Hunchback Quotes

“Being able to see; being able to hold a book; being able to turn its page; being able to maintain a reading posture; being able to go to a bookshop to buy a book - I loathed the exclusionary machismo of book culture that demanded that its participants meet these five criteria of able-bodiedness. I loathed, too, the ignorant arrogance of all those self-professed book-lovers so oblivious to their privilege.”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“I hated museums, and libraries, and any kind of historic building. I loathed old things, whose flawless, polished form had been impeccably preserved. I hated things that endured without breaking, that accrued value through aging. The longer I lived, the more my body collapsed into an ever more aberrant shape. It wasn’t collapsing into death. Rather, it collapsed so as to live, collapsed as a testament to all the time I’d withstood.”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“Disabled people were not sexual beings – I had assented to the definition that society had created.”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“Japan, on the other hand, works on the understanding that disabled people don’t exist within society, so there are no such proactive considerations made. Able-bodied Japanese people have likely never even imagined a hunchbacked monster struggling to read a physical book. Here was I, feeling my spine being crushed a little more with every book that I read, while all those e-book-hating able-bodied people who went on and on about how they loved the smell of physical books, or the feel of the turning pages beneath their fingers, persisted in their state of happy oblivion.”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“The longer I lived, the more my body collapsed into an ever more aberrant shape. It wasn’t collapsing into death. Rather, it collapsed so as to live, collapsed as a testament to all the time I’d withstood. To live, my body breaks.”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“Yes, all those able-bodied people didn’t know how good they had it. They could make erudite-sounding pronouncements about how they just liked the smell of books, or the feel of the paper, or the sense of tension that came from the thickness of the remaining pages reducing beneath their fingers, and others would listen unquestioningly to what they were saying.”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“Irritation and contempt were, after all, not things one felt for people far removed from oneself.”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“Of course, the tweetings of a hunchbacked monster would be more twisted than those of someone with a perfectly erect spine.”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“Being able to see; being able to hold a book; being able to turn its pages; being able to maintain a reading posture; being able to go to a bookshop to buy a book-I loathed the exclusionary machismo of book culture that demanded that its participants meet these five criteria of able-bodiedness. I loathed, too, the ignorant arrogance of all those self-professed book-lovers so oblivious to their privilege.”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“Aku pernah menulis di forum bahwa dunia penerbitan menganut Machismo Orang Normal—memprioritaskan orang-orang sehat. Bukankah dunia olahraga—yang dibenci bagai hewan berbisa oleh orang-orang budaya yang pura-pura lembut hati—justru menyiapkan tempat di salah satu sudut dunianya bagi para penyandang disabilitas untuk berperan aktif?”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“Dingin ataupun bukan, komunikator yang kuatlah yang akan menemukan makna suatu percakapan.”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“Aku benci buku kertas! Aku benci kejantanan budaya membaca yang menuntut seseorang memenuhi lima syarat kesehatan: mata yang bisa melihat, tangan yang dapat memegang, jari yang mahir membalik halaman, badan yang sanggup mempertahankan posisi membaca, dan kaki yang mampu melangkah bebas ke toko buku.”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“Oh my god, I thought immediately, he's a creep. He's self-identifying as a beta male. He's probably an incel. Fuck!”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“I bore no responsibility in any of this. With my reduced muscular strenght, I couldn't afford to bear any.”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“I couldn't become the Mona Lisa. I was, after all, a hunchback monster.”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“I guess that, someday, I’ll conceive the child that Shaka wanted to kill so that she might become a person. Maybe that someday is – now.”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“How could I, with only these mistaken blueprints to refer to, ever hope to turn out like them? I wouldn’t object to living life on their level. Getting pregnant, having an abortion, breaking up, getting with someone new, getting pregnant, having a baby, breaking up, getting with someone else, having another baby – I’d be perfectly content if my life was just an imitation of that process. I wanted to catch up with those kids, catch up with their backs. Even if I couldn’t give birth, I wanted to get as far as aborting.”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“Holding in both hands an open book three or four centimetres in thickness took a greater toll on my back than any other activity. Being able to see; being able to hold a book; being able to turn its pages; being able to maintain a reading posture; being able to go to a bookshop to buy a book – I loathed the exclusionary machismo of book culture that demanded that its participants meet these five criteria of able-bodiedness. I loathed, too, the ignorant arrogance of all those self-professed book-lovers so oblivious to their privilege.”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“If those who were so aggrieved by disabled people not contributing to society and gobbling up everyone’s benefit money knew about this, would it assuage their concerns a little?”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“According to The History of the Body, edited by Corbin, Courtine, and Vigarello, the "criminalization of the gaze" that took hold around the dawn of the twentieth century had led to the decline of the freak show, which was subsequently replaced in popularity by the Monsters of Hollywood. Now, with costumes serving as an ethical cushion, people could enjoy ogling deformity without guilt or reserve.”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“The place in question was just ten minutes’ walk from Shibuya Station.

Maybe that someday is—now.”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“Aku benci museum, perpustakaan, dan bangunan bersejarah yang dilestarikan. Aku gusar kepada benda-benda tua yang selalu ada di sana dalam bentuk yang sempurna. Aku dongkol kepada benda-benda berharga yang bisa menua tanpa harus rusak. Semakin lama hidup, semakin tubuhku bengkok dan rusak. Tubuhku tidak hancur karena aku mati. Aku rusak justru karena hidup. Tubuhku merupakan bukti akan waktu hidup yang kujalani bersama kehancuran.”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback

“Rasa gusar ataupun sikap merendahkan tidak ditunjukkan untuk hal-hal yang terasa jauh.”
― Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback