It sounds juvenile, but when I first read Osamu Dazai’s short stories a few decades ago, I thought, “hey, I can do this.” I'm not actually writing one of his stories, but using my experiences and putting it on a page or paper, and somehow (or hopefully) make it amusing at the very least. Dazai, it seems, was not precisely the best fellow in the bunch. Which, with that addition, even made him more of a role model for me. Due to his addiction to pills, drinking, and the habit of suicide attempts, which he did succeed in that act in 1947, I did not want to follow his life to the “T.” What I did do was study how he used his narrative and how that becomes a work of fiction. I have not out-mastered the Master, but I feel I wouldn’t be writing if it wasn’t for the comic yet horrific touch of Osamu Dazai.
That is a lovely piece, Tosh!
Thanks Tosh. I haven’t read him but now I will.
Love Dazai!
Thanks for this.. overdue tribute