Summary

In “Life Ceremony,” Maho heard that Mr. Nakao from her office had died while eating lunch with her colleagues. His life ceremony was that evening. When everyone put away their lunches and asked if Maho would go, she answered vaguely and started eating (70). She was sure that when she “was little, it was forbidden to eat human flesh” (71). Although the custom was now “deeply ingrained in [her] society,” she was still unaccustomed to the life ceremonies (71). At the ceremony, the guests ate the deceased. She remembered making a joke about eating people on the bus as a child and everyone “crying and wailing” in horror (72). “Since then,” the population had shrunk abruptly, and everyone had become terrified “that the human race might . . . go extinct” (72). The life ceremony ritual replaced the traditional funeral. After eating the deceased, guests sought “an insemination partner among the...