Thinking back inside the box
How do you go from Japanese literature to economic tragedy?
The Box Man is a tale about a man who sees another living in a box, and so decides to give it a whirl himself. That is, not just venturing into his box at night to sleep, but spending his whole life surrounded by cardboard.
He eventually starts to customise his box, making shelves for a radio, adding a mirror for easier navigation and cutting a little flap to see out of.
Traditionally, living in a cardboard box is seen as a last resort, for those unfortunate enough to have no concrete or wooden based home, but Abe makes it a choice for his character.
You’ll have to read the book to find out how the box man gets on, but, with the worlds economy collapsing apace, maybe it’s worth thinking about how you would customise your box. What would you want in there with you? Would you need a box big enough to accommodate your widescreen television (not sure how you’d power that)?
Does the box have wifi?
I’m actually not attached to any material possessions. There are certainly things that would be inconvenient to replace (my laptop mostly) but there’s nothing I own that I would be devastated to be without.
Toothbrush, paper/writing tool and a pillow/blanket set and I’ll be fine in my box. Oh, I should take a book in with me. Krishnamurti’s Age of Intelligence should keep me busy for a decade or so.
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If the outdoors has wifi then your box has wifi – that’s one of the great things about box living.
I think a little solar panelling on the roof would make you truly mobile…
That is kind of reminiscent of how my dad used to say he wanted a big-screen TV and my mother would say, “Okay with me – you can sleep in the box it comes in.”
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Well at least he went for something big enough… would hate to be told the same for wanting a new pair of shoes.
The animated version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjDca5xSFcs
Thanks for reminding me about this story. It’s on my list!
Good call!
I didn’t know that there was an animated version of this. Plus, it’s rather good too.
Thanks.
That’s a really lovely animation, I like the eyes staring out of the hole in the box. But I don’t understand; why did he shoot the previous box-dweller? What did they do wrong? And if it was just to get the box, what’s wrong with getting his own?!
My box wouldn’t have any walls or ceiling, and I’d place it under a coconut tree.
haha, nice.
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awk thats such a cute sentiment.
i remeber playing with cardboard boxes when i was a wee kid, pretending that it was everything from a castle to a rocket ship…please tell me i’m not the only one?
it’s amazing how entertaining a cardboard box can be as a child, now however if i were to live insdie a box… personally i’d have to have lots of pictures of my friends and family, my toothbrush, toothpaste and on my person only my camera and ipod…i could live with that….it would get lonely though…can i have hugh jackman in there too adam?????
If you think ONE box was amazing fun, then you should tape TWENTY together. : )
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you know what i might do that…i always wanted to run a space station lol
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one time when i was kid my mum actually took my brother and me (i guess my sister wasnt interested) to a place that, for some reason (i only vaguely remember it), was like a warehouse filled wth giant boxes and we picked one out and took it home and made it into a house. it was huge! well it seemed huge…good times, good times.
rereading my comment just made me wonder if i still count as kid.
If you had the opportunity to play with a giant cardboard box, would you?
i just don’t know anymore!
but probably
now i feel young again! i have just started university and lately it’s been making me feel sooooo ooooold
Now now, Adam, play nice. (That said, yes on both counts
)
DmLs last post..Comic 100 (A Nice Moment)
hell yeah…i want to fingure out the glorous mystery of the cardboard box and what its so fascinating to children
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Meh. If it gets REALLY bad, we can just kill off the illuminati and live in their mansons.
I remember when I was younger (I won’t say when I was a child as I still am one), I had a box. I think it was the one our new fridge came in, or something like that. It was a massive box. And Dad used a craft knife to cut out some windows and a little door I could fit in. I spent an entire summer playing with that box-house. I would fill it with piles of books and sit in my “home” reading them. But then I remember the day when I had left too many toys and books in it, and my parents complained that it was becoming a second bedroom and taking up too much room, so I had to empty it out and let it go.
If I had a big enough box, I would make my little house all over again…
Cats and kids both love boxes.
I dunno how well I could go living in a box, I think I would do better out side it.
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Just had an idea. What if, everyone apart from you lived inside a box? If everything you knew, and didn’t, was blocked by a thin wall of cardboard…Would you let it out, and risk the same thing as pandora did? Or would you just climb in and have a massive box party?
i’d try to pull things out one by one.
hey Adam, were you the one who commented on ‘the rule of death”?
Good plan. But what if you pulled out something nasty by accident?
emm… informative )