Nothing can surpass the
terror of the human psyche.
Mine has been a life of
much shame.
I can't even guess
myself what it must be to live the life of a human being.
Plagued by a maddening
anxiety, the terrible disconnect between his own concept of happiness and the
joy of the rest of the world, Yozo Oba plays the clown in his dissolute life,
holding up a mask for those around him as he spirals ever downward, locked
arm-in-arm with death.
Osamu Dazai's immortal?and
supposedly autobiographical?work of Japanese literature, is perfectly adapted
here into a manga by Junji Ito. The imagery wrenches open the text of the novel
one line at a time to sublimate Yozo's mental landscape into something even more
delicate and grotesque. This is the ultimate in art by Ito, proof that nothing
can surpass the terror of the human psyche.
Osamu Dazai's immortal and supposedly autobiographical work of Japanese literature, is perfectly adapted here into a manga by Junji Ito.
