OSAMU DAZAI - THE SETTING SUN AND NO LONGER HUMAN

I’m not sure why I like Osamu Dazai’s writing so much….At times, I would say he is my second favorite Japanese writer after Yasunari Kawabata….Two dominant themes of his work go against core beliefs of mine ….1.) I believe in free will and Dazai’s books have a hysterical form of Japanese fatalism that seems pre-determined….No point struggling against it 2.) That fatalism also takes the form of an infatuation with suicide and the sense that nothing will ever get better….I also reject this as hope is all we have and I feel you just have to try your best in everything you do.

Yet I think his two main works THE SETTING SUN and NO LONGER HUMAN are both extraordinary….SUN is about the decay and fall of a once prosperous old lineage Japanese family in the days immediately following World War II….HUMAN is a largely autobiographical story about a narrator who I believe is Osamu Dazai….It’s one of the darkest books in tone I’ve ever read.

Still, while it is true that Dazai has an unrelenting negaitivty that runs rampant but he is also witty especially in his description of other people….He reminds me of Celine in the way he builds scenes that cascade into even worse situations all the while injecting some black humor….He has a savage apathy towards life but also an apathy to a commitment to an action as strong as suicide.

Yeas, he’s weak but a hell of a writer!