Week 1: Prologue and First Notebook

[Jean]

Post your comments and impressions of the Prologue and First Notebook here.

If you read ahead and wish to discuss them, please post in the appropriate sections so that you don't inadvertently post spoilers.

Thank you so much and looking forward to the discussion.

[Jean]

So...I was wondering who the speaker is in the Prologue? Any speculations? Is it Yozo, looking back as a different person? Or someone else?

Yozo is a rather disconnected character. He seems to have difficulty reconciling himself versus expectations. While he can fake it with his clowning around, he is baffled by the everyday hypocrisy that he witnesses. At times, he seems like an angst ridden teenager but it seem that he has felt this way all his life.

(view spoiler)[Of course, a lot of his issues stem from the abuse he endured at the hands of a servant. And this ongoing event prevented him from being able to connect with people as he silently suffered as it occurred during such an early point in his life where he should be learning to connect with his family and be able to feel safe. (hide spoiler)]

I'm still trying to make up my mind about the book so far. I'm halfway through the Second Notebook. I do find the character interesting but not sure how I feel about the writing style or translation style.

What you do think?

[Andy]

Who translated yours? My agree the translation seems strange, but Keene is like the Godfather of Japanese literary translation so I've just been assuming I don't like Dazai's style.

I'm intrigued by the prologue, the focus on those images, what image means. The boy is "ugly", "adorable", "dreadful", "grinning monkey", "wizened, horrible". This really sets up the theme of appearance vs. reality that I think Jean is touching on in her comment too.

It's also interesting to think about how the "non-human" changes between the three photos. The boy is the monkey, the young man doesn't have the "solidity of human life", the older man "a human body to which a horse's head has been attached". The imagery is intriguing and I've struggled trying to picture what these photos look like, understanding the feeling, but maybe not the artistry of the descriptions.

Lastly, all of the photos leave off with the description of uncertainty about the subject, like the person in the photos is beyond knowing. This transitions into the deceit Yozo has perpetuated to seem "human" to others. Again, it is the repetition in the images, "I have never seen..." a child with such an unaccountable expression,..a young man whose good looks were so baffling,...such an inscrutable face on a man." That the ending of each description starts exactly the same is powerful. I wonder if the point of the this is to foreshadow that, despite all the things I'm about to read, this man is an unknowable enigma, that his otherness from humanity will prevent me from ever getting deeper than a photograph.

I've read the first notebook, more comments to follow. Looking forward to the discussion!

[Jean]

Hi Andy,

Yes, my translation is by Keene. It must be Dazai's style that I'm not warming up to. Nevertheless, I am intrigued with the story.

I enjoyed your analysis and am re-reading the prologue with your comments in mind.

The language is so intensely harsh in describing Yozo in the pictures. I wondered if it was Yozo as the speaker because it was unusually emotionally harsh as I couldn't conjure up the mental picture to the photos that would convey the inherent non-human masquerade that was being described. They would appear as caricatures in my mind instead of photos with those embodiments.

The last picture gives me a sense of overwhelming despair where all hope has been extinguished. He has given up. There is no pretense of humanity as was seen in the previous photos. The signs of humanity in the picture are the background objects as the speaker tries to erase the memory of the man's face.

The other thing is that we are at the mercy of the speaker of the prologue. He doesn't give us detailed descriptions of the photographs -- just scant physical details and a lot of projected ones.

Once we are past the harshness of the prologue, I can't help to look for the monkey in book 1. However, I don't quite see the evil that the prologue speaker conveys. Yozo describes how he copes with life. He also describes the picture where he's the monkey boy in the prologue.

I do feel bad for him as he can't seem to find a connection. His deception is an attempt to connect but not a successful one. He can't understand how people manage to go on with their lives or even understand the social contract that allows everyone to co-exist. Perhaps with such a vehement foreshadowing in the prologue, you can't help but to say Yozo has issues but he's not that bad, yet.

Can't wait to read more of your comments! Keep it coming and jump in when you can. :)

[Andy]

Sorry, work's been crazy lately. Follow up and notebook 1, here we go! And for any baseball fans out there, Let's Go Bucs!

I found your suggestion that Yozo was the author of the prologue intriguing and unexpected. It would tie in with a theory I have about him that continues to develop as I read further (more on that later). It would mean he's so "separate" from humanity that he cannot even reconcile his human form in the photos to his perceived "non-human"-ness.

Also your description of the old man in the photo helped me visualize him. I feel like the English expression I'd use is "hang dog". Maybe tat's just a Southern thing though, so my apologies if that isn't clear to everyone.

I think he is the quintessential monkey in the first notebook. Like an organ grinder's monkey, dressed up in unfamiliar clothes, he dances to the music society plays, not because he belongs, but so he might be praised or loved or "respected". And like the monkey, he can act like a human, but he always knows he is distinct and is only playing a role and not only cannot form the connections you mention, but actually is not acutely interested in forming one with human beings.

And only after he describes all of this does he mention the abuse at the hands of the servants! It's almost an afterthought in the first notebook. It feels more like a way of showing how cut off he feels from the humanity of even his parents by not telling them than of explaining the root cause of his dehumanization, a symptom rather than the disease.

All of this builds to my theory that Yozo is really suffering from either antisocial personality disorder or (thanks for planting the seed Jean) some sort of dissociative or borderline personality disorder. The sexual abuse at the hands of caregivers, the feeling of distance from his parents, the manipulative play acting to fit in, the intensity of some of his feelings (I'm thinking of the lion mask episode, his vivid description of shaming those who are "respected" and comments like "The least word of reproof struck me with the force of a thunderbolt...").

One thing I'm finding somewhat disconcerting is that while I don't find myself rooting against Yozo like an antihero, I also don't find him particularly sympathetic either. It's an interesting read struggling to find an emotional connection with him as the protagonist. Dazai has done a masterful job of making him "non-human" in this respect. But it keeps me searching for enough to make him a hero or a villian which is strange 1/3 through a book.

Really liking it so far though.

[Jean]

Bethany wrote: "I also wonder if he really was sexually abused the way he talks about his disconnection from people and how he doesn’t understand the deceit between people. When you here abuse your mind automatic thinks sexually abuse but could they have made him aware of the less pleasant side of human nature. I’m probably wrong and I’m sure I’ll find out more later in the book."


He mentions something in the first notebook...

"My true nature, however, was one diametrically opposed to the role of a mischievous imp. Already by that time I had been taught a lamentable thing by the maids and menservants; I was being corrupted. I now think that to perpetrate such a thing on a small child is the ugliest, vilest, cruelest crime a human being can commit. But I endured it."

Yozo suffered some kind of abuse at the hands of the servant(s). As to the nature of that abuse, it's not spelled out at the moment. We can infer it wasn't good and it could be of a sexual nature.

The story really interesting. The book is very dark and the narrative style isn't necessarily elegant but it is still engaging.

I can't wait to hear your thoughts for the next notebook!