蟲師 volume 2 thread

And we’re off - starting volume 2 today!

I plan to keep one thread per volume, with a weekly post checking participation etc.

Schedule

Week # Date Chapter Page #s Pages
1 6th September やまねむる part 1 3-26 24
2 13th September やまねむる part 2 27-50 24
3 20th September 筆の海 part 1 51-73 23
4 27th September 筆の海 part 2 74-92 19
5 4th October 露を吸う群れ part 1 93-113 20
6 11th October 露を吸う群れ part 2 114-138 25
7 18th October 雨がくる虹がたつ part 1 139-160 22
8 25th October 雨がくる虹がたつ part 2 161-182 22
9 1st November 綿胞子 part 1 183-207 25
10 8th November 綿胞子 part 2 207-226 19

Home thread: 蟲師 offshoot club

Discussion Guidelines

Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you are familiar with Spoiler Courtesy!

Spoiler Courtesy

Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.

  1. Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
  2. Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
  3. Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags

Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).

Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:

Example

This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.

The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.

This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.

[details=“Posting Advice”]

  • When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.

  • Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!

Please use the chapter page numbers, instead of the volume page numbers. These are located in between the panels!

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Reading week 1!

I’ve split the first couple of chapters in 2 then I’ll review pacing.

Will you be reading along with us this week?

  • I’m reading along
  • I have finished this part
  • I’m still reading the book but I haven’t reached this part yet
  • I’m reading this book after the club has finished
0 voters

*If you’ve already read this book but are still going to join the discussion, please select “I have finished this part”.

Final panel of the week:

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ah this is perfect !! i’ll definitely join you shortly, i just need to read through the first volume. i’ve had the entire series physically for a while, but i’ve not an excuse to read it – if i’d known about this book club i would have been present from the beginning..!

よろしくでーす!

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Reading week 2 this week!

Will you be reading along with us this week?

  • I’m reading along
  • I have finished this part
  • I’m still reading the book but I haven’t reached this part yet
  • I’m reading this book after the club has finished
0 voters

*If you’ve already read this book but are still going to join the discussion, please select “I have finished this part”.

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hello cathm2 !!
i’ve started reading through volume 1. i should finish up today or tomorrow. i’m wondering whether you’d mind if i posted short musings as i go through volume one in this thread, seeing as we’re presently the only two people participating ? i know there’s a thread for the first volume, but i’m not sure what the deal is with commenting on older bookclubs, and i feel a little wary about reviving a month old thread with discussion people possibly don’t even care about anymore. i mostly have things i’m wondering about the language being used. if you’d prefer to stay in topic in here though, that’s okay !! just let me know.

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Hey - I reckon it’s worth posting in the volume 1 threads as you’ll probably find some answers there, plus people who have read previously with the club might reply to your questions. Especially since I think I’ll have patchy signal for the next 2 weeks as I’m travelling overseas!

It would also get confusing for future readers if the volume 1 posts appear here.

Oh and no one minds you reviving old threads!

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I’m posting a weekly post but if no one is reading yet I might revise it! I’ll be starting this week.

Reading week 3 this week!

Will you be reading along with us this week?

  • I’m reading along
  • I have finished this part
  • I’m still reading the book but I haven’t reached this part yet
  • I’m reading this book after the club has finished
0 voters

*If you’ve already read this book but are still going to join the discussion, please select “I have finished this part”.

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@DIO-Berry @44lot @fyrember any thoughts on when you might be ready to start reading? I haven’t yet started volume 2 and it looks like no one else has either!

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whoops i started volume 2 today !! been very busy in real life, but i read through the first chapter. going to reread through it again and send some thoughts in here shortly..

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If it’s not just me reading then I’m inclined to keep the club going. I just wasn’t sure I should start if I was on my own!

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My work life got crazy busy and there’s some time consuming adulting I need to do too, so I haven’t found a physical copy still and I’m tried of looking at screens when I do it all day for other stuff too. I’m still behind on the Natsume and JoJo book clubs. I’ll probably just jump back in when it’s time for vol 3 at this rate, sorry

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read through chapter 1 again carefully – here are my thoughts.

note about chapter 1's mushi

i wish we still had @Belthazar doing these, because they seemed pretty knowledgeable about all the mushi from volume 1, but since neither of those introduced in this chapter have exceptionally complicated names i feel reasonably comfortable stepping up.
ムグラ = 葎, or ‘creeping vines’, and the process of ムグラノリ is just 葎乗り ‘riding the vines’
クチナワ is just another reading of 蛇, and so simply means snake. when i was reading through, i assumed that the etymology was 口 and 縄, like a rope with a mouth on the end of it, but the accepted etymology is 朽ち縄 as in a ‘rotting rope’. pretty cool..!

