No Longer Human
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Description
Book Introduction
A fresh look at Osamu Dazai's work, which brilliantly depicts human fragility. This novel depicts the process of a young man with a pure and tender heart being destroyed by the hypocrisy and cruelty of human society. It also depicts the inner self of the protagonist, who has fallen to the level of a disqualified human being, unable to belong to any world, through a detailed psychological description. The decadence and self-destructive behavior in Dazai's works reflect the consciousness of young Japanese people in a state of panic after their defeat in World War II. Dazai's work depicts the desperate struggle of the older generation to reject everything that belongs to the existing society and start anew as the values, ethics, and morals of the older generation collapse with defeat. This work, which is a record of defeat in which the protagonist, who struggles to somehow integrate into society and woo humanity, is ultimately betrayed by everything and becomes a lost human, can be said to be a sharp literary criticism of modern society in that sense. The accompanying work, "Jiksaw," presents a new perspective on "Judas as a weak human being." This work describes the story of Judas accusing Jesus as if the reader were listening in on the scene. It vividly depicts the conflict and anguish of Judas, who admired and loved Jesus, but was then angered and repulsed by the rejection of his love, leading him to betray Jesus. |
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Preview
index
No Longer Human
introduction
First notebook
Second notebook
Third notebook
Reviews
Jigsaw
Commentary on the work / Kim Chun-mi
Author's chronology
introduction
First notebook
Second notebook
Third notebook
Reviews
Jigsaw
Commentary on the work / Kim Chun-mi
Author's chronology
Detailed image
Into the book
Another photo is the most bizarre.
Now, you can't even guess how old he is.
The hair is gray.
The man was sitting in a corner of a very dirty room (the photo clearly showed the walls of the room having collapsed in three places), warming his hands over a small brazier, and this time he wasn't smiling.
There is no expression on his face.
It's a really unpleasant and ominous photo, as if someone was crouching down, putting both hands on the brazier, and then just dying.
That's not all that's strange.
The face was captured relatively large in the photo, so I could examine it in detail. The forehead was ordinary, the wrinkles on the forehead were ordinary, the eyebrows were ordinary, the eyes were ordinary, the nose, the mouth, the chin...
Ah, that face is not only expressionless, it doesn't even have an impression.
It has no features.
For example, let's say I close my eyes after looking at this picture.
I've already forgotten that face.
I remember the walls of the room and the small brazier, but the face of the room owner has disappeared like fog, and no matter how hard I try, I cannot recall it.
It's a face that can't be drawn.
Even comics are not allowed.
Open your eyes.
Ah, this was the face he had.
Now I remember.
There is not even this kind of joy.
To put it extremely, it's a face that I can't remember even if I open my eyes and look at the photo again.
It's just so disgusting and annoying, and I find myself wanting to look away.
Even the so-called "death figure" would have some kind of expression, a certain impression, or something like that. If you were to attach a pack horse's neck to a human body, would it look like this? In any case, for some reason, it makes the viewer feel eerie and disgusted.
I have never seen a man with such a strange face before.
--- pp.11~12
At that time, we played a game of guessing comedic and tragic nouns.
This is a game I invented. All nouns have gender distinctions such as masculine, feminine, and neuter, so there should also be a distinction between comic and tragic nouns.
For example, steamship and train are both non-nouns, while subway and bus are both rare nouns.
Anyone who does not understand why is not qualified to discuss art.
Any playwright who inserts even one tragic noun into a comedy is a failure.
The argument is that the same applies to tragedies.
"Okay, are you ready? What about cigarettes?"
I ask.
"Rain (short for tragic noun)."
Horiki answers in one word.
"What about the medicine?"
"Is it a powder or a pill?"
"injection."
"rain."
"I wonder? There are hormone injections too."
"No, definitely not.
"Isn't the syringe needle a great tool?"
"Okay, I'll admit it.
But you, medicine and doctors, even though they look like that, they are quite comical (short for a comedic noun).
Death?"
"white.
"The pastor is also like that."
"You did very well. And life is rainy."
"no.
That too, hee."
'no.
If that happens, everything will become a waste.
Then let me ask you one more question. Are you a cartoonist? Surely you wouldn't say "Hee"?
"Rain, rain.
"A tragic noun."
"What, the big win is on your side."
