Week 1: すべてがFになる - The Perfect Insider

[NicoleRauch]

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すべてがFになる - The Perfect Insider Home Thread

Week 1

Start Date: Apr 10th
Next Part: Week 2

Reading:

Week	Start Date	Chapter	Page Count
Week 1	Apr 10th	Chapter 1	44

Discussion Rules

• Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
• When asking for help, please mention the chapter and page number. Also mention what version of the book you are reading.
• Don’t be afraid of asking questions, even if they seem embarrassing at first. All of us are here to learn.
• To you lurkers out there: Join the conversation, it’s fun!

Participants

Mark your participation status by voting in this poll.
(Please feel free to update your status whenever you like!)

• I’m reading along
• I have finished this part
• I’m planning to catch up later
• I’m skipping this book

[valkow]

Hooray! I was just all excited to participate this time around without having read the pick before, minus the worry about accidentally hinting at future things like I had with 容疑者Xの献身. Then I remembered I’ve seen the drama. Maybe next pick! I wonder how much will come back to me while reading. Either way, I will be careful.

[Raionus]

If it hasn’t been mentioned yet there’s been a vocab list for this book on Koohi (Floflo) for a couple years.

Will link when I get back from work

edit:

Needs an account to view but here:

https://koohi.cafe/#/list?list=book_subete_ga_f_ni_naru

Some data:

Min. # Appearances	Unknown Words
1+	4858
2+	3005
3+	2226
4+	1790
5+	1533

For reference Kitchen is like 3k. Not to hype it up too much though - 5k is pretty normal for a novel.

[Ernovace]

Couldn’t catch up in the last book but will start this later (probably from Monday).

[valkow]

Finished chapter one today! As with all advanced book club weekly readings, it was longer than I expected. Someday my brain will calibrate to this faster pace.

I pressed what felt like a ton of katakana words to add to my anki later. It also felt like with some of them, there was a strong tendency to drop the last ー. (Some of them I know are variants, but some of them my dictionary refused.)

I found this first chapter readable and mostly interesting. I was more interested in learning more about 真賀田四季 than how viruses work, but that part gave a good introduction to the dynamic between 犀川 and 萌絵.

Question for the class from 犀川助教授: Are computer viruses 生物?

[Myria]

@valkow

It also felt like with some of them, there was a strong tendency to drop the last ー

I‘ve noticed that tendency in other books by 森 as well. He seems to dislike the trailing 伸ばし棒.
Occasionally, he uses non-standard kanji as well. For example, in 森‘s Wシリーズ, he constantly uses the kanji 躰 instead of 体 or 身体.

[miwuc]

Done as well! The first chapter reads pretty nicely, although the beginning was kinda confusing. But it’s so nice to have the list of names!

I’m slightly miffed that all three female characters are described as 美人. Does every woman have to be a 美人 to be worth being in this book?? Meanwhile, there’s nothing about the men being イケメン or anything.

Question: when 博士 is after a name, like 真賀田博士, is it read はかせ? Or はくし?

[Naphthalene]

@miwuc

Question: when 博士 is after a name, like 真賀田博士, is it read はかせ? Or はくし?

It’s read はかせ.

[laplace_s_cat]

@miwuc

there’s nothing about the men being イケメン or anything.

maybe, just maybe, it’s a Chekhov’s gun?

[miwuc]

Thank you!

@mukouno yeah let’s hope it will actually be relevant to the story >_>

[Belerith]

I knew roughly what it was going to be, but I still had to look it up. Worth it. ^^"

[miwuc]

OMG I didn’t even pay attention to that, and it turns out I have some of those right now! I was gifted a box of sweets from Japan the other day, and this is one of them :o

Except mine have a caramel center. Aaaand they taste ok but not my favorite.

[Redglare]

omg, so I only read the first part of the first chapter and thought that was it for this week… Turns out there are six parts!

[Belerith]

It’s meant to be!

[NicoleRauch]

Nah, there’s plenty to read here each week
Luckily the beginning of the chapter is a bit denser than the end…

[Jfredel78]

Hello everyone,

Glad to see that there actually is discussion going on! I was stranded back in the home thread before @NicoleRauch discovered me.

Just for reference, this is what I said over there:

I just finished the first chapter this morning. The later parts with Saikawa sensei were much clearer to me than the opening parts with Magada. Especially the part about the doll. I read that a few times and it still didn’t make much sense to me. I guess we’ll find out more about that later. Also, all of the talk about whether or not computer viruses are living things seemed to have some connection to a doll being used as a surrogate for a murder (potentially).

[Jfredel78]

@miwuc

I’m slightly miffed that all three female characters are described as 美人. Does every woman have to be a 美人 to be worth being in this book??

Actually I thought it was repeatedly emphasized that 国枝助手 is NOT a 美人. That she looks like a man. Haha…

You’re talking about 萌絵, 真賀田博士, and 儀同世津子, right? By the way, what’s up with 世津子??

[miwuc]

@Jfredel78

Actually I thought it was repeatedly emphasized that 国枝助手 is NOT a 美人. That she looks like a man. Haha…

Ha yeah good point! That’s still 3 美人 out of 4 though.

[morteASD]

I only read the first part so I’m quite a bit behind. I’m having a hard time keeping myself interested, since I have no idea who these people are or what is going on. Absolutely zero context.

[Belerith]

Context will be introduced during the course of the chapter/book.

I’m not sure if I’m going to like this book yet either, but I’m willing to find out.

I think I didn’t actually comment on the chapter yet, so here be spoilers before I move on to chapter 2.

What struck me as slightly odd was the connection between バーチャル・リアリティ and 建築 that was brought up during the interview a few times. As well as 真賀田四季’s notion that physically going to different places and meeting people would become unimportant/unnecessary/antiquated/(I’m having trouble finding the right word here) just does not compute. I can sort of see where it comes from, but it doesn’t match with my thoughts and feelings at all, so it’s hard to identify with/accept as a theory for me.