How to read "Kokoro" by Soseki Natsume (6)
Read what is written
Most of the wrong interpretations, impressions, and critiques are in the style of "not reading what is written, but adding what is not written without permission. When KojinKaratani writes that the spirit of the Meiji era is "the variety of possibilities that the Meiji decade possessed," the sentence "At that time I felt that the spirit of the Meiji era began and ended with the Emperor. This means that he did not read the part that says, "At that time, I felt that the spirit of Meiji began with the Emperor and ended with the Emperor. I wrote it without reading it. But how can such a haphazard mistake be made?
This is a result of the fact that KojinKaratani's own criticism of the Meiji era was thrown into the work in a violent manner. The fact that many people died in civil wars until the Meiji 10s, and that the civil wars subsided in the Meiji 20s and a modern nation was established, probably frustrated the leftist ideologue, KojinKaratani Many leftist thinkers, not only KojinKaratani, fled to literature because of the frustration of their leftist activities. Literature, for better or worse, has an aspect of being such a cesspool.
These people are not so-called idiots. If you measure them in arithmetic, they are probably excellent. But they are not serious. They are using their intelligence in the wrong way. It is a mistake to try to analyze and evaluate all literature with psychoanalysis and Marxist thought. Of course, in "I am a Cat," "The Heredity of Taste," "Botchan," "Sanshiro," and "Then," the "criticism of the formation of the modern state," which KojinKaratani seems to like, appears in a funny way. The "Song of the Yamato Spirit," the "Imperial Army of the Dog," the "Sino-Japanese War," the "Iruka-like Mind," "Kotoku Shusui and the Policeman," and so on. However, KojinKaratani would rather not read them. The commentary in the Shincho Bunko edition of "Sanshiro" is written by KojinKaratani, but there is no indication that he is aware of the "Iruka-like mind" at all. Without realizing it, he wrote that it was a "golden age of youth fiction" to cover up the fact. This is not such a tone-deaf impression as it turns out, but it is rhetoric with one screw missing.
When you read what I wrote about "not reading what is written and adding things without permission", you must have thought, "No way, that's impossible, he's mistaken or something, he's really stupid. But which one is the idiot? KojinKaratani is munching his way through this world ...... without realizing his colossal mistake. I'm really sorry to hear that. I think it would be good if someone could tell him a little about it, but I wonder if everyone is hoping for a peaceful end like this. Well, I'm sure it's not good for them to know the truth now, but even so, it's better than not knowing.
But this is a true story. I have spent a great deal of time reading a great deal of domestic and international commentary on the works of Soseki Natsume, and it's not that KojinKaratani alone is wrong. There are 3,000 people who have skimmed the post and only 143 comments. Everyone is skimming without reading. At any rate, they don't read them. They don't read, but they want people to read what they write. This culture covers the whole of Japanese literature. Many people have fallen prey to the disease of "not reading what is written, but adding things that are not written on their own.
This is something that Michitaro Tada wrote about in the last century, but I think that the situation has worsened to the extreme: the number of people who write without reading has increased, and the literary world has disappeared and the prize world has been created.
Recently, the number of people who don't read magazines or books but submit their writing to various awards in order to have their work published has been increasing, and it seems as if the "literary world" has disappeared and the "award world" has been created.
("Norwegian Wood: Arson Theory (5)" by Michitaro Tada, from the September 1997 issue of Gunzo)
The following year, a novel that I wrote by randomly splicing together won the Newcomer's Prize in "Kaien" or something, and I think Shigehiko Hasumi described it as a cry of despair or something. One of the judges said that it would be better to attach an application ticket from a literary magazine to the application for the New Writers Award. This is because the people who apply for the newcomer's prize in "Gunzo" don't read "Gunzo" and the people who apply for the newcomer's prize in "Bungakukai" don't read "Bungakukai. The pyramid of the literary world, with KojinKaratani at the top, has been established, and the style of "not reading what is written, but adding what is not written" can be regarded as the default. In fact, it seems as if there is now a competition to see how many things one can write without reading the text, as if it were a big joke.
