BSD rhetorical analysis ramblings part 1: Selflessness gives life meaning & saves us from ourselves...but:
I really wanted to do a bit of ramblings on some rhetorical analysis about BSD & some themes I've seen displayed bc Asagiri has laid them out beautifully, but I feel they need to be teased out. I'm doing this pretty much entirely for myself so it's not gonna be in a formal essay style, mostly just ramblings.
I want to start with the concept of "selflessness" as it's the crux of many of the poems & short stories that make up the ADA and, in addition, Selflessness is the quality that is tested for when entering the ADA. you have to prove you're willing to give up your life for good, for the sake of others. I always thought that an interesting test with interesting implications morally.
To start off with the most clear testament to Selflessness that I've read so far is in Kenji Miyazawas "be not defeated by the rain" here is a line from it:
“Count yourself last in everything. Put others before you.
Watch well and listen closely. Hold the learned lessons dear.”
Very clearly written, almost like a guidebook, the poem goes on encouraging the reader to help those who are sick, to nurse the old, to break up arguments, essentially to devote themselves to goodness. At the end of the poem the poem itself turns inwards, we realize the author is talking about himself, to direct himself to be a good man. This poem was written in his dying days, and ends with the line, "that is the man I strive to be." (I find this interesting because we can even say the poem was written in a selfless form -- directed externally, as a guide, instead of focusing on the writer's obvious but only implied regrets)
Moving on theres some interesting insight into the nature of selflessness in Chuuya Nakahara's poem "Voice of Life," here are selected lines from it:
“If happiness is like this, like the limits of unselfishness…if so, this world where one cannot live without eating, is unfair…”
I thought this a beautiful line...happiness as the limits of unselfishness. We see in this poem Nakahara argues happiness comes when we are unselfish, when we put others needs before our own. Thr next line takes this even further, with the phrase "cannot live without eating," we are reminded of the human form, suggesting that to live for others is to escape the entrapment of the human form, to transcend human constraints. Interestingly it also triggers the societal connotations around "man has to eat to live," which is essentially that man has to be self serving, look into his own interests. "Man has to eat" is a phrase often used to excuse greed, selfishness, often immoral decisions. Here Nakahara perhaps also rues such a society, but points out the distinct happiness achieved in rejecting these, also manmade, constraints. Theres a bit of absurdity pointed out here too in the "unfair--" We are trapped in a paradigm where we must to some degree self serve to keep living, both in a literal and societal way -- yet our happiness comes from transcending that, from serving others. Interesting that this is in Nakahara's poetry -- says a lot about his character aswell.
In Akutagawa's short story Rashomon, which i will not be quoting but describing, we also see a struggle with the morality of selflessness. But most notably we see it in Flawless, which is Oda's short story, where a man gives out all his money to his friends constantly and is very self sacrificing and sees the best in people, but is very naive and disorganized, and has a wife who continually tries to see the best in him despite his failings. The story is like a wall of frustrations and complaints, but ends on a very interesting and jarring note when his wife asks why he refuses to consistently fill his time card:
“It’s not like I’ll turn into some big deal if I do every tiny thing, will I? He glared at me with an uncharacteristically frightening expression. Ever since then, I’ve spent my days wondering if he goes out of his way to take on enough work that he can lie down as soon as he gets home and fall fast asleep.”
This seemed a strange way to end the story at first. At most it is a story that exhibits the optimism of humanity, the innate hopefulness and innocence of us that can be taken advantage of, so this ending seemed different from the theme. However, i think it links in an interesting way. If we understand "falling asleep" to follow the connotations around the idiom "how do you sleep at night?" Perhaps we can understand this as a commentary on guilt; and not "turning into a big deal" as perhaps a commentary on human futility. After all, there is no end goal to life -- so what is there? What is the reason for this? When put into the context of a man who is essentially giving his money -- ergo his body, his livelihood -- away for free, we may be able to read the last sentence as self efacing being an act of assuaging the guilt inherent to existence.
From here there is an almost direct link to No Longer Human, where the main character, Yozo, repeatedly comments on the guilt and shame he feels around the sheer act of existence, as if he were born with it. In a couple lines from Nakahara's poems as well, we get these words:
“I am seeking something, always seeking something…”
“Since it's inexplicable, indescribable, I believe my life is worth living.”
Though he does not explicitly comment on guilt, he does comment on an emptiness we are constantly trying to fill, and therefore live for -- guilt, a sense of purpose, a hole inside -- these are all connected. How do we excuse ourselves to keep living? We see in these iterations of literature that selflessness is something we reach for as we die, something we reach for for happiness, something we reach for to save ourselves from the futility of life, something we use to fill the hole of purpose, of guilt, of want inside us. We feel the need to give ourselves away. This is not a lesson or a "should," but a fact of life -- we devote ourselves to something or other. We are all part sacrifice.
“‘Humans live to save themselves. They will understand this before they die.’
-Oda's last words, Dark Era LN.
But Asagiri brings with this recognition of the ubiquity of selflessness a warning: in Yosano. In Yosano Akiko's poem, Thou Shalt Not Die, she writes of how her brother has been sent off to war to die for the country, and how horrible an act of violence and self sacrifice this is. But how common it is as well, how it's even seen as patriotic, to sacrifice onself for a king who doesn't even fight. This is Yosano's story as well, as a character -- someone who was used, sacrificed, for the sake of war.
To me this reads as a warning. We all have emptiness, so we all give ourselves away. This is a fact of life, so it's crucial to be aware and intimate with one's emptiness, and aware of where its being filled. What are you giving yourself to?
We see again & again, both quietly, by Dazai, and out loud, by Atsushi and Akutagawa, the question "why should I live?" Behind this question is "what am I living for?"
Are you living for your friends? For honor? For approval? For guilt, for shame? For justice? For witness? What is the shape of your debt? Who are you paying it to?
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