Post by Mina Kaneko on Oct 21, 2015 15:59:19 GMT
I like the voice and tone of Kasai in “Merry Christmas,” even if he isn’t the most noble of characters. For one, he is conceited, suave, and rather misogynistic – at one point, he even says he can’t be moved to really believe women, or shed a tear when listening to their emotional travails (even though he attributes this to being mistreated by women – I wondered). He’s clearly not perceptive to Shizueko’s feelings during their conversation, his mind clouded by his own ego – the couple of times she becomes quiet about her mother, he suspects she’s jealous of her, since he had had a close relationship with her (it’s kind of fun to follow his thoughts, and anticipate if he’s really right, because he’s so sure of himself).
Because of these traits, I was skeptical of his character and slightly annoyed by him as a person; nonetheless, I liked the casual and honest nature with which he talked about himself. Even if I felt the guy Kasai to be a bit glib, I followed and trusted him as a narrator. And I was amused by him in several moments.
I did find myself rooting for failure in regards to his getting together with Shizueko (how boring it would be if he succeeded in wooing her). It was satisfying to find out, then, that he had been wrong about her desires. That he was awoken to this harsher reality added meaning to the story – instead of becoming a dramatic love-triangle scenario, we’re unexpectedly led to a commemoration of the mother who had passed away in the war. They share broiled eel with her in spirit, and take in the surrounding Christmas energies.
It’s a subtle story, and for the most part the tone is casual, lively, but there’s an underlying feeling of defeat or weariness coming from Kasai. He drinks a lot, without much care or feeling, and from the beginning he expresses that Tokyo has neither improved nor worsened in his time away. The story starts with the line: “Tokyo presented a picture of effervescent gloom” (224). This is his intended and imagined first line of a story, but he finds that that actually isn’t even true. It’s an interesting expectation of Tokyo – a contrast of liveliness and sadness – but he says, instead, Tokyo is the same as ever, and that it reminds him of the saying: “only death could cure a fool” (224).
Tokyo here, is the fool, whose foolishness (and sameness) can’t be helped – the fact that it’s not even characterized by “effervescent gloom” seems to indicate that it’s something without much feeling (neither life nor decay, neither better nor worse), that it’s the same, life in Tokyo passes the way it always has, that it’s helpless to expect otherwise.
Osamu’s writing suggests a self-awareness, which makes Kasai more likeable. Even as Kasai brags about his skills as a seducer, as I read I get the feeling that Osamu knows his character’s faults. I wondered, with that line about Tokyo, whether Kasai was not also talking about his own self – presumptuous of women’s interest in him, having one drink after another, he says in the beginning that he himself had not changed much. Is he also the fool that can’t be cured?
Discussion question (relates to above):
Do you think Kasai is referring to someone or something else besides Tokyo when he says, “Tokyo is still the same,” and that “only death could cure a fool?”
How do you feel about Kasai as a character?
Discussion question about “Lemon”:
In the beginning of the story, the protagonist says he is weighed down by an “indefinable mass” (149) – his tuberculosis, drinking, and debt aren’t to blame. What do you make of his depressive state? Is it cumulative of all of these aspects of his life, or something else?
Because of these traits, I was skeptical of his character and slightly annoyed by him as a person; nonetheless, I liked the casual and honest nature with which he talked about himself. Even if I felt the guy Kasai to be a bit glib, I followed and trusted him as a narrator. And I was amused by him in several moments.
I did find myself rooting for failure in regards to his getting together with Shizueko (how boring it would be if he succeeded in wooing her). It was satisfying to find out, then, that he had been wrong about her desires. That he was awoken to this harsher reality added meaning to the story – instead of becoming a dramatic love-triangle scenario, we’re unexpectedly led to a commemoration of the mother who had passed away in the war. They share broiled eel with her in spirit, and take in the surrounding Christmas energies.
It’s a subtle story, and for the most part the tone is casual, lively, but there’s an underlying feeling of defeat or weariness coming from Kasai. He drinks a lot, without much care or feeling, and from the beginning he expresses that Tokyo has neither improved nor worsened in his time away. The story starts with the line: “Tokyo presented a picture of effervescent gloom” (224). This is his intended and imagined first line of a story, but he finds that that actually isn’t even true. It’s an interesting expectation of Tokyo – a contrast of liveliness and sadness – but he says, instead, Tokyo is the same as ever, and that it reminds him of the saying: “only death could cure a fool” (224).
Tokyo here, is the fool, whose foolishness (and sameness) can’t be helped – the fact that it’s not even characterized by “effervescent gloom” seems to indicate that it’s something without much feeling (neither life nor decay, neither better nor worse), that it’s the same, life in Tokyo passes the way it always has, that it’s helpless to expect otherwise.
Osamu’s writing suggests a self-awareness, which makes Kasai more likeable. Even as Kasai brags about his skills as a seducer, as I read I get the feeling that Osamu knows his character’s faults. I wondered, with that line about Tokyo, whether Kasai was not also talking about his own self – presumptuous of women’s interest in him, having one drink after another, he says in the beginning that he himself had not changed much. Is he also the fool that can’t be cured?
Discussion question (relates to above):
Do you think Kasai is referring to someone or something else besides Tokyo when he says, “Tokyo is still the same,” and that “only death could cure a fool?”
How do you feel about Kasai as a character?
Discussion question about “Lemon”:
In the beginning of the story, the protagonist says he is weighed down by an “indefinable mass” (149) – his tuberculosis, drinking, and debt aren’t to blame. What do you make of his depressive state? Is it cumulative of all of these aspects of his life, or something else?