No Longer Human
Ratings425
Average rating3.9
Contains spoilers
No Longer Human, it's... Definitely something. Yozo, is a character that considers himself alien from society and humanity itself.
His patterns of addiction and self destructive tendencies are at the same time very grounded in reality and utterly disconnected from it at the same time.
I was left empty at the end of the book. Without thoughts of sadness, nor anger, nor happiness. Nothing.
Which mirrors Yozo's state at the end of the story.
To quote a comment I saw on the internet:
It's a book that makes you think a lot, and nothing at all.
Which I believe fits the overall experience of reading this story of one's life.
It's quite creepy to consider that the words of Osamu Dazai reek of an ongoing behavior within Japan–he wrote this shortly before his death in 1948!–that is defined by a contradictory form of servitude (emotionally torn, functionally obedient) and a penchant for vices. No Longer Human evokes the kind of self-awareness that should be alarming, even as it packages itself as a fictional reading of three notebooks from a character named Oba Yozo.
The quickest way I can describe reading this is that it evokes itself so nonchalantly that any form of Japanese media that comes before or after makes a lot of sense. It's astounding to consider that this is all compressed into such a story. Wow.
Discomfortingly relatable in the matters of loneliness, isolation and suicidal ideation. While the manner women are spoken of in this is deplorable and unkind, all other aspects made me feel almost ill when comparing it to myself.
Contains spoilers
I once learned that the purpose of science and technology is to understand the why, while the purpose of art is to showcase the lived human experience. This book might be the prime example of that.
No Longer Human is a raw story about alienation, addiction, and self-destruction. It’s immersive and extremely heavy. I think it’s a powerful look into how depression, trauma, and isolation can quietly eat away at someone from the inside out.
I have always shook with fright before human beings. Unable as I was to feel the least particle of confidence in my ability to speak and act like a human being, I kept my solitary agonies locked in my breast. I kept my melancholy and my agitation hidden, careful lest any trace should be left exposed. I feigned an innocent optimism; I gradually perfected myself in the role of the farcical eccentric.
I thought, "As long as I can make them laugh, it doesn't matter how, I'll be all right. If I succeed in that, the human beings probably won't mind it too much if I remain outside their lives. The one thing I must avoid is becoming offensive in their eyes: I shall be nothing, the wind, the sky."
This review is a bit bias as Osamu Dazai is my favorite author, but such an amazing book! The writing was amazing and did not leave out small details that had a big impact on the plot later in the book. As we followed the lead through his life I felt so much anger and sadness with and for him. If you want to cry while reading such an amazing book I highly recommend.
I came across one of Buddha's core teachings when I was younger, “Desire is the cause of all sorrow” and while, at the time, i remember it making a lot of sense, this book really makes me question it.
Our narrator Yozo here, is completely devoid of desire. In fact he is devoid of any feelings at all.
There are many disturbing things about this book, one being this is apparently the second most bestselling book of Japan of all time (??), two, the absolutely horrific way women are treated here, three, how relevant the ideas in this book are even though it was published in the 1930s, and four the fact that the author committed suicide a few months after the release of the book and there are many striking parellels between his and Yozo's life that has people questioning if this is his long and winded suicide note.
DO NOT read this book if you are mentally ill or suicidal.
Yeah, the more I think about this book the more I realise maybe that the desire to live, the desire to be happy is what keeps us all going, and desire is the all encompassing reason why we're all alive.
Beautiful art from Junji Ito as always.
I don't know how to explain it, but the dialogue in a lot of manga, including this one, feels stilted and campy. Not a big deal in most cases, but tree are times it doesn't fit with the tone of this particular story. I chalk it up to something getting lost in translation.
Considering it's supposedly autobiographical, simply said this is a sad tale. I'd never heard of the author until now and it has me curious to seek out Osamu Dazai/Shūji Tsushima's works
“Los cobardes temen hasta la felicidad. Pueden herirse incluso con el algodón. A veces, hasta la felicidad les hiere.”
wow
como puede una persona producir tanto rechazo y tanta pena a la vez
se siente indigno de ser humano pq prácticamente se ha olvidado de los valores que tiene la humanidad
stop blaming women, el problema eres tú ❗❗❗
Mine has been a life of much shame. I can't even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being.
Me parece una historia que profundiza la condición humana, la soledad y la forma como muchas veces nos tratamos como semejantes, invita al análisis y reflexión.
Mas allá de que Yozo (el protagonista) puede generar controversia por su forma de pensar y actuar, y sin estar de acuerdo en la mayoría de los que piensa o cree, es una historia que cautiva por su melancolía. Su estilo sincero y crudo por parte del narrador, hace que se convierta una lectura inolvidable (de esas historias que te que regresan a la memoria por un buen tiempo).
I have wished innumerable times to meet with a violent death, but I have never once desired to kill anybody.
4.5
i enjoyed the later parts a lot more than the earlier. i definitely think it is overhyped but i still found it interesting.
I knew nothing about it except that it was something different from everything I've read. I want to say that it's depressing with a good ending but not really. It was definitely an experience