Kobo's "Friends"

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

As of now I cannot compare Abe Kobo's play "Friends" to anything I have ever read before. I tried to find out some more background information on "Friends" on the internet, but most of the information focuses on Kobo's books and larger more well-known works.
I just have a few random comments on the story; and random because I don't quite have a good grip on Kobo's message. I generally don't like reading literature that begins "in medias res," (in the middle of action) because it's frustrating to myself as a reader when I don't understand what's going on for more than a paragraph. Regardless I enjoyed the story and the unconventionality of it. I understand that the content of Kobo's stories tend toward surreal and unrealistic which actually prompts me to seek out more of his work. I mean basically the man who is being "harassed" by the family ends up dying in a cage in his own apartment out of distress. How bizarre is that,? yet somehow very fascinating all at once.

At times I think that Kobo is mocking the Japanese "ie" family system. The family impose themselves on the man's (individual's) life in every aspect with noble intentions of supporting and caring for the man however in reality the family's every move is destructive to the man. So in the same spirit perhaps Kobo's message is that although the "ie" system is meant to help the "group" and influence individuals to act out of concern for the family, the system is actually a destruction of personal will and of the possibilities of an individual. Which is exactly what happens to the man.

Also, the play is funny. The comedy makes the reading worthwhile.

[Anonymous]

I also had a really hard time grasping Kobo's main message in this play. I felt that it was a bit sarcastic and showed the bickering and bitterness that seemed to occur among family and friends. However, parts of it were a bit puzzling to me. I felt that the discussion of the broken necklaces seemed to tie the story together, but I had difficulty understanding how. Were the necklaces supposed to represent the brokeness of the family?

[Anonymous]

i didn't enjoy reading this excerpt at all. i found it frustrating that the family would not leave the man alone. i felt sympathy for the man. the excerpt was just weird i mean a man is nice enough to answer the door to a stranger because he gets sucked in because its some poor girl he thinks on the other side of the door and suddently 9 people walk into his apt/office thing. and he asks them politely to leave and they wont listen. i found it very frustrating to read this. however, i did feel like i was part of the story.. like i was in the room with them so props to kobo for having a descriptive play.

[Anonymous]

when i first tried to grasp the story i was wayy off, unexaggerated. as in, i expected to grasp a comedy taht was just merely lightly ridiculing a man in a comical manner. we see such "comedies" in american media all the time. that was...until i found out... the guy dies in the end...aite so maybe not so funny , unless ur rly morbid
so i did a little research on kobo to figure out what the hey was going on and found out that he was an expert in so called "surreal and often nightmarish" explorations of the individual in contemporary society. so this puts everything together nicely. kobo is making a statement, as some of you mentioned; this wasn't merely a comedy, it was meant to be caustic and political.
so what was the meaning then? i'm sure we could debate for a while on it, but in a general sense, here ya go: this office worker gets INVADED by a family taking control of him, till the brink of DEATH....and in the meantime this family claiming to be under the guise of "social good" , despite their cruel actions. common theme here?...yuup.

how often do we see things under the guise of "the public good" go way out of hand. like over political correctness? or even in a religious point of view, the murderous religious activities (that still even go on TODAY) that are in the name of GOD..?..
yea...overboard individualism can be dangerous, and many times the media says so even in modern times. look at the Jet li movie, Hero, and some....other...stuff that i can't remmeber now. but yea... so its up to you guys.
whats more important.. the individual..the group? personally i fear conformist-mindless mass kinda deals (making me kind of an existentialist), but i'm sure most of us would agree that its really a helathy mix of the two that is best.

[Anonymous]

I also thought the play was very atypical. Firstly, the characterizations were somewhat vague and so it was difficult to even know what the characters were thinking and their motives. Not knowing the characters' purposes, namely WHY they want to "intrude and keep the man company," makes it even more frustrating to try to figure out the main idea of the play. I also thought the death of the man was quite unexpected. Furthermore, I think that if the play provides a little more explanation (even subtle ones) for most of the things that the characters do, it would better present its message. On the other hand, perhaps it was it peculiar feeling that the play left to the audience that makes it unique, something it is best known to be. In short, I just feel that it was not satisfying how the characters came to do what they did, and that at the end, the play did not clearly explain why those things happened.

[Anonymous]

I can respect the opinion that some of us don't like "Friends" for its ambiguous nature (I found it was a little frustrating as well), however, I think reading this particular work opens our minds to different styles of literature and I think there's an appreciation to be had for Kobo's play because it IS just that different and we are all too accustomed to stories or whatever types of literature that spells things out for us. However I feel that "Friends" is almost an exercise in our imaginations and probably forced us to think more extensively about the plot more so than most stories that spells things out for us.

[Anonymous]

I also agree that this stle of writing is difficult to grasp, but in ways, that's what makes it the more interesting. The perculiar ways of this imposing and bold family directly offsets this alone man. Basically everyone prasies the doing of this family (policeman, fiancee, reporter) that they are doing good for the society/bettering the neighborhood. Everyone thinks the family is bringing good values to this man, and that they are a necessity for him. Only the man thinks otherwise, but he is unable to have any say in all of this. I think that he suddenly dies in the end alone, just as he had started represents that the structure and necessity of the family is not always the best solution (as the first post had mentioned). Society sees the family as the best means for this man/for the individual, and only through the eyes of the man and the audience does Kobo enlighten them to see that the family (ie) does not always function to better everyone in it.

[Anonymous]

I did also experience frustration while reading this play because I really wanted to know who the family was and what they were doing there. However, since the author is trying to make statement, convey a message about society, explicitly stating that information would probably be irrelevant and detract from the power of the work. Throughout the reading, I tried to figure out what the message was, and I did also consider the concept of how the family represents the entity that is the "ie" and the man as the individual has difficulty coping with the demands they place on him. They kept emphasizing how they were doing this for his own good and that he would learn to understand.

I also considered that the man was actually the antagonist of the play and represented the isolation and selfishness of city life. In the introduction it says that Kobo said "the city is the place where people first had to deal with the stranger who is not an enemy. I think they still have not succeeded completely." This fits in also with his other works that have the common theme of isolation. The man in the apartment doesn't seem to have any acquaintances besides the fiancee. He repeatedly states that he enjoys being alone. The "Man" is characteristic of someone who is quick to dismiss strangers as enemies and the family attempts to change this viewpoint.

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