osamu dazai

[Anonymous No.13820411]

hello, im just here to ask if the other books by osamu dazai are as good as no longer human, can anyone tell me? pic related for example

[Anonymous No.13820417]

When I read No Longer Human I got the impression that Yozo's silly cartoons that he made a living by were a metaphor for Dazai's previous literary works, so I decided not to read any of them. That doesn't answer your question, though.

[Anonymous No.13820422]

>>13820411
ooo i saw this at a bookshop one time, but it was before i'd read no longer human... unfortunately after reading no longer human i looked for it there again, and it was gone.

[Anonymous No.13820539]

Bump. No Longer Human is one of my favourite books and I'm glad to see a Dazai thread.

[Anonymous No.13821103]

>>13820411

It's short but great read. Although its tone is completely different than no longer there is lot of optimism and playfulness here.

[Anonymous No.13821521]

The Setting Sun is pretty good I remember, about as bleak as No Longer Human though for quite different reasons.

[Anonymous No.13821551]

>>13820411
I enjoyed this work. I don't finish a lot of stuff I start but I read this in just a few days. It's a very chill story.

[Anonymous No.13822151]

>>13820411
It's great and you'll read it all in 15 minutes tops.

[Anonymous No.13822847]

>>13820417
i happen to be an expert on the subject.

dazai wrote NLH and SS, his only two novel-size works, very late in his career, right before he succeeded on his fourth sudoku attempt. his previous short stories fall in one of three categories: comedic (monkey island, canis familiaris, otogizoshi), about the war and the trauma of it (waiting), or self-revealing (anything featured in self portraits collection.) it's the latter category he felt the worst about writing, because he was revealing family secrets and disgracing himself to make a living. it's like some e-celeb who makes self depreciating videos revealing all of his deepest secrets and humiliations, and those of his friends and family, for a day's bread. this caused the worst divide between dazai and his family and had the largest impact on his mental state.

>>13821521
SS, currency, and schoolgirl are all part of the "feminine" side he explored. because he'd always been treated well by women and terrorized by men (he was afraid of his father, he was excluded by his brothers, but women always loved him and provided for him...he was even a "kept man" for a while living off a woman) some of his works explore a more feminine nature by being set in the POV of a woman (or a female coin in Currency.) He was exceptionally skillful at this.

you can compare it to mishima, whose female characters are always some mysterious force the pov character cannot comprehend and cannot approach. this is a major failure of mishima's, probably because he was a homosexual.

[Anonymous No.13822940]

I have to say this is an extremely patrician thread so far. I, as well, have only read NLH and SS, and I enjoyed both immensely.
The hardest part was actually finding an english translation copy in my country, so my hoper are low on finding his other works. Maybe will read online if his other works are shorter.

[Anonymous No.13823016]

>>13822940
the rest are shorter--they're all short stories. even his two novels are pretty short for novels.

[Anonymous No.13823059]

>>13822847

[Anonymous No.13823420]

i'm an odd one out here because i've read some of his short stories but none of his novels yet
i loved the short story collection "crackling mountain and other stories" especially the story called "gyofukuki"
i found that story incredible touching and it has really left an impression on me. i can imagine a film adaptation of it by hou hsiao hsien would be utter perfection