Yoshiko no longer human5/11/2023 ![]() An aspiring writer, newly arrived in Tokyo, Dazai had been impressed with Ibuse ever since reading “Confinement” as a middle school student in Aomori in northern Japan. The way Dazai initially met Ibuse is interesting as well, and it shows how desperate Dazai was when it came to writing: Ibuse was thirty-two and Dazai twenty-one when they first met. He also tells in one story about a time when a handful of literary critics criticized his works to his face and he couldn’t stand up to them so instead he kept it bottled up inside until he made it home then openly cried and pounded the table while telling his wife about what happened and how hurt he was by it all. He says in many short stories how he thought of killing himself merely because what he was wearing was out of fashion or too old. ![]() Dazai was very sensitive to any kind of comment about his writing or even clothing. He joked a lot and tried to make others like him to the point where his second wife had a hard time taking him seriously even when bombs were falling around them and they were trying to figure out where they could go to escape from the effects of WWII. He didn’t do cruel things to others because he was afraid of being ridiculed, put down, or ignored. From reading Dazai’s semi-autobiographical and autobiographical stories (mostly found in Self Portraits of Dazai Osamu) it is clear that the real Dazai was too timid. ![]()
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