The Coin - Chapter Six notes

As I said with the last chapter, I originally planned for the visits to Mori and Asakura to be presented together. The main benefit of splitting them was that I could refocus and make this chapter a lot tighter in terms of theme and message. Here, it’s not the visit to Asakura by itself that forms the main basis of the chapter. Rather, we see the effects of Asakura’s words as they slowly take hold in Haruhi’s mind. This is a concept that really appeals to me—the notion of being persuaded and manipulated by words even when you don’t want to be. It’s all psychology. And it has the benefit of presenting Haruhi in a sympathetic light (she has the same loathing and disdain for Asakura that we do) while opening her to persuasion.

Presenting Haruhi sympathetically is still something I have doubts about. I think, without doubt, it makes Haruhi easier to take from a reader’s perspective, but how does one explain the questionable things she’s done? Right now, the way I’ve presented her is to avoid those issues by suggesting she’s grown out of the most egregious behaviors, but still I sense some inherent contradiction. I don’t want to make Haruhi so unambiguously likable that she no longer resembled the canon character.

But that is a question for another story at this point, as it’s far too late to do an about-face with her. For this reason, I tried to have Haruhi make a conscious effort to be understanding, almost excessively so, even while she inwardly feels differently. That said, I shouldn’t jump ahead. Let’s start at the top with Asakura.

Asakura’s a character I really like writing because she can be menacing and sinister all while wearing a pleasant smile. Here, I tried to play up the idea that Asakura can imitate humanity but can’t fathom the meaning behind what people do. She thinks she does, but she doesn’t. She honestly believes she can reach Haruhi somehow, and when that fails, she opts for the most obvious tack—if she can’t get Haruhi to relate to her, she’ll drive a wedge between Haruhi and the brigade, specifically Nagato.

The idea for this scene at the café came from Arakawa Seijio, and as before with Mori, it was sorely needed to get the right angle on what Haruhi had learned. I’ve learned to be very cautious about people withholding information from one another, lest it come off as just asking for bad things to happen, but coming from Nagato, I hoped it would be acceptable. Of course, we all know what Nagato did and why. Even knowing what Haruhi can do, I felt Nagato would be very reluctant to admit her intentions. Even with Haruhi having learned what she can do, Nagato should be cautious at stirring up Haruhi’s jealousy or possessiveness. Of course, one can guess that Nagato still might not understand what she did (at least, in a way she can articulate with words), but that’d be a bit boring. At the least, I hope Nagato has learned to understand herself to that extent.

Much is made of Nagato’s loyalty to Kyon that seems to supersede all other authority. Through this is how I interpret her offer of food to Haruhi. Nagato knows that Haruhi is important to Kyon. She goes to find Haruhi when Kyon calls Nagato up and tells her that Haruhi’s missing. And, when she perceives that Kyon is in trouble and that Haruhi is dicking around rather than helping him right away, she slows time down to mitigate that effect.

Nagato comes off a bit cold to Haruhi in the process. To me, I thought this unavoidable. She didn’t just make a world for Kyon that was totally normal. She took Haruhi away from him. Perhaps that was necessary since she couldn’t adjust memories beyond a period of one year prior, but we never got a good explanation for that anyway. I think there must be some part of Nagato that resents Haruhi for what she puts Kyon through. That’s not to say Nagato totally hates her. She should respect Haruhi in some ways for having qualities she lacks and respect her for taking care of her when she was ill. Human interactions aren’t totally black-and-white that way, even if they involve an alien.

Anyone who’s savvy can probably figure out that the stereo set and CD will come into play sooner or later. I leave to the reader to guess what may be on that disc.

For a while, I contemplated writing an extended scene where Haruhi would’ve met Kyon at his house, but it didn’t seem to add very much.

The rest of the chapter is where Asakura’s influence is slowly realized. This, to me, is the fundamental difference between Haruhi and the others in the brigade. Haruhi is impulsive. She wants to do things right away, spur of the moment, and no one else in the group is really like that. Kyon shares her overall sense of wonder and awe. I think that distinguishes him most. But Asahina, Koizumi, and Nagato all have different priorities. The first two, to an extent, have been dedicated to monitoring the situation and ensuring the status quo. Nagato’s had a hand in that, too. And while Haruhi can be understanding and polite all she wants, lack of overt enthusiasm she senses from her friends sticks with her. I tweaked this rationale based on feedback, and I think now it’s very logical, very tight.

The Piggy planet scenes are adapted from similar scenes originally written for the first draft of chapter four. These are only slightly adjusted to account for the different circumstances. Originally, Asakura took Haruhi there as a demonstration of the universe’s wonders, and the distinct implication was that the Sickness the Piggies experienced was deliberately given to them by the Entity. Of course, the name Rooter and the Piggies come from the Ender’s Game series by Orson Scott Card.

