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In cases like Makino's, or the better known Dazai Osamu's, the sensitive artist becomes a kind of living fantasy-fulfilment for his audience, somewhat like the sumo wrestler of old who was allowed a diet undreamed of by the common man. There was a price to be paid in return, though. He had to put his body on display and often face heart failure at the age of fifty-five or so. And so it is with the "sincere" watakushi shosetsu writer. He is allowed a life of extraordinary freedom for a regimented society like Japan's, but he must pay the price. Vicariously participating in his pleasures and dissipations, his audience demands: "Let's see the true nature of your suffering! Show us how sincere your torment is!" For torment is always expected, and if not delivered it will be exacted in so many subtle ways. The final self-destruction of this type of artist is almost inevitable.
-Antonín Líman: Ibuse Masuji, Century remembered (2008)

#dazai #nolongerhuman #ningenshikkaku