İnsanlığımı Yitirirken - Osamu Dazai // konuk Esra Gökçe Şahin // Deniz Yüce Başarır ile Ben Okurum

“You’ve stripped me of my humanity,” I typed to Google. Why, you ask? I’ll answer: because I’ve been thinking about the title “Losing My Humanity” a lot lately. The title of this beloved novel by Osamu Dazai, one of Japan’s most important writers, whose fame extends beyond his own country, is as perplexing as the text itself. I took a more aggressive stance than the author, blaming the rest of humanity a little, I admit. Osamu doesn’t blame anyone; he seems to be in a state of mind where he feels he brought it upon himself. There’s a slow, gradual loss of humanity there. Although he presents the situation in his diary-like novel as a battle lost from the start, there’s a process that accelerates towards the end, leading to collapse. I thought, let me be accusatory, let me challenge, let’s see where else such sentences are used. You know, the “Did you mean this?” kind of thing is outdated; now the Artificial Intelligence Individual directly enters the conversation. It asks me, “What happened? What was it that drove you so mad?” How can I help you calm down or make amends? Tell me what's bothering you, and let's solve it: • A technical problem or error? • Difficulty accessing information you're expecting? “This feeling you’re experiencing is quite exhausting, creating a deep loneliness inside while everything seems fine on the outside. Wearing a "social mask" and smiling at everyone to exist in society eventually leads to alienation from one's true self. Many people use this mask to fit in with the outside world, but inside they carry a completely different world, feeling misunderstood.” Really? Bravo! If only you had been discovered when Osamu Dazai created the character Yozo, you Artificial Intelligence individual… Maybe you could have solved all of Yozo's problems in three steps. Wear fewer social masks, Yozo! Be selective, dedicate your energy to yourself, and converse with those you can connect with! Make sense of the gap between you and society! Being different isn't so bad; art and ideas can emerge from it! Discover your own space. Instead of hiding your feelings, write them in a diary or something! Write a novel, for example… Focus on painting! Yes, you're right, dear Artificial Intelligence Individual. Osamu Dazai also wrote about Yozo's alienation from society in the form of diaries, but it doesn't benefit Yozo, nor does it benefit the author who created him and suffers from the same problems. Sadly, both end in suicide! Oh, Artificial Intelligence Individual, you're good and all, but aren't you a bit too cliché?! The solution doesn't always come from the surface; we need to delve deeper! We also need to look at society; even if the individual takes all the blame, blaming them doesn't solve everything.    • Ben Okurum   As you know, Losing My Humanity tells the story of Yozo's existential angst, his alienation from the society he lives in, and his attempts to cope with life by wearing a mask that is almost like a clown's, always smiling and making others laugh. It's an individual text told from the first-person perspective, but Osamu Dazai, through the other characters he introduces from Yozo's environment, subtly holds a mirror up to society. In other words, Losing My Humanity is like a ladder for us to descend into the depths. The question of human existence is a deep and dark well, as you know. The more you look, see, and think—that is, with each step of the ladder—the more the world darkens. But sometimes, shouldn't we not be afraid of the darkness, shouldn't we dare to face it in order to reach the light? Yes, there's a somewhat dark and pessimistic text at the heart of this "I'm a Reader" section. Our main character is a suicidal, misfit, so to speak. A misfit, or someone who doesn't belong. Of course, this doesn't stop us from loving him, from thinking along with him. Almost all the women who enter his life throughout the novel love him, their hearts warm to him. Perhaps it's an instinct to heal someone… We women have plenty of that, you know. Anyway… We've been through so much together, haven't we, dear "I'm a Reader" readers? We've walked dark paths together, we've cried and laughed together… As we witness Yozo's downfall, we'll lean on each other again. To lighten the load from the start, yes, that's partly why I began by poking at artificial intelligence. Think of it as an overture 😊 Let's have a little fun first, then you'll see what I'll show you… Oh well, it's just our usual analytical nature! That's all, really... If I've softened the subject enough, let's begin... To avoid getting lost on the paths of "Losing My Humanity," I invited a guest who knows Japanese society well. Esra Gökçe Şahin is a social anthropologist who completed her master's degree at Tokyo University. Thinking that she should also know humor well in order to better understand this culture, she earned her doctorate at Harvard University ...