Terminal Boredom: Stories by Izumi Suzuki (2021)
Terminal Boredom: Stories by Izumi Suzuki (2021)
You May Dream, translated by David Boyd
Like most people these days, I don’t overthink things. I’ll go along with whatever. No firm beliefs, no hang-ups. Just a lack of self-confidence tangled up in fatalistic resignation. Whatever the situation, nothing ever reaches me on an emotional level. Nothing’s important. Because I won’t let it be. I operate on mood alone. No regrets, no looking back.
Before me, the world stretches out flat, smooth and featureless. Gentle and inconstant.
But this friend of mine was a serious stickler. Every single thing she did was awkward, wholly devoid of charm.
We’d been friends for years, but not once had she ever surprised me. I don’t care who it is, everyone’s got to have a side to them that takes you by surprise, typically something childish: an unexpected purity, naiveté, coldness…
Then there was her. No ups, no downs. Living in her own tiny world, clinging to the past, indecisive, maudlin, overemotional.
But it was fine (43).
You May Dream, translated by David Boyd
Like most people these days, I don’t overthink things. I’ll go along with whatever. No firm beliefs, no hang-ups. Just a lack of self-confidence tangled up in fatalistic resignation. Whatever the situation, nothing ever reaches me on an emotional level. Nothing’s important. Because I won’t let it be. I operate on mood alone. No regrets, no looking back.
Before me, the world stretches out flat, smooth and featureless. Gentle and inconstant.
But this friend of mine was a serious stickler. Every single thing she did was awkward, wholly devoid of charm.
We’d been friends for years, but not once had she ever surprised me. I don’t care who it is, everyone’s got to have a side to them that takes you by surprise, typically something childish: an unexpected purity, naiveté, coldness…
Then there was her. No ups, no downs. Living in her own tiny world, clinging to the past, indecisive, maudlin, overemotional.
But it was fine (43).