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

Product Information

I couldn't put into words or make a proper dissection on this one because its personal and raw and basically him telling his own stories in the most vulnerable state he was in, secrets being unburied, darkest desires and emotions being poured out, philosophy shared and contradicted and generally him saying he is unable to be a man worth enough to live. Its quite painful in a away but subtly conveyed in each short passages he wrote. He tended to think that Goethe’s title ‘Poetry and Truth’ could serve for anyone’s autobiography, but he knew that not everyone is moved by literature. His own works were unlikely to appeal to people who were not like him and had not lived a life like his – this was another feeling that worked upon him.”

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

This was my 3rd time reading this stories. Its an autobiographical stories comprised of 51 short anthologies or rather I would call it Akutagawa's musings on his life and principles. It was published posthumously after his death by his close friend. Attached to the manuscript was his letter to him which said he is entitled to release this stories but must not identify or put a names to the people he spoke about. In a bamboo grove is a story where it is told in different perspectives from a murder of man. Its interesting how Akutagawa had arranged the story in such a way that there is a perspective from the sprit of the man himself. It was entertaining at best, mysterious, and until the end, you wouldn't know who to believe and what to expect. 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.”I loved the first and the second story but I couldnt quite grasp the third story. The first story tells us about a murder and it was told from many perspectives, including the soul of the murdered man. The testimonies were all different and I wondered who was the real criminal. I loved the first story the most. Apartado de esas historias feudales que lo caracterizan, nos encontramos con dos obras autobiográficas, por un lado los “engranajes” y por el otro “vida de un loco”, en los que trae una y otra vez su sentimiento de culpa, la depresión, y sus temores constantes de la enfermedad que ya atacara a su madre. Vida de un loco son relatos cortos, de un párrafo de duración en algunos casos, algunos sin sentido casi como un recuerdo que pasa, y otros que uniendo las piezas revelaban su vida privada. 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. There was, however, one final piece. "Spinning Gears" is the story of a few days in the life of a writer. "Mr A", the author of "Hell Screen", is staying at the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, as he struggles to write the works demanded of him. During these days, he is tormented by visions of his dead mother, a spurned lover, his own doppelgänger and hallucinations of rotating cogwheels. Everywhere he goes, everything he sees threatens him; books, taxis, airplanes and, particularly, the colour yellow. Finally, Mr A joins his wife and children at a seaside resort. He finds his wife face down on the floor, sobbing. He asks her what's wrong: "It wasn't any one thing. I just had this feeling that you were going to die . . ." Mr A/Akutagawa concludes: "I don't have the strength to keep writing this. To go on living with this feeling is painful beyond description. Isn't there someone kind enough to strangle me in my sleep?" As the critic Donald Keene wrote, "After reading 'Spinning Gears', we can only marvel that Akutagawa did not kill himself sooner." But that time was now approaching.

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

Super interesting premise! I liked that each Akutagawa's stories, we are left to ponder upon ourselves what had happened which makes it an interesting read! Wow the first story In the Bamboo Grove, was so good! I haven't read such a captivating in quite a while. The two other pieces were non-fiction and I think I would have enjoyed them more, had I been more familiar with Akutagawa's life and work. Will definitely be reading more from this author! 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:Akutagawa's 'last words' in literature expressed a feeling of despair toward man's happiness in social life. Like all pessimists, he had to find a conclusive comment on the eternal Weltschmertz with which man is burdened. This is not at all a new idea. It gives rise to the fatal logic of the petty bourgeoisie which views self-despair as the despair of society as a whole. Thus Akutagawa views the agony born of and defined by his physiology and his social class as the eternal agony of humanity. The three short stories will not be for everyone's cup of tea, which I recommend proceeding in this book with extreme caution of the trigger warnings (Death, Suicide, Suicidal Thoughts) . It highlights the stages of life in which Akutagawa reflects on his life, up till the moment of his death bed. He saw his contract, written on a single sheet of yellow paper, as a great source of strength. Later, however, he came to realize that the contract saddled him with all the obligations and the company with none.”

The Life of a Stupid Man - Penguin Books UK

An anthology of three short stories, which two stories mainly revolves on the author himself, making it an autobiography leading to his death. Akutagawa's writing has always had a flair that is quite hard to pinpoint, but its one that I really liked. This book serves as a beautiful introduction to the work of Akatagawa that will make you want to read his other works, and is stunning and reflective in it’s own right. 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. 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. 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.This edition of Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s The Life of a Stupid Man includes two other short stories: In A Bamboo Grove and Death Register. This was my first time reading Akutagawa and I’m glad that I started with these three short stories because they are so moving and not at all trite. That last summer of 1927, Akutagawa took part in a short publicity film at his home in Tabata, north Tokyo. There is a point in the film where he stops playing with his children to light a cigarette. From under a broad-brimmed sun hat, he puffs on his cigarette and stares into the camera. Half hidden in shadow and smoke, it is the face of defeat, the face of death. I think 2 of them are like autobiography of the author but it's written uniquely. In The Life of a Stupid Man part, it's just like the snippets of 51 short stories. At school Akutagawa was an outstanding student, excelling in the Chinese classics. He entered the First High School in 1910, striking up relationships with such classmates as Kikuchi Kan, Kume Masao, Yamamoto Yūzō, and Tsuchiya Bunmei. Immersing himself in Western literature, he increasingly came to look for meaning in art rather than in life. In 1913, he entered Tokyo Imperial University, majoring in English literature. The next year, Akutagawa and his former high school friends revived the journal Shinshichō (New Currents of Thought), publishing translations of William Butler Yeats and Anatole France along with original works of their own. Akutagawa published the story Rashōmon in the magazine Teikoku bungaku (Imperial Literature) in 1915. The story, which went largely unnoticed, grew out of the egoism Akutagawa confronted after experiencing disappointment in love. The same year, Akutagawa started going to the meetings held every Thursday at the house of Natsume Sōseki, and thereafter considered himself Sōseki's disciple.