As long as I can make them laugh, it doesn’t matter how, I’ll be alright. If I succeed in that, the human beings probably won’t mind it too much if I remain outside their lives. The one thing I must avoid is becoming offensive in their eyes: I shall be nothing, the wind, the sky.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the significance of making others laugh, suggesting it brings comfort and acceptance, even if one remains distant.
In this quote, Osamu Dazai expresses that his value lies in his ability to elicit laughter from others, suggesting that humor can bridge distances between people. He reflects on being an outsider yet recognizes that as long as he can spread joy, his own presence or absence becomes less significant. The caution against being offensive highlights a desire for positive connections and the importance of not overstepping boundaries in pursuit of humor.
In practice
In a speech about mental health, one might quote Dazai to emphasize the uplifting power of laughter.
I soon came to understand that drink, tobacco and prostitutes were all great means if dissipating (even for a few moments) my dread for human beings. I came even to feel that if I had to sell every last possession to obtain these means of escape, it would be well worth it.
I want to spend my time with people who don't look to be respected. But such good people won't want to spend their time with me.
In my case such an expression as 'to be fallen for' or even 'to be loved' is not in the least appropriate; perhaps it describes the situation more accurately to say that I was 'looked after.
Unhappiness. There are all kinds of unhappy people in the world. I suppose it would be no exaggeration to say that the world is composed entirely of unhappy people. But those people can fight their unhappiness with society fairly and squarly, and society for its part easily understands and sympathizes with such struggles. My unhappiness stemmed entirely from my own vices, and I had no way of fighting anybody.
To wait. In our lives we know joy, anger, sorrow, and a hundred other emotions, but these emotions all together occupy a bare one percent of our time. The remaining ninety-nine percent is just living in waiting. I wait in momentary expectation, feeling as though my breasts are being crushed, for the sound in the corridor of the footsteps of happiness. Empty. Oh, life is too painful, the reality that confirms the universal belief that it is best not to be born.
It would seem that the more irresponsible and crafty one is, the more likely one is to have a talent for storytelling.
There are two or three ways to combat homophobia - one is through humor. The second is to put a face on it.
My life had made me funny, and cancer wasn't going to change that.
Calvin: Trick or treat! Adult: Where's your costume? What are you supposed to be? Calvin: I'm yet another resource-consuming kid in an overpopulated planet, raised to an alarming extent by Madison Avenue and Hollywood, poised with my cynical and alienated peers to take over the world when you're old and weak... Am I scary, or what?
Our comedies are not to be laughed at.
Getting out of the hospital is a lot like resigning from a book club. You're not out of it until the computer says you're out of it.
I think the big lesson I've learned is that it's very hard to write satire in America because almost immediately, whatever you've thought of turns out to come true, or sometimes it already was true.
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