If it had become a silly joke like this, it would have been no fun, but we were proud of it as an extremely clever play that had never existed in the salons of the world before.
--- p.110
Yesterday, I sent Tetsu to the town pharmacy to buy some Calmotin, and he brought me a different box of Calmotin than usual. I didn't pay much attention to it and took about ten pills before going to bed. Then, I couldn't sleep at all, and was wondering why. Then, my stomach started to feel strange, so I hurried to the bathroom and ended up having severe diarrhea.
And then after that, I went to the bathroom three times in a row.
It was so strange that I took a closer look at the medicine box and it turned out to be a diarrhea medicine called Henomotin.
I lay down straight, put the blanket on my stomach, and tried to nag Tetsu.
"Hey, this isn't Calmotin.
"It's Henomotin."
Before I could say that, I just burst out laughing.
I guess the word 'crazy' is a comedic noun.
What I took to try to fall asleep was a laxative, and what's more, the name of the laxative is Henomotin.
Now, you can't even guess how old he is.
The hair is gray.
The man was sitting in a corner of a very dirty room (the photo clearly showed the walls of the room having collapsed in three places), warming his hands over a small brazier, and this time he wasn't smiling.
There is no expression on his face.
It's a really unpleasant and ominous photo, as if someone was crouching down, putting both hands on the brazier, and then just dying.
That's not all that's strange.
The face was captured relatively large in the photo, so I could examine it in detail. The forehead was ordinary, the wrinkles on the forehead were ordinary, the eyebrows were ordinary, the eyes were ordinary, the nose, the mouth, the chin...
Ah, that face is not only expressionless, it doesn't even have an impression.
It has no features.
For example, let's say I close my eyes after looking at this picture.
I've already forgotten that face.
I remember the walls of the room and the small brazier, but the face of the room owner has disappeared like fog, and no matter how hard I try, I cannot recall it.
It's a face that can't be drawn.
Even comics are not allowed.
Open your eyes.
Ah, this was the face he had.
Now I remember.
There is not even this kind of joy.
To put it extremely, it's a face that I can't remember even if I open my eyes and look at the photo again.
It's just so disgusting and annoying, and I find myself wanting to look away.
Even the so-called "death figure" would have some kind of expression, a certain impression, or something like that. If you were to attach a pack horse's neck to a human body, would it look like this? In any case, for some reason, it makes the viewer feel eerie and disgusted.
I have never seen a man with such a strange face before.
--- pp.11~12
At that time, we played a game of guessing comedic and tragic nouns.
This is a game I invented. All nouns have gender distinctions such as masculine, feminine, and neuter, so there should also be a distinction between comic and tragic nouns.
For example, steamship and train are both non-nouns, while subway and bus are both rare nouns.
Anyone who does not understand why is not qualified to discuss art.
Any playwright who inserts even one tragic noun into a comedy is a failure.
The argument is that the same applies to tragedies.
"Okay, are you ready? What about cigarettes?"
I ask.
"Rain (short for tragic noun)."
Horiki answers in one word.
"What about the medicine?"
"Is it a powder or a pill?"
"injection."
"rain."
"I wonder? There are hormone injections too."
"No, definitely not.
"Isn't the syringe needle a great tool?"
"Okay, I'll admit it.
But you, medicine and doctors, even though they look like that, they are quite comical (short for a comedic noun).
Death?"
"white.
"The pastor is also like that."
"You did very well. And life is rainy."
"no.
That too, hee."
'no.
If that happens, everything will become a waste.
Then let me ask you one more question. Are you a cartoonist? Surely you wouldn't say "Hee"?
"Rain, rain.
"A tragic noun."
"What, the big win is on your side."
If it had become a silly joke like this, it would have been no fun, but we were proud of it as an extremely clever play that had never existed in the salons of the world before.
--- p.110
Yesterday, I sent Tetsu to the town pharmacy to buy some Calmotin, and he brought me a different box of Calmotin than usual. I didn't pay much attention to it and took about ten pills before going to bed. Then, I couldn't sleep at all, and was wondering why. Then, my stomach started to feel strange, so I hurried to the bathroom and ended up having severe diarrhea.
And then after that, I went to the bathroom three times in a row.
It was so strange that I took a closer look at the medicine box and it turned out to be a diarrhea medicine called Henomotin.
I lay down straight, put the blanket on my stomach, and tried to nag Tetsu.
