JBC's 秋の牢獄 (Autumn Prison) Discussion Thread

#1

The Japanese Book Club’s thread to discuss Autumn Prison is finally here!

Now that it is Oct 22 we can begin reading and soon discuss the first bit of the book.

The reading schedule is currently* as follows:
Week # Dates Chapter # Kindle Location # Pages
秋の牢獄 13-719
1 Oct 22-28 1 14-155 13
2 Oct 29-04 2, 3 156-293 13
3 Nov 05-11 4, 5 294-461 15
4 Nov 12-18 6 462-578 11
5 Nov 19-25 7, 8, 9 579-719 13
神家没落 720-1382
1 Nov 26-Dec 02 1, 2, 3 721-891 15
2 Dec 03-09 4, 5, 6 892-1026 13
3 Dec 10-16 7, 8 1027-1130 10
4 Dec 17-23* 9 1131-1223 8
5 Dec 24-30* 10 1224-1382 14
幻は夜に成長する 1383-2131
1 Jan 07-13 1, 2 1384-1536 15
2 Jan 14-20 3, 4 1537-1661 12
3 Jan 21-27 5, 6 1662-1797 13
4 Jan 28-Feb 03 7, 8 1798-1890 9
5 Feb 04-11 9, 10, 11 1891-2027 13
6 Feb 12-18 12, 13 2028-2131 10
*We may adjust the schedule after the first story is completed.

In addition to the regular discussion and grammar questions that will naturally ensue, we’re also trying something new with rotating discussion leaders each week!

Discussion Leaders
  1. AnimeCanuck
  2. Snowflying
  3. Scaso
  4. EiriMatsu
  5. LucasDesu (if available)

秋の牢獄 Autumn Prison

Key characters

藍 (あい) - the Narrator - We see the story through her eyes, a 2nd year university student.
由利江 (ゆりえ) Ai’s friend at university
隆一 (りゅういち) The first other ‘replayer’ Ai meets. Similar age to Ai
犬飼さん（いぬかいさん）A friend of 隆一’s (another replayer)
笹塚さん（ささづかさん）Another replayer. Middle aged lady
長老（ちょうろう）A senior figure among the replayers
北風伯爵（きたかぜはくしゃく）A mysterious white-clad figure feared by the replayers
佐々木さん (ささきさん) Another replayer. Round faced and seems to have a good character (that’s at least his description)
杉田さん (すぎたさん) Another replayer. Thinks very highly of himself and makes up lies about how great he is
久美ちゃん (くみちゃん) Replayer girl. 14 years old.
コクラさん Replayer and late addition to the team after the meeting.

Helpful Links:
Memrise Course (mostly Kanji) by Polv

(I will better edit the thread tomorrow on my computer.)

Intermediate Japanese Book Club (Starting March 9th: Kino's Journey)
Intermediate Japanese Book Club (Starting March 9th: Kino's Journey)
Intermediate Japanese Book Club (Starting March 9th: Kino's Journey)
#2

Okay, so when I first picked up the book, I initially thought the three separate stories were actually titles of “parts” of the story…

So I’ve been able to understand two of the stories’ titles, but I’m not 100% sure of 神家役落… Since nothing is apparently a jukugo word, would my idea of “God House’s Fallen Duty” or “The House of Gods Fallen Duty” be correct - or even close?

Even just the title excites me a little - makes me think of both Greek mythology and Noragami. : D

#3

I couldn’t make sense of it so I assumed it was a name.

#4

… Hmm… I don’t think a name would be a title, though…

That said, if it was a name, how would you pronounce it?

I’ve been saying かみうちやくらく.

#5

True, it doesn’t seem to be the style of Japanese literature. Perhaps there is an alternate meaning to one of them that makes a bit more sense

#6

Hopefully someone else will enlighten us…

EDIT: The more I say かみうち out loud, however, the more it sounds like a surname after your suggestion.

#7

Hopefully, or if not maybe it becomes clear in the first couple of pages. I haven’t really looked into the other stories yet, I’ve been too focused on 秋の牢獄。

#8

I have to start reading… But it’s basically midnight.

I’ve only read the first three sentences… Or the first two and a random one on the first page… Mostly weeks ago when it arrived, but earlier in the week (Monday, I wanna say?) I read 「雨だ。」… Pleased that I understood a second sentence on the first page unaided, I put the book down to hold off reading until only 2 days before now… << Thinking to myself “Oh, good, it’s easy enough.”

… I’m a dork. ^^;

#9

I’ve done a little bit of research just now about 神家 and it might be a name although it would be somewhat rare. Some possible pronunciations are Kamiya, Shinke, Kamiie, and Kouge.

I feel like 神家没落 might be something like “The Downfall of Kamiya”

But yeah hopefully it’ll become apparent as we read.

