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soupthatistohot · 8 months

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BSD: An Absurdist Analysis - Chapter 6

The Absurdity of Ranpo Edogawa

[Masterpost]

This chapter focuses on introducing Ranpo Edogawa to Atsushi and the reader, as our protagonist is forced to accompany this quirky yet mysterious agency member on a mission to solve a murder case.

Ranpo is presented as blunt and childish, and ridiculously so. He goes around telling everyone about how he’s the greatest detective and is better than them, yet Atsushi has to assist him on a case simply because he doesn’t know how the train system works.

The only thing I’ll say about the murder case itself is that it’s BSD’s earliest example of governmental and police corruption, a theme that will appear multiple times throughout the manga, especially in the Hunting Dogs arc later on. Corruption of this sort is in of itself an absurdity of life, and a very common one — and an organization like the Armed Detective Agency is a force that pushes back against this absurdity. In this chapter, Ranpo serves as the rebellious force doing so.

Detective Minoura is very dismissive of Ranpo and the agency, claiming multiple times that Ranpo basically an immature hack who couldn’t possibly solve the case. He’s clearly very frustrated by Ranpo’s presence and is very quick to assume the worst in him just because of his childish demeanor. This is played up for the sake of dramatic irony, but I also think it’s representative of Minoura’s (and the institution of police as a whole’s) tendency to overlook those who don’t hold power over them.

Dazai joins the gang once he’s pulled from the river, claiming to have been “enjoying the current” and seeking a woman to enact a double suicide with. I do believe this is a front, though, and he just needed an excuse to be a menace and to be involved with the case so he could point out to Atsushi later that Ranpo does not, in fact, have a special ability at all (although this is just a theory of mine).

The fact that Ranpo doesn’t have an ability but pretends he does is extremely important to his character. While I have not read the Untold Origins light novel, I did watch the adaptation in season 4 of the anime, and although I understand the anime adaptations of the light novels leave a lot out, it did emphasize Ranpo’s struggle to connect with others. He referred to himself as a “monster,” and was unable to relate to the people around him after his parents died. I bring this up because it's the reason he pretends he has an ability, it gives him an excuse for being different from others.

What absurdists often do in their storytelling is exaggerate something absurd about our reality in order to bring the reader’s attention to said thing, and the presence of abilities in BSD allows for that to happen. Those with abilities are often outcasts of society, and abilities are also the catalyst for conflict in the BSD world. Akutagawa in chapter 3 was a great example of this — because random violence does exist in our real world, but it was exaggerated and made even more horrific because of Rashoumon’s destructive power.

Ranpo’s non-ability ability is an absurd paradox, then.

Up until the end of the chapter, we’re made to believe that Ranpo is an ability user. While the idea that someone can simply solve a mystery in mere minutes because they have a magical superpower is already absurd, you know what’s even more absurd than that? The person in question just pretending to have a superpower and solving the case solely by use of their intuition.

Ranpo’s masquerade of having an ability is his way of combating an absurd reality because if he’s not an ability user, he’s a freak. But because he gets to pretend to be an ability user, he not only has an excuse for his crazy intellect, but everyone has to at least tolerate his odd personality. It makes him feel less othered.

Is it convoluted and a bit insane? Perhaps. But that’s kind of the point of embracing the absurd. The ways in which characters often revolt against the absurdity of life is by being somehow even more absurd, by doing something even crazier.

So why does Dazai make a point of allowing Atsushi to believe Ranpo is an ability-user for the whole case, only to reveal afterward that he is not? He could have told Atsushi from the get-go, or he could’ve not told him at all, so why do what he did?

Apart from the fact that it just makes for more suspenseful storytelling (remember, this is only the sixth chapter, Asagiri is trying to keep the audience engaged right now as he builds his character and world), I think that Dazai is teaching Atsushi to not take everything at face value. Ultimately, he’s training Atsushi to be a detective, and that means that he should be questioning everything, considering every possibility.

This idea lends itself to absurdism because if you don’t question the supposed truths of reality, you’re essentially giving in and allowing the absurdity to control you rather than pushing back against it. To Dazai, this is a way to train Atsushi to look at the world differently — he presents him with an apparent truth (Ranpo is an ability user) and then forces him to bring that into question, to expose the absurdity (that Ranpo is just ridiculously smart).

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#bsd #bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs #bsd manga #ranpo edogawa #atsushi nakajima #dazai osamu #bsd 6 #bsd chapter 6 #bsd absurdism analysis #soup rants

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emedhelp · 4 years

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Squad member blames Jersey City shootings on “white supremacy”. The shooters were black.

Here we go again.

A sitting member of Congress has once again made it clear that she has no business as an American leader – let alone even having an audience of nearly a million followers to spew nonsense and false truths to.

This week, a police officer and three additional civilians became victims after two members of a black supremacist group known as the Black Hebrew Israelites went on a rampage in Jersey City.

And just two days later, Rashida Tlaib took to her social media soapbox to spread lies and misinformation, blaming the attacks on “white supremacy”.

Confirmed photos of the Jersey City shooters have been released. David Anderson & Francine Graham were followers of the black nationalist, anti-Semitic sect, the Black Hebrew Israelites. They killed one officer before launching an attack at the kosher market that killed 3 more. pic.twitter.com/gFCFS8riBm

— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) December 12, 2019

“This is heartbreaking. White supremacy kills.” Tlaib’s tweet read.

Twitter Screenshot

It didn’t take long for outraged members of the law enforcement community to take notice. Rob O’Donnell, frequent contributor for LET and retired officer, fired back at Tlaib for her blatantly false spread of information.

Tlaib quickly deleted her tweet, but not before we were able to secure a few screenshots for proof.