"Hey, this isn't Calmotin.
"It's Henomotin."
Before I could say that, I just burst out laughing.
I guess the word 'crazy' is a comedic noun.
What I took to try to fall asleep was a laxative, and what's more, the name of the laxative is Henomotin.
--- p.133
Publisher's Review
No Longer Human, written by Osamu Dazai, a representative writer of modern Japanese literature who left a great impact on Japanese society when he died at the age of 39 in 1948, has been published by Minumsa.
"No Longer Human," which depicts the story of a young man with a tender heart who yearns only for purity and is destroyed by the hypocrisy and cruelty of humans, received enthusiastic support from young people in post-war Japan, receiving the evaluation that "few writers excel at revealing human weakness better than Dazai" (The New York Times).
And in the accompanying "Jiksho," the human side of Judas is shed new light on Dazai's unique perspective.
A portrait of a young man so innocent that he was doomed to ruin.
"No Longer Human" consists of a preface and an epilogue narrated by the narrator, "I," and three memoirs written by the main character, Yozoh.
The introduction features three photographs of Yojo, and the ominous nature of the figures in the photographs, who “squat down, with both hands on the brazier, and then seem to just die,” sets the overall mood of the work.
Yozoh, who has been unable to understand other “humans” since birth, tries to assimilate into the human world by calling himself a “joker”, but is frustrated every time, and eventually becomes addicted to drugs and attempts suicide.
However, after repeated suicide attempts, only the woman died and Yojo survived alone. He was cut off from his family, which was his last hope, and became a “disqualified human being” who waited alone for death in a remote country house.
A work that mirrors the hypocrisy and cruelty of human society through one individual.
Banana Yoshimoto and Haruki Murakami, two representative authors of modern Japanese literature who currently enjoy enthusiastic support not only in Japan but also around the world, cite Osamu Dazai as the Japanese author they most admire.
Dazai is also called a 'rogue' and is still considered to be a representative writer of Japanese decadent literature.
For Dazai, decadence should not be interpreted as mere decadence, but rather in relation to the unique circumstances of Japan's postwar era.
In other words, as the values, ethics, and morals of the older generation collapsed with the defeat, Dazai's (from the perspective of the older generation) decadence and self-destructive words and actions can be seen as a desperate struggle to start anew from scratch by rejecting everything that belonged to the existing society.
Some Dazai scholars analyze "No Longer Human" and say that it is a work that convincingly demonstrates the process by which "Yozo," who is alienated from the male-dominated world that forms the real power in society when the world is divided into the legal world of men and the illegal world of women, ultimately becomes a person who is no longer human, unable to belong to either world.
There are few works that reveal the falsity and cruelty of the human world and social order, which are run on calculation and appearance, as clearly as "No Longer Human."
This work, which is a record of defeat in which the protagonist, who struggles to somehow integrate into society, entrusts his dreams to the pure and unsullied, and attempts to woo humanity, is ultimately betrayed by everything and becomes a lost human being, can be said to be a sharp literary criticism of modern society in that sense.
The ugliness of the common-sense human nature (at least they can exist proudly in this society) revealed by Yozoh's guardian 'Halchi' and his evil friend 'Horiki', characters who represent hypocritical human nature, urges us to reflect on ourselves as we live insensitively, steeped in the mold of this society.
"Jiksoe" presents a new perspective on Judas as a weak human being.
"The Jig Saw" is a work that describes the story of Judas accusing Jesus as if the reader were listening to it right there.
Contrary to popular interpretations, this work vividly depicts the conflict and anguish of Judas, who admired and loved Jesus, but whose love was rejected, leading him to betray Jesus out of anger and resentment.
There is no record in the Bible that Judas was identified as a traitor.
Jesus is saying to Judas, “Go and do what you have to do.”
Judas may have been a human being set up for the glory of Jesus.
As François Mauriac says, if there had been no Jesus, there would have been no Judas' agony.
Dazai projects himself onto both Jesus and Judas in this work, but the portrayal of Judas as single-minded, jealous, and wavering between love and hatred reveals that Dazai's interest in Judas is far greater than his interest in Jesus.
There is a part where Judah decides that he will kill her with his own hands rather than hand her over to someone else because he loves her so much, and “Money.
“Money is everything in the world.”, “I am a businessman after all.”
