The Day I Realized the Greatness of Author Ryo Asai (The Impossibly High Wall of the Anus)

It was about 250 days ago.
A book I read just a little while before I started writing on note.

Ryo Asai's “And Then No One Was Yutori Anymore”.

Until then, I had hardly read any essays.

I like novels. But I thought of essays as, 'I guess they're like diaries.' When I happened to pick one up and start reading,

“Ugh! This is interesting!”

Before I knew it, I had read it all in one sitting.

He turns his own failures and embarrassing experiences into comedy with plenty of self-deprecation and exquisite word choices.

“I can't believe he phrased it like that.”
“I can't believe he's looking at it from that angle.”

Every time I turned the page, I was frustrated by how much he made me grin.

“Ah, he got me.”

That kind of feeling.

Oh, how fun it would be to write sentences like this.
To write about my own bitter experiences and have someone who reads it laugh just a little.

Turning failure into someone else's entertainment.
That must be incredibly thrilling.

Looking back, I feel like one of the reasons I started note was my longing for the writing style of author Ryo Asai.

Among the stories in this book, my favorite is the episode with the proctologist.
(In his previous work, 'Kaze to Tomoni Yutorinu,' he wrote an 'Anal Chronicle' about treating an anal fistula.)

In this work, he goes out to eat tempura with a proctologist. When written down, that's all it is.

But in Ryo Asai's hands, it becomes entertainment that keeps you laughing for pages.

To think the scenery changes so much depending on the writer. I think again, 'Being a professional writer is an incredible job.'

Ryo Asai might be the author who can handle the two characters for 'anus' most elegantly in Japan.

He uses the word 'anus' repeatedly, yet it never becomes vulgar.

In fact, there is a strangely clean atmosphere drifting throughout the entire text.The word "anus" appears repeatedly while maintaining a dignity akin to classical music.

This is technique.

Moreover, there is no forced effort to make the reader laugh. The author is just writing facts with the utmost seriousness, yet the reader is the one who ends up collapsing in laughter.

Reading this episode, I learned for the first time that even the word "anus" has a literary style. I never thought a day would come when I would feel that "a sentence about an anus is beautiful."

Writing is not about the words themselves, but about what the writer decides.

Ever since I read that sentence, I have thought many times, "Will I ever be able to write a sentence like this?"

For the past 250 days, there is a theme I have repeatedly drafted and deleted.

It is the story of getting VIO hair removal during the COVID-19 pandemic (blush).

At the time, I had only planned to get beard removal, taking advantage of wearing a mask, but... I was completely won over by the saleswoman's pitch.

Honestly, it might be the most embarrassing bitter memory of my life, lasting several months.

The material is all there.
...Yet, I just cannot bring myself to press the publish button.

There is only one reason.
Because that anus is in my head.

That worldview built through the Yutori trilogy is far too perfected.

If I were to write about my lower body with a light heart, I can hear a voice from somewhere saying, "Are you really prepared to touch upon the anus with that attitude?"

Throughout the Yutori trilogy, he uses the word "anus" repeatedly while never losing his dignity, stacking up only laughter.

Anyone who has read that cannot step into lower-body literature with a half-hearted attitude. You lose the courage to stand in that territory.

My writing lacks dignity.
I try too hard to stand in front and say, "Please laugh here."

To write an article about VIO hair removal,
I still lack the resolve and the technique.

Before me, even today,
the impossibly high wall that is Ryo Asai's anus stands in my way.

Thank you for reading again today🙇!
Ryo Asai's "Soshite Daremo Yutoranakunatta" is currently available onKindle Unlimitedas part of the unlimited reading service, so if you haven't read it yet, please do so😃.

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