I read it in French.
Never thought about it, but it is horror, yes. Not surprised that @CatDQ or @Legato didn’t catch that from the preview, though. (Edit: wait, no, CatDQ was looking at reviews and that does sound accurate)
The thing is, the horror parts are explicitly taking part in (trying to be spoiler free, but it still spoils the initial surprise) a simulation. If you get killed there, you just wake up in the titular 保健室
Still, while that kinda reduces the horror element of those parts, it’s still horror I think.
Not yet, but I got through a similar letter in 羅生門・鼻・芋粥 | L46?? and didn’t mind it. It kind of feels like a puzzle where I can pick up the vague meaning through the kanji and some light classical Japanese knowledge. I think my mood is a big factor when reading harder stuff and if I’m already tired/annoyed it’s close to impossible to push through.
Yesterday, I finished 穴 | L36 and enjoyed it a lot! I don’t know why, but the writing of the titular story felt oppressive somehow, bringing a growing sense of unease as the story progressed. Reflecting on it, I think some of it comes from the fact that it’s just a solid block of text, with all dialogs put inline instead of on separate lines. I did like the end of that story too. The ending feels open, but in a way that makes sense. It’s not like, if the author wrote what happened just after, we would have more answers. The main character may probably never know what happened.
On that note, that’s exactly why I’m less fond of the end of the second story (or stories, technically, but they both follow the same characters and are only a few in-story months apart from each other). We also get an open ending, but this one doesn’t make sense. Did the wife cheat on him? If she is pregnant now, but, from context, they haven’t had sex in a while and he is probably sterile anyway, that would have to be the case, right? We don’t know any of that for sure as the reader, but, contrary to the titular story, we are just one conversation away from knowing the answer… why stop here?
That frustration made me hesitate between 4* and 5*… but I still went with 5* in the end since I really like the writing.
I couldn’t help but notice that @bungakushoujo gave 2* to this book. I’m starting to see a pattern where I should maybe try to read stuff they don’t like
More seriously, I’m almost done with 破局, which you gave 5* to, and I am also enjoying it, so maybe my plan was flawed from the start (who’d have thunk)
Between this and コンビニ人間, I guess it’s interesting to read stories about people who are on the spectrum (although the main character is obviously high functioning here).
The end was a freaking mess! I can’t believe 麻衣子 told 灯… like, why would you do that? Plus, although he could have resisted more, she did take advantage of the main character.
I feel like, instead of being mad, 灯 asking for an open relationship would solve some of the problems, but her sex drive is way past the healthy point anyway… I don’t even understand how she is not injured at this point, but even then, not having food at her place at all, letting the fish die… Not good.
Back then that book first came out and won the Akutagawa prize, there was a lot of buzz about what it’s about and people had all these different takes on it. Is the main character autistic, a psychopath, or the embodiment of toxic masculinity pushed to the limit? Is the sex seeking behavior and zombie stuff, as well as 膝s alcohol drinking showing the nihilism of gen Z, especially when faced with the pressures of adult life? It’s no coincidence the main character is studying to be a public servant, which is apparently the most desired job for young people these days due to its stability and relative status. All that social stuff aside, I just loved how weird and chaotic that book was. I absolutely loved the ending because it made me go “what?!”. I need to reread it one of these days! I think it will be really interesting to read now that we are further into the 2020s and some of the social trends that are kind of touched on have developed further.
As an aside, I enjoy that author in general. I read his first three release and saw he had another one that came out in the past year or so, but the reviews all say it is an awful 駄作 lol so maybe I’ll skip that wait for his fifth release.
Well, he has none of the symptoms of being a psychopath (disregard of social norms, manipulative behavior, inability to distinguish right or wrong). He could be a sociopath, since his main motivation for not disregarding social norms or doing something bad is that it would put him in troubles rather than the actual feeling that it’s wrong, but his behavior at the end isn’t consistent with that. It feels more like he just encountered a few situations at once that he doesn’t know how to navigate, and doesn’t have time to think about it (so he ends up relying on muscle memory so to speak). I also don’t think he is toxic per se, but that’s possibly because we see his point of view. From the outside, the situation would probably look different.
I guess I’ll check other books from the author then!
This was basically also my impression, except I thought about where the muscle memory came from since he reacts with aggression and violence in a few situations (getting mad at people on his rugby team, and then the final confrontation at the end). All the penis commentary throughout and descriptions on how men behaved made me think the author was trying to make some kind of point about toxic aspects of male behavior…and I guess female too tbh. 遠野遥 other books also have a lot of gender dynamic related stuff if you end up reading them. I liked 改良 the most but 教育 was kinda fun because the plot was insane.
Based on what he says, that’s more like the way he trained when he was in their position. Especially, he keeps getting surprised that they don’t react the way he would have.
The final confrontations read very much like the matches he did, which is what I meant by muscle memory (although kicking and punching are a bit out of place, but otherwise it was the exact same moves)
I don’t really have an opinion about mentions of his penis except that I mostly enjoyed them, except the one time he has to clean the window and the floor
Small grammar questions for friends here: is there a verb conjugation where the verb ending is ん? I’m seeing this specifically when someone is praying, so it doesn’t feel like the usual shortening of ない:
Yes! This is its own grammar point found on N1. It’s like v+ために for the purpose of but an older way to say it (think it’s coming from Classical Japanese? Not sure)
Not in this particular case; the two verbs I highlighted normally end in う and す, so bungakushoujo’s probably right with the classical grammar holdover.
so maybe I’ll skip that wait for his fifth release.