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leonawriter · 3 years

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My Personal Takes on Stormbringer:

Without a full and accurate translation to go through in one sitting, it’s still hard to get a handle on things properly. That said, thank you to everyone who’s working on it.

Now.

(please note all quotes are my memory of translations I have read, and are not verbatim.)

-Asagiri, please, you do not need to make so many coding analogies with regards to Chuuya and Verlaine. They don’t work.

-It often feels - not just in this book but also in 55 Minutes, where there are tight restrictions on a time travel ability - that Asagiri limits abilities based on how scientifically accurate they are. However, this doesn’t make sense! why should it! Literature should be an expression of freedom. There should be rules - the same way the Page has rules - but in the sense of Magic A is Magic A. You make up the rules and then you don’t break them in future. Why have Kunikida able to create something with a mass heavier than a piece of paper out of a page of his notebook, but then say you can’t do [x/y/z] because it’s scientifically unviable?

-I have no issue with how skk treat each other. they are chaos teens. let them be. like... this is the beginning of their actual trust. they’re also in the mafia, and in a dark time in their lives. it’s fine. (it isn’t, but at the same time, it kinda is.)

-I feel like Chuuya taking things from other people and making that thing “his” fits him as a character? he had nothing before, so when you have nothing, all you have is what people give you. If someone gives him a bike, then that bike is his now. He has to learn to look after it, love it, and respect it, and he’ll remember that friend by it. Same goes for pretty much anything else. Also, it’s a show of how well Chuuya adapts to things, and what things he chooses to pick up.

-The hat. I do not like how the hat was treated. Making it into the key that helps Chuuya be able to activate Corruption cheapens the meaning and weight of having been given the hat as a memento of the first person who told him to live as a human being. Why not have the hat be a reminder of his humanity in a purely sentimental way? I’m going to ignore anything canon about this and just say it’s sentimental. Which, like, it could have been a safety blanket type thing, not pseudo-science.

-The coding in Chuuya’s body is a bit... of a reach? How do you put that in there? I don’t get it. Just say that there’s a possibility he might die if he uses Corruption, or that he’ll never become “Chuuya” again. That he’d lose himself utterly. The log history can be either on a chip (insert Dazai making “lost dog, if found return to the mafia” jokes here) or on something else that could easily be destroyed during the course of the story (or not).

-Dazai living in the shipping container reads to me like an extreme version of “I do not want to be found I do not want to be helped I am worthless trash and what’s the point in having an actual home if I plan on dying any day anyway.” Verlaine asks what drove him there, and Dazai says “you” and tbh that offers up so many questions (like, was the shipping container thing recent, was it temporary, or what). There’s the possibility that Dazai doesn’t always live there, because otherwise he’d suffer from hypothermia and get pneumonia in the winter! But above all, Mori had nothing to do with this. He was probably terrified to go too close in case he got killed. Stop saying Dazai lives here because “poor baby was abused :(” that sure was not it.

-Dazai goes all this way - plotting for ages, since before the beginning of the book, having been number one on Verlaine’s hit list, just to get the truth about Chuuya’s humanity and to preserve it - because “I want to see Chuuya suffer as a human being” is him saying he doesn’t want to see Chuuya become like him, or inhuman, because that’s not Chuuya. (dude, there ain’t a straight explanation for this...)

-following on from the previous, Dazai refusing to just let things be the moment he realises that it’d mean double suiciding with Chuuya. I personally see that as a shippy moment because Dazai had already given up on Chuuya being alive (if I read the translation right) and in that case, dying would just be letting go. But Mori says “yeah but I don’t think he’s dead yet?” and that, along with the “double suicide” thing, makes Dazai go “absolutely NOT.”

OK a related thing - as far as I remember, when IRL Dazai attempted double suicide, right up until his actual death it would result in either a failure or... his partner dying and him surviving. The cold potential of this happening in BSD if Dazai had just given up reminded me of that.

-Regardless of my thoughts on how it was handled, Stormbringer reinforced my previous ideas about how Chuuya basically IS Arahabaki. It also suggests that Arahabaki was more of a sentient ability than a true “god” but... that’s fine. For me, all I cared about was that all those “Arahabaki is an evil being that is constantly trying to take over Chuuya and Corruption is Arahabaki being let out” takes are not true. It’s... basically Chuuya taking the lid off his power. I joked at one point that Corruption is Chuuya going “I’m so pissed off I’m gonna kick the door open and throw away the key” and Dazai going “go for it babe, I got your key.”

-Rimbaud and Verlaine are... very complicated characters? They’re not easy to get a handle on. I sometimes find myself liking them and sometimes find myself disliking them, and that’s something that’ll be easier when I have a full translation available - and one of Fifteen. Rimbaud was held back by seeing Chuuya, at first, as nothing more than an empty vessel to Arahabaki’s power, while Verlaine was so taken over by grief without understanding how to handle that, that he became a monster up until the end of the story. Neither of them were good people. That said, their relationship to each other? It’s very complicated and reminds me of their IRL selves to a point but without the skeevy nature and without it going so far, so kudos to that.

