Bring along your favorite books on a long autumn night
~Monosus' "Reading Club" #18~

What would you do in a 3-hour workday? It's true that AI is getting a lot of attention and it's said that many jobs will disappear.

I'd like everyone to try it at least once. There's no restriction on working, so if you want to work more, you can work more than 3 hours. For example, I think it would be more meaningful to spend time doing what you want to do, like going to school.

It seems like the gap between people who want to be lazy and those who don't will widen.

Some people say that if you give everyone basic income, the poor will waste it, but in reality, the poorer they are, the more they know what they should spend their money on, so they tend to use it wisely.

I think Switzerland was debating whether to introduce it or not...I would be a little scared if it were to be introduced in my lifetime.

I bought "The Invention of Solitude" by Paul Auster along with "The Manners of a Man" by Shotaro Ikenami, which was previously introduced. It is an early novel written before Auster gained serious attention with his New York trilogy and other works. The work is divided into two parts, and I have just finished the first part, "Portrait of an Invisible Man," and I continued reading while thinking how much I liked it.

The main character is the author himself, and the story begins with him receiving the news that his father has passed away. As he goes back to his father's house, sorts through his belongings and reminisces about his father, he comes to the realization that he doesn't know anything about him at all.

My father was a man who only interacted with others superficially, always communicating with them through his "created self." Because he was not good at communication, by not showing his true self and making it into a pattern, even my father was able to live without cutting off his connections with others.

There was a passage that described that, and it made me feel very sad, but it also really drew me in...I was hooked. I feel like this is the first time I've really read an Auster novel.

It's going to be heartbreaking to read...

Because the story looks at the father as a person through the protagonist, I felt like I was projecting myself onto the father as I read. There is an indescribable sadness to the story.

Opinions will likely differ depending on whether you project it onto the protagonist or his father.

I'm not very good at communicating, so maybe I feel something similar to my father. I feel like I'm talking, but not really talking...I feel like I don't feel his presence, although not to the same extent as my father.

The book I brought with me was Uchida Ikki's "Street Style Theory."
Last year, when I took a web writing course as a second-term student at Kamiyama Monosasu Juku , the instructor, Keiji Tochizawa , recommended this book to me, saying, "I definitely want you to read it," but I never had a chance to pick it up. A while ago, when I wanted to buy the book, I remembered, "Oh, that's it!" and finally bought it.

The book is a compilation of Uchida Ikki's "Creative Writing" lectures at Kobe College. It was the last lecture that Uchida gave at the university, and lectures 1 to 14 are listed in order on how to write a piece of writing.

The first lecture was on the theme of "What is love for language?", in which he said, "The essence of writing comes down to respect for the reader." He said that it is important to "speak with emotion and reason."

I've only read the first lesson so far, but I'm looking forward to seeing how the content develops. I write a lot for work, so I hope to use it to improve my creative writing.

How is it different from regular writing?

Writing that can be understood by people. In order to write writing that can be truly understood by people, it is important to have an imaginary reader in your mind and write to that person. He says that in order to get someone to read your writing, you need a certain objectivity, that is, to create that "someone" in your mind and write.

How many people are needed?

Well, maybe not a lot... But it's no good to write it down to your intended readers, thinking "If I write it like this, they'll understand," because it makes you look down on them. What's important is the desire to properly communicate with them.

It seems quite difficult...

However, if you just write a document, it is difficult for it to be conveyed to others. I want to write sentences without forgetting to have "respect" for the reader.