My first book by Yasutaka Tsutsui was the short story collection Salmonella Men on Planet Porno. I was really amused by Tsutsui's wild imagination and zany stories, so I picked up Hell next, which I finished on the extended remix of a bus ride to Melaka. While Tsutsui's concept of Hell was interesting, there were too many Japanese characters in the plot that I got pretty confused and kept having to flip back to check who was who.
But there was still positive energy spilling from the Planet Porno experience, so I gave Tsutsui a third try - Paprika. My first encounter of Paprika was the anime film which, after watching the first 20 minutes, I gave up on completing cos everything seemed rather surreal and random.
The Paprika novel wasn't such a mindfuck as the anime, the story generally flows well and the idea of dream monitoring and intervention to treat mental disorders was rather intriguing. Towards the end however, the mindfucking began, where Tsutsui applied a complex algorithm to the lines that divided reality and the dream world that the characters were in - and everything was turned inside out/upside down/round and round.
Luckily, my brain has a self defence mechanism to cope with such random weirdness (so that it doesn't explode and turn to mush), it steps back and swims along with the current instead of trying to fight back with logic. Oh, a horrifying giant Japanese doll with blood red lips just turned up from nowhere in reality/the dream to kill everyone. Right ho.
If you ever ended your compo with "...Then George woke up with a start, his clothes drenched in sweat. Phew, it was all just a dream." maybe you should take a crack at Paprika. You might have a new found respect for how far 'just a dream' can take you.
6.5 out of 10 ninja cracker snacks.
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