Why 'What are you talking about?' might become a trend

Someone once complained.

"The world is overflowing with useful information. Wouldn't it be better if there were more meaningless conversations?"

Actually, I think so too.

Even though I am someone who only writes things that (presumably) help people live.

I feel like a con artist saying you shouldn't deceive people, but oh well.

1. Moving and transforming a little

Last year, I quit my job and moved from around Yokohama to the Kansai region.

People around here only speak Kansai dialect.

There are no soba shops with rich dashi broth.

The middle-aged ladies at the supermarket checkout counters are slowly in a hurry.

No, I'm not complaining. My friends from when I was twenty were all from Kansai.

It's nice here in the west. They don't ignore you, and if you play the fool, they'll play along with a retort.

The east feels like competing, not losing, gaining the upper hand, and justice.

A man from the east was liberated and came here. Suddenly, he got hooked on 'senryu' poetry.

"When I make my hands like this, my cat comes to show me theirs - Yoshifumi Tsutsui"

"Dental treatment where you don't know what instruments are being inserted because your eyes are closed - Yanagimoto Momo"

"The calves of a Licca-chan doll that has never walked - Kiriko Yagami"

Oh... I have absolutely no idea what they are talking about.

But it's wonderful. It gives me chills. I want to see them, the cat's paws!, the calves!

"Carrying around a notebook filled with nothing but lies - Shii Takei"

"It's embarrassing that the sacrifice has frills - Mana Kureta"

"You don't have to smile inside a mascot costume - Kon Kubota"

I was especially struck by this one from Kon Kubota. (She has passed away. She was a woman from Osaka.)

"Nothing ever happened with that person, oh well"

"I ended up laughing, even though I haven't forgiven them"

"Crying at the same part in a used book"

"You can run quite well even while tilted"

"Why are you laughing here, you're bleeding"

No, really... it just makes me tear up.

Kon Kubota likely poured her whole heart and soul into this. She showed the grit of the West.

Senryu has no explanations whatsoever.

The reader has no choice but to fill in the gaps with their own imagination. Well, it's freedom, after all.

Of course, just moving to a new place doesn't change one's personality.

When I was in the East, I was too busy competing and comparing, and my nose must have been stuffed up.

And then, the stuffy work I'd been doing for decades disappeared.

Once that happened, the script that said "I'll surely be happy once this is fulfilled" also went somewhere else.

A life spent feeling down from comparing myself to others suddenly vanished...

Becoming an existence from whom no one expects anything was a first-time experience since I was born. Can you imagine it?

And so, on a summer morning, a cicada larva came out onto the ground and shed its skin.

I completely decluttered everything except for my wife, moved to a land I didn't know, and took in my 91-year-old mother-in-law.

In reality, I'm not thrilled by just any senryu poem.

The senryu listed here have a first and second half that seem unrelated at first glance, but

for a sense of surprise to occur there, some kind of "relationship" must be preserved between the front and back.

Kon Kubota seems to poke at the soft spots I had been hiding.

Have I finally started to smell the scent of freedom?

Did I want to sweep away the mundane salaryman life?

Was I suffocating from pre-established harmony, set paths, probability, necessity, seriousness, common sense, and the Japanese sense of harmony?

2. Hadouken, take this!

This morning, Dave Spector was saying on TV that it's strange.

People who travel to Japan look things up on the internet before they come, but that's not really traveling,

he said, it's just coming to confirm things.

He had a friend in high school who happened to be Japanese, and he got completely hooked on Japanese culture.

So, he decided on a Japanese university, came to Japan with excitement, and enrolled at Sophia University.

Of course, there was no internet back then, so everything he saw and heard was fresh.

He must have had his share of failures, but he also had many realizations.

Confirmation does not equal experience.

However, this world is accelerating uncertainty. Pandemics, wars, and global warming are seriously dangerous.

So, is the current trend in Japan and the world to seek refuge in official narratives to ensure safety?

And, people from Kansai and the world of Senryu poetry have been critical of that for a long time, haven't they?

That is why they challenge us with combinations that seem meaningless at first glance.

Hadouken, take this!

However, it is mysterious.

There is no relationship between the first and second halves of the poem. Is that really okay?!

If a cat comes to show you its paw, Higashi asks, "So, what exactly is the point of that?"

Of course, there is no answer to that.

But, I find myself welling up with tears as I cross the boundary where it seems like there might not be absolutely nothing there either...

Someone went out of their way to turn that into a senryu poem.

After all, they must have been questioning the reality of life, using meaninglessness as a shield.

Challenged by this, I (the reader) cannot use existing formulas.

I am forced to shift my values.

Ah... for a fraudster like me, that was refreshing...

Ah... after all, one really shouldn't commit fraud, *sob*.

3. Why "What are you talking about?" is likely to become a trend

Why don't things go the way I want?

No, why do you assume that if you meet the expectations of those around you, you will eventually be rewarded?

Why can't we understand each other?

No, why do you expect that we can understand each other?

Why are there people who force their will upon others?

No, why are you living under the assumption that you will be liked?

Why does the heart feel down?

No, why compare yourself to others?

Why...?

In mathematics, formulating a question is valued more than answering one.

It is very difficult to pose a question. It is harder than answering.

If you are going to write, it must be a "proper question."

But scammers act important and only write answers.

They are giving guidance on "nothing but useful stories for the world," but perhaps they aren't truly facing the questions.

If those who are eager to write answers keep being confused, no decent answers will emerge.

The beginning part is surely saying to the scammers, "You're a good-for-nothing, aren't you?"

I can only say, hehehe.

I think the "nothing but useful stories for the world" syndrome is happening in reality.

It's like only giving kind guides to people visiting Japan for the first time, isn't it?

Telling them this place is good, this place is dangerous.

We act as if there is definitely a correct answer.

But it is abnormal that "nothing but useful stories for the world" is spreading everywhere.

Obstructing direct experience is meddlesome and too insincere.

Why do they steal the "freedom" of not being able to see what lies ahead? Why do they steal the "excitement" of not knowing?

In reality, there are almost no things in this world where a question automatically implies an answer.

Especially, unlike the physical world, matters of the mind are like that.

From the beginning, there was no meaning in the act of asking itself.

I think the person at the beginning is fed up with the lies that plausibly embellish and add to that.

No matter what, Juliet loves Romeo.

No matter what, the hasty Romeo accidentally kills himself first.

Ah..., that is just how it is.

It is neither more nor less than that. Shakespeare probably said, 'Don't ask me for the meaning.'

I, too, came here where there are no soba shops,

and perhaps I suddenly realized that I had been living in a world where questions do not hold up.

No, maybe I just don't like a world where everyone is conscious of the reader.

Even though we aren't professionals, we have become unable to write freely, away from the public eye.

Etiquette for writing and marketing theories are overflowing, and everyone is following suit.

What is this level of uniformity?? It's creepy!

No, that is... it is not the fault of the swindlers, sob sob...

Why not expose the contradictions of this world and seek the only remaining salvation, which is 'laughter'?

Just as we are encouraged by the morning sun, why shouldn't we also seek cheerful laughter in our hearts?

I believe that is what senryu is, and what #WhatAreYouTalkingAbout is.

It is essentially saying, let's stop with the "lies" of trying to be consistent, living efficiently, or using the "correct" expressions.

Only when confronted with a contradiction can we finally look back at who we are now.

Wondering, what is it really like? Having quit my job as a salaryman, I am finally looking back, feeling a bit emotional.

P.S.

I imagine there are some who are not familiar with it.

If you are interested, please take a look at this by Kinoko Konishi.

"What Are You Talking About Section" Newsletter: The Seventh Letter of Early Summer