-Adam. Knowing his creator was a ten year old girl makes so much sense when you look at the things he says and does. He doesn’t get so much. He’s very logical, but doesn’t understand that a game of billiards isn't as much of an icebreaker as he thinks it should be. Surprised by bubble gum. Games like “strange things humans do” are very much like the word games kids play in the car.

-Verlaine being the fifth executive was something I did not predict at all, whatsoever, and I can’t stop thinking about it. Like... how did he get to that point. Only so much can be said in a few paragraphs (it seems) of “this is [x] number of years in the future where Chuuya’s an executive now.”

The last we see of him, he’s overcome by grief, hatless, and he seems to have only just realised how much he wished he could return what Rimbaud gave to him. (Ironically, by being able to grieve like that, it shows that he is capable of what he thinks he can’t do - same as Dazai.)

But how does he become an executive? Do they come to him slowly at first, and they gradually build up trust? Does he stay in contact with Chuuya? Do they see each other properly as brothers now, or not? I can’t help but feel that as it’s a long time - six years, in fact - between Stormbringer and canon, some bond of trust must have been built. The mafia protects Verlaine from the authorities and from the outside world just the same as Kouyou says that she wants to do for Kyouka, and the same as they’re there for Chuuya, too. So. A Verlaine who trains the mafia’s best assassins not because he’s forced into it, but because he feels the same loneliness as Chuuya, and finds that it helps? A Verlaine who learns slowly that he can care about more people than just Rimbaud and Chuuya? Holy shit yes please. A Verlaine who is loyal and protective and who you should be glad is in a (probably) gilded prison of the mafia’s basement, because otherwise he would actually do so many things to those who would harm his family.

Let’s just say - if I think of Arahabaki as a guardian or protector god who is just plain destructive because it can’t help that, then Chuuya and Verlaine looking and acting in similar ways because they share that same “parent” in a sense, makes sense. They are no longer just Arahabaki, they’re “Chuuya” and “Verlaine” - but they also share traits such as “Papa Wolf” and “lonely” and “violent,” among others.

-At least twice, pre-Soukoku Dazai and Chuuya refer to how they’re constantly thinking of each other. No, they don’t mean in positive ways, but they’re chaos teens and it’s still strong emotion. Chuuya mentions how he’s thought of at least 190 ways to punish Dazai for the things that he does (which also implies how their relationship is equal, and Dazai doesn’t call all the shots, and doesn’t get away with everything scot-free), and Dazai says that Verlaine can’t possibly win against him, because Dazai “spends all of his time, waking and sleeping, thinking of ways to annoy and harass Chuuya,” (quote not perfect.)

We also have Chuuya having Dazai appear to him first in his hallucinations, which I see as Chuuya’s inner Dazai-voice saying all the worst things, and ironically not actually saying or meaning things that would get across what real Dazai would want him to feel; in other words, that’s Chuuya’s view of him, or his mind searching for the one person he’d believe it to realistically come from.

As well, Dazai saying “there’s no way Chuuya could be an artificially constructed personality, because no one could create a personality that I [hate/that annoys me] so much.” Which, like... sure... you tell yourself that, kid...

Basically, they’re all the kinds of things that teenagers who don’t really get how strong feelings like these work yet, who are still figuring themselves (and their orientations, probably) out, would say if they don’t even like that other person that much, but they’re still attracted to them. A strong “why does it have to be THEM?” haha. And yet, as others have pointed out, Chuuya seems more on the oblivious side than Dazai, since as said, Dazai goes to all this effort and seems fond (but only when Chuuya’s not looking, dumbass) but Chuuya just... doesn’t get it.

A shorter summary of my thoughts and feelings?

Chuuya suffers, but is ultimately happier for it no matter whether he’s one of the clones or whether he’s the original (it’s arguable either way, and I don’t mind either way) as he’s still Chuuya. His bond with the mafia is also stronger than so many people think it is. They’re literally his adopted family. Even if he chose to leave, he’d still see them as family. I can’t see him leaving. He’s just... they’re family... don’t tear them apart...

The skk is strong, no matter what people say, because this is the start and it’s the end of their first year in the mafia and it’s not supposed to be a healthy time, for fuck’s sake. They’re both all sorts of messed up. They’re allowed to be. This is a time when that’s kinda the point of the book. But yeah, the trust and the bond is real.

Verlaine. I am now fascinated by Verlaine. I was so sure before the spoilers and translations came out that I’d hate him. I no longer do. He confuses me but I NEED TO KNOW MORE.

#bsd #Stormbringer spoilers #bsd spoilers #all opinions are the OP's #you don't have to agree but they are mine #facts are just facts tho #and this got long whoops #may add more if I remember more later

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bsd-bibliophile · 6 years

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Hello! New follower here ^^ I really love your blog! This question is not really BSD related but do you have any book recommendations??? Sorry if you've answered this before ^^ Please have a great day!

