What would you give up to live longer?

If Cats Disappeared From The World by Genki Kawamura is a short novel that follows a postman who learns he is terminally ill. He is approached by the devil and is informed by him that he has only one more day to live. The devil strikes a deal with the postman: for everything he chooses to make disappear, he gets an extra day to live. He sacrifices phones, movies, and clocks. The devil ends up asking him to sacrifice his cat, and the postman has to make a choice: his life or his cat’s life. While living his extra lives, he confronts his past and reflects on his life, his relationship with his family, and his cat. The book explores the themes of life, love, regret, and death. It’s written in a very heartwarming and funny way, but also very profound, in a way that causes readers to reflect on their own lives. I would definitely recommend that you read this. It was also adapted into a Japanese film, so if you don’t want to read it, you can watch it. I haven’t seen it yet, so I can’t give my opinion, but I’ve seen good things being said about the movie on Letterbox.

(Cover of If Cats Disappeared From The World by Genki Kawamura)

While this novel is mostly about the relationships people have with their family and loved ones, I want to go deeper into the relationship people have with objects. During his deal with the devil, the postman gets rid of phones, movies, and clocks. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like much. I mean, we don’t need these things to live. If the goal was to just survive, then we would only really need food, water, and shelter, but the goal is to live. 

The first thing that the postman gives up is phones. At first, he thinks that it’s a good thing that phones are gone forever. He reflects on how much phones have taken over. He talks about how he’s always on his phone, it’s the first thing he sees when he wakes up, and the last thing he sees before falling asleep. Smartphones are relatively new to the world, but in their short time existing on this planet, it has taken over the world. Everywhere you look, there is someone on their phone, mindlessly scrolling through an app or maybe playing a mobile game. I bet that before reading this blog, you were on your phone, maybe tiktok or Instagram, and after you’re done reading, you’ll go right back to your phone. I’m not saying this to shame you; I do it too. I mean, before writing this, I was doomscrolling on tiktok, and I’ll probably be back on my phone when I’m done writing. The point I’m trying to make is that phones have become so interlaced into our lives that some of us don’t even think we can live without them. We should be able to live without them, people 100 years ago didn’t have phones, and they lived just fine. What is it about cellphones that makes them so addictive? Is it the fast entertainment, or maybe it’s the way it connects us with family and friends so much more easily? Maybe the real question is why we as humans allow phones to take so much control over our lives.

The next thing the postman gives up is movies. He thinks back to a memory where he and his parents are watching a movie together, but he can only seem to remember one scene. An emotional and overwhelming scene, he remembers holding his father’s hand tightly during that scene. This part really got me thinking. Maybe what makes movies so great is the memories we make with those we watch them with. I’ll always remember who I cried with when I first watched Little Women and saw sweet Beth die, I’ll always remember who I laughed with at the silly, probably not funny jokes when watching the Minecraft movie, I’ll always remember who I got chills with when watching Wicked for the first time, and I’ll always remember who I turned to when there were two very good looking Micheal B. Jordan during Sinners. Movies bring us closer on an emotional level, and I think you can see this clearly in movie theaters. I may not remember most of the plot of Spiderman: No Way Home, but I do remember how loud the theater got with cheers and claps every time a spiderman would show up. In those moments, we all felt excitement with eachother. I don’t think I would have been able to give up movies if I were in the postman’s shoes.

(Image from the movie adaptation of If Cats Disappeared From The World.)

The last thing that the postman gives up is clocks, but I can’t really think about anything interesting I could say about clocks, so I’m gonna talk about the last thing the devil asks the postman to give up, cats. He doesn’t end up giving up cats, by the way, I probably would have given the book a bad rating if he did. The postman has a cat called Cabbage that he got with his mother after their first cat sadly died. Unfortunately, after getting Cabbage, the mother got ill and passed away. The postman kept their cat with him in his apartment. In this book, the cat is a symbol of family and memory; the cat is a direct link to his mother. In the end, the postman cannot sacrifice cats, believing that his love for his little companion is more valuable than living extra lives. I believe, though, that the value that this cat has in this story doesn’t apply only to cats, but to all pets, dogs, fish, hamsters, and all the other pets in the world. I personally have two very cute mini poodles who I love with my entire heart and who I consider my best friends. There are many times when I’m lying with them, and it hits me how deep our connection is. Even though they can’t talk, I seem to know what they’re thinking based on a tilt of a head or the slight shift in a tail. They also always seem to be the cuddliest on days when I’m feeling down, and I like to think that's not a coincidence that they seem to understand my emotions. Pets offer a connection that humans can’t get from other humans: complete loyalty.

The world is filled with so many things that are useless to our survival, but we have formed connections with them. The anxiety-inducing connection we have with our phones, the connection we have with movies, and the memories there connected with, and also the loyalty and love we get from our connection with our pets. Sure, we don’t need these connections to survive, but I think they make life interesting and worth living. I wouldn’t give up anything to live longer… actually, maybe I would give up cyber trucks.