In Translation | "The Swaying Sky" and "His Way of Loving" by Bebe Daizai
Two delicate vignettes from Bebe Daizai.
Today I’m very happy to present two more scans and translations of stories by Bebe Daizai! If you read the last two (and if you haven’t, I mean, what are you doing? get to it right now) then you’ll have a solid idea of what to expect: delicate vignettes of modern living with a minimalist style that perfectly reflects the brief snapshots the stories represent.
We’re already well past the limits of Daizai’s manga that has even been catalogued online, so I’m not sure how many more there are, but I’m pretty dedicated to tracking them down because Daizai is just…so great. And hey, maybe along the way I’ll be able to learn anything about the artist behind the manga.
Enjoy!
The Swaying Sky
His Way of Loving
Music of the Week | Images by Maison Book Girl
Of the great idol groups that takes the typical happy-go-lucky horns and guitars of their peers and replaces them with atmospheric, repeating oboes and marimbas and accordions. It’s very blue-tinged stuff, like the whole world has been dyed the color of the ocean, a mystery and distance present in even their most accessible tracks giving Images an almost esoteric edge. And that’s to say nothing of when, halfway through, the cute girls stop singing and you get a 10 minute Steve Reich influenced ambient piece. Intoxicating pop to swim in.
Book of the Week | Schoolgirl by Osamu Dazai
Dazai is one of Japan’s most celebrated modern authors, and his classic No Longer Human has broken through heavy in the English world recently, but don’t pass up his other work! Just look at Schoolgirl, the novella following the thoughts of a—you guessed it—school girl over the course of a single day that propelled him to the top of the literary world. So unbelievably carefully observed, every paragraph introducing some part of yourself you just assumed was wrong and the rest of the world doesn’t feel with gorgeously emotional prose. It can’t be beat! Just use caution when reading: if you’re not in the right headspace, it might cause irrevocable harm to your brain.
Movie of the Week | Echigo Okumiomote (dir. Himeda Tadayoshi, 1984)
What’s that? Baxter is in love with a Japanese documentary about the dying traditions of a small northern village that also acts as a powerful form of political activism? Nooo, couldn’t be! Subtly playing with the inherent fiction of documentary filmmaking and accompanied by the constant narration of the director (which is very warm and inviting), Echigo Okumiomote is a masterpiece of its form, transforming what on its face resembles the dime a dozen cultural docs you might catch on TV into an expansive meditation on the complex relationship between us, nature, economics, technology, and time. Feels seismic…because it is. “The mountain, the mountain, the mountain. I’m nothing but the mountain.”
Have thoughts about anything covered this week? Got a recommendation you’re dying to share? Want to tell me how handsome and cool I am? Leave a comment below!
oh and here's a great video essay about Cutie Honey from friend of the blog Maria