Schoolgirl (Modern Japanese Classics)

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It was frightening... this premonition of living like a kleptomaniac cat, stealthily and quietly, and couldn't lead to any good. To go on like that for any length of time, it seems, you would end up like you're possessed. Like Jesus Christ. But the idea of a female Jesus Christ seems appalling. Ultimately though — since I'm just idle most of the time, and I really don't have any troubles to worry about — I wonder if I am not just desensitized to the hundreds if not thousands of things I see and hear everyday, and in my bewilderment, those things ends up assailing me like floating ghosts, one thing after another." Regardless of how short the story is, Dazai had achieved a good level of depth through the mind of the main character, a nameless schoolgirl, who is on the verge of becoming a woman. The contradictions which her character displayed throughout the story alongside her daydreams and judgements on people had made her real as well as a little bit difficult to understandーwhich, of course, is only to be expected of someone at this stage of their life. Moreover, Dazai's depiction of her struggle in overcoming the death of her father felt so realistic. How she did her best everyday to please her mother as she continued to play the role of "the good girl" was emotional. I also sympathized with her mother, whose job must have made it worse for her. Aside from that, I appreciate how rich and inventive the language is. Dazai's writing style is splendid! As a whole, it was a good read. Tsushima kept his promise and settled down a bit. He managed to obtain the assistance of established writer Masuji Ibuse, whose connections helped him get his works published and establish his reputation. The next few years were productive for Tsushima. He wrote at a feverish pace and used the pen name "Osamu Dazai" for the first time in a short story called "Ressha" ("列車", "Train") in 1933: His first experiment with the first-person autobiographical style that later became his trademark. [15]

The truth is that I secretly love what seems to be my own individuality, and I hope I always will, but fully embodying it is another matter. I always want everyone to think I am a good girl. Whenever I am around a lot of people, it is amazing how obsequious I can be. I fib and chatter away, saying things I don't want to or mean in any way. I feel like it is to my advantage to do so.Dazai's father, Gen'emon, a younger son of the Matsuki family, which due to "its exceedingly 'feudal' tradition" had no use for sons other than the eldest son and heir, was adopted into the Tsushima family to marry the eldest daughter, Tane; he became involved in politics due to his position as one of the four wealthiest landowners in the prefecture, and was offered membership into the House of Peers. [5] This made Dazai's father absent during much of his early childhood, and with his mother, Tane, being ill, [6] Tsushima was brought up mostly by the family's servants and his aunt Kiye. [7] Education and literary beginnings [ edit ] Shimeko Tanabe It’s this strange mix of social critique, capricious daydreams, and haunting biographical references that make Schoolgirl such a potent work, and Allison Markin Powell’s translation keenly reflects the inner contradictions and disruptiveness of this swift story. Some readers have complained about the “combination of slang and heavy, abstracted” language Powell’s translation uses (“clunky” griped one blogger), but what could be more fitting to capture the awkward movements of an intellectually ambitious but emotionally immature teenage mind? A note on the translation. While I think that Allison Markin Powell has done a great job of recreating the voice of a teenage girl, readers from the United Kingdom may find the Americanisms such as ‘bogus’ and ‘the worst’ to be irksome. Otherwise, this is a crisp and accessible translation. The narrator spirals from self-hatred to self-admiration as well and is heavily fixated on her own body image, though asserts that her ‘ body had no connection to my mind’ to try and separate her interior life from the waking world around her that causes her frequent disgust. ‘ I can’t stand it,’ she says of her body observing it’s aging away from the ‘ doll-like’ childhood body she wishes to retain forever. Yet, earlier when pursued by leering men, she thinks ‘ I wish I would hurry up and grow stronger and purer so that such a trifling matter would no longer afflict me,’ and she is frequently repulsed by her own childish habits and thoughts early in the novel, wanting to be more of an adult. O'Brien, James A., ed. Akutagawa and Dazai: Instances of Literary Adaptation. Cornell University Press, 1983.

On June 13, 1948, Dazai and Tomie drowned themselves in the rain-swollen Tamagawa Canal, near his house. Their bodies were not discovered until six days later, on June 19, which would have been his 39th birthday. His grave is at the temple of Zenrin-ji, in Mitaka, Tokyo. Como é normal numa adolescente, tem variações de humor e picos de angústia, mas a forma como Osamu Dazai expressa esses sentimentos supostamente profundos soa a falso.Soon after, Tsushima was arrested for his involvement with the banned Japanese Communist Party and, upon learning this, his elder brother Bunji promptly cut off his allowance again. Tsushima went into hiding, but Bunji, despite their estrangement, managed to get word to him that charges would be dropped and the allowance reinstated yet again if Tsushima solemnly promised to graduate and swear off any involvement with the party. Tsushima accepted. I want to love everyone', I thought, almost tearfully. If you stare at the sky, it changes little by little. Gradually it turns bluish. [..] I had never seen anything as beautiful as the translucent leaves and grass. Gently, I reached out to the touch of the grass.”