Judas' self-deprecation, such as "I chased after him hoping to get some money, but I found out that I was wrong and betrayed him," is an excellent psychological insight.
"No Longer Human," which depicts the story of a young man with a tender heart who yearns only for purity and is destroyed by the hypocrisy and cruelty of humans, received enthusiastic support from young people in post-war Japan, receiving the evaluation that "few writers excel at revealing human weakness better than Dazai" (The New York Times).
And in the accompanying "Jiksho," the human side of Judas is shed new light on Dazai's unique perspective.
A portrait of a young man so innocent that he was doomed to ruin.
"No Longer Human" consists of a preface and an epilogue narrated by the narrator, "I," and three memoirs written by the main character, Yozoh.
The introduction features three photographs of Yojo, and the ominous nature of the figures in the photographs, who “squat down, with both hands on the brazier, and then seem to just die,” sets the overall mood of the work.
Yozoh, who has been unable to understand other “humans” since birth, tries to assimilate into the human world by calling himself a “joker”, but is frustrated every time, and eventually becomes addicted to drugs and attempts suicide.
However, after repeated suicide attempts, only the woman died and Yojo survived alone. He was cut off from his family, which was his last hope, and became a “disqualified human being” who waited alone for death in a remote country house.
A work that mirrors the hypocrisy and cruelty of human society through one individual.
Banana Yoshimoto and Haruki Murakami, two representative authors of modern Japanese literature who currently enjoy enthusiastic support not only in Japan but also around the world, cite Osamu Dazai as the Japanese author they most admire.
Dazai is also called a 'rogue' and is still considered to be a representative writer of Japanese decadent literature.
For Dazai, decadence should not be interpreted as mere decadence, but rather in relation to the unique circumstances of Japan's postwar era.
In other words, as the values, ethics, and morals of the older generation collapsed with the defeat, Dazai's (from the perspective of the older generation) decadence and self-destructive words and actions can be seen as a desperate struggle to start anew from scratch by rejecting everything that belonged to the existing society.
Some Dazai scholars analyze "No Longer Human" and say that it is a work that convincingly demonstrates the process by which "Yozo," who is alienated from the male-dominated world that forms the real power in society when the world is divided into the legal world of men and the illegal world of women, ultimately becomes a person who is no longer human, unable to belong to either world.
There are few works that reveal the falsity and cruelty of the human world and social order, which are run on calculation and appearance, as clearly as "No Longer Human."
This work, which is a record of defeat in which the protagonist, who struggles to somehow integrate into society, entrusts his dreams to the pure and unsullied, and attempts to woo humanity, is ultimately betrayed by everything and becomes a lost human being, can be said to be a sharp literary criticism of modern society in that sense.
The ugliness of the common-sense human nature (at least they can exist proudly in this society) revealed by Yozoh's guardian 'Halchi' and his evil friend 'Horiki', characters who represent hypocritical human nature, urges us to reflect on ourselves as we live insensitively, steeped in the mold of this society.
"Jiksoe" presents a new perspective on Judas as a weak human being.
"The Jig Saw" is a work that describes the story of Judas accusing Jesus as if the reader were listening to it right there.
Contrary to popular interpretations, this work vividly depicts the conflict and anguish of Judas, who admired and loved Jesus, but whose love was rejected, leading him to betray Jesus out of anger and resentment.
There is no record in the Bible that Judas was identified as a traitor.
Jesus is saying to Judas, “Go and do what you have to do.”
Judas may have been a human being set up for the glory of Jesus.
As François Mauriac says, if there had been no Jesus, there would have been no Judas' agony.
Dazai projects himself onto both Jesus and Judas in this work, but the portrayal of Judas as single-minded, jealous, and wavering between love and hatred reveals that Dazai's interest in Judas is far greater than his interest in Jesus.
There is a part where Judah decides that he will kill her with his own hands rather than hand her over to someone else because he loves her so much, and “Money.
“Money is everything in the world.”, “I am a businessman after all.”
Judas' self-deprecation, such as "I chased after him hoping to get some money, but I found out that I was wrong and betrayed him," is an excellent psychological insight.
GOODS SPECIFICS
- Date of issue: May 15, 2004
- Page count, weight, size: 191 pages | 248g | 132*225*20mm
- ISBN13: 9788937461033
- ISBN10: 893746103X
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