The Life of a Stupid Man: Ryunosuke Akutagawa (Penguin Little Black Classics)

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The other two stories were autobiographical and very fragmentary. Those I liked less but it feel wrong to really rate it, it being autobiographical and knowing the author killed himself quite young. Akutagawa’s stories are fascinating because they each deal with themes of death and decay through the lens of everyday objects, nature, and human relationships. The stories are deeply embedded in the heaviness of feeling and human experience, putting into perspective the confines of a human life and how synonymous it is with the eternal ephemerality of “a drop of dew, a flash of lightning.”

The Life of a Stupid Man by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa The Life of a Stupid Man by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

He envied medieval men’s ability to find strength in God. But for him, believing in God – in God’s love – was an impossibility, though even Cocteau had done it!”

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He felt something like a sneer for his own spiritual bankruptcy (he was aware of all of his faults and weak points, every single one of them), but he went on reading one book after another.” Lo primero que me encontré con este libro fue con el “biombo del infierno”, el cual pasé de largo ya que ya lo leí la semana pasada en “Roshomon y otros cuentos”, luego me vi sumergida en un ambiente denso de “Los engranajes” me costó leerlo sinceramente, no estaba preparada para verme en un ambiente de depresión mezclado con un comienzo de esquizofrenia, donde las alucinaciones visuales y otros fantasmas comienzan a alterar su pensamiento. The first fictional story retells a murder scenario solely through the eyes of the witnesses and participants, which was a very interesting perspective. It's a short but enjoyable and unconventional read.

The Life of a Stupid Man - Penguin Books UK

The higher he flew, the farther below him sank joyd and sorrows of a lifr bathed in the light of intellect" Why did this one have to be born – to come into the world like all the others, this world so full of suffering? Why did this one have to bear the destiny of having a father like me? This was the first son his wife bore him.”It was to escape these personal and professional pressures that Akutagawa fled Tokyo for a period of recuperation in his wife's village. Here there was a "sad renewal" of their marriage vows, but Akutagawahad also made another vow: as he boarded the train home for Tokyo that January, he knew he would be dead within the next six months. The second story tells us about the death of the people related to the author. It was melancholic and sad but I crave for something more. It was only after finishing the last story, The Life of a Stupid Man, that I felt the depth and intensity of the first two stories, especially Death Register which is about the author’s recollection of the three deaths in his family, his memories of them, the shape and scent that they once inhabited. It ends with the following lines: Short stories, I know for me, have always been a hit-or-miss. I’m almost always left with wanting more from a short story, but not this time. One chilly autumn evening, he was reminded of the painter by a stalk of corn: the way it stood there armed in its rough coat of leaves, exposing its delicate roots atop the mounded earth like so many nerves, it was also a portrait of his own most vulnerable self. The discovery only served to increase his melancholy.”