シメジシミュレーション Vol. 2 🍄

Japanese Language Reading
#52

Well, my basic understanding was:

Summary

No Longer Human is a 1948 Japanese novel. It is considered Dazai’s masterpiece and ranks as the second-best selling novel ever in Japan. The themes include suicide, social alienation, and depression.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a philosophical novel by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It looks pretty complicated but one of its themes is criticism of Christianity including the famous dictum “God is dead”.

So:
The Bible is a book about God,
No Longer Human is a book about pessimism,
Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a book concerning pessimism about God!

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[2022] 多読/extensive reading challenge
#53

Chapter 16: 掘り出しもの

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#54
Spoilers

Wasn’t there something in volume 1 about how the club changes its theme from hole digging to hole filling every few years? I kept wondering if the teacher or one of the former club members put all this random stuff into the hole while filling it, so the next digging generation would find it :thinking:

Also, I’m glad we got another Ayaka scene in this chapter, definitely my favourite character :grinning:

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#55

I don’t know, I like the メガネかけてるモササウルス説! :smiley:

I totally forgot about that, but now that you mention it, that does make sense!

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#56

I also like Sumida-chan although I wish her handwriting was a bit easier to read! Was pleased when I managed to figure out 依存症 on page 66 though… :nerd_face:

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#57

Chapter 17: ショッピングモール

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#58

Lots to like in this week’s chapter. But for me the best thing was: the fried egg! Right from the first page I was puzzled by how it was sitting on the top of her hat. Then on page 77 we see her putting her hat on, again I was puzzled by what was happening with the egg. The explanation on page 79 was rather unexpected though!

36% - I think that comes from the rule of nines used for estimating body surface area in burns victims:

Summary

iu-6

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#59

Same here! Now I’m wondering how far it can be pulled away…can she use it like Captain America’s shield? Or for playing frisbee by herself? So many possibilities! :smiley:

On page 80, did I understand it correctly that they’re talking about how weirdly normal this town seems?

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#60

Chapter 18: 先生のかたち

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#61

After reading that chapter I need some ワイワイワイン🍷!

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#62

One question please meow~

Page 92

image

I’m having trouble figuring out what 何留 means… 留 doesn’t seem to a counter, and the two meanings I can find in jisho don’t make much sense (Russian ruble? Stationary?)

Any help is appreciated!

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#63

I think this is based on 留年 meaning ‘repeating a year’. It seems to be used as a counter for 'years repeated. ‘How many years have you repeated (to be of age in high school)?’

This question used the term 何留, and the answers seem to confirm that.

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#64

That explains everything. Thank you!

#65

Had to read four chapters in a row, but I did it! Yomikawa’s tree metaphor monologue gave me a headache, both because of how difficult it was Japanese-wise as well as metaphor-wise. At least I understood what Shimeji didn’t (pretty girls read books!).

I loved the shopping mall chapter. The egg’s physics explanation, the make-over (kinda) scene, and the ongoing joke from the previous chapter of having theories about everything. I have one quick question from that chapter:

On page 80

Summary

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たまに来るよ。お母さんたちと買い物しに来たり。
Why the たち？

EDIT: Just in case someone saw my first post, I realized I was misreading 脱 as 説 just after I posted the question! :woman_facepalming:

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#66

たち does not only mean “multiple of the same type” but also “and those who belong to”; (e.g. 私たち does not mean “multiple instances of me” but “we” in the sense of “I and my friends”, for example).
In this case this means going shopping with the whole family (where only the mother is being singled out and mentioned).

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#67

Ooh, okay, thanks! So Majime doesn’t have several moms :pensive:

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#68

I’d go as far as saying the latter is the only “real” meaning, and the former mainly exists as a misunderstanding of learners…

not finished the last chapter, but dropped in to say that I wasn’t expecting a topology lesson going in :sweat_smile:

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#69

:joy_cat: Although I must say that 犬たち rather evokes an image of multiple dogs and not that of a dog and its owner to me - but maybe that’s one of the learners’ misunderstandings as well :woman_shrugging:

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#70

fair point, but it’s still talking about a particular group an 犬 is part of (which you assume is multiple 犬 due to lack of context) rather than how the plural “dogs” works, for instance…

I guess that’s pretty subtle though

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#71

Yeah, that sounds plausible. I’ll keep an eye out for it from now on :+1:

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