David, Princess Belle Marie R.Eng 1 | X4-A

July 14, 2015Maam Isa Lorenzo

Oblivion

Brian Phillips Sea of Crises is not really about a sumo wrestling tournament, Hakuho, a failed coup, or Koga. For me, the story is about oblivion and how the narrator become increasingly preoccupied with, even though it had nothing to do with the wrestling culture [hed] come to Japan to observe (Phillips).

The first part of the story is a glimpse of who Hakuho is and about the rich culture of sumo wrestling. I was surprised that rules in sumo wrestling is strictly followed by all sumotori and there are also foreign rikishi. I enjoyed reading the first two pages of the story since I found sumo wrestling interesting but I still dont think that I can finish reading the whole eighteen-page story. Good thing that the second part of the story, The Disappearing Sword, started to tell a different story failed coup ending in seppuku.

As the story continues, I noticed that the narrator has been talking more about the latter story that sumo wrestling which is a proof that he has become preoccupied with Koga. He also mentioned that he had been forgetful all winter. I found some similarities between the narrator of this story and Neddy Merrill in John Cheevers The Swimmer. The narrator said that instead of confronting his problem, he was evading it like Neddy had his gift for concealing painful facts (Cheever 609). Neddy used alcohol to escape all those painful facts. Likewise, the narrator focused more about Koga and the seppuku instead of worrying about his memory loss.

Phillips mentioned endings of Japanese stories. He said that some stories never end at all, but only cut away, at the moment of extreme crisis, to a butterfly, or to the wind, or to the moon. I liked and hated how his story, for me, never end at all. I felt cheated because I expected that he and Koga will meet earlier in the story and the narrators questions will all be answered.