More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
All of the various misadventures of his student life were detailed pretty much as they’d happened in real life, including the shocking finale, where Masaya is stabbed to death by a prostitute.
Therein lies Nonoguchi’s aim: to create a fictional account of the events in order to divert suspicion from himself.
Though Nonoguchi’s account doesn’t mention this, the night of the murder he seemed excited and unusually talkative. Both my superior and I recognized this as one of the classic indications of guilt.
“The relationship between teacher and student is based on illusion. The teacher is under the illusion that he is teaching something, and the student is under the illusion that he is being taught. What’s important is that this shared illusion makes both teacher and student happy. Nothing good is gained by facing the truth, after all. All we’re doing is playing at education.”
Not sure I agree with this statement.
My theory is that Osamu Nonoguchi had been working as Kunihiko Hidaka’s ghostwriter. I suspect that something in that relationship soured, leading to the present situation.
Namely, that while it was difficult when times were hard to pretend to be happy, doing the reverse was relatively simple.
To an author, his writing is a part of himself. In many ways, it’s his child. As parents love their children, so do authors love the work they create.
“What was most frightening was not the violence itself, but the negative energy emitted by those other boys who hated him. He had never imagined that such malice existed in the world.”
It is unfortunate, but true, that parental guidance and the intervention of teachers often has little effect in bullying cases. Friendship is a child’s greatest ally. Yet if the character of Hamaoka had any friends, they didn’t get involved. And a friend who lets his friend get bullied isn’t a friend at all.
“But your plan was unique. You had an entirely different goal in mind. You wanted to get arrested. You didn’t care about committing the perfect crime. You wanted to establish the perfect motive.
“You know, once I realized I’d be spending time in the literary world while on this case, I decided to do a little background reading. That’s when I came across the concept of establishing character. Apparently, it won’t do just to tell the reader what a particular character is like. The author needs to show their habits or their words and let the reader form an image on their own.