@RashidaTlaib is a sitting member of Congress who blames the Jersey City siege killing 3 victims & a Police Officer on “white supremacy”, when it was Black Hebrew Israelites (a black supremest group) with a history of hating Police & the Jewish Community. This woman is a disgrace pic.twitter.com/xDoHPzcvoy

— Rob O'Donnell (@odonnell_r) December 12, 2019

Tlaib’s original tweet was reposting the names of the victims who were killed in the tragic “war zone”-like gun battle that took place in a kosher market on Tuesday.

Our guess is that she saw a picture of the victim and assumed he was one of the suspects. We deserve better from our elected leaders. Can you really not take a few minutes to research a topic before blindly spewing false information to hundreds of thousands of Americans?

It’s a blatant case showing that Tlaib is more concerned with pushing a narrative instead of investigating facts. She doesn’t exactly have a stellar track record when it comes to members of law enforcement.

And Rep. Tlaib wasn’t the only one to royally screw up when it came to the details of the shooting.

Talk show host Joy Behar also blamed the slaughter on white nationalism while appearing on the daytime television show, The View.

“Yes. You will concede that the nationals — these white nationalists have been let out of their holes,” she said while speaking with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

And while Christie didn’t exactly call her out about her error, he steered the conversation in a more broad overview of the dangers we’re facing as a country.

“Listen,” Christie said. “It’s an awful, divisive time when you are allowing folks to be able to express these kind of views, no matter who they are, no matter what the ethnic, religious bias they have. That’s got no place in this country, never has, and we, all of us who feel that way, need to be speaking out against it and drown their voices out.”

USA Today reported about the motivation behind the killings.

“We believe the suspects held views that reflected hatred of the Jewish people as well as law enforcement,” New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said at a press briefing.

According to the Hudson County Prosecutors, the incident, described as a “shootout,” lasted for at least an hour along a major road in Jersey City. A number of agencies responded to the scene, including local police, including a SWAT team, state police and federal agents. A spokesman for the A.T.F. said the agency was treating the incident as an “active shooter” situation as of 1:45 p.m. Witnesses in the area described the incident as a “war zone.”

Former NYPD Commissioner and Brothers Before Others member Bernie Kerik spoke with Law Enforcement Today about his police officer son’s role in taking out the armed suspects.

“I could not be more proud of not only my son, but the Jersey City detectives that were with him when they killed the suspects, as well as every first responder involved.”

Joe and Bernie Kerik (Provided to LET)

Kerik’s son Joe is a police officer in Newark and a member of a federal task force, according to sources.

During the gunbattle, Joe Kerik and a number of other officers smashed open the door of the bodega in an armored vehicle and stormed the shop, shooting and killing the suspects inside.

At Jersey City Medical Center with my son Joe… he’s okay by Prayers for the Jersey City Police and their fallen officer.

— Bernard B. Kerik (@BernardKerik) December 10, 2019

Bernie Kerik asked for prayers during the difficult time for the fallen officer.

“My prayers go out to the family of Detective Joseph Seals,” he said.

The area where the shooting occurred is a commercial district, and beside the school, has stores, a kosher supermarket and a hair stylist. It lies adjacent to a residential district.

Sgt. Marjorie Jordan risked everything entering the line of fire to pull her partner to safety after he was shot in the shoulder. (Social Media Screenshot)

Jersey City, New Jersey’s second-largest city, is located just across the Hudson River from New York City.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the men and women of the Jersey City Police Department, especially with the officers shot during this standoff, and with the residents and schoolchildren currently under lockdown. I have every confidence in our law enforcement professionals to ensure the safety of the community and resolve this situation.”

A steady stream of gunshots could be heard in the vicinity just before 2 p.m. For over an hour, loud exchanges of gunfire could be heard in the Greenville neighborhood of Jersey City. Police and media helicopters circled the scene as police officers filled the streets.

Did you know that Law Enforcement Today has a private new home for those who support emergency responders and veterans? It’s called LET Unity, and it’s where we share the untold stories of those patriotic Americans. Every penny gets reinvested into giving these heroes a voice. Check it out today.

Police fanned out in every direction as they went door to door getting residents and business owners out of harm’s way to safety.

Jersey City resident James Scott said he was nearby when he heard gunfire.

“I was on the corner of Martin Luther King. Next thing you know there was shots fired. We all ducked to the ground. I got out of here,” he said.

Residents who were cleared from their homes watched from behind a barricade as SWAT officers, bomb squads and heavily armed police officers filled the neighborhood.

“I heard this constant shooting, and it kept going on for about 15 minutes,” said Willy McDonald, age 67. He said that by the time he got outside, there were police everywhere. “There had to be at least 8 of them,” he said.

McDonald continued, “This is one of the biggest gunfights I’ve seen in a while. And I’ve been in Vietnam.”

The New Jersey State PBA, in a tweet said, “We need a lot of prayers right now for Jersey City officers. Keep all those involved in your thoughts.”

This is Det Joe Seals who was killed in the line of duty today! He was a husband and father of 5. He is a #Hero and died protecting the citizens of Jersey City! God Bless his family and all of the JCPD members! #JerseyCityShooting @JCPoliceDept pic.twitter.com/pvs62bb0af

— NJ Chiefs of Police (@NJSACOP) December 10, 2019

O’Donnell commented about the sacrifices made by cops every single day.

“This is what the American police officer does day in and day out to protect themselves, each other, and the communities they serve,” he told LET. “This is what America needs to see, not the false rhetoric and narratives of those wishing to keep us divided.”

Want to make sure you never miss a story from Law Enforcement Today? With so much “stuff” happening in the world on social media, it’s easy for things to get lost.

Make sure you click “following” and then click “see first” so you don’t miss a thing! (See image below.) Thanks for being a part of the LET family!

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