Thank you for all the effort you are putting into the club!
Can this be turned into a wiki too? I can’t add my name to this one 
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Now a Wiki!
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GOAT Summer 2025
Home Thread
夜の底 (CW: Suicide)
夜の底 by 夏夜 米子
I am not sure what was the 悪 aspect here was? Or was this supposed to go under the 旅 theme? I am not quite sure how this is divided up.
It was funny how the narrator was disappointed by the suicide being so “mundane”. I wondered if the 悪 aspect here was the voyeurism or the dehumanization to create a spectacle out of someone’s death? I also wondered if Japanese newspapers are allowed to report suicides or if this was just done here in the story.
I guess it reminds me a bit how sometimes media constructs a lot of tragedies around the motives of school shooters, like how they were bullied and just snapped at some point, which often turned out to be false and that they were actually quite popular and had a lot of things to look forward to. Those things are done for seemingly pointless reasons, even if we would like to have a coherent explanation.
It also reminded me of when someone I knew (probably) also died by suicide. She was missing for over a year. She was found so late that it was hard to tell what the actual cause of death was. It was so surreal following the news and seeing a friend reduced to headlines, some making me angry because they were also dehumanizing her for the sake of the spectacle. When it became more likely the cause of death was suicide, she of course vanished from the news cycle as it is not allowed to report about suicide victims here.
I still pass the place where they found her each time I go to the airport and each time I remember her face in the newspapers and how surreal it felt to have someone you know being a sensation in the news. So the fascination with seeing someone becoming a part of the news cycle that you have ties to was relatable for me, although for me I didn’t feel a deep fascination but mostly disgust.
ナチスの奥底に現代を見た
ナチスの奥底に現代を見た。
I am pleasantly surprised everyone in this discussion seems to be knowledgeable about the topic, not only the German person.
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darn… that might tempt me into getting that issue… but first I need to finish the one I have… 
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Haha, yes, that’s also why I went for that one first.
[disregard author comments as I misread the name 
]
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It does have an audible recording… so… I could just listen to that, probably… maybe… 
Edit: Audible has the author as 夏夜 米子 not 今村夏子?
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Ohhh that means I misread the author, that explains everything 
I was wondering why it wasn’t more punchy!
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I started writing a few thoughts. Will probably go for Deadly Migratory Fish──死滅回遊魚 next because the title is intriguing.
Does anyone know if the newest GOAT will also get audio recordings? I really think those are well made so I hope they continue making those. It seems like the audio releases an edition of GOAT later? So the audio recordings for GOAT Vol 2 released when Vol 3 came out, I think?
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I ended up buying the other 2 GOAT issues as well. Won 500 bookwalker coins (by guessing a correct book award winner 
) that needed to be spend by end of February and I also had a 50% off coupon… so they were basically free. 
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My thoughts on ふたえ
I’m going to be honest and say I’m not sure what to make of it.
It’s my first time reading Junko Takase, and I know her novel 「おいしいごはんが食べられますように」(already in my TBR pile for this year) won an Akutagawa for the way she was able to write unspoken, in-between the lines social interactions.
I don’t know if that’s what I failed to pick up from her short story, but I feel like I completely missed something. So the story is just going to end like that? “I went to Tokyo and my dad had plastic surgery. I had to help him out for a day after, but beside that it was a nice trip”.
I somewhat related with the premise of the story: almost 10 years ago I told my own mother I was going to get my nose done, expecting her to react negatively and tell me all sorts of things, but instead she told me she herself has been wanting to do the same since she was in middle school, and would do the surgery with me if she was any younger. It threw me off almost as much as it threw off the protagonist off the story, and that’s why it was my first pick.
The author introduced so many other interesting elements and… I just feel like the story ended without doing much with them.
I’d love to hear someone else thoughts on this, because seriously, what did I miss?
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I’m so intrigued! I’m going to start reading it after the current book I’m reading, early March
I have slowly continued making my way through the various stories:
市川沙央 音の心中 was not for me, personally, but not a bad story. It’s so interesting how the meaning/essence of 愛 ้has been interpreted so differently in the various stories.
小川 哲 嘔吐 was really good, imo. It reminded me a bit of 推し、燃ゆ because of the topics. The different POVs letting you by and by find out the truth is a style I really enjoyed.
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Since I just go from front to back, I have now also read 2 of the コラム pieces they call 私のＧＯＡＴ本.
The first one by 鳥飼 茜 about リリアン was quite boring for me and did not make me interested in the discussed book at all.
However, the second one by 斉藤壮馬 about ビッチマグネット was quite interesting - dealing with how reading the same book at different stages in your life, can give you a different understanding of a book. Something, I feel, most readers have experienced at some point.
Edit:
Apparently, I forgot to write about the first essay in the MOAT: チョン・セラン 私たちは愛を失ったことがあるだろうか？ which I liked a lot as it very much reflects my own opinion on the fantasy of love that we grow up with and is generally portrayed in stories vs. the reality of it.
I read one more short story today 尾崎世界観 【ア】【イ】 which has an interesting idea but it lost me half-way through. Partially, because I found the female MC incredibly annoying (and we spend a lot of time in the story basically in her head).
And probably last but not least for today, I read the next essay ワクサカソウヘイ 二番目のアイスを教えてください which was a bit weird but amusing enough. Apparently, most people have a favourite ice cream? And a second favourite? Really? I certainly don’t. I rarely even go for the same flavours. 
It got me looking up a bunch of Japanese ice creams. I am not a huge ice cream fiend but some of those look really tasty.
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Btw I tried reading Deadly Migratory Fish──死滅回遊魚 but gave up because it was just too hard (lots of lawyer speak), but if anyone else manages to get through it please let me know how you felt about it, because I am actually very curious about this one.
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Read another 私のＧＯＡＴ本 コラム by 上白石萌音 about 雪の練習生. It is suggested to go into the book completely blind:
１、頼れる友人や家族にタイトルを伝えて購入を頼む。
２、帯と表紙カバーを外しておいてもらう。
３、裸の状態で本を渡してもらう。
Personally, I want to know what to expect from a book before going in. I ended up looking up the book and it sounds both very weird but also interesting. 
After which, I directly continued onto the next short story 違う海にいる by 麻布競馬場 which - again - I really enjoyed. It deals with something I feel most people who have reached the age of 30 and beyond will have experienced at some point or are right now experiencing: friendships changing and you not being as important to someone as they are to you.
A bit of a melancholic story.
I just realized, I seem to have skipped 念のため by 芦沢 央. Oops. Guess that’s next on my list. 
Aaaand done… hm… not sure how I feel about this one. I did not quite vibe with it. I felt like I was waiting for something to happen and then it just ended…
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Oh, that reminds me, I saw the first three issues of GOAT at my local Kinokuniya! Was pretty cool to see.
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