Monogatari Series - Volume 10 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

There probably isn’t a single person on Earth whose self-image matches up perfectly with how other people see them. I suppose it’s like the feeling most people get when they listen to a recording of their own voice: “That’s not how I sound.” Though in that case, the feeling of “that’s not how I sound” is not so much a disconnect as a rejection; nobody hears a recording of their own voice and thinks, “Whoa, that’s what my voice sounds like? Awesome!” The comparison is apt in that regard as well: I have a feeling there aren’t many people who, when they discover how other people see them (their image), think, “Whoa, that’s how people think of me? Awesome!” Obviously this is true when someone is being maligned, but even when they receive unexpectedly good reviews, they just end up thinking, “No way, you must have the wrong person,” or something… They say no one dislikes praise, but that isn’t really true, is it? All too often a compliment makes someone feel bad, and it’s not because they didn’t want a pat on the back, they just wanted one for something else. But even if our view of ourselves doesn’t totally jibe with the way other people see us, that doesn’t mean that one or the other is correct. If a false assumption goes unchallenged, does that make it true? If a misapprehension goes unchallenged, does it become reality? There are various schools of thought─that there is only one truth, or that there are as many truths as there are people─but the fact is that there’s no such thing as truth to begin with. There are just as many misapprehensions as there are people. That’s my feeling, anyway. The logical extension of that is that there is no such thing as the self, no such thing as being like oneself, but maybe that’s going too far? My apologies if I’ve invited any misunderstanding.

As it happens, NISIOISIN is quite fond of the phrase, “At the risk of being misunderstood,” and he uses it just as much in everyday conversation as he does in his work. In that sense, you could call this a novel that happily risks being misunderstood. Or no, that’s not true. Better to call it a novel that very much fears being misunderstood. People have already got the wrong idea simply because it’s narrated by Suruga Kanbaru, and frankly I’m shaking in my boots. Then again, maybe it’s impossible for people not to fear being misunderstood, even if all this truth doesn’t exist and there are as many misapprehensions as there are people stuff isn’t just fancy rhetoric. With that in mind, then, this has been HANAMONOGATARI “Suruga Devil,” a novel written Lucifercent as a hobby. Which is what, 666 percent? Search me.

Miss Kanbaru’s first cover* has been eloquently rendered for us by VOFAN. There was talk of putting Miss Numachi on the cover, but she’s scary. She also hates being in the spotlight, apparently. Though someday I’d really like to try my hand at writing “Roka God”─is the kind of remark that got me into this mess in the first place. It’s not that I want to be misunderstood! That’s about the size of things.

* Editor’s Note: BAKEMONOGATARI was originally published in two halves in Japan, and Kanbaru did not appear on the cover of either volume.

NISIOISIN