides to weaken his grandfather by taking care of him excessively and strengthening his muscles on a daily basis. While dating his girlfriend, Kento depicts his grandfather, who is simultaneously “hopeful for death” and “obsessed with life,” through the eyes of an unemployed young man who spends his days caring for his grandfather and looking for a job.

Addition and Subtraction Caregiving

His grandson, Kento, thinks about the current situation in Japan, where euthanasia is not possible, and he asks his friend, a caregiver, to help him.

It is to weaken them all at once by depriving them of movement through excessive addition and subtraction of care, if not by breaking bones. Because functions that are not used will deteriorate. This is the kind of care that turns a person who needs nursing care 3 into a person who needs nursing care 5.

Scrap and Build” by Keisuke Haneda

We will be actively involved in “excessive addition caregiving” based on the advice of the following. What is “excessive addition of caregiving”? I was intrigued to find out. Specifically, it is an action like the one quoted below.

Kento is back to his overzealous nursing duties this morning. I had burned some of my grandfather’s favorite toast, the epitome of “soft and sweet,” but I spread it generously with margarine and jam and served it to him for lunch. Burnt toast and margarine have recently been linked to cancer, but I have heard that cancer is the easiest of all mortal diseases to cure. I also nudged the development of skin cancer from sunlight by opening all the curtains in my grandfather’s room. Kento also took away the opportunity to exercise by taking down the dishes and cups that he had finished using. He added a large stock of real sleeping aids to a vial labeled “sleeping aid,” the contents of which had been replaced by a sachet of soda since the suicide attempt.

Scrap and Build” by Keisuke Haneda

On the contrary, a mother (i.e., the grandfather’s daughter) is disgusted by the grandfather’s comments and actions that spoil her children and grandchildren who live with her.

“Mom, dishes, please.”
You promised to carry the dishes to the kitchen by yourself. Don’t spoil me, you’ll be bedridden if you keep taking it easy.

Scrap and Build” by Keisuke Haneda

and thorough subtractive care.

I found it interesting that both approaches to caregiving are positioned as both good and bad, each with its own beliefs and targeted approaches.

Grandson Builds on Grandfather’s Reflections with Muscle Training

Not wanting to be like his grandfather, who is physically disabled, and says, “I want to die, I want to die,” Kento, the grandson, begins to work hard at muscle training. Although Kento himself continues to be unemployed and unable to get a mid-career job interview, by taking care of his grandfather who lives with him, he becomes aware of the fact that he is physically fit and growing muscles through muscle training, compared to his grandfather.

However, in Kento’s mind, the image of an old man who has become so spoiled that he can no longer walk independently comes to mind. Don’t be fooled by immediate comfort, don’t be lazy, my muscles.

Scrap and Build” by Keisuke Haneda

Then the muscle training gradually escalated, leading to the conclusion that gym machines and the like were no good and that pushing oneself to the limit with one’s own body weight would not only physically grow muscles, but would also train the mind. Then, from a push-up position, he would do a “plunge” self-weight muscle training, where he would talk both hands at the same time, lower his body to the ground to the ground level, and then lift it up with his hands just before, resulting in a wrist injury.

In other words, no matter how much Kento trains himself to “take the plunge,” he is being shown the fact that if he lives half a century, he will have a body like his grandfather’s and a corrupt mind to go along with it. Just by looking at him, Kento feels as if he is being mocked by his future self. Therefore, in order to show his dignity to his grandchildren, Kento hopes that his grandfather will at least make a good end to his life.

Scrap and Build” by Keisuke Haneda

It is interesting to note that while he is trying to diminish his grandfather himself by over-caring for him, he also reveals an ambivalent feeling that he wants his grandfather to show dignity because he does not want to end up like his grandfather no matter how much he trains his muscles and strengthens himself now.

A grandfather who says he wants to die, but clings to life.

When Kento witnesses out of the corner of his eye his grandfather, who always wanted to die and walked around the house with a cane, moving agilely and without a cane when he is alone at home, he is astonished and begins to wonder if his “excessive addition of care” does not make sense.

Then, when taking his grandfather into the bath, he forcefully unties his hand, saying, “I ain’t drowning,” when his grandfather says, “Don’t let go of my hand because you’ll drown. The grandfather reacts as if he is drowning, and Kento, startled, quickly pulls him up, and this exchange ensues.

Thanks, Kento helped me out. Kento saved me.”
Kento stopped moving when he was told in a calm tone, “You almost killed me.
The first thing he said was, “I was about to die.” With that one word, he lost his equilibrium in the one-and-a-half-mat dressing room and almost drowned.
Was he wrong?
I must have been mistaken. Kento was trying to calm his mind as he watched his grandfather struggle to put on his underwear with a body that was getting worse and worse. This man who pulls on his grandchildren in this way is clinging to life.

Scrap and Build” by Keisuke Haneda

Although it is not clearly depicted in this film, the grandfather is attached to life even though he says he wants to die, and he also wants his daughter and grandchildren who live with him to take care of him, so all of his actions must have come from this. He wanted to die, but he was obsessed with life. Although seemingly contradictory, these two emotions are beautifully expressed, and although this is fiction, it could easily be inferred that they would occur on a daily basis in the non-fiction world as well.

Interesting expression of the text.

I personally picked up a few phrases that I found interesting and as expected.

sniffing at the depths of the haribo
High-resolution terrestrial digital screens are too much for my old eyes to handle.
My grandfather’s ears are like unidirectional microphones.
Social masks, a white hell without day or night

Scrap and Build” by Keisuke Haneda

Regarding the title

With respect to the title, the word build appears only once in this work in the muscle training section. The word “build” is used as an act of muscle training to rebuild one’s body better.

In contrast, the word “scrap” does not appear even once, and I was curious as to why he used the word scrap. Etymologically, it means “to dismantle,” “to dispose of,” etc., and would seem to be an antonym of build, but I wondered if scrap was a metaphor for the act of gradually weakening the grandfather through “excessive care”.

However, while googling, I found an interview with Mr. Haneda, in which he responded as follows, which was somewhat disconcerting, but I also found it interesting on the contrary.

Titles are rather the last thing to come to mind. In the case of “Scrap and Build,” the word “build” was the first thing I thought of. I also had other ideas, such as a title with two kanji characters, or a title with a mixture of hiragana and kanji. However, “Scrap and Build” is a story about nursing care, and it falls into the genre of “illness literature,” which has been passed down from generation to generation in modern Japanese literature. There are many excellent works in this genre, so I wanted to give it a different, silly feel. I decided on this title because I thought that two kanji characters would give a damp feeling, but long katakana characters would give a flippant, silly feeling.

Source: Akutagawa Prize-winning author Keisuke Haneda talks about his daily life as it is