No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

Cosmic Review Entry 001: As Problematic As Osamu Dazai is, his writing is everything.

Osamu Dazai might be known for a lot of things for a lot of demographies.

If you come from the anime world, you might know him as one of the main characters from Bungo Stray Dogs, a serialisation where the mangaka took the characters names from famous and prominent Japanese classic authors.

If you are an enthusiast of Japanese Literature, you will know him as one of the house names in the literary scenes, where he is known to be the disciple of Ryuunosuke Akutagawa and an upcoming writer known for his short stories.

If you come from the literary scene, you will know Dazai from one of his most prominent works to date, No Longer Human.

And what is the most common thing about him is that, everyone knew him due to the multiple attempts of his suicide - in which can be seen as scandalous at most…. and No Longer Human was the last of his works before he left the world for good back in 1948. Whilst the book is very dark and depressing, it became a substantial work in the literary community in understanding the human psyche and the strippings of a human into becoming almost… nothing.

No Longer Human is said to be a semi-autobiography of Dazai before his death.

A story that reflects of him but written in the character of Yozo, a boy who felt he no longer deserves to be called nor considered as a human. A story set in a journal-like-confession type of writing, of Yozo and his life.

No Longer Human is a spiralling thought of Yozo who didn't feel he deserved to live, who sees himself as a monster and a menace to other people, and brings pain to everyone that he ever came across. You can't help but feel sorry for Yozo. Whilst his character was pitiful, he was also very very unlikeable, in which makes me sympathise him more. In a sense, as Yozo didn't see himself deserving to be human, he acted in the most inhumanely as possible, in which, drinking his woes away every night, sleeping with different girls everyday and turning to drugs to live.

There is nothing likeable to his character and you will feel remorse and anger while reading as you'll feel he's somewhat wasting his life and talents away. What made it sad was how he acknowledged that everything that happened in his life, was His fault but he can't seem to break from the cycle. Since the story is set in the early 1940s, the idea of someone diagnosed is as foreign to taking drugs for your mental wellbeing, in which, Yozo became a character that is so hateful but you can't seem to hate him as he's trying to stay alive.

Not only that, this book reflected a lot on the political and societal expectations at the time, in which turned Yozo to the person he is. The inner-struggles that he faced with his parents and friends, the expectations of others for him. Dazai has a way in writing his stories in a cryptic way but with much to reflect. What made me sad was how at the end, Dazai had wrote that everything will pass eventually, and it hurts because he didn't make it. In some ways, he gave hope to us, that even if you feel life is hard, and hurtful and you feel that you're not a good person, you still and can change. It's never too late.

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Osamu Dazai is one of those authors that I will take comfort in his writings. He has a talent in pulling out the psyche of the human’s mind. There is a flair in his writings that will keep you wanting to read more - albeit, if you are feeling very depressed, No Longer Human may not be the book for you to pick up due to its extensive content warnings - but, it was a book that helped during every single relapse of mine.

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To those who are struggling, to those who is still searching for the light, I pray that it will come. There are days that you will feel sad. Allow yourself to feel it, cause it makes us human.

And being able to feel? For me? Its one of those little things in life that I appreciate all my life.