[This isn't about any one specific part of the book so I figured I should start a new thread. I hope that's o.k. It's hard for me to write about individual parts of a book, I tend to always relate it backwards and forwards.]I'm not sure if anyone else, besides Mad, is reading this story but it's been a week since I finished it and if I don't get some thoughts down then I'll forget them.Thankfully, the "sands of time" theme was not overused. In fact, as I recall, it was only once explicitly evoked, and this within a context that made sense. After the protagonist's watch stops working, his last vestige of the outside world, he ruminates, "As long as this vicious circle was not broken somewhere, not only his watch but time itself would be immobilized, he feared, by the grains of sand" (93). It's almost as if Abe didn't need to invoke the "grains of sand" image because he wrote a story that essentially narrates the meaning behind it.First, what really struck me as significant to this story is Abe's ability to commingle extraordinarily developed themes within a simple context. The story is exceedingly straightforward: a man is trapped in a hole. And yet the resulting themes that unfold, each affecting the other, was almost magical to participate in. Abe touches on the constructs of society comparing the outside world with the world in the sand. Within these comparisons, he discusses the themes of stagnancy (or being stuck in a rut) and movement and how this plays into violence and passivity. Isolation and the significance of human relationships is a major theme that plays into almost every idea in the novel, most specifically the sexuality addressed in the book. There are also themes of work, perspective, and obviously nature and sand. One of my practices is to note passages in a book that highlight specific themes; I can then align each noted passage with its theme on paper and really see their individual development. This was more difficult to do with Abe, because each theme was dependent on pieces of other themes. I have a feeling that these notes will, as a result, turn out to be muddled. Therefore, I'm only going to address the theme of debt below and see where the discussion, if others get involved, develops.The idea of debt and payment, specifically with regard to the protagonist's perspective of "what is owed," was interesting to see develop. This quasi economy system the protagonist adopts based on what is earned or deserving in contrast with what is undeserving. It begins with a normal assurance that he will show his "appreciation" monetarily to the person who provides him with a place to sleep (20). He does not want to feel indebted to or take advantage of someone. This idea of paying for his expenses runs throughout his discussions with, and pleas to, the woman. Upon accepting food from the woman, after realizing he was the town's captor, he justifies it by assuring himself it would be repaid. That he was allowed to accept the food in order to keep his strength, as long as it wasn't taken freely. "It was not a question of her doing something for nothing. He would certainly pay for his food. If he paid his money there would be no reason to feel indebted to her

Okay, Rose, I've finished the book, so I'm ready to reply to your earlier comments. I hope you haven't had to wait too long.First off, I'll say that I was actually really impressed with the way Abe handled the last two or three chapters. I didn't think I was going to like them, but I ended up feeling that they were very apt without being too somber.irishrosem: Isolation and the significance of human relationships is a major theme that plays into almost every idea in the novel, most specifically the sexuality addressed in the book.Sexuality seemed to have been, more than anything else, a way of cementing relationships. That all comes to a head in the next to last chapter, when the villagers grant Jumpei's request for limited freedom on the condition that he and the woman publically demonstrate their conjugal relationship. In an oblique way, it reminds me of the conclusion to Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut".This quasi economy system the protagonist adopts based on what is earned or deserving in contrast with what is undeserving.There seems to be a commonality between money and sand -- you could almost say that money was modelled on sand. It's fungible and reducible. I don't know where that analogy leads; it's something I hadn't thought about until you brought up the economics of the novel.What strikes me as most pertinent is the way in which money absolves the character from any sort of permanent relationship to others -- similar to the way he cognizes sand as a kind of itinerant element, repelling any attempt to put down roots. If I recall correctly (I don't have my copy with me), he even tries to rationalize his sexual relationships as a kind of monetary exchange.