man, this is by far my favorite chapter so far!! it’s also where i’m beginning to read blind for this bookclub – i read through vol 1 in english quite a while ago but it was fun to go through it again in japanese.
i was sort of interested to see how the series would progress after the first volume: specifically whether a more overarching narrative might pick up. i don’t think we’ve necessarily seen that sort of thing happening yet – this was still a neatly contained short story – but i think we’re gradually getting more information about this world and about ginko, so i’m pretty hopeful that something more expansive could begin at some point.
anyways yeah the story in this one was really cool. it was sort of funny because i definitely didn’t understand it the first time through, and when i was rereading i was having ‘damnnn!’ moments even though.. i had already read it. that’s definitely not a fault of the storytelling, i just don’t use a dictionary the first time i read stuff (and not knowing words which were important to the plot, like 牡丹, tripped me up).
i think it’s important that ginko stated that he attracts mushi. maybe we already knew this, i can’t remember, but it’s interesting that mujika also attracted mushi. from the two older mushishi we have seen so far, it seems that their being mushishi was less because of an interest in mushi and came about more as a natural consequence of this strange quality of theirs. mujika’s apprentice kodama from this chapter would be considered a mushishi as well, right? even if he’s an ameteur, it seems he basically took on mujika’s role of helping the town towards the end. i don’t think we have any reason to suspect that he has this same mushi-attracting quality though – he’s continuing mujika’s work of his own volition, probably because he feels obligated to mujika for raising him after he was abandoned.
i want to imagine that the concept of nushi is going to be one that comes back at some point. i found it interesting that when ginko explained nushi to kodama he specifically mentioned 山のヌシ and 沼のヌシ.. when we’ve just read 旅をする沼.. curious..
we also saw a moment of weakness for ginko in this chapter which was cool. i’d be curious what would have happened had he gone through with drawing out the mugura from mujika – though from the sounds of it it wouldn’t have done anything to prevent mujika being devoured. at this point i was sort of wondering why ginko felt the way he did about mujika’s death – i don’t believe that ginko really cared a huge amount about the town or anything, so what he said to mujika feels superfluous to me. i’m wondering how common mushishi are in this world, and also how many of them share the same strange quality that ginko and mujika possess(ed)? i was going to suggest that ginko felt a novel sort of connection with mujika because of this mushi-attraction, but i’m pretty sure he doesn’t actually find out that mujika has it until his dream about mujika’s past and the killing of the boar nushi, so.. yeah not sure.


i’m sort of confused about this white panel. it just about seems like an error to me, but i guess it’s meant to show that time has passed and that it’s day ? just feels like a strange way to communicate that.

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Yah, I considered doing it for the spin-off club too, but as you observed, there’s nothing particularly complicated going on in this one. :slightly_smiling_face:

I wouldn’t really say “knowledgeable”, though - it’s mostly just a bunch of research.

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you’ve said previously that you’ve already read through the entire series, right ? please feel free to comment on the spin-off club about anything you felt about these chapters: i’m really enjoying this series so i’d love there to be more discussion around it !!

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Reading week 4 this week!

I’m behind but plan to read chapter 1 this weekend.

Will you be reading along with us this week?

  • I’m reading along
  • I have finished this part
  • I’m still reading the book but I haven’t reached this part yet
  • I’m reading this book after the club has finished
0 voters

*If you’ve already read this book but are still going to join the discussion, please select “I have finished this part”.

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Sorry, have been behind on all bookclubs for a couple weeks but I’m finally kinda caught up haha, I read the first chapter and will get on with the second one this weekend. It’s fine by me if we continue like this

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Oh, I didn’t realise we’re up to week four already. Where did the time go?

Some thoughts on proper nouns in this chapter, then, since you asked for it:

筆の海

The chapter’s title is another name for an inkstone, but it can also refer to a collection of written records, and can be a metaphor for a vast amount of writing.

On this chapter’s featured human, 淡幽: the kanji 淡 means “thin, fleeting” and 幽 means “faint, dark”, but it can also mean “seclude, confine to a room”, so the name as a whole could be a reinforcement of “pale, faint”, or it could also mean “fleeting confinement”. Perhaps. Jisho tells me it’s a female given name that actually exists, but I haven’t been able to get Google to cough up any noteworthy people with that name, so I idly wonder if Jisho’s source for this name is Mushushi. I did find a 17th century artist who took “Tan’yuu” as a pen name, though his name was spelt 探幽.

For her clan name 狩房, 狩 means “hunt, gather” while 房 means “house, room” or “tassel, fringe”, so it could perhaps mean “house of hunters”.

たま, meanwhile, feels to me like it’s a common name for retainers in fiction, but that might be a bit anecdotal on my part - it’s certainly a female given name which exists, either way. Ginko calls her おたま, because it was typical to append an honorific お to female given names in that period. Her family name 薬袋 means “pharmacy bag, prescription bag” when read as やくたい, though the relevance of that to the chapter is unclear to me, but it is a real family name read as みない or みなえ, for reasons that escape me. In the context of this chapter could perhaps interpret みない as meaning “unseen”, as an attendant who remains in the shadows, but I’ve no idea if Japanese speakers would interpret it like that.

Page 66, the visiting mushishi mentions 害蟲, which is basically just “damage-mushi”, though 害虫 is also a real word meaning “harmful insect; noxious insect; pest; vermin”.

Page 74, Ginko discovers 紙魚 in the books, which appears to be a mushi here, but in the real world it’s the Japanese name for silverfish, who like to eat paper.

As for the mushi that’s the actual focus of this chapter, the one sealed in Tan’yuu’s leg… who knows? Interestingly, the word used to refer to it, 禁種, does not appear to be one that’s commonly used - Google results reference Mushishi, and a couple of other fictional works, and then after that it’s all “did you mean 禁止?”

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I don’t have a lot more to add having read the first chapter, but I’m enjoying the art and like the melancholic feel of the story.

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紙魚 just being silverfish is pretty funny, since I didn’t know the word, I thought it was just a name that made sense for the author’s naming schemes, Paperfish Mushi (like a Mushi that swims through paper).

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Reading week 5 this week!

All caught up!

Will you be reading along with us this week?

  • I’m reading along
  • I have finished this part
  • I’m still reading the book but I haven’t reached this part yet
  • I’m reading this book after the club has finished
0 voters

*If you’ve already read this book but are still going to join the discussion, please select “I have finished this part”.

Final panel of this week:

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