Hana Sato, Grade 12
UWC Costa Rica
My favorite book is about the most desperate and sarcastic Japanese man. My favorite book, No Longer Human (人間失格), was written by the Japanese author Osamu Dazai. This book detaildly conveys the terror of being "disqualifyed as human". The protagonist man, Oba Yozo, narrates his daily life sunk in hoplessness and alienation in which he even attemps to commit suicide multiple times. This novel is considered an autobiogrphy, presenting the way Dazai also attempted commiting suicide several times.
Shuji Tsushima, with the pseudonym of Osamu Dazai was born in Japan on June 19th, 1909. He is considered one of the most relevant authors in Japanese literature along with Ryunosuke Akutagawa or Soseki Natsume. He described his own life as "an endless nightmare"; full of hopelessness and unhappiness he attempted to commit suicide six times, finally succeding on the sixth trial. In total, he tried to commit suicude three times by himself, and three more times with his partners at the time. Due to this, most of his works retain a dark tone, which was well accepted in the postwar Japanese society. He won the Japanese literary award Takami Jun Prize and after his name it was created the Dazai Osamu Prize in 1965.
No Longer Human is Dazai's most known work. It narrates Oba Yozo's life from childhood and adulthood, he is a man that is unable to understand other people and thus has struggles with interpersonal relationships. It is written as a frame story narrative. There is a woman reading three different memorandums written by Oba Yoza in first person. It was originally published in a magazine for three months. The day it was publeshed as a complete book was on June 19, 1948, the day that Dazai's dead body was found in a river after comitting suicide for sixth time. Due to these incidents readers consider this novel as his suicidal testament. Several movies and anime series have been created based on this novel; which I watched the most but could not like most of them due to the unavoidable comparison with the book.
I read for first time this book when I was in seventh grade; it was the time in which I started getting into Japanese classical literature. However, as any language classical literature, most of these works had the tendency of writing with a very polite and sophisticated language, most of them narrating the daily life. I decided to read from Dazai since the comments said that it had an extremely depressing tone. I felt attracted by this and grabbed the book. So was it, it is the most emotional book I have read until today. By "emotional" I mean that it gave me the impression of Dazai throwing out all his insecurities and misery on the paper. I like this novel so much because I can perfectly empathize with the author, which is a hard task to achieve in any artistic expression.
While reading it for first time, I was greatly shocked on the amount of sarcasm and irony, I never imagined any Japanese classical writer to write in such a hysterical manner ignoring all politeness; I think that it was the main reason why it has been impacting so much the readers even after almost a century. In this novel, there is not even a bit of hope, there dominates an absolute surrender towards life. One of the most powerful quotes I found in this novel is:
All I feel are assaults of apprehension and terror at the thought that I am the only one who is entirely unlike the rest. It is almost impossible for me to converse with other people. What should I talk about, how should I say it? - I don't know.
It expresses dazai's feeling of segregation from society and alienation.
I would definitely recommend this novel, not only because I loved it, but because I have never heard a very harsh negative criticism towards it as a novel. It is especially recommended to the people that do not believe in books arising feelings. Dazai will not fail on it.
Bibliography
YonaYona Shobo. "Osamu Dazai's "Ningen Shikkaku" Spoilers! From synopsis to ending!. "YonaYona Shobo. 2022. YonaYona Shobo. August, 2022 太宰治『人間失格』徹底ネタバレ解説！あらすじから結末まで！.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopedia. "Dazai Osamu". Encyclopedia Britannica, 15 Jun. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dazai-Osamu. Accessed 5 August 2022.
Dazai, Osamu. No Longer Human. United States: New Directions, 1973.
Image Courtesy: https://www.japonistaschile.com/single-post/2020/07/30/la-dificultad-de-comprender-el-mundo-indigno-de-ser-humano-de-osamu-dazai
Shuji Tsushima, with the pseudonym of Osamu Dazai was born in Japan on June 19th, 1909. He is considered one of the most relevant authors in Japanese literature along with Ryunosuke Akutagawa or Soseki Natsume. He described his own life as "an endless nightmare"; full of hopelessness and unhappiness he attempted to commit suicide six times, finally succeding on the sixth trial. In total, he tried to commit suicude three times by himself, and three more times with his partners at the time. Due to this, most of his works retain a dark tone, which was well accepted in the postwar Japanese society. He won the Japanese literary award Takami Jun Prize and after his name it was created the Dazai Osamu Prize in 1965.
No Longer Human is Dazai's most known work. It narrates Oba Yozo's life from childhood and adulthood, he is a man that is unable to understand other people and thus has struggles with interpersonal relationships. It is written as a frame story narrative. There is a woman reading three different memorandums written by Oba Yoza in first person. It was originally published in a magazine for three months. The day it was publeshed as a complete book was on June 19, 1948, the day that Dazai's dead body was found in a river after comitting suicide for sixth time. Due to these incidents readers consider this novel as his suicidal testament. Several movies and anime series have been created based on this novel; which I watched the most but could not like most of them due to the unavoidable comparison with the book.
I read for first time this book when I was in seventh grade; it was the time in which I started getting into Japanese classical literature. However, as any language classical literature, most of these works had the tendency of writing with a very polite and sophisticated language, most of them narrating the daily life. I decided to read from Dazai since the comments said that it had an extremely depressing tone. I felt attracted by this and grabbed the book. So was it, it is the most emotional book I have read until today. By "emotional" I mean that it gave me the impression of Dazai throwing out all his insecurities and misery on the paper. I like this novel so much because I can perfectly empathize with the author, which is a hard task to achieve in any artistic expression.
While reading it for first time, I was greatly shocked on the amount of sarcasm and irony, I never imagined any Japanese classical writer to write in such a hysterical manner ignoring all politeness; I think that it was the main reason why it has been impacting so much the readers even after almost a century. In this novel, there is not even a bit of hope, there dominates an absolute surrender towards life. One of the most powerful quotes I found in this novel is:
All I feel are assaults of apprehension and terror at the thought that I am the only one who is entirely unlike the rest. It is almost impossible for me to converse with other people. What should I talk about, how should I say it? - I don't know.
It expresses dazai's feeling of segregation from society and alienation.
I would definitely recommend this novel, not only because I loved it, but because I have never heard a very harsh negative criticism towards it as a novel. It is especially recommended to the people that do not believe in books arising feelings. Dazai will not fail on it.
Bibliography
YonaYona Shobo. "Osamu Dazai's "Ningen Shikkaku" Spoilers! From synopsis to ending!. "YonaYona Shobo. 2022. YonaYona Shobo. August, 2022 太宰治『人間失格』徹底ネタバレ解説！あらすじから結末まで！.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopedia. "Dazai Osamu". Encyclopedia Britannica, 15 Jun. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dazai-Osamu. Accessed 5 August 2022.
Dazai, Osamu. No Longer Human. United States: New Directions, 1973.
Image Courtesy: https://www.japonistaschile.com/single-post/2020/07/30/la-dificultad-de-comprender-el-mundo-indigno-de-ser-humano-de-osamu-dazai
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