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

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This short story is an autobiography of Akutagawa's past. Most of it was reflection on his mother who was insane, his elder sister who had died young, the death of his mother, his relationship with his father, and the death of his father. These are the events we focus on and we see through very little just how much Akutagawa looked down upon himself. He continuously felt inadequate and estranged from his family. It's a sad story and not one you can really give a rating to, but his execution was stupendous especially since he abhorred the idea of writing an autobiography of himself.

The Life Stories The Life Stories

In the third part, which has 51 stories, there seem to be the genuine thoughts of the author about relationships, life, death, and capitalism. Needless to mention that some stories were hard for me to draw any conclusion from them. Nothing to interpret. No logical conclusion to derive. Some of them even seemed ordinary to the extent where writing them seems unexplained. 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.”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! The life of a stupid man is an autobiography that leads to the death of Akutagawa, told in 51 short verses. His writing is one that I loved. It is daunting, sorrowful and mostly, it shows the thoughts of a man that feels empty inside. Stories like this, when a person whom has not experienced this feeling once in their life, would not be able to relate to the story. It was depressing and dark, but for me, it gave me a sense of comfort in his writing.

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

I may wear the skin of an urbane sophisticate, butbin this manuscript I invite you to strip it off and laugh at my stupidity" 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. The Death Register is the thoughts of the author himself which told about the three people in his family and how they died. It was a recollection of his thoughts, on the people that somehow mattered to him, and also showing how he had felt at each individual's death at the time. It was sorrowful, and I had definitely loved the haku at the end of the story.And your point is what exactly? This book made me feel stupid. I just couldn’t grasp what the author was getting at for most of it. Well, all of it really. I don’t mind obscurity in literature. Sometimes I crave it. Sometimes it’s nice not to know what something means. You ponder it perpetually. As I’ve done with Kafka’s Trial and more recently the phenomenal Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. I couldn’t tell you what either of those books is about. Nobody can, but arguments can be made. Interpretations can be made. There are ways of reading of them even if each and every way isn’t definitive. For books life those answers will never be had, and because if this they have an undying legacy and an unshakable place in the literary cannon. At twenty nine, life noblonger held any brightness for him, but Voltaire supplied him with man made wings.