For example, near the beginning of the article, you say, "I had to cross a long footpath to get to the cool stuff like jade pebbles and ice cream. But at the teacher's house, they made homemade ice cream. But at the teacher's house, homemade ice cream is served. I had two more scoops after dinner. The teacher's house was quite a sophisticated place. Nowadays, you would probably think that ice cream is nothing. At this time of year, homemade ice cream is quite expensive. You can see that Sensei's house was a very luxurious house with plenty of room.
I know, did you know that?
You knew that, but you dismissed "Kokoro" as a story of love and friendship? Didn't you read the words "gold, my dear" and just assume it was a story about love and friendship?
In other words, in these comparisons, Soseki was emphasizing the richness of the teacher. This is what is written. It is true that he says to his wife, "Ma'am, please give me your daughter," "Please, please, by all means," "Please be my wife, by all means," but there is not a single word of "I love you" here. But there is not a single word of "I love you. There is no mention of economic factors here. But to add the interpretation of "I betrayed my friendship for love" here is also a style of "don't read what is written, add what is not written on your own", isn't it?
Of course, the doctor had always had a platonic love for his daughter, but he didn't want his wife to snatch his fortune, so he couldn't take another step. However, when he thought that K might take the first step, he thought about it and calculated that he had to get the girl at all costs to prevent K from taking his wife's property. This is not blind love, it is calculation. In the first half of the story, there is a pretense that love is a sin, but the climax of this pretense combined with "Kim, you" is "Please be my wife. The climax of this pretense and "Kinsa, Kimi" is "Please be my wife. Such people cannot tell the difference between Suzu Hirose and Alice Hirose. They cannot tell the difference between Audrey Wakabayashi and the vocalist of Ikimono Gakari. In fact, it may have been K who genuinely loved the young lady.
I'm sure you're not the only one who has a problem with that.
I didn't have a bathing suit, but there was always the fear that my belongings would be stolen, so every time I went to the beach, I would go to the teahouse and take everything off. (Soseki Natsume, "Kokoro")
This is how it is written in the story. Let's look at the logic. I don't have a bathing suit. He takes off everything. In other words, it is implied that "I" am naked. We don't know the truth because it is not written. It is only implied that way. And correspondingly, the teacher's swimsuit is not shown. She only wears a hand towel on her head.
Isn't everyone doing the "don't read what's written, just add what's not written" thing here? Are you taking the liberty of putting a bathing suit on "me" or the teacher? I am naked on the logic. The two of you will be going out to sea on two different boats, and if you are wearing a yukata, you will drown. Although it is not explicitly stated, it is possible that they are completely naked.
When we were about two clicks out to sea, the doctor turned around and spoke to me. There was nothing floating on the surface of the wide blue sea except the two of us in that neighborhood. The sun's rays were so strong that they illuminated the water and mountains for as far as the eye could see. I leaped into the water, my muscles moving with freedom and joy. The doctor stopped moving his arms and legs and lay down on his back on the waves. I imitated him. The color of the blue sky threw a painful color on my face as if it were glaring into my eyes. It's delightful," I said out loud.
After a while, the doctor adjusted his posture to get up in the water and urged me to go home. With my relatively strong constitution, I wanted to play in the ocean more. But when the teacher asked me to go back, I immediately said, "Yes, let's go back. So the two of us headed back to the beach along our original path. (Soseki Natsume, "Kokoro")
It is a dazzling world that many people admire, but it would be a sin to add dark blue or black bathing suits here without permission. Such vague noises have been polluting the masterpiece that Soseki Natsume worked so hard to write.
The two men's dicks have been exposed to the sun for nothing. It's not a feeling, it's logic. It's not a feeling, it's logic. This desire to expose one's penis can also be seen in "Light and Dark". After Shuzenji's illness, Soseki exposes his crotch to many people. It seems that Soseki learned the joy of exposure in his later years.
In the end, he was able to get away with it. The moon was shining on the blue willow trees. While I was watching it in my sleep, I suddenly heard a shout below. I immediately got up, walked to the side of the parapet and looked down. I got up and walked over to the railing to take a peek. I saw three naked men, one after the other, lifting large stones under the willow trees. I can barely hear their voices when they put all their strength into their hands to lift the stone. All three of us were absorbed in the task, but perhaps because of our enthusiasm, none of us said a word. I was struck with a strange feeling as I watched the nude figures moving silently in the apparent moonlight. Then one of them began to spin a long, thin balance stick around and around. ......"
