涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱: Week 19 Discussion

Japanese Language Reading
#1

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涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 Home Thread

Chapter 7 (3/3)/ Epilogue

Suzumiya

Start Date: November 2nd
Previous Thread: Week 18
Next Thread: Not planned yet

Week 19 Reading: Chapter 7 (3/3) and Epilogue
p.300 (end)

Word lists - Learn the vocabulary for 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱!

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Discussion Rules

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
  • When asking for help, please mention the chapter and page number. Also mention what version of the book you are reading.
  • Don’t be afraid of asking questions, even if they seem embarassing at first. All of us are here to learn.
  • To you lurkers out there: Join the conversation, it’s fun! :durtle:

Participants

Mark your participation status by voting in this poll.

  • I’m reading along
  • I’m still reading the book but I haven’t reached this part yet
  • I’m no longer reading the book
  • I’m skipping this book

0 voters

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涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 Home Thread (Intermediate Book Club)
#2

Soo I guess I’m reading along, although I’m also not reading this book any more. :upside_down_face:

Thoughts on the end

Aww. The ending felt a bit rushed, but also it makes sense that it’d go pretty fast from there? I don’t know what I think about this haha. It did leave me curious how this will go on, though.

Thoughts on the book

The beginning of the book was very… Erm. Difficult for a lot of us for a lot of reasons. I actually think the grammar in the beginning was more difficult/less common as well… but maybe that’s just because I got used to it and so in hindsight the beginning when I first learned those constructs feels more difficult. :thinking:

Language aside! The bigger problem was probably the content. At least for me, during most of the first half it took conscious effort to even pick this book back up.

I’m very glad that changed in the second half. Judging just from the end, I kind of want to pick up the next volume even! I also remember someone mentioning the worst part was actually somewhere in the 2nd volume so I really don’t know.

I guess in the end I won’t buy it now, but… Maybe I’ll see it in a bookstore some day and pick it up. :slight_smile:

If you all feel like sharing, what did you think of the book? Do you want to continue and read volume 2 as well?

5 Likes
#3

I’m planning to, but too brain dead at the moment…

Hm :thinking: I haven’t forgotten @Belthazar’s comment that the worst scene is coming in vol 2.
Also, if I ever keep reading this series, it has to be at a much faster pace…
Edit: I see you also mentioned the problem with book 2 :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes
#4

I’ll be looking forward to when your brain works again then. :stuck_out_tongue:

That’s right, it was @Belthazar! I think they also said it was only that one scene towards the beginning (that was specifically worse than anything in volume 1)…

#5

I doubt I said that, because it’s towards the end.

Quick plot summary

Haruhi wants the SOS-dan to make a movie for the school cultrual festival, and makes Mikuru the protagonist, which essentially involves her forcing Mikuru into gradually more and more uncomfortable situations

which culminates in

Haruhi, with Tsuruya’s assistance, getting Mikuru drunk for a “more realistic performance”,

which results in

Kyon losing his cool, and actually raising his hand to slap Haruhi, which in some ways is a fairly important character moment for all concerned, but… you know. That’s not even the main plot arc of the book, just kinda the B plot.

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#6

I can’t believe we’re almost done. :tada:

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#7

Huh, seems I got that mixed up. :stuck_out_tongue:

I didn’t know you could layer those, that’s pretty cool actually.

#8

You can nest all the things (though the behaviour gets a bit weird when you use spoiler tags, because clicking a nested spoiler tag also toggles all of the parent tags too).

1 Like
#9

You cannot nest polls.
You can put polls in details by twisting Discourse’s arm a little though.

2 Likes
#10

You can technically kind of nest polls, but all that happens is that you get non-functioning polls as poll options or just get multiple functioning polls in a huge non-functioning poll box :slightly_smiling_face:

Other random stuff that also can be done with polls: you can also make fake polls, put in some formatting that normally breaks in polls(like summary tags), or just keep the box and put in entirely different stuff in it

3 Likes
#11

That’s basically what I mean when I say you cannot nest them :stuck_out_tongue:

#12

Comes to read people’s thoughts on the ending

Sees a bunch of stuff about polls

4 Likes
#13

Why don’t you share your thoughts then? :slight_smile: you read the book in English, didn’t you?

Am I confusing you with someone else?

#14

I meant to write it, but I keep finding some good reason not too :sweat_smile:

Anyway, I guess I can write something quick.

