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Sympathy Tower Tokyo cover
147
Book · 2024

Sympathy Tower Tokyo

東京都同情塔

In an alternate, near-future Tokyo, an architect is tasked with designing a luxury high-rise rehabilitation tower within the Shinjuku Gyoen gardens intended for criminal offenders deemed deserving of public sympathy. As she works, she grapples with linguistic distortions in societal discourse, the limits of state empathy, and her own anxieties around evolving artificial intelligence.

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  • I adore women who care only about realizing their own aesthetic. It portrays how, for people who flaunt language while pretending not to care about communication, AI's inability to interpret meaning evokes an urge to lash out. And if you thought coining 'The Tokyo Sympathy Tower' must have felt great, the book itself revels in how exhilarating that phrase was. Having the ethereal younger man coin it captures that magical allure, showing the author's clear creative taste. Planet Her is great!!
    あ on Booklog
  • Before reading it, I had arbitrarily assumed it was a novelty piece carried solely by the flair of capitalizing on current trends. However, upon actually reading it, my impression completely flipped: isn't this an orthodox novel tackling a profound theme?! Although not very long, its structure is intricate. Refusing monotonous repetition and creating rhythm through fine design motifs, it is engineered so a grand structure emerges when viewed from above—perhaps a truly architectural mindset.
    nyankoteacher on Booklog
  • A massive electric current ran through me. I've always struggled with pure literature, but this felt like my world turned upside down. While hitting the very heart of pure literature in its rigor, hardness, and artistry, the pages turn effortlessly just like popular fiction. The diction, syntax, and tempo are so intoxicatingly pleasant. Despite the seemingly absurd psychology, the emotional resonance is profound. I felt shivers reading it: 'This is incredible... I am reading something truly magnificent!'
    たこやき on Booklog

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