It's like something out of Suikoden, isn't it?
It's a bit like Suikoden, isn't it?" "It was already very blue then. It's like a dream when I look back on it today." (Soseki Natsume, "Kojin")
In "Gyojin", the envy of youthful body is written in this way. The young nakedness implied is not an obscene prank.
Don't read what is not written.
In many people's impressions of "Kokoro," it is apparent that they have read things that are not actually written. Not all of them. But quite a few people have made up their own stories.
The teacher felt guilty about K's suicide and became like a recluse...
I think there are a lot of people who interpret the story in such a way without taking offense. They put all the blame on K for making the teacher crazy. But the teacher doesn't suddenly go crazy. He writes his thesis, graduates, gets married, and then gradually becomes crazy. If he can't keep up with his studies, he's flunking out.
"Ma'am, when I asked you the other day why you weren't more active in the world, you said something. You once told me that you weren't originally like that.
"Yes, I did. Yes, I did, because it wasn't like that.
What was it like?
He was the kind of man you want, and the kind of reliable man I want.
Why the sudden change?
It wasn't a sudden change, it was a gradual change.
"Was your wife with him all that time?
Of course she was. Of course she was. They're husband and wife.
Then you should know exactly what caused him to change.
That's why I have trouble with you. That's why I'm troubled. It's really painful to hear you say that, but I can't think of anything else. I don't know how many times I've asked her to confide in me.
The teacher became stranger and stranger. There are people who remember it as "suddenly". The memory seems to be rewritten. I guess the logic that I would... suddenly go crazy if my friend died because of my betrayal, replaces "gradually" with "suddenly". Otherwise, many people try to put all the blame on K for making the teacher funny. If you read carefully, you can see that it is K's black shadow that surrounds Shizuka that makes her funny. In other words, what he sees is Shizuka, and what he sees is the black shadow of K. The two come together to torment him. This is why the Masunacho Incident is an incident.
One of the most common misunderstandings is that the "Ore" in "Botchan" has a shaved head, and people think he has long hair. K can have a shaved head because he is a child of the temple. It's okay for K to have a shaved head because he's a child of the temple, and it's okay for doctors to have shaved heads too. But I wonder why "I" have a shaved head when I'm a teacher at the age of 23. I understand. It's the image of Ninomiya-kun, isn't it? Tsuda doesn't go for a haircut for two months. It's okay to have long hair. If you do an image search for "shaved head," you won't find many shaved heads. I think this is the point. I don't read what is written, but I add my own imagination.
I was thinking about Qing and lazing around when suddenly, above my head, I heard what must have been thirty or forty people stomping on the floorboards with such a clap that the second floor fell down. Then there was a loud battle cry in proportion to the sound of the footsteps. I jumped up in surprise, wondering what had just happened. (Soseki Natsume, "Botchan")
This word "notsusotsu" is also not so common nowadays. Did you understand the meaning? Today, in Hayashi-sensei's "Kotoba Kentei" (Language Test), "Manjirimozu" was one of the questions. The word "notsusotsu" is not "manjirimozu", but it means that even if your body is moving, your consciousness may be foggy, so you can't be sure that the footsteps and the battle cry are not a dream. If it's not a dream, then it's not a dream at all. That's why these suspicions are possible.
I've had a habit of dreaming a lot since I was a little kid, and I've often been laughed at by people for jumping out of bed and talking in my sleep about things I didn't understand. When I was sixteen and seventeen, I dreamt that I had picked up a diamond, and on the night I dreamt it, I stood up and asked my brother, who was standing beside me, in a very excited voice, what had happened to the diamond. I was so weak that I became the laughing stock of the whole house for about three days. It may have been a dream, too. (Soseki Natsume, "Botchan")
In order to be able to write like this, it was necessary to be "notsotsu", right? It should not have been "without a trace of humor. How many people were able to read "notsusotsu" properly? How many of you remembered, "The moon shines from the front, from my shaved head to my chin, without bothering me. How many of you remembered the following? Did anyone know that online credentialing does not show the credentials themselves on the patient's display? Did even one person realize that this was illegal?
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