Monogatari Series - Volume 17 - Chapter 3.01

Chapter Three- Sodachi Lost

001

So let us now return to the topic of Ogi Oshino─or so I say, but ultimately, she is her and nothing else. Whether we start, repeat, or return to this basic topic, that is the entirety of what can be said about her. Were you to depict the being that is Ogi Oshino in a novel, it would end after a single line. And you know, as someone who tends to ramble on, I have to say I’m very grateful to have a heroine like her.

Ogi Oshino was Ogi Oshino─and they all lived happily ever after.

One line.

And if you were to stretch that idea to an extreme, to as far as it could possibly go, you could summarize anyone in this way─though Ryunosuke Akutagawa is known for saying that life is not worth a single line of Baudelaire, you could sum up any life, whether Baudelaire’s or Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s, in a single line if you wanted. It’s what would end up happening. Were you to fit any life into lines, whether a great man’s or an average one’s, it’d be a single line long. Saying these kinds of things may get me criticized for being pessimistic or abject─you might say that humans, any human, isn’t something so flimsy and frivolous that you could speak about their life using only a single line. Yes, I’d of course like to think that myself─I’d hate for my life to be spoken of in just one line. Were you to speak it, were you to tell it, I’d like it to be at least a book long. An ebook? No good, I need a cover─not just paper, but some kind of front cover. And I’d want a spine that’s even stronger. I’d want my spine to tell of me when I’m lined up on a bookshelf. I want to be a book whose spine tells an entire story. So I’d like it if the idea that you can say everything about a person in a single line wasn’t true─and that’s all I can think about faced with living proof that you can, Ogi Oshino.

Were I to say that─

“No, no, your romantic ideas are absolutely right. Anyone has enough substance to be turned into a full volume,” our perp would likely answer with a grin─her jet-black eyes fixed on me as she pierced me with her words. “Of course, whether anyone would bother reading that book is a different question.”

Are you trying to say that a book that goes unread is worthless?

“What I’m saying─is that you can’t put a price on a book that goes unread. Price and value are two different things. Asking about value is nearly a completely different question from asking about price.”

Hearing this would remind me of the girl who’d been nicknamed How Much─which of the two was she asking about? Price? Or value? Price, something determined by the balance of supply and demand─or value, something fixed. Was it weight, or was it mass? Of course, that might be too cruel of a question to ask her after she learned that value was something determined by majority vote.

“It’s presumptuous to think that someone will read an entire book in today’s society─you’ve got to think of it as its existence being more than enough. While I might be a humanities person who loves to read, unless you can find satisfaction in seeing that your shelves are filled with unread books, you can’t ever be a bookworm.”

But, she said. If you still wanted someone to read you.

“You ought to come up with a one-second summary─you ought to say it in a phrase, you ought to convey any knowledge or tales in a second. If you can’t, who’s going to bother listening to a story like yours?”

No one’s going to read you.

Now it made sense.

All of those novels popping up lately with full sentences for titles and striking sales copy might in fact be based on that reasoning─one line. One phrase. No, it’s ultimately the tale that conveys its meaning in a single word that’s most desired these days─and so.

While we’ve been studying math for a bit now, let’s end with a language arts class─here is your question. There’s no need to prepare for it, of course─it’s the type of question we all know.

Give a response on something or other in so many words.

While my childish mind didn’t understand the reason behind limiting the number of words for these questions you encounter in elementary school, I know why quite well when I think about it now─the ability to briefly summarize is essential when discussing language. If you think about it, the purpose of words, their role, is to convey─and nothing else.

There are of course things that aren’t conveyed.

Things that don’t get conveyed even after you’ve run out of words─even if they are, you might still forget them.

As I’ve already said about Ogi Oshino─were we to center the question around her, it would be, “Discuss Ogi Oshino in three words or fewer,” and the answer would be “Ogi Oshino.” So here is my final question for you─“How much of a fool is Koyomi Araragi?”

Answer in twenty words or fewer.

However, the words “Ogi Oshino” must appear in your answer.