“Mine has been a life of much shame”
Is the opening line from No Longer Human, a phenomenal Japanese classic written by Osamu Dazai and a semi-autobiography of his own life.
No Longer Human is a story about alienation, self-abnegation, and estrangement, a coming-of-age story that will wrench your heart and soul but not in a cute way.
We follow the story of Oba Yozo, whose life has been miserable ever since he was born. Yozo never felt a peculiar sense of happiness. He was always have been burdened with a pack of misfortunes. He had a mortal dread of human beings and he believes that he is disqualified as a human.
As a last resort at understanding and trying to fit in, he wear many mask. He would made himself into a clown figure, involved in revolutionary act, and had many lovers. But there were none who made him feel like a complete human being. He was confused and feel isolated most of the times, as if he was the only one who never handed a guide book about how to: be a human.
To truly immeresed in Dazai’s last work, we shall deep dives into his life; a life shadowed by death.
Tragic Life of Osamu Dazai
Dazai life was far from perfect. Born in Shūji Tsushima 1933 to an upper-class Japanese family, Dazai always had a talent for writing. He was diligent and favored to be a succesful writer.
After his favorite author, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, commited suicide, it caused him an unexplainable grief. He started neglecting his studies. He also developed a drinking problem and an affinity for hiring prostitutes, and later in his life, crippling addiction to drugs.
However, Dazai made his flawed life into the subjects of his art. He wrote a lot of his novel in first-person autobiographical style involving a lot of theme such as suicide, isolation and disasters.
His gruesome trademark is much more evident in his last and masterpiece work, No Longer Human. It’s hard to deny it as purely fiction, especially since many of the plot align with Dazai’s life.
Many believed No Longer Human as his suicide note before he commited suicide in 1984, by drowning himself with his mistress in Tokyo river. It was his fifth attempts.
The first was in 1929 before his school exams, overdose by sleeping pills. Second was in 1930, a double suicide with woman he barely knew. Tragically, she drowned while Dazai was rescued. The third attempt was in 1933, by hanging himself. The fourth was in 1936, a double suicide with his wife, to their horror, they lived. It was until his fifth and last attempt that he escaped his life.
Learning Dazai’s life makes No Longer Human prominent at its purest form of genuinity. It was disturbing, to say the least. I had to halt my reading a couple of times to not get overwhelmed by it. By the end of it, it left me empty and hollow.
No Longer Human ends on a dark tone, much darker than a suicide; it is to fail to be a human.
I was overcome by griefness and sorrow, yet also a strage a sense of relief.
“Disqualifed as a human being.
I had now ceased utterly to be a human being.
__
Now I have neither happines nor unhappiness.
Everything passes.”
Adaptation In a Manga Form
After Osamu Dazai died, No Longer Human found it’s popularity in Japanese literature and become one of the classics. It owns many adaptation in popular culture, one of them is by Junji Ito. As a loyal manga reader, I was always a big fan of Junji Ito’s work, so there is no way I’m going to miss it.
I was suprised at how faithful the adaptation is. Ito (for the first few chapters) copied the exact same line, description, and even the smallest gesture that you’ll probably miss while reading.
But it’s Junji Ito afterall.
He made it more explicit and grotesque than the original text. Interestingly, since I was reading it back to back, after reading Ito’s adaptation the original seems a bit bland. But I quickly realized, that’s the charm of Dazai’s writing, mundane yet serene writing that made me fall in love with it even much more.
So, how is the adaptation of the novel? It was exteremely interseting. Especially since Ito differ from his usual trademark narratives. He adds a lot of plot-point (about 300 hundred pages) which seems more like Ito’s style than Dazai. Many find it pointless and boring.
I find myself liking it.
Ito also highlight a lot of Yozo’s problem with women. Suddenly it became much more sensual and vulgar than before. It feels refreshing and comedic, but in a good way.
Ito also add an ending notes, which Osamu Dazai was live within the reality of the manga, and met Yozo in a sanitarium. It was Ito’s way to show a tribute to Dazai in such a unique and interesting way.
