Other people’s will can at times be incomprehensible, and sometimes intrusive or even quite patronizing, but is it just my imagination or does any conviction clear enough to merit the label “will” exert a clear pressure on people who come into contact with it? Well, most of the time it probably is just my imagination, but if we try replacing “will” with “pressure,” it works surprisingly well in a lot of instances. And, conversely, if you examine any of your own perfectly innocent actions, you’ll find that even those exert an unintentional influence on the people around you, which is honestly kind of shocking. Thinking of yourself as the center of the universe is the height of folly, but by the same token, doing whatever you please as though your actions have no effect whatsoever on the rest of the world might well be the depths of folly. If we accept that our world results from the collisions of various pressures with one another, then it must be said to exist in an extremely tenuous balance, like a balloon that’ll pop if you poke it with a needle─or maybe it’s like walking on spider webs─and for that very reason, a single individual’s will can bring that equilibrium crashing down. This is very much not a meaningless exaggeration, of course, but that being said, you only very rarely have an opportunity to observe the kind of larger-than-life person who remains unaffected by those pressures, so I ought to think twice about acting like I know what I’m talking about.
This volume is chapter three of the Zaregoto series. As you can see, it has neither theme nor thesis, nor is there anything resembling a will to be found within its pages. The charlatan who calls himself the Nonsense User simply tells it all according to what suits him, leaving a trail of contradictions and false logic in his wake. It’s a tale of non-action, so to speak, free from all worldly attachments. Affirmation becomes negation, escape becomes surrender, respect becomes contempt. A nonsense user could never teach anyone anything in the first place, so I was tempted to make the subtitle “The Nonsense User’s Dishtowel,” but I stopped myself at the last minute. This volume marks a turning point in the Zaregoto series─would tie things up nicely if it were true, but unfortunately it’s not. The words just keep on coming same as ever, marching straight down the road of silliness. So in that spirit, this has been SUSPENSION: Kubitsuri High School - The Nonsense User’s Disciple.
With this book, the NISIOISIN paperback library has finally reached three volumes, and I somehow feel like I’ve reached the end of stage one. In getting to this point I’ve received kind assistance from all quarters, not least of all from the illustrator, take, and the fine people at Kodansha’s paperback division, and these days I’m living only to repay those debts. And of course I’m also grateful for the opportunity to repay my readers by continuing to write these novels, so thank you all very much. Until next time.
NISIOISIN