The Flowers of Buffoonery

i’ve always enjoyed osamu dazai’s writing of the ocean. its the way his penmanship has always create vivid images of the beach, the ocean, the sky; i can see it. i can feel it. i can smell it. often times, i wonder if it is the level of melancholia we both share that we can see the exact same image, but i wonder if his talent can also come across as extremely sentimental, across longing and yearning there is absolute nothingess but to perish infinitely into the ocean. the ocean is the image we create ourselves to be in, the same as the city. i have no image of the city as i live in it but i have an image of the sea osamu sees, i wonder if the sea we sees are the same

sarmadi valla

the flowers of buffoonery is osamu dazai in his "dark humor era." a messy mix of existential dread and chaotic banter, it’s lighter than his usual heartbreak, but you can still feel the cracks underneath.

i don't really know what to say; this novel pushes the boundaries of what a novel is and i feel like to pass judgment on it would be to pass judgment on someone's thoughts and feelings. it's heartbreaking to read, the self-doubt and self-deprecation just jumping off the page. it's funny in some parts, heartwarming in others, but every single word is wrought with an underlying sadness.

short enjoyable read. definitely felt like the narrator was right beside be telling the story and then rambling on in between

refreshingly funny and comedic setting amidst "we found someone attempting suicide" plot and it all kudos to dazai appearing every three paragraph to complain.

Ah. Well... I don't know what to say, it's Dazai! It always felt like somehow, all the books I've read so far by him (No Longer Human, Schoolgirl, The Setting Sun, and this) spoke to me so closely. It's always intimate...in a way. Well! I can't describe it! It felt like I wrote this from another timeline, stupid isn't it?

Now, the book. Spoilers ahead?
First, I assume it has the same protagonist from NLH, Yozo Oba, who is just younger. This book was written when Dazai was around 20, I heard. It's pretty obvious as well, if the translation is doing it justice, the language in TFOB is a lot... simpler? More hopeful? Than in NLH. In NLH Yozo was an extreme cynic, which makes sense as we know now that this character is an alter ego of Dazai, which makes perfect sense in my opinion.

The Flowers of Buffoonery also touched numerous times on Japanese culture I believe, the way Yozo and his peers have this odd dynamic, all scared of silence, of stepping over a line etc. That's rooted in culture I believe, and it gets increasingly obvious as the book ends. Alot of things are about the image.

Going back to it's relation to NLH, alot of the themes from NLH ('clowning', 'ceasing to be human', 'pretending') are apparent in TFOB, just in a less cynical way? NLH sounded completely hopeless while TFOB has the tiniest bit of hopeful tone.

Agh, I don't know what I'm saying, I'm rambling, I don't make sense, I just love this book, okay? I love Dazai, I hate him.

a good mess, it’s like a relaxing beat with depressing lyrics for a song.

loved.