#10

The main characters name is 藍（あい）and we experience the story from her eyes. So you had that part right in your Key characters description. We learn both things in the first chapter and I don’t consider them spoilers. I would have edited the first post but it’s not a wiki ^^.

#11

Yay, we’re started! Thanks for making the thread @AnimeCanuck!

So I’ve already read the first chapter some time ago, without looking up stuff, to see how difficult it would be for me. Most of it I couldn’t understand. So now it’s time for the second reading, with the dictionary and grammar guide at hand :smile:

@downtimes How do you know the main character is female? Just the name, or are there other indications? (I mean - maybe it’s just stated somewhere, but this is probably one of the things I didn’t get :wink:)

#12

I had exactly the same feeling! First sentence: oh that is not so difficult! Second sentence: wow! Reading Japanese is easy! Third sentence: uhm wait what

#13

Yeah I was confused about that too. So now I’ve confirmed they’re three different stories. :joy:

#14

@willem3141 I didn’t remember exactly from when I knew so I just reread some of the first passages and would say there is nothing definitive in there until this sentence (Page 11):
「すごいじゃん。本当だったらテレビに出られるよ。十一月七日の水曜日を繰り返した女って。じゃあ、今日の午後から何が起こるか全部わかるの？」

Edit: since you had problems with this i should probably also give my rough translation

“Isn’t that great? If it is true you can be on TV. ‘The woman who repeated wednesday 11/7’. So then…, you know everything that’s going to happen this afternoon?”

#15

Yeah, that does seem to confirm it =)
Where did you see the name though? I think I missed it (or is it later? I’m on first skim through, to page 12)

#16

Her name with furigana appears the first time on Page 13

#17

Reading on my Ipad, the first chapter has about 71/2 ‘kindle pages’. So I’m going to read a page a day. So far so good! :slight_smile: It def seems a lot easier than number 6, Or I don’t know if it’s because I’m taking a Japanese extensive reading class and have been reading in Japanese for 200 minutes a week for the past 10 weeks. (Without the use of a dictionary, thats the rules) But what ever the case maybe this feels nice. I hope my Japanese teacher will allow me to count this for reading time, else I’ll have to spend 400 minutes a week reading Japanese.
There are some things I don’t understand/want to confirm (I don’t think they need spoiler tags? But lmk if you think otherwise:

四 年 制 大学- this is just a four year university?
見上げる 空 は 秋 の 高 さ だ。-The sky that raised my eyes, is the height of autumn? Doesn’t make sense to me I must have translated it wrong :sweat_smile:
昼 は いつも 由 利 江 と 待ち合わせ て 一緒 に とっ て いる。- とっ て いる means taking lunch? So they’re taking/ having lunch together?
たとえ て いう なら- If I were to say?
私 の 背後 を 音 も なく すうっ と 通り過ぎ て いく よう な 感覚 だ。-A feeling like from my back(background?) the sound disappeared and went straight through me?
さしこん で い た。- I have no idea what this means.

#18

Oh the other note, I was totally shocked that there were three books inside of autumn prison. O.o the guy on the blog it from did not mention it, I never apologized for not knowing this. Sorry guys. I was hoping for a whole fleshed out story of this mystery, kind of sad it’s so short. Anyways I hope the next two are just a interesting. :grin:

#19

I just started today and I don’t get everything but here’s my interpretation of some of the things you were questioning cause they were places that made me pause too. People should definitely lmk if I’m wrong :sweat_smile:

見上げる空は秋の高さだ。I guess in Japan they say that in fall things in the sky seem to be much higher up that in summer. So it would be like “The sky I look up at is fall height” or something like that maybe??

たとえていうなら- I translated it as “If I were to give an example” or like “if I had to describe it it was as if…”

Still working on trying to understand the rest of the sentence better.

#20

Many of these you can find pretty easily in a dictionary or with simple google foo. I’m not sure why you broke up the words like that too. Makes it somehow harder to read for me ^^.
Either way here is some help from me:

四年制大学 is a university with 4 years, yes. There’s also a shorter version available 短期大学 or specialty shools etc.

This sentence I don’t have a perfect translation for it either sorry. Someone else needs to step in here.

Yeah you got it. She’s meeting up with yurie and getting lunch.

たとえていうなら can be found in dictionaries. Word for word it’s something along the lines: If speaking figuratively (たとえる in te-form, いう and なら for the if clause). More natural “metaphorically speaking” or something along those lines.

I’m also not 100% on that one but i think the すうっと is kinda an onomatopea here. So I would translate it along the lines of: A Sensation like passing like a ‘susch’ without making a noise along my back.
Don’t know how you came up with music sound and dissapearing here?

差し込む is another verb you can look up in the dictionary (It’s the te form of that plus いた for past progressive)