Welcome to the blog! I am so glad you like it!!! As far as BSD authors go, I really like the following:

No Longer Human by Dazai Osamu: it’s my all time favorite book! I’ve read it at least six times and have four different copies, so I definitely have invested a lot in this book because it means so much to me. I heard somewhere that in Japan there was a poll of what book changed people’s lives the most and No Longer Human was one of the top answers, and I have to agree. Dazai had a major affect on me. However, everyone I talked to who didn’t absolutely love the book were surprised by how dark the content was. But then I also have a friend who, after reading only 20 pages or so, didn’t care about how dark it was because the writing was so beautiful and he could pull a quote off of every page easy. It is beautifully written and Dazai isn’t afraid to talk about the dark side of life that we all want to keep hidden. But because he writes about that he is very easy to relate too and it really reassured me that I was not alone in thinking and feeling some of these things that everyone feels, but we never talk about.Pandora’s Box by Dazai Osamu: this is one of Dazai’s happier stories. It is written as a collection of letters from a man in a tuberculosis hospital called the Health Dojo to his friend, explaining the way the Health Dojo runs from the rub downs to the wacky nicknames the patients and nurses have and the man’s thoughts and feelings he experiences while at the Health Dojo. There is a lot of humor as well as plenty of Dazai’s unique view of the world and introspection.The Moon Over the Mountain and Other Stories by Nakajima Atsushi: I really love some of the stories in this book. Some had so much Chinese history I couldn’t really understand or get into the story, but that’s because Atsushi was writing for an audience who knew the ancient Chinese stories the way cultures in the West know about ancient Rome. The more philosophical stories that Atsushi wrote, “The Moon Over the Mountain” which is also nicknamed “The Tiger Poet”, “The Master”, “The Disciple”, “The Birth of Wujing”, and “On Admiration: Notes by the Monk Wujing” are some of my favorite stories of all time. Atsushi is an intelligent writer and it takes some thought, at least for me, to really understand the purpose and meaning behind a lot of what he writes, but he is also so sincere, inquisitive, and has a kind of integrity to his writing that makes me love every moment.Rashoumon and Seventeen Other Stories by Akutagawa Ryunosuke: Akutagawa is another amazing author. His short stories are so carefully constructed and the themes/morals in the stories are so striking that I do not doubt why they are classics in Japanese literature. He does not hesitate to uncover the darkness inside humans, even Buddhist priests are not exempt, but he displays human weakness in a strangely loving way. I got the feeling that he sympathized with the weak characters the most, and that even though his stories can seem heartless and cruel at times (especially in stories like “Rashoumon”, “The Spider’s Thread”, and “Hell Screen”) he treats the characters with such care as an author that it makes me wonder if he patterned them after himself. Of course he didn’t write very many I-novel, or semi-autobiographical, works, so we do not know for sure how closely related the author is to the characters in his stories, but this book also gives a lot of background on Akutagawa’s life to help the reader understand a little more about the author behind the stories. But there are some very funny moments, Akutagawa is not always so serious, and he did write a handful of autobiographical short stories that are so powerful they made me cry!Kokoro by Natsume Souseki: I read this book by Natsume Souseki because I was wanting to get a general idea of what Japanese literature was like (it was back when the BSD anime first aired so way before the new manga arcs that include Souseki) and I didn’t know what I was in for. This book has a very powerful story. And Souseki is a master at what he does. The story is about a young man and an older man, known as Sensei, and how the older man influences the younger man’s life. The character Sensei is one of the most intriguing characters I have ever encountered. I don’t want to give anything away so I’ll just say that the novel deals with themes like isolation, guilt, egoism, familial roles, how values change from one generation to the next, and the cost of weakness. This is another book that had an impact on my life, especially because I hold the mentor/student relationship so dear. For me the character Sensei held the same value to me as the main character, and because I looked up to and in a way idolized the character it made the story hit me hard, especially in the last of the three sections the book is divided into.Self Portraits by Dazai Osamu: this is a collection of autobiographical short stories Dazai wrote, and they are arranged in a way that tell the story of his life. This is the book that taught me the most about Dazai as a person and as an author. In another book I enjoyed The Saga of Dazai Osamu, the author goes into great detail about the three sides of Dazai that are almost like completely different people: the Dazai who is an author in Tokyo, Shuuji (Dazai’s real name) who is like the person Dazai would be at his childhood home with his family, and the Dazai in his writings which is how Dazai thought of himself and wanted to be portrayed to the world. For this reason I really enjoy reading Self Portraits because it shows the reader the side of Dazai he wanted to display, and the kind of self he wanted to be. Although, there are a few places the book warns that Dazai tends to exaggerate or alter the facts to fit the kind of story he wants it to be, so don’t take Dazai too seriously as you read it.

For the last couple years I’ve almost exclusively read BSD authors (there are a lot of amazing books to read)! If you want non-BSD related books then some of my favorites are The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Inferno by Dan Brown, and really anything by Haruki Murakami (I guess that’s BSD related because he’s Kunikida’s grandson…).

Thank you for the ask! And I hope you have a good day as well!

#asks #book recomendations #bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs #bsd

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