獣の奏者 prologue, part 1 discussion

Prior to starting I was worried that it would be quite difficult because it is fantasy, but surprisingly it wasn’t too bad. I read this week’s section in one sitting, and was sorely tempted to read ahead. However, since this is the only book club I’m participating in right now, I figured I should stick to the pace, so I started my 3rd volume of 銭天堂 and have continued the やがて君になる manga instead. I think my main “what the heck” was 岩房, which I understood superficially until the author fully explained it on page 20 or so, but I kept feeling like I missed the explanation when it repeatedly came up before that.

I have never seen the movie (or series?) that was made based on the novel, so I’m coming in pretty much with a blank slate. I know there’s a girl, there’s 闘蛇, and she has a strong relationship with them (at least enough for 4 books). I quite like it so far, and I’m looking for to reading more on February 1st!

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That’s exactly what I did too since I hadn’t read that far last year. :rofl:

That’s the thing with fantasy. In our native language, it’s easy to recognize something like that as “fantasy thing that hasn’t been explained yet”, but it’s a lot harder in Japanese. When reading Japanese, I’m often wondering if I missed something or if I’m not supposed to understand yet.

Well to be fair, book one is specifically 闘蛇編, so who knows how prominent they will be throughout the whole series!

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That’s a fair point! I just assumed it was 闘蛇 all the way down.

Not too bad so far except for stuff like 人馬もろとも and 水汲み.

人馬 was kinda easy to guess, though I still looked it up to confirm. :laughing:

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Thanks for the detailed explanation and the link to the script!

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Week 2 is here!

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My version of the book has a few illustrations, so I thought I would share them.

This is the cover. I feel there is a definite ワニness to the 闘蛇 here!

And this is the illustration from the first section.

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I’m feeling jalousy now. I want these pictures :stuck_out_tongue:

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Do you want all the furigana that comes with those pictures? :stuck_out_tongue:

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Furigana never hurts :stuck_out_tongue:

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I beg to differ. :see_no_evil:

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I suppose you have to make a choice. Pictures or no furigana.

I actually wanted to ask if there’s one with the original text but also with illustrations!

I doubt it. The pictures usually come with Aoi Tori Bunko versions that are targeted towards kids.

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懐かしい!
I was reading that book almost 6 years ago now. It’s insane how fast time flies.

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Woo, first section of novel in Japanese! I don’t think I would have made it if I hadn’t already watched the anime.
Going through again with the dictionary was a massive chore

Questions

Page 9

母が闘蛇の世話をしにいくときは、水汲みをしていても縫い物をしていても、途中でほっぽって、必ずくっついった。

It’s describing her daily life when mum’s at work and that she always stops and does something partway through, but I’m not clear on what

  • she gets distracted by (beyond generally wanting to touch the 闘蛇).
  • what she ends up doing instead.

岩房の深く暗い溜め池の水面をうねらせながら泳ぐ、巨大な蛇を見てめながら、母は平淡な声でいった。

I think I got a bit lost with this because I don’t really know Japanese writing conventions yet. Is this describing what’s happening during the dialogue either side? Why do they use those long dashes instead of normal quoting here?

Page 11

そばに行くのさえいやなのだそうだ。

The なのだそうだ confused the hell out of me. At first I thought it was ((…なの)だそう)だ but it turns out なのだ is a thing…
I’m guessing the sentence means something like “It looked like it was assuredly the case that even going near them was disliked”?

Page 14

…縄張り意識が強い闘蛇…

The 闘蛇 are very territorial?

Page 19

母が凍りついたように身動きもせず、じっと見つめているので、語尾が尻すぼみになってしまった。

Don’t get what’s going on with the last clause. The world ended
I’m tired and misread 語尾 the translation of as end of a world… :joy:
Move along, nothing to see here.

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Page 9

This is describing what Erin is doing whenever her mother goes to care for the 闘蛇.
母が闘蛇の世話をしにいくときは、(…)、[エリンは]必ずくっついていった。
Erin always came along when her mother went to the touda.
くっついていく = くっつく + 行く = to come along

水汲みをしていても縫い物をしていても、途中でほっぽって = whether Erin was drawing water or whether she was sewing, she always dropped everything (to go with her mother)

Page 9?

The weird dashes are definitely not a standard writing convention, I was very confused by this as well! I think it’s referring to a flashback, indicating that the conversation took place in the past. The dialogue does return to normal brackets soon.

And yes, the part you quoted ends with 母は冷淡な声で言った. Everything before that basically describes what the mother is doing during talking (making use of ながら with a very long sentence in front of it)

岩房の深く暗い溜め池の水面をうねらせながら泳ぐ、巨大な蛇を見つめながら(…母は冷淡な声で言った)
(Starting from the back of the sentence): while staring at the giant snakes who were swimming around while creating ripples in the dark lake inside the cave… (her mother said with a calm voice).

Page 11

I do think it’s more (なの)だそうだ, but since だ is the normal way to connect stuff there isn’t really a difference?
But I wouldn’t try and force the „assuredly“ meaning you presumably found for なのだ into the sentence, since it’s a speculative sentence anyway:
„It seemed like they even disliked simply walking beside them“
I don’t really remember the context for this one but looks like you understood it well!

Page 14

Yes. :smiley:

If you need more detailed breakdowns please say so! But your understanding seems pretty solid already so I wasn’t sure how far I should break down the sentences…

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Thanks :slight_smile:

I’m pretty comfortable with the grammar, I think I just got lost as to how some of the sentence were working in context.

I still find the なのだそうだ really odd. I’m happy with the meaning (it’s the usual indecisive language), but the idea of a double copula just feels off somehow.

It’s amazing how much trying to form the question helps.

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