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bungou to alchemist: osamu dazai

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So clothes and plants being green again is super cool and everything but this is important enough to get its own post: I finished the second draft of my novel! Now I have to run it by some editors before I send the manuscript to a publisher. I've already edited it from my first draft, but other eyes won't hurt, you know? There are some people who already asked to see it (Fai) and some people I was going to ask to look at it (John B., please help me as my non-science-fiction-reading friend) but if you want to take a while to go through it and give an opinion or tell me if I missed a typo I'd be happy to send you the text! Chiyo, let's talk about cover art?

[Shuji will be quick to send anyone who asks the manuscript, which I have not written out the entire novel for, but you can have an excerpt and some notes?]

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Of course you can! Obviously I care about your opinions?

[File sent!]

[Shuji you can't just be casually smooth like that, give her some warning.

But after a while--]

I'm only through the first chapter but this is really good. I really enjoy the world-building.

What made you want to set part of this in space?

Spite. Science fiction isn't considered 'real literature' just because it's in space and not on Earth, and I always thought that was stupid.

Oh... I never thought of that before.

But you're right, it tends to be seen as stories for casual consumption, nothing to take seriously.

Exactly. So this is 'science fiction' to prove that science fiction can be as serious as 'real literature'.

Do you have any particular themes you're interested in exploring then?

This one is centered around moral relativism. I've been tossing around ideas for one with the theme of fate vs free will and the implications of that in daily life, but that won't get written for a while if I do write it.

Wow.

So like... looking at the differences in morals between groups of people?

Right. This is a smaller example, but did it weird you out when you came over here and people would wear their shoes in their homes?

It was certainly different, I admit, yes.

Moral relativism is along those lines, just including things a lot more important than shoes indoors. There's the question of whether anything is absolutely right or wrong, or if our society just makes us believe certain things are bad or good. If everyone you'd ever met thought that stealing was okay, would you naturally think that too?

Um... yes, I suppose so?

It wouldn't be like anyone told me it was the wrong thing to do, so...

It's a matter of debate. Plenty of people hold that humans - and aliens too, I guess - have an innate sense of right and wrong. I don't agree, but it's a legitimate standpoint.

I admit, it's nothing I ever thought about before, but that's what makes it interesting.

And that's going to be the focal point of the book, then? Anthony will be caught between his own moral standpoints and that of the aliens?

I feel so bad for him, being the last human being...

He's in a difficult position. It's impossible for him to live among humans again and the aliens are being really generous with helping him out, and he's grateful to them for that, but it's still incredibly hard for him to suppress his initial reaction to some of the things the aliens do as being 'wrong'.

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