The chapter is pretty long by this point, but necessarily so. The effect of Asakura’s insidious words isn’t realized until Haruhi’s back and realizes the mistake she’s made in misinterpreting a lack of overt enthusiasm for a lack of true desire. This, I feel, is the moment when Haruhi realizes just how different she is from the others—not in the sense of being an inhuman creature or anything like that but in having such a different outlook on the world, one that the other members of the brigade don’t necessarily share.

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Slayers Revolution and Evolution-R liveblog

Having had Slayers seasons 4 and 5 on blu-ray for some time, I've decided to put together a tvtropes liveblog to go through all 26 episodes over time. I've tried to make the introductory post sufficient for someone new to the series to catch up with, as well.

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The Coin - Chapter Five notes

When I conceived of this chapter, I thought this part with Mori and Arakawa would only be half, where the promised confrontation with Asakura would make up the rest. As this part grew longer and longer, however, I realized there was no good way to connect the two parts thematically, and I decided to make this passage work on its own. I admit that, going into the writing of it, I was a bit at a loss for what could connect Mori and Haruhi, for the message that should come across in this chapter.

I was still struggling with that point when I made it to the closed space scene, and I realized that that was a natural time for Haruhi to remember when she’d been in that place before—with Kyon at the end of Melancholy. This gave me an opportunity to confront Haruhi’s feelings for Kyon, which to that point had been very oblique. Haruhi had admitted nothing, even though we saw clearly what she wanted. In that, I think Haruhi has a dichotomy, or at least I’m writing her like she does. There are some things Haruhi can be unabashedly straightforward about. Perhaps that description should extend to most things, but in my mind, the only consistent description of Haruhi’s feelings for Kyon, with everything before already written, was one of tacit acceptance yet refusal to act. It troubled me somewhat to do this without really planning it very far in advance, but I felt it was the best direction to take, given what I had.

And, in doing so, it gave me an angle to draw parallels between Haruhi and Mori, and parallels are something I like to stress in my work: look at Echoes and how Imi’s powers mirrored Rockman’s, look at Identity and how Kohl and Tilaka mirror Ranma and Akane in importance to each other (though the dynamics of those relationships are very different). I find the psychology of people, of how they justify their actions and sometimes deceive themselves, very attractive to study. Perhaps I find it too attractive, thinking people will convince themselves of things that are too outlandish to be seriously considered. That was a major problem with the first draft of chapter four. But here, I think this is relatively straightforward and not unexpected. Having Haruhi convince herself she’s fine with whoever Kyon wants or is close to him is a step up from being jealous at slight provocations. Having Mori tell herself that this it’s a wonderful experience being an esper when it’s nothing she really wanted is understandable. I only regret that I couldn’t show more of that here.

Arakawa Seijio pointed out that the ending of last chapter didn’t really give a clear idea what would come next, and as a result, we’re not certain what Haruhi’s motives are—at least, outside a very, very general statement of intent—until she goes to Asakura at the end of this chapter. On the one hand, I definitely understand the confusion, and as I told him, some of the weakness on that front may stem from splitting this chapter in two. In doing so, the sense of conclusion from Haruhi having confronted both Mori and Asakura, the people who manipulated her, is delayed. I admit that I felt the ending of four would’ve been too weak if we got to Mori’s theater and just ended there. In hindsight, I may change that, but I don’t think I will now, while people who have already read four may be confused.

If I had better background in international theater, I would’ve tried to do something to start this chapter using, for example, Nō, as is mentioned, but I really just don’t know enough about Japanese stage to do that convincingly, or at least not to the level of knowledge and confidence that I’d want. The Crucible is something I at least have familiarity with, and the role of Abigail Williams just jumped out at me for Mori. It also builds on the theme of acting and deception. How Abigail fools the court at the witch trials is so very much like Mori’s performance for Haruhi at the station. It’s theatrical, and it’s done with full knowledge of the act being committed.

After the monstrous deed Mori did, intimidating Haruhi, I wanted to paint this woman as sympathetic but still not someone we can completely accept. Where others in the esper community are frightened by Haruhi’s power (see how Arakawa immediately says that Mori should apologize?), Mori isn’t. Mori, I think, only fears for the consequences that may result. And while Mori’s method depended on Haruhi being a fundamentally good person (which is something I wanted to emphasize), it still misses that in the end, Mori didn’t trust Haruhi enough to tell her the truth (or think that she’d be believed). That’s why this doesn’t turn into a blithe love-fest. There can be only…an uneasy respect, a mix of compassion and guilt and wariness on the part of Haruhi.

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The Coin - Chapter Four notes

This is not, I must confess, anything like the first version of the chapter I envisioned. That version was done about two weeks ago and, thankfully, I had the benefit of fellow authors to tell me that it was, in short, a colossal blunder. While I've tried to exercise due caution regarding taking others' opinions too seriously, I've also endeavored to take those criticisms seriously and reconsider what kind of story The Coin would become.

