Oh gosh go as slow as you need. I enjoyed reading your thoughts and honestly going on research dives to understand the source material can be a big source of enjoyment in reading Aozora!
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Thank you! I really appreciate the two stories I’ve read so far and am looking forward to the rest
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Your thoughts are great! I think you got the analysis spot-on. Actually, I totally was dumb and didn’t think about red and blue making purple 
Going to go ahead and blame that on reading in a different language so it’s harder to make analytical connections 
Yes, that’s definitely it 
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Thank you! But really, I didn’t think make the connection between the colors until I read that blog post. So I hope you give yourself a high-five for that!
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I also looked into Arishima’s background while skimming the blog post @soggyboy found. He certainly lived an interesting life, albeit somewhat tragic.
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マスク was really interesting and felt like it could have been written recently! It’s fascinating to look back on writings from the Spanish flu. He was very astute in pointing out the difference of feeling towards masking when you’re the only one doing it vs when you’ve stopped and see someone doing it.
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I also read this yesterday and found it fairly straightforward. It does have that Japanese essay style where it doesn’t stay focused on one argument – it starts out as “no, this too is art” but by the end it’s also taken in the future of the genre and the US/UK market, and it finishes with a call for more patriotic novels and spy thillers in Japan…
Also, what is the けすとえくえろ in the title?
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I kinda half read 鼻 yesterday and kinda got bored of it so swapped to reading else of the author of 茶の間 for a bit
Since we’re in detective land maybe ケースと… some french word? but I have no idea honestly given how many loanwords the author drops here with some odd spellings, I’m thinkin maybe that’s justification… but it doesn’t help figure out what that word could be 
I had to look at シュリラー for longer than I’d like to admit
トーキーが芸術でないと云う人も沢山あるだろうが Is that true?? Like I know it probably was but that’s such an insane thing to believe in hindsight 
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Doing some googling I think it’s the reading for 結悦衣衣路 but I couldn’t tell you what that means 
edit:
It’s absolutely a thing! In Western countries too, I remember us going over it in my college history of film class
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Todays 桜の樹の下には is surprisingly challenging. It looks short and easy, but I didn’t follow the author’s thought process through the whole text. I’m planning on doing a second read through to catch more of the meaning. The contrast in the text is certainly interesting.
I had previously heard of the line 桜の樹の下には屍体が埋まつてゐる, so it is fun to read the actual text where it is from 
. Has to be an influential text if that line is so well known.
Edit: did my second read. I think the stuff that threw me off the most the first time round, is all the words of the animals and parts of the plants that make an appearance. Spring would be more appropriate for that story
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I read 桜の樹の下には
Thoughts
At first I thought this was going to be a Cask of Amontillado/Tell-Tale Heart style story about an unreliable narrator, and we were meant to think he buried those bodies under the tree. Ok, there’s nothing in the text that actually supports that, I just saw something about buried bodies and got excited! Also, when he mentions the razor at the beginning I was like, obviously the razor is coming to mind because that’s the murder weapon
Ok, too-literal reading aside, I enjoyed the energy and voice of the story. I listened to it and read along once and then went back and read with Yomitan and that was a good strategy, a little more difficult than some of the other vetted picks but not long.
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I also read this one, and it was definitely a bit out of my skill level, so I am sure I missed quite a bit.
Apparently, the line about the razor was supposed to tie in again later in the story, but the author removed it prior to publishing based on some background info I found on the ja.wiki page (relevant section linked). The deleted portion is included here if you are curious.
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マスク: if I didn’t know the context, I would almost think it could have been a modern story. The parallels to Covid overall were quite interesting. But I do agree with @downtimes that it dragged a bit in the beginning; I had to pause a few times and get back to the story before I was done.
Today I had a bit more time, so I read both 桜の樹の下には and 死体置場への招待. Both flowed surprisingly nicely.
I felt the same way! I read a manga earlier this year which has lots of references to this phrase, so I found it fascinating. I did struggle a bit with some of the vocabulary though.
死体置場への招待 actually felt quite easy to read and I had a blast with the ‘vibes’ of the story (perhaps more suited for Halloween)? - I’d definitely recommend this one as well.
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I finished 死体置き場への招待 - there’s a good 朗読 here and I’d guess this is a high 20s or low 30s level for anyone interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW3fp1DE5wE
What a curious piece of writing. It was published in 1960, so relatively new for Aozora. I’ll note that フィミニスト used to have a different meaning in Japanese, more like ‘a guy who likes women’ and kind of the vibe of ‘I treat my women like princesses’ I may not be doing it justice, because that’s from memory talking to a Japanese tutor years ago about how it seemed to be used in 80s media and she was like “yeah it didn’t used to really mean the western definition of the word at all and meant more this”. And that kind of fits my read of it here. He’s kind of saying, "Oh don’t worry, I’ll make sure you look gorgeous in your casket 
"
I looked up the author and he was a doctor who specialized in anatomy/dissection, so him writing about dead bodies isn’t a shock. I think rather than being meant to be creepy this may have been meant to be quite sincere
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Just popping in to stay active and encourage anyone else reading slower than a story a day 
I’m still reading 一房の葡萄 (pre-vetted day 2). I read Part 1 on Tuesday and the first half of Part 2 on Wednesday. Yesterday (Thursday) was my über busy day and I didn’t manage any so I’m now hoping to finish it (the rest of Part 2 + 3) today or at least Saturday.
If that is embryonic mine are nascent No worries about pace! I also go down rabbit holes (with the story/author/kanji etc) and I’m looking forward to going back to your comment to see what kind of stuff you found.
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…and also the son of the rather more famous doctor and writer 森鷗外.
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Ha! Abandoned civilization to read it in two days. Now I will go at a slower pace so I can do things like eat, shower etc. I look forward to reading your thoughts @mitrac !
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Today’s text 春の鳥 was super long but pretty easy to read. The text was easy to follow. I have not looked into it, but it reads just like a chapter of a persons’ life.
Overall, the text didn’t grip me much. It just flowed along and except for the boys’ death near the end, nothing much actually happened?
Just observations of the protagonist regarding mentally challenged individuals and their specific capabilities, strengths and weaknesses.
If I’d have to rank all texts, I think this one was the most boring to date.
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Haha, I actually found it super interesting from a cultural perspective because often it’s hard to find any representation of disabilities of this kind and how it’s viewed socially in historical documents. Or at least, I’ve read a lot of Aozora and that’s the only one I’ve come across so far!
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I actually find it somewhat interesting and getting sympathetic, the son, mother and big sis, and head of household.
And also proverb, 鷺を烏と言う, and イギリスの有名な詩人の詩に「
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