Have you read the novel Human Disqualification? Tell me your understanding.

When the book Disqualification on Earth was finished, Osamu Dazai immediately drowned himself. This posthumous work, therefore, occupies a pivotal position in Taizai's works, and is considered to be the mapping of the writer's life experience and mental journey. Shi Tiesheng once said: "A writer may not be able to shape the real others, but only the real himself." This statement applies to Osamu Dazai. Looking at the many roles in his works, he is worthy of being a member of his own. In Disqualification on Earth, this self-portrayal is so obvious that readers who know a little about Osamu Dazai don't need to analyze it at all, and they can see that the protagonist in Otsuka Wild Tibetan is actually the embodiment of the author himself. The experience told by Ye Zang's monologue in the book is highly coincident with the author's own life, which makes this work also called "autobiographical novel". In view of its special status as a "posthumous work", this book can be regarded as a "summary" of Osamu Dazai's own life, and it is also his last chance to spy on his inner world. In this book, the author, as always, describes the struggle and depravity of a marginalized person. And if you want to ask what is the most remarkable feature of this book compared with other works of Osamu Dazai, or what is "similarities and differences", I'm afraid it can only be said that this book is the most in-depth, comprehensive and thorough work depicting Osamu Dazai's "clown spirit".

The so-called "clown spirit" refers to the behavior tendency of blindly submitting to other people's demands, wearing a mask of "clown" to please others, and deliberately making a fool of yourself and playing tricks like others when interacting with others in life. Ye Zang, the hero of the book, knew how to win the favor of his family with a fake smile from an early age, deliberately asked for gifts he didn't like to please his father, and performed funny performances in front of everyone when he was a student, which can be said to be the performance of "clown spirit". Think about it carefully, maybe we have met people with similar behaviors in our school days and even in our present life, and even we ourselves have played a "clown" to some extent. What is the psychological mechanism behind this behavior? Generally speaking, in an over-convergent society, that is, a society that emphasizes the identity of "social person", an individual's self-personality will undergo the process of "assimilation", that is, erasing too specific parts of himself to make it more "adaptive" to the society. At first glance, the "clown spirit" is the same expression, but it is quite different internally, because the "clown" is essentially just a disguise and a "personality mask" stripped from the ontology. The purpose of its existence is not to destroy itself and seek assimilation, but to hide its "different" self from others. As early as childhood, when other children were still in the stage of taking themselves as the center and asking for anything from the world, Ye Zang (or Taizai) was keenly aware of his uniqueness, and was deeply anxious about this difference that might lead to isolation and alienation, and full of fear for the outside world and others. I am always afraid of people. What caused this oversensitivity and precocity? Is being a noble father too strict? Is it because of the absence of Bond's mother? Or indifference to the Ma family? We don't know this, but the result is clear at a glance, that is, the young Taizai learned to put on the mask of "clown", "hide his melancholy and tension, try to pretend to be naive and cheerful, and gradually become a freak who entertains others."

This disguise lasted until the end of the student days, during which it was almost exposed, but overall it survived the risk. However, as the day of "stepping into society" approaches, the collapse of the "clown" mask is inevitable. On the one hand, although the "clown spirit" is to seek unity, it is not really to transform the socialization of the self, but to do everything possible to hide and protect the true self. In Taizai's heart, he is always afraid of being different from others, but at the same time he is obsessed with the superiority brought by this difference. Whether it is "bearing disaster", "aristocratic spirit" or "voter consciousness", it is the embodiment of this sense of superiority. In The Beggar Student, he even said that "only people with a sense of superiority can play clowns". From this point of view, Osamu Dazai is actually what psychologist Fromm called "a person who doesn't want to give up completely in the struggle to save himself". But it's easy to please one or two people. How easy is it to fool the world with this disguise? So he has always been out of tune with this society. Anti-social revolutionary groups can reassure him more. "This is illegal, which is a little fun for me. More specifically, it makes me feel good. The so-called legitimacy in the world is terrible. " On the other hand, although the mask of "clown" has established a seemingly normal connection with others, this connection is only based on the disguised personality, and it is also false and fragile. This has also led to the fact that the real self has never really opened its heart to the outside world, so it is particularly afraid of the harm caused by contact with others. The false shell blocks the possible harm, but it also blocks the warmth and care, making the ontology more timid and helpless. The affection, friendship and even love between men and women have become the objects of vigilance. Even the joy of spending a night with a woman who is also a loner will disappear in the early morning of the next day, and she will have to turn back into a frivolous clown and a coward who is afraid of happiness. Therefore, the "clown" seems to keep in touch with the outside world. In fact, like autistic people, they are all people who isolate themselves from the world in order to maintain their own integrity. Therefore, the failure of this clown spirit is inevitable. No matter how hard you try, Ye Cang will eventually become a "marginal person" who is rejected by society: trying to commit suicide, being imprisoned, drinking, taking drugs, tuberculosis ... Taizai banished himself from this society with decadent behavior. Since it is difficult to please the "world" by being a clown, he simply slipped to the edge to save himself.

Ye Zang said that he used "clown spirit" as his last courtship, but he didn't love it at all, because he lacked the courage to show his heart or visit others' hearts. "Everyone else is hell", in his eyes, mutual understanding between people is impossible. In the days of debauchery, he simply stopped seeking contact between people, but stopped walking on thin ice. But this did not alleviate his fear of others, and this situation did not change until the appearance of Yoshiko. Yoshiko is a portrayal of an ideal personality, a person who "completely trusts others" and "is as pure as a god". This kind of existence like Jesus Christ is undoubtedly the only healing place in the whole world that can reassure Ye Cang who can't trust others. Did Osamu Dazai meet the "prototype" of Yoshiko in his own life? Is it Tanabe who died for his double suicide, or the hill with a couple, or Yamazaki who finally went to the grave with him? Maybe we won't know after all, but this is undoubtedly his spiritual salvation. However, the malice and harm of society broke his fantasy. Yoshiko was raped by unscrupulous businessmen because of her credulity, which marked the disillusionment of hope and redemption and the complete despair and sinking of the protagonist. In the end, it became a "mental patient", "madman" and "human disqualification". Is this also the epitome of Osamu Dazai's spiritual pursuit in his later life? Is suicide the only way to save yourself and regain the recognition of the world after writing this book? Because, only in other people's memory, the Ye we know is very frank and intelligent. If he doesn't drink, no, even if he drinks, he is a great man like God. "

Osamu Dazai lives in Japan, a society where the old moral order and collectivism are still intertwined. We don't live in that society. However, when we read Osamu Dazai's works today, we don't have much sense of estrangement, but we can give birth to a voice that transcends the times. I'm afraid this is because today's post-industrial era is also a morbid era of constantly suppressing or even obliterating individuals to make them "adapt to society". People who live in it, if they want to keep that self in their hearts, will be in danger of being marginalized and "losing the world qualification" like Osamu Dazai. In this struggle, we may not be "clowns" like Otsuka, but deep down, isn't there a cowardly but eager self? Osamu Dazai's seemingly self-describing words awaken the readers' sleeping and disappearing true souls, and make us rethink our spiritual situation. This may be the reason why Osamu Dazai literature can still capture readers.