Dazai is able to supply a fascinating depth and heft in such a small space with Schoolgirl. On the surface, not very much seems to happen. She bemoans mornings (‘ mornings are torture’) and distracts herself with dark thoughts as she readies herself for the day, goes to school, gets a haircut and comes home to houseguests. Yet a whole world of complex emotions and social critiques overflow from every passage. The narrator herself explains the gist of this book best: It made me miserable that I was rapidly becoming an adult and that I was unable to do anything about it.’

What’s hard to discern in this critique is Dazai’s attitude towards women. His narrator prefers not to think about her gender (“[my] body had no connection to my mind,” she complains, “it developed on its own accord”), and instead, busies herself with abstract thoughts about the nature of life. Though there is an androgynous quality to many of her daydreams and observations, the narrator, as the title suggests, is decidedly female, and (as she turns the corner into adolescence) just beginning to confront many of the particular difficulties her gender poses. There are simple girlish pleasures in her life—she secretly embroiders flowers onto her underclothes and sneaks off to get her hair done with a friend—but her innocence has already largely eroded. On the train, she keeps her eyes and her thoughts to herself (“if I so much as grinned at them, I could very well be dragged off by one of these men, falling into the chasm of compulsory marriage”). When a group of gruff laborers mutter obscenities at her, she crumples inside. “I felt like I was about to cry,” she says. “I wish I would hurry up and grow stronger and purer so that such a trifling matter would no longer afflict me.” Beside being a character in Bungo Stray Dogs, other characters who are also based on Dazai can be found in many other medias. In Bungo and Alchemist, Dazai is reincarnated by an Alchemist to save his and other fellow writers' literature. In otome games Ikemen Vampire and Akanesasu Sekai de Kimi to Utau, Dazai is one of both games' romanceable characters. In a dark humor isekai manga series, Isekai Shikkaku, Dazai (who is only referred to as Sensei in the series) wakes up in another world after attempting suicide with his lover, and he goes on an adventure to find out if his lover had also reincarnated in another world. Whenever i put pen on to a paper or I type words I think of Osamu Dazai. The craft of his writing with the mixture of his character equals a major influence on me, and I suspect on contemporary Japanese literature as well. For instance, Mishima's major influence was Dazai. Well, sort of. He didn't want to be a Dazai, in fact, he hated his work. But the truth is hatred of Dazai's character and work was a sign of love and respect to the great decadent literary figure - and Dazai was extremely decadent in the Japanese context. Drinker, womanizer, cad, drug addict, and extremely handsome - and a writing talent that is extremely superb. Dazai is one unique writer, and a day doesn't go by where I don't think about him. Hmm, perhaps this is really an obsession on my part, but let's put that aside for the moment.

Now, even when I make an outfit for myself, I wonder what other people will think. The truth is that I secretly love what seems to be my own individuality, and I hope I always will, but fully embodying it is another matter. I always want everyone to think I am a good girl. Whenever I am around a lot of people, it is amazing how obsequious I can be. I fib and chatter away, saying things I don't want to or mean in any way. I feel like it is to my advantage to do so. I hate it. I hope for a revolution in ethics and morals. Then, my obsequiousness and this need to plod through life according to others' expectations would simply dissolve. Oh,” Published in 1939, the novella that launched Dazai's career portrays pre-war Japan, but already foreshadows what's to come: The protagonist ponders that having a power that tells you what to do is a form of relief, as it takes away the pressure of decision-making and moral orientation. Still, many of the schoolgirl's preoccupations feel timeless and transcend national contexts. Dazai's language has such a modern edge that it it's hard to realize that it was written around 80 years ago.

Schoolgirl follows the typical day of a young Japanese school girl. We are introduced to a lot of her inner feelings, including grief, mourning, happiness, and are shown her realism. With further revision, I have found out that this novella describes the social structures of a time in Japan, now lost, and how the young girl we follow struggles against them. But otherwise this is a gorgeous masterpiece from top to bottom. Poetic writing, lovely observations, a very real main character despite being very short. The thought occurred to me as I lay there. You wait and wait for happiness, and when finally you can't bear it any longer, you rush out of the house, only to hear later that a marvelous happiness arrived the following day at the home you had abandoned, and now it was too late. Sometimes happiness arrives one night too late.” Japan entered the Pacific War in December, but Tsushima was excused from the draft because of his chronic chest problems, as he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. The censors became more reluctant to accept Dazai's offbeat work, but he managed to publish quite a bit regardless, remaining one of very few authors who managed to get this kind of material accepted in this period. A number of the stories which Dazai published during World War II were retellings of stories by Ihara Saikaku (1642–1693). His wartime works included Udaijin Sanetomo (右大臣実朝, "Minister of the Right Sanetomo", 1943), Tsugaru (1944), Pandora no hako (パンドラの匣, Pandora's Box, 1945–46), and Otogizōshi (お伽草紙, Fairy Tales, 1945) in which he retold a number of old Japanese fairy tales with "vividness and wit." [ This quote needs a citation]