Lust and disgust

Published in NZZ am Sonntag among others, 2.7.2019

“Don’t you dare say shit”, adults tried to convince me when I was a child. It is a wisdom one comes to doubt when seeing Japan’s pop culture. In textbooks, a personality made of poop teaches children their first characters. A restaurant in Tokyo presents the dish “mama no unchi” on its menu, which according to its name optically resembles “mum’s shit.” And when the “Unko Museum” (museum of shit) opened in Yokohama, I eventually knew I had to question my childhood morals. In this essay, I have wondered what a society can gain from dealing with the product of digestion without feeling uncomfortable as shit.

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© TOMOHIRO OHSUMI / GETTY IMAGES

© TOMOHIRO OHSUMI / GETTY IMAGES

“Don’t you dare say shit”, adults tried to convince me when I was a child. It is a wisdom one comes to doubt when seeing Japan’s pop culture. In textbooks, a personality made of poop teaches children their first characters. A restaurant in Tokyo presents the dish “mama no unchi” on its menu, which according to its name optically resembles “mum’s shit.” And when the “Unko Museum” (museum of shit) opened in Yokohama, I eventually knew I had to question my childhood morals. In this essay, I have wondered what a society can gain from dealing with the product of digestion without feeling uncomfortable as shit.

Read it as published in:

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