Home
I think what happened was I conflated the SxF book club with the 海辺のカフカ book club, and since SxF starts on the 18th, I ended up thinking they both started next month.
Maybe it’s just because 身体 is the first word I learned for “body,” even before 体, but I’ve never understood why it’s always got furigana the first time it shows up even in books that use little furigana. I see it so often, it’s difficult to imagine it’s a particularly uncommon word or anything. Is it just because からだ is a unique reading for the kanji, which would otherwise be read しんたい?
Anyway, I read 4 more pages of 海辺 today, finishing the prologue. I also read ch 3 of ボーイミーツマリア.
We get some more of Taiga’s backstory this chapter. When he was 9, his mother fell ill and died, and his father wasn’t there at the hospital when she did; he’d sent Taiga ahead alone while they were walking there and went to see someone else, Taiga assumes. That’s at least part of why he doesn’t particularly get along with his father, and it’s when he realized that heroes don’t exist in real life.
Return of The Idiot Thinker. (He’s just been asked if he likes Arima as a gal or as a guy. Arima’s really cute when he dresses as a girl, but when he’s acting, he’s really cool. He can’t choose!)
エリ:男子、女子、どっちなの?
有馬:どっちとも言えません。
有馬、頭の中に:「男だよ」とあいつには言えたのに
asdfghjkl he’s so dumb. His nickname has gotten worse and longer yet again, and he’s just like, “Huh? What’s that, that’s cool. Sounds strong.” I love this idiot. The drama club advisor also gives him the nickname 不思議君, which is much less of a mouthful.
And now we’re heading into Arima’s backstory and trauma, which we’ll be getting next chapter, which I plan on reading tomorrow. Not particularly looking forward to that, but to the developments afterwards, absolutely. I’m actually kind of surprised I like this story as much as I do, considering (blurred for sensitive/potentially triggering content) when Arima was a child and being forced to live as a girl by his mother, he was betrayed by one of his teachers whom he’d thought was his friend who turned out to be a pedophile, was raped by him, and then was very nearly mutilated with a knife by him too. And that monster did go to jail for it, but he was allowed to go watch one of Arima’s performances, which only compounded his trauma. I do love how Arima has a complicated relationship with gender (and is quite possibly nonbinary) and how Taiga accepts him regardless, simply and wholly, but I still don’t go for stories with that sort of thing.
Some vocab of note
うなされる [一, intransitive] to have a nightmare. to make a noise during a nightmare.
あろうことか [expression] of all things
過小評価 (かしょうひょうか) [四字熟語, noun, する verb] underestimation; undervaluation
タンマ [noun] interrupting a game; time out
懲りる (こりる) [一, intransitive] to learn by experience; to learn one’s lesson; to learn the hard way