First of all, I came in this knowing nothing about the plot. Mostly, it was a recommendation of @QuackingShoe, and that was good enough for me :stuck_out_tongue:
As I mentioned in some of the earlier threads, I first thought that the story would involve no supernatural element at all and would mostly deal with ハルヒ’s wacky hijinks. When stuff that should not be named happened to みくる, I further thoughts that I might not like said hijinks after all. Then plot happened.
It was a first shock to learn that it was, after all, a book involving supernatural elements. The thing that really got me, though, was the part where it turns out that ハルヒ is the creator god of that pocket universe. The fight scene with 朝倉 (I think?) was pretty good too.
I kept thinking about the place of キョン in that picture the whole time. It’s kinda convenient for him that he is at the best spot (from his point of view), the one he said he wanted at the very beginning. So much so that I’m half wondering if it isn’t his pocket universe, where he gets to experience everything from the sideline, plus having the attention of a woman he finds attractive (with additional eye candy).
That being said, when the end of the world got basically triggered when ハルヒ saw him a bit too close to another woman, I reconsidered that hypothesis. Maybe he was just meant to be happy with his spot, or maybe the creation of the pocket universe didn’t change the world so much, and it’s just really a happy coincidence.
Anyway, when everyone kept saying that his existence was “special” for ハルヒ, I absolutely thought that they would get together; it’s a bit of a cheap development, but heh, makes sense. Anyway, the fact that the kiss scene ended up being a “dream” allows the author to go into will-they-won’t-they territory despite development.

Sooo, overall, I’d say I liked it, but still, there were parts I wasn’t too happy about. If people wan’t to keep reading, I don’t mind going on, but I don’t think I would do it on my own.

7 Likes
#15

I don’t remember much of the details at this point. But I can say that like most of you I didn’t like a lot of the hijinks earlier on. As for the plot, I didn’t care for it much either. It felt pretty contrived, but I guess that was also kind of the point. It wasn’t bad, but I’ve read a lot better.

Part of me wants to keep reading, just to read the very well-regarded fourth book. But I’m also in no rush to do so (especially since the books are no longer in print in English). Maybe I’ll just finally watch the anime.

4 Likes
#16

Well, I’m done. It feels like we’ve been reading this all year but I guess it’s only been about 5 months. I ended up not really having strong feelings about the book either way but I’m glad I read it. I like that it did some interesting things with Haruhi and feel like there could be even more crazy stuff later in the series. I don’t think it’s for me though.

I guess I have stronger feelings about its suitability for this book club. I think between the relative difficulty, length, and the overall popularity of the series, we ended with (what felt like) more than the usual number of people dropping out early on. It’s probably something we should keep in mind for future books to make sure more people can keep up.

6 Likes
#17

That’s the case. The other two books we read recently (Kino and Konbini) maintained about 20 active readers throughout, but Haruhi dropped to just under half that. If anything I’d say it’s a good thing we had two books in parallel. It didn’t help the popularity of this group though.

2 Likes
#18

Finally finished! This has definitely been the hardest book I have read in Japanese by far. The amount of vocab I didn’t know was so vast that I didn’t even know where to start so I probably only learned the ones that are really constantly repeated. The grammar was insane at the beginning but it got bearable as time passed. Still a lot of difficult bits I just gloss over or even skip, but I think I’ve learned a lot, if only to get the gist of something even when I don’t have all the details.

As for this final part, I thought things being ‘fixed’ by a kiss was kinda meh. I though they were pointing towards it to then do something different that was surprising, but it was just that. Anyway, I guess things had to go back to ‘normal’ a little bit before the following novel so it’s understandable.
I had almost forgotten how bad they both are by the end of the last chapter but then the epilogue was there to remind us I suppose.

Overall I probably share the general feeling. The start was pretty tough to get through in terms of content but once plot finally made an appearance things became interesting.
I don’t know if I’ll continue reading this as some point but certainly not right now. Maybe once I know (a ton) more vocab and I can read things faster so reading one of these takes a few days and not half a year.

Reading such a difficult book has giving me confidence that I can probably read most things with a good enough comprehension if I have enough patience (and help from nice forum people :eyes:), and at the same time has been a constant reminder of how much I have yet to learn.
I’m actually really looking forward to reading something easier, perhaps the upcoming beginner’s club book 霧のむこうのふしぎな町, and see how different it feels. Maybe take a more detailed approach to reading and floflo the vocab as I go.

7 Likes