Sadtilin - Steph

your chuuya is like a son to me

that's good, he is searching for familial figures

Bring him back

full piece for @skkangstzine ^^ i was thinking perhaps dazai would've gotten chuuya a dog keychain as a joke, and possibly chuuya would've cherished it more than he'd ever admit.

zine leftover sales are open until sep 30!

You don't need to read classic literature to enjoy BSD

(and just because you do, it does not render you superior)

I am not usually the type of creator to engage in fandom drama, especially not publicly, but it just so happens that this particular issue surpasses the limits of "silly discourse" and is actually a serious sociopolitical issue.

Bungo Stray Dogs is a piece of media that is based on real-life authors, therefore it is perfectly natural for fans of the manga to want to engage with the authors that inspired it. That is fine. That is great, even. Classic literature is first and foremost a means of expanding our educational horizons.

What is not okay, is when the act of reading classics is made out to be a requirement to join the fandom.

BSD is an action comic. Is it extremely well-thought out? Yes. Did Asagiri lace an impressive amount of classical knowledge into its plot and characters? Also yes. Is it still just an action comic? yes. I mean this with zero bad connotation--I am myself a professional comic artist, I would never degrade my own job.

But certain people need to understand that in order to enjoy, and engage with BSD, you do not need to read classical literature. Not in the slightest. It would be awesome if you did, but it is not necessary.

Do you know what is also not necessary? Shitting on other people for not having read classics.

Most of the BSD general audience is underage, and the majority of the classical works referenced within the BSD canon deal with themes of suicide, SA, racism, murder, and so on. And that's not even covering the philosophical dread of them. These topics are not fit for everyone, nor should they be. People are allowed to read for escapism, especially in those ages, and shaming them for it is simply put; ridiculous.

Take it from someone who was forced to read things such as To Kill a Mockingbird at an age where I should have been reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Reading classics does not inherently make you smart.

It's one thing to be able to read words on paper and another thing to understand them. To take a piece of knowledge out of them. Some people's energy would be better spend trying to understand the classics that they claim to have read, instead of going on the internet to call non-classic readers stupid, and accusing them of not understanding a manga, whose plot has nothing to do with said classics.

Judging others based on their reading level and preferences does not make you cool, or intelligent, or even interesting.

It makes you a stuck-up fucking asshole.

Let people (and especially kids) enjoy things without your grating fucking elitist rhetoric being forcefully shoved up their ass all day long.

Thank you

Bungo Stray Dogs, Chapter 111

"You Simply Can't Kill Me, Part One"

Like Him

I felt as though someone else was behind me, and that I myself was always assuming some pose or other. I would comment on my every gesture, no matter how slight, as if I were standing beside my own self. Now he’s perplexed and is just looking at his palm - that’s what I would say. Or maybe - He muttered something now while scratching behind his ear. Because of this habit, I could no longer act on the spur of the moment, as one less aware of himself would.

Dazai Osamu, “Memories” from Crackling Mountain and Other Stories

Thinking about the seemingly inconsequential parallels between Dazai and Chuuya from when they were younger to now. Chuuya always used to fight with his hands in his pockets while Dazai had a coat over his shoulders. And now Dazai fights with his hands in his pockets while Chuuya has a coat over his shoulders.

Chuuya fought with his hands in his pockets so he wouldn't lose control of his ability and humanity by proxy, and I wonder if Dazai does the same now as a symbol because he doesn't want to lose control of what he's worked toward. How Chuuya used to revile his hands, now Dazai reviles his own because of the reminder of blood spilled and people killed and to not take two steps back to that dark place.

But it could also be something simpler—their habits just rubbed off on each other that much. And the fact that they copy each other and either don't realize they're subconsciously doing it or maybe they have brought it up, makes me feral.