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Read-along Sessions
Come and read from the previous week’s section, join in the chat about this book or just lurk and listen. Readers of all speeds and abilities welcome - we are here to help each other out. Reading sessions will be held every Sunday at 9:30pm JST.
Week 9 session (in your timezone): Sunday, September 1, 2019 12:30 PM TZ
Participants
Mark your participation status by voting in this poll.
I’m reading along
I’m still reading the but I haven’t reached this part yet
I can’t figure out which of the various grammatical constructs that use よう is this one… does this mean she left home at 8, or left so that she’d arrive to work at 8?
A few sentences later:
男と同棲でもしてくれたほうがずっとまともだって妹さんも思ってるってことですよ
I am particularly puzzled by まとも here. According to jisho it can mean “the front”, “honesty, uprightness” or “decency, normality”. I’m not sure which one fits here.
Is 白羽さん saying that 恵子’s sister’s main issue (“at the front of her concerns”, maybe?) is the fact that she has invited a man for cohabitation?
Or is this about how the sister would be concerned about the decency of the situation? I don’t see that fitting very properly into the sentence structure though…
I believe this is “so that I arrive at 8”. つくように出勤した (Maybe に was omitted?)
まとも
まともなこと is something’s that’s decent, upright, conforms to what people think is good…
男と同棲でもしてくれたほうがずっと まとも だって妹さんも思ってるってことですよ
Just by living with a man, you’ll be thought of as a proper woman (if you want to say it like that, because this in opposition to living alone in your middle age and with no proper job), your sister thinks so too (referring to how she’s acting all excited about the situation)
I liked this week much better, but I still don’t know how to feel about their arrangement.
Some questions
59%
He says 既成事実みたいなのを作られるのはね、ねえ、男としては警戒しないといけないんで…いきなり妹さんに電話するなんて
He later says how it’s frightening and he often reads stories online about situations like this.
Can someone enlighten me what he means by 男としては警戒しないといけない, and also what his worries are with her calling her sister?
61%
白羽 has monologue time again and then says 少子化が進んで、どんどん縄文に回帰している、生きづらい、どころではない。ムラにとっての役立たずは、生きていることを糾弾されるような世界になってきてるんですよ
First, why どころではない? Isn’t he saying the opposite here; that the world is actually returning to the 縄文時代?
Also, why is the passive used here for 糾弾される and who is denouncing whom?
小さな和室で、古い造りなので風呂とトイレは別になっている。換気があまりよくないので、白羽さんの入った後の風呂場のドアから、湿気と湯気がむわりと部屋にたちこめていた。
I couldn’t understand what the bolded was and was halfway through writing this when I thought about googling the whole sentence and it seems someone had that same question from the book so I’ll just leave the answer in case anyone had the same issue.
In short: むわりと → もわっと : thick with smoke, moisture or odor; hard to breathe (air)
And when 白羽 says
「僕さえここにいれば世間は納得しますよ。あなたにとってメリットしかない取引だ」
is he saying that there’s “nothing but” advantages (aka a lot of advantages) for her, or that there are only advantages for her (and not for him)? Or something else? I’m not good at しかない yet ):
I’m also not entirely sure I understood their conversation, since some things don’t make too much sense/aren’t clear to me, but I’m not sure if it’s because of the Japanese or because it’s just weird.
For example, did he say that he just wants to hide in her house and never come out? How is he contributing to anything then? And then I understood she would pay him by feeding him? But he wouldn’t be doing anything? Even if she can use the “I’m married” card now, I don’t think having a husband holed up in her house is really up to society’s standard. She’d be expected to show him around at least, right? Or else she might as well just make it up.
I feel it is likely I just completely misunderstood a bunch of things so I might have to go reread.
Thought that was weird too, but didn’t look it up, thanks.
Yes. “This whole deal is pure advantages for you.” He’s saying that to convince her that it is after all a good deal. He’s not saying this to say there isn’t anything for him.
I’m also not entirely sure I understood their conversation…
You understood it fully
If I remember, Shiraha even says “you can say anything about me”, so it’s like, as long as she has a man society will be content. You’re right in thinking that it’s weird, it is weird. And that’s pretty much it, everything you said is right.
I had the same reaction. Did I just read what I think I read?!?! What a wild turn of events. Very intriguing indeed. This book gets more interesting by the page.
Finally finished this week’s section. I am enjoying the unpredictable (for me at least) nature of this book.
Some parts which I found interesting or amusing
白羽 saying he was 潔癖症 (poor man, I shouldn’t laugh but it was so ironic given the state he was in)
Finding him sleeping half in the cupboard (I guess it shows you how small her apartment is)
How excited 妹 is despite knowing nothing about the man or the circumstances
The kanji for uterus 子宮
The middle of p110 involving 餌 and her explanation for why she used that word
The food on p111 - did you notice? - only white things. I have a niece who eats similarly.
First I was quite worried that she was letting him take advantage of her, with her having him stay at her place, and him drinking the cider she already had and the new one as well, as soon as she brought it.
But I almost laughed out loud when she nicely paid it back to him with comparing him to a pet she is keeping and talking about his 餌
Looking forward to next week’s reading and how this uneven relationship is going to continue.
End Page (PB): 111
End Page (HB): 103
End Kindle Location: 1071
End Phrase: 口に運んだ。
Welcome to Week 9!
Feel free to use past discussion for reference, but please don’t hesitate to post any questions or comments! The more we discuss the more we all learn, and the more fun it is! Also, I strongly recommend setting each week’s thread to “watching” to stay abreast of the discussion. Please try to mark any spoilers as such.
I’m reading along
I’ll catch up soon
I have no intention of catching up or the club has already finished, but I’m using the forums as reference
0voters
Live Reading Sessions
The next live reading session will be 2021-01-24T03:00:00Z If you haven’t already, join the Japanese Book Club Discord. When the time comes to start, just enter the コンビニ人間 voice channel.
For live readings, we will take turns reading as much as we feel comfortable with (up to ~1 page), then go back and translate a section of our choosing together. Expect sessions to take anywhere from 1-2 hours, but feel free to join late or leave early as your schedule allows. We will be starting promptly at the designated time. Please post any questions regarding live reading session logistics in the Discord channel or on the home thread.
Vocab Sheet
Anybody should feel free to add to the vocab sheet. Read the guidelines on the first sheet- even if a word is not yet included you can use the spreadsheet as a tool to get help.
Discussion Questions
What sentence/passage gave you the most difficulty? Feel free to request some help, or if you figured it out on your own break it down for the rest of us!
What was your favorite new vocab word from this week’s reading?
Was there any passage that you found particularly intriguing? Did it resonate with you (either positively or negatively)? Was it surprising? Offer any insight or new perspective? Was it just beautifully written?
Is Shiraha and Keiko’s arrangement mutually beneficial? Does one of them benefit more than the other? Is it potentially damaging for either of them?
So when I first saw Shiraha I thought they would be love interests but I didn’t know it was going to be this weird…
It’s sad that I’ve grown attached to Keiko and I don’t want her to be in this (potentially?) “abusive” relationship.
I say “abusive” because this is all her idea and she seems pleased with the idea as well? So who am I to judge?