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Finished 'Beauty and Sadness' by Kawabata and 'The Setting Sun' by Osamu Dazai...Let me talk a bit about Dazai. Basically, his two masterworks are 'The Setting Sun' and 'No Longer Human', each as suicidal as the other. It is no wonder that he commited suicide after the two novels.
Basically he has a fundamental problem, which is pride (the original sin according to the Bible).
'What feelings do you suppose a man has when he realises that he will never know happiness or glory as long as he lives? Hard work. All that amounts to is food for the wild beasts of hunger...'
And thus his characters give up to drinking, debaunchery and suicide, glorifying human weakness as the quality of being truly human.
If only he had learnt from the bible or the Buddha, he would have been a much happier person...
Nonetheless, 'The Setting Sun' and 'No Longer Human' are short but very powerful texts. Not recommended for the easily-depressed or suicidal.
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