The Beggar Student by Osamu Dazai
Cosmic Review Entry 004: The Short Novella by Dazai I never knew I needed
Understanding a Dazai book would be going through a short biography of his life. And yes, it’s not a necessity to know these things about authors to understand their works, but with Osamu Dazai, nothing in his books are a coincidence. And that’s exactly why, with authors from the past, everything in his books are interconnected in some ways, especially leading to the years of his death. And with The Beggar Student published by New Directions with a new translation by Sam Bett, there is more than meets the eye for a short book.
The Beggar Student involves the same topics that Dazai always carry - of existentialism and mockery of one’s self and the trying in the becomings of a human. The story was originally published in 1940, but it was written back in 1933 , a few years after the first attempt of his botched suicide in 1929. The premise is of an author who has just submitted his first manuscript and felt a sense of helplessness and encountered a student by the river canal (which was the river he fell to death for later in 1948) who he thought was trying to attempt suicide but was actually having a swim.
The Beggar Student has the same feeling that came from reading No Longer Human, but it is masked with a humorous tone.
If I were to go down the rabbit hole of Osamu Dazai (which I did), this post will come out as ramblings. But, in connection from books of Dazai’s , No Longer Human - Flowers of Buffoonery and The Beggar Student - the one thing that is certain is how Dazai wrote this in mockery of his life and him as an author and a writer. After Akutagawa’s sudden death, Dazai had took a turn in his life and the difference between the topics of death between Dazai and Akutagawa - Dazai was loud in his suffering. He showed in his characters the willingness to live but also showed the inability to do so - which reflects the mental state of a person going through bouts of self-loathing and depression.
And with The Beggar Student, it is evident that he is somewhat writing of his regrets during his student years and its somewhat a manifestation of his subconscious to complete his studies and becoming whole. Human.
This novella is one that I never knew I needed. Its a manifestation of something dark but its also showing of someone who is trying his best to be in the present and to stay alive. The joy of youths in their student eras and the freedom-in-speech that can only come from the braveness of youths. Dazai wrote it in such a way that it was almost bittersweet, a form of life that he wishes to have but can only be manifested through the encounters in his life.
Dazai will always be that author for me. That one author that creates a turmoil inside but can somehow ground me to not go too far astray. And even with the worst of a man that he is, the retributions of his sufferings are as loud to the modern culture of today.
