Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Career Change: Cannibal to Celeb Author

It has no smell and no taste. It melts in my mouth like a perfect piece of tuna. I look in her eyes and say: " You are delicious ."

I cut her body and lift the meat to my mouth again and again. Then I take a photograph of her white corpse with its deep wounds. I have sex with her body. When I hug her she lets out a breath. I'm frightened, she seems alive. I kiss her and tell her I love her. Then I drag her body to the bathroom. By now I am exhausted, but I cut into her hip and put the meat in a roas(t)ing pan. After it is cooked I sit at the table using her underwear as a napkin. They still smell of her body.

Then I turn on the tape of her reading the German poem and eat. There is not enough taste. I use some salt and some mustard and it is delicious , very high quality meat .
Do you remember the Japanese cannibal who chomped his way through a fellow student at the Sorbonne in Paris, and later returned home to become a best-selling author and celebrity? I had forgotten the strange tale of Issei Sagawa until one of my course participants reminded me of the story last night and the rest started clammering for me to blog it for them today.

Well, not wishing to become a sleezy tabloid blogger, may I direct you here and here if you want another serving?

But I strongly advise that you don't go looking at the crime scene photos.

(You don't listen, do you?)

15 comments:

Kamigoroshi said...

Thanks a lot...now I feel hungry. Thank God I've got some left over pasta.

Anonymous said...

I didn't dare to look at the photos... the story was gross enough. He sounds sane enough to me, he should be tried for murder!

Unknown said...

One huge shocked gasp!!! The things people do and get away with!

Poppadumdum said...

I was pleasantly surprised while catching the tail-end of Star News at 7pm last night to see Toby Eady being interviewed. Hope you saw it as well. A very interesting short segment on his views on China's literary scene.

bibliobibuli said...

glad you liked it! just be careful when someone tells you you look delicious!

sympozium - i didn't see it 'cos i was teaching. please do tell.

Argus Lou said...

Eee-yoww! I couldn't resist not listening to you, Bib. You're wicked. Guess I'll be vegetarian for a while. Say, 5 hours?

Greenbottle said...

i remember this guy well and very fascinated by the event and always wondered what happened to him...and now i know and thanks sharon for this ...and now the only feeling i have for this little prick is disgust..how can this guy get away with this?...how can the japanese people make this sicko into celebrity?...they are all guilty and i feel sad for the poor girl who got eaten and her family...

all the same, that's quite imaginative to use the underwear for napkin...

bibliobibuli said...

yes greenbottle - i loved the napkin detail too

but hey, this guy can't be so bad. he loves POETRY!

Anonymous said...

Cool! Grand Guignol writing at its finest!!
And to think some idiots made a hue and cry about the over the top ending in Thomas Harris' "Hannibal".
Yet more proof that when it comes to the bizarre and grotesque, fiction often can't hold a candle to real life.....

Anonymous said...

OH YUCK.

Anonymous said...

I find myself wondering how thick my layer of fat is. Apart from that - I am glad he killed her first and she was not aware of his plans for her. I thought Richard Laymon's characters are gross (okay so now you know I read junk) but this guy - he's a genuine monster. Zarina.

bibliobibuli said...

i'm sure you're delicious, zarina!

Anonymous said...

More pics here: http://www.arminm.com/sagawa_photos.htm

hehehehe.... argh.

Hi, Shar. :)

bibliobibuli said...

eeeeekkk ... trust you, siege!

Anonymous said...

Notice how all the accounts of his supposed "confession" don't match. I wonder who added the other parts. The original confession is something, but imagine what kind of person _adds_ to that.