No Longer Human

First of all, I really loved the short length and the succinctness of this book, and it's the reason why I love modern Japanese authors in general. No Longer Human is something one might call autobiographical fiction? I think? A lot of the events here coincide with the events in Dazai's life. My expectations for this were hard to describe, as online I've seen it regarded as a masterpiece everyone should read or as a "TOP TEN shocking books you should NOT read if you're depressed!!!!". Frankly I side with the former. I can't say I'm in the best state of mind right now, but this book didn't make me want to kill myself or anything. Now onto the book itself.

I mostly want to write about the main character, Yozo, as I found him to be really fascinating. Yozo is an extremely interesting and well written character, and why wouldn't he be, when he's basically Dazai himself? What I found to be the most intriguing about him was his misogyny. It seems to completely be a reflection of himself. When it comes to misogyny in general I feel like much of what I've read when written by men is pure projection of their foulest innermost feelings onto women and then proceeding to hate them. In Yozo's case I would say it's very similar. However I don't think his disdain for women is based on power dynamics or an inferiority complex, but it is a combination of the facts that he was abused by a female servant as a child, and that in many women he meets, he sees his miserable self. He is very well aware of that. He says he doesn't understand women, but of course he doesn't, when he does his best to be misunderstood by everyone else. Deep down, various women are who he ends up relating to the most. His life is based around performing, pleasing and fear. He recognizes and is aware of the fact that his good looks are seen as lewd, rather like a woman's looks would be, as opposed to being seen as strong and powerful. He is the one being wanted, an object of many women's desires, as opposed to him doing the wanting (his wife aside, but even this part is really interesting!!). He is self-destructive and untrusting following his childhood trauma as opposed to releasing his hurt onto others as an abused man usually would, judging by general statistics. He deemed himself to be weak and a coward, and weakness is generally seen as a feminine stereotype. You can see why now maybe I came to the conclusion that he relates to the way misogynistic society sees women. In fact, women are often seen as lesser than human, a view Yozo himself shares when talking about prostitutes. And that is how ultimately he sees himself.

I'd also love to talk about his view of Yoshiko and the focus on her virginity. When talking about her virginity, her purity, I don't think he was necessarily focused on her physical virginity. In fact, his sexual relationship with Yoshiko isn't even brought up much. Rather the focus is on her pure and untainted view of the world, allowing her to be trustful of everyone. This is something Yozo lacks, and he loves Yoshiko for being a living and breathing example of this purity existing in a world such as this. When that trustfulness ends because of her rape, Yozo's hope crumbles and he goes back to self-destruction. He is not able to forgive her, or not forgive her, as ultimately this was not her fault. But even there he acknowledges how he lacks a certain authority your usual husband would have in this case.

I mostly focused on the topic of misogyny here as I haven't seen many other people talk about it in depth, but there's many more things I found compelling about Yozo. His performance, his anxieties and the concept of comedy and tragedy. And of course, there's more to him being "disqualified" from being human than just his sexual abuse and lack of trust in the world. This book is definitely worth reading and I found it to be quite insightful. Isn't it interesting how a man that feels wanted by women feels gross about it? Dehumanized even? Haha...