Without getting too much into specific details (as the events that I have planned for the future are still largely the same, though their interpretation and meaning have changed), I had in mind a story about Haruhi realizing that all along she'd been searching for fellow believers like herself more than aliens, time-travelers, or espers themselves. Haruhi would've become isolated from the rest of the brigade in a prison of her own making, so to speak. She'd convince herself (and not without reason) that the people around her she didn't really know and, most egregiously, that they were people who didn't share her vision and, hence, weren't really friends to her at all. To some extent, I think there are elements there I can still use, but the path I had Haruhi working toward--as was pointed out to me and that I understand now--was one just too far off the deep end to make the story work.

Ironically, that's a story that might actually work had it been told, say, from Kyon's perspective. In a tale where Haruhi is more opaque and subject to interpretation, Kyon's narration and attempts to understand her would serve as a mouthpiece for the author's interpretation and ability to give context. When Haruhi herself is the narrator, though, everything said about her motivations and feelings has to be regarded as unreliable and subject to immense bias. Indeed, this is a technique I like quite a bit, for I feel it gives a great deal of depth. A lot of what I've written Haruhi to think and do contains that subtext--a dissonance between what she says her actions mean and what the audience should understand they really signify. That said, there's a big problem if that subtext is too subtle or dwarfed by the actual text. That's a mistake I think I've committed. I gave Haruhi many chances to, for example, cover up her feelings for Kyon, but without some admission that she actually thinks positively of him (and not in some backhanded way), all that subtext had nothing to feed upon.

But let me not dwell too much on what won't be. Let's talk about what is. One of the things I definitely wanted to avoid with this chapter, having so many facts revealed to Haruhi, was the dreaded infodump. Hence, the cafe scene is largely glossed over, with only glimpses of the conversation in detail. I felt this was the best balance of things, as this scene really isn't the focus of the story. It's what Haruhi does with the knowledge that will come into play. Hence, while she will inevitably refer to what she learned there frequently, the natural flow of information is for Haruhi to confront what she's learned and explain why she's confronting it, rather than to do a huge bout of exposition and see what sticks.

Of course, a good bit of this chapter depends on things getting spaced out, on sequencing and timing. Tsuruya's timing in interrupting Kyon and Haruhi is what drives the limousine section of this chapter, and while I like it quite a bit, it would be wrong not to recognize that there is a plot device being used there to drive the story, as opposed to characterization or goals. I consider this acceptable in the sense that it only changes the dramatic nature of how Haruhi is being told instead of what and why, but it still needs to be considered.

Then there's the matter of Tsuruya herself. I struggled for a bit to find Tsuruya, just as I've struggled to find Haruhi because they are so different from the norm. Ironically, while Haruhi can be a source of comic relief and embarrassment from Kyon's point of view, I thought it would be apropos for Tsuruya to be the same from Haruhi's point of view, though clearly not to the same extent.

Nevertheless, though Kyon and the brigade spill the beans here, there are lingering questions. How long would the have kept things under wraps had Haruhi not discovered her powers? Would they ever have told her? If there had been no danger from Asakura? These are big points of contention to me, and while Kyon has no choice but to express considerable faith in Haruhi--faith, I think, he really does have--the question still remains. Personally, I think without some inciting event, the status quo would've held and it would've been quite a while before Haruhi learned anything about who she was or what she could do or what the other brigade members were. And that's a point that can't be avoided. And while the brigade may have trust in Haruhi, there is some aspect of that that's forced. It's the only good thing for them to say. It may be genuine on Kyon's part. As for the others, I think their feelings are more complex. Koizumi has genuine insight into Haruhi's state of mind, but he's also done the most to keep her mindset tame and stable through manipulation. Asahina takes her orders from the future. Nagato has the most freedom thanks to the threat of Haruhi's powers keeping her safe, but remember Disappearance. She didn't just renovate people's memories. She actively tried to push Haruhi away from Kyon.

But, for the moment, Haruhi's journey of discovery doesn't pertain to any of them or to Kyon. Her goal is to make a statement to old enemies, and that she shall.

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The Coin - Chapter Three notes

It really is a world of difference when you have people reading and offering feedback even before a story is released to a wider audience. Considering I wrote Echoes and all of the first book of Identity without that (and most of Before and After, too), I can only imagine the possibilities had I been in this position then. What is done is done, however. At best, books two and three of Identity I'm considering posting to FFML when I get back to them. For now, I can only make The Coin the best story it can be.

I imagined the opening paragraphs as a way for Haruhi to cope with what happened--that by finding information about lightning strikes and relating it to the reader, she could better understand what she'd done. Functionally, it served to lead us in