"But perhaps I see, very, very occasionally, incompletely and always dimly, by the light of the wish-fulfilling jewel in Jizo's tutelary hand, through, with difficulty, with error, with aching, with determination, to the truth of things. Or at least to a better lie. Everything has a dual nature."

The Melancholy of Mechagirl is a collection of Catherynne M. Valente’s short fiction influenced by her time in Japan. Containing both poetry and various lengths of short stories, this collection plays both on the rhythms of Japanese as well as Western life, the myths and legends of Japan and the strangeness of being a foreigner in that land.

Valente lived in Japan while she was married to a man in the Navy and her stories hold the same frustrations and loneliness of a Western woman in a place she doesn’t understand and feels isolated from. Many of the stories are dark, some disturbing, but many play with myths in a way that Valente is very good at. In particular, “Story No. 6” and “Silently and Very Fast” (which won both the Hugo and the Nebula awards for Best Novella in 2011) are standout stories which kept me enthralled. I didn’t love every bit of the collection but I became a big fan of Valente after reading this, I’m impressed at how well she brings myths to life in past, present and future Japan.

Detailed reviews below:

The Melancholy of Mechagirl - 3 out of 5
A poem written from the perspective of a girl who is as much machine as human.
I cannot claim to understand much of what happens in this poem but Valente uses language so beautifully that I didn’t mind too much.

Ink, Water, Milk - 4 out of 5
Three stories are told simultaneously about a paper scroll left in an abandoned factory, the philosophical musings of minor gods and a dissatisfied young Navy wife struggling to adapt to life in Japan. Told in alternating sections, they are slowly tied together.
While the start of this story felt a little jarring, Valente allows you to see how the stories tie together as it progresses. I couldn’t help but feel caught by the strange mythology of it.

Fifteen Panels Depicting the Sadness of the Baku and the Jotai - 4 out of 5
A Baku, a creature who feeds on the dreams of the living, reflects on his lost love, a Jotai screen which kept company with a lonely Navy wife.
This story is mystical and disturbing, in a way that I haven’t felt in awhile. I’m not sure I could say I enjoyed it but it certainly felt like the scarier, more disturbing myths that you don’t see much of anymore.

Ghosts of Gunkanjima - 4 out of 5
Ghosts on the abandoned island of Gunkanjima reflect helplessly on the deaths which trapped them there.
Another story that isn’t an easy read but still captures the imagination. The turmoil of the spirits and what happened to them is simultaneously disturbing and compelling.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time - 1 out of 5
The birth of the universe is described with thirteen different amalgamations of myth and Valente’s life.
This was weird and too dominated by math and science for me. It’s definitely more in the hard science fiction realm of Valente’s writing, which just isn’t my cup of tea.

One Breath, One Stroke - 4 out of 5
A calligrapher lives in the House of Second-Hand Carnelian which sits half in the human world and half in the unhuman world. When the calligrapher is in the human world, he is a man named Ko and when he’s in the unhuman world, he is a brush named Yuu. Each tries to find out more about the other as they guard this gateway house.
Valente seems to be at her best (for me) when playing with mythical structure. I’m not super familiar with Japanese myths but the introduction of the animals and creatures of the House of Second-Hand Carnelian was fascinating.

Story No. 6 - 5 out of 5
A Kami shifts through old Japanese films (only those on film, not DVDs or VHS tapes), disturbing those who happen to catch sight of her.
This is Valente at her best. It’s creepy, magical and breathes life into myth in the present day, incorporating a level of magic realism that enthralled me.

Fade to White - 3 out of 5
Several teenagers face the ritual of coming of age in a post-apocalyptic Fallout-style America.
This was an interesting 1950’s style reimagining of America if nuclear war had happened. It’s heavy satire and dark, interesting if not my favorite of the collection.

The Emperor of Tsukayama Park - 3 out of 5
A poem about misunderstanding the name of a park and the feeling of being foreign and and foolish.
I’ve never been terribly into poetry, but Valente captures the feeling of isolation and shame well.

Killswitch - 4 out of 5
A horror/survival videogame named Killswitch drives players to discover all of its secrets, plagued by the knowledge that it is playable only once, with a number of choices and puzzles to complete.
The most interesting part of this story is the implication of the pressure players would feel if they had only one chance to play a game, particularly given that they have a choice at the beginning of the easy human character or the impossibly difficult demonic one. It’s a story of impossible choices and feels like a story that could be in the news.

Memoirs of a Girl Who Failed to be Born from a Peach - 3 out of 5
A poem which plays both on a miscarriage and the legend of Momotaro for a story of someone who never had the chance to live.
This is the shortest poem in the collection and a bit brutal. I liked the way it mixed Momotaro in with an American experience and life in Los Angeles.

The Girl with Two Skins - 2 out of 5
A fox creature is a bound to a woman when its hidden treasure is discovered and is convinced to become a woman itself, even as it struggles against this change.
There are definitely points in this collection in which I feel my ignorance of Japanese myth and legend and this poem was very much one of them. The feeling of not being good enough and trying to be something one isn’t come through well but I spent much of the poem struggling to understand what was going on.

Silently and Very Fast - 5 out of 5
An artificial intelligence develops with an isolated family of engineers on a Japanese island and struggles to define itself in relation to its family.
This is easily my favorite of what I’ve read from Valente. The idea of the line between man and machine is one of my favorite concepts in science fiction (though not that far from reality these days) and this story does such an excellent job of showing the progression of the AI from simple adaptive house technology to a machine capable of many things, perhaps even enough emotion to pass the Turing test.