Okay, that’s basically what I thought it must be. I was just having a hell of a time trying to put it in my own words, so I wasn’t sure I’d understood it. Thanks!
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while no, i would not like to live there, I would like to point out that it does have some good points, such as having a decent percentage of its food grown there (cuts down on shipping costs).
at page 39 what does 月のしずくmeans? I found moon drop but I don’t clearly find how it fits in the context.
Thx a lot in advance
Having seen the anime, the short answer is YES.
See this post:
It was just answered. ^^
Wow I think I’ve been trying to get through the second page of the third chapter now for like 5 days straight. My brain is completely roadblocked.
自尊心
割り切る
陳腐
滑稽
うんざりする
繰り返す
Keep pressing on! You can do it! I’m assuming you’ve already looked up the meaning of those words you posted, right?
EDIT: Besides, the story really starts to get moving in this chapter
Wowe did not expect to see no.6 in here. It’s forever my fav novel/manga/animé. I want to try reading it in Japanese as well though.
What did you like about it? 
I’m thinking of buying it too.
Some fun words from this section of reading:
- ブザー (buzzer) - I guess this is how the word buzzer became pronounced when it got borrowed? Was trying to pronounce each word in my head in this section and laughed out loud when I got to it
- 痙攣（けいれん, cramp/spasm) - Are people actually supposed to be able to read this word without furigana o.o
And a bonus word (spoiler alert!!):
-
背中が波打つ（せなかがなみうつ）- his back is…undulating…?
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So, what do people think about 羅史? Obviously he is the main ‘baddie’ so far, but - unless I’ve missed something (highly possible) - he isn’t actually falsifying evidence etc personally and may be more guilty of turning a blind eye (not so different from 山勢) than anything else. I wonder if he’s going to become one of those does-bad-things-because-he-trusts-in-the-system-but-then-comes-round-to-the-‘good’-side-after-the-main-character-reveals-the-deception-played-by-a-malicious-society/government/corporation type characters…
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I think he’s a literary incarnation of what HR would look like if it applied to living in a city where everyone has a determined place. I doubt he’ll have a change in heart. Almost in the same way the people who interrogate the protagonist in 1984, he probably takes pleasure in ruining people’s lives because their lives are meaningless to them.
Quick question about what Yamase talks about at the beginning of chapter 3: What exactly did he do at his old job in the hospital basement? I’m pretty sure the general idea was that he changed the expressions of corpses so that they looked happy, but I wonder if someone could help explain the terms he uses a bit more. What do you think would be a good English translation for 「死体を加工する」? Also what do you imagine he’s doing when he says he would 「特殊な薬品をぬって器具をかぶせる」? I think I’m mostly confused on what the 器具 might be.
死体を加工する → Process corpses (literal); Handle corpses (natural translation)
加工する has the meaning of taking a raw material and making it into something else; but it also has the nuance of correcting as well. Some of the English words I found for it is process and manipulate. However with regard to dead bodies this sounds wrong, so I think “handle” sounds more appropriate.
特殊な薬品を塗って器具をかぶせる → Apply a special medical product and cover with a device.
When I came across this passage I kind of imagined Yamase putting this product on and sliding a device over the corpse (something like MRI tube of some sort) and letting it do its magic. 器具 has a lot of words that could be used for it: device, instrument, tool, apparatus, implement, etc. So it’s pretty vague in nature but I’m pretty sure it’s not a blanket, sheet, or bag of some sort as one would imagine in this situation.
I could be wrong about both of these things, but that’s how I’ve chosen to imagine it.
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Thanks! You’ve been super helpful about answering questions in this thread 
Just to clarify: Are you saying that you imagined the “device” (器具) to be something like an MRI tube? Or a blanket/sheet of some sort? I didn’t quite understand which of those you were linking to the word 器具 here.
This is all theoretical spoilers. I don’t remember this from the anime…
He could be literally processing the dead bodies - after all, this is a dystopian sci-fi book. It might be re-used as fertilizer, or even input into Star Trek-like food creating machines… Soylent Green, anyone?
I also think “handling” dead bodies sounds creepy. More like fondling, for some reason. Even if he’s just embalming/preserving/incinerating them, and not doing things in my other spoiler, “processing” sounds more natural to me. XD
One thing you could give a try is to read more extensively for a while. If a page is giving you trouble, see if you can just read a couple of pages without feeling the need to look up and understand everything, and ask yourself afterwards if you can summarize the major things that happened in the plot?
I’ve been doing that for the majority of the two and a half No 6 books I’ve read thus far, and while it sometimes feels like I’m missing out on the details moment-to-moment, when I look back on what I read I realize I’ve not had any problems following the plot.
In general I’ve been switching between intensive and extensive over the course of my reading, depending on what’s felt the least like a pain in any given moment It seems like you might have hit a similar rut.
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Thank you for catching this and sorry for the confusion! I wrote so quickly forgot to add a “not” in that last sentence regarding 器具 being a blanket or something…So to be clear, I imagined it like an MRI, not like a blanket or something of that sort.
You think it’s creepy? Perhaps “deal with corpses” sounds less fondle-ly? Although the context is a bit rare, since we’re talking about (former) people it sounds a bit more…humane than process? Nevertheless I like your thinking that perhaps there could be something even more sinister at play.
That seems like a really good suggestion, I’m going to give it a shot. I had been going for complete comprehension in the first two chapters and it was exciting that I could do it but it really did take a massive amount of time.
I have very few problems with the grammar, it’s just the vocab…
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