Yumiko Kurahashi: The Adventures of Sumiyakist Q

1. No object must be clearly named. The naming of things is the work of the reader and not of the writer.
2. The writer must bestow no deterministic ‘character’ upon any of his characters. Men are to be dismantled. The world is to be rendered meaningless.
3. The novel is not to be made to comply with external time. In certain cases a deliberate attempt to derange this external time is called for.
4. In a novel one word does not stand for one thing, and language is not a means of communication. Reality is expressed by language, and exists as limitlessly as there are limitless variations of style.
5. No heroes are to appear. Men must be described in the same terms as insects. The characters of a novel are not to be given personal names or titles. No other proper names, especially place names, or dates, must appear.
6. It is absolutely impermissible that the writer make any explicit use of his private life or personal experience. The novel is not a means of self-expression for the writer. The writer has no right to give his own opinions about the world. The writer neither agrees nor disagrees, but stops short at merely indicating what exists. Rather than being a god who creates a world, the writer must resemble a monkey who dirties a piece of paper…