Before it was an anime, it was (and still is!) an excellent series of light novels. With the recent release of Volume 9:
:
?? ("Suzumiya Haruhi no Bunretsu" or "The Dissociation of Suzumiya Haruhi"), I felt it was a good time to make this topic.
In case you didn't know, the wonderful Baka-Tsuki group is providing free fan-translations of the books. So far, they have completely translated the first 8 volumes, and have just begun work on the 9th. Here is the website:
http://www.baka-tsuki.net/project/index.php?title=Suzumiya_HaruhiVol. 9 is currently at 5% translation of the prologue (vol. 9 has a prologue and 3 chapters). I'll be sure to keep you guys informed as the percentage increases.
So anyway, in this topic, we talk about the books. Anything you want to talk about, such as plot questions, theories, speculations, etc..
Now, this topic will most definitely contain spoilers, especially to those people who have only seen the anime, so make sure you warn people before revealing something. A good practice to follow would be to put the words
SPOILERS UP TO VOL. (X)!where X is the volume that will be spoiled before the spoiler, and then put END SPOILERS! in the same format after you are done. Also, be sure to add AND ANIME when you mark the beginning of your spoilers for people who do not want to read the books but are waiting for the second season of the TV show. Personally, I think everyone should read these books.
Now, for the first topic of discussion: Yuki's spells.
I thought this was interesting because my friend to whom I've shown the anime keeps saying that they are all in the Matrix because of the way Yuki "manipulates data" and uses computer code to control various things and what not.
I claim that the system is more like "Ah, My Goddess" where a giant supercomputer in heaven controls various aspects of the world (which Yuki would hack into), or, even better, that since this is the way the books are written, we should just believe and take it as a given fact that Yuki can manipulate the world in ways we can't understand simply because she is an alien.
So what do you think is best when reading? Should we try to explain fantasy with other fantasy we have seen, or should we force ourselves to accept "this is just how it works?" Personally, I think it is human nature to try to explain that which we do not understand, so it is actually very hard to just accept things at face value. Also, I'd like to hear your own explanations for how Yuki is able to mess with our world.
