Challenge number one: write a modern novel with lots of feelings and no resolution based on this tale of student faith healers trying to cover up a friend’s drunken cliff fall and their failed attempt to heal him.

Challenge number two: write a science fiction novel based on Mori Masahiro’s belief that robot have the buddha-nature within them and can become enlightened. Bonus points for working in his influential work on the Uncanny Valley, the fact that the concept of the Uncanny was originally applied to robots, and the beliefs in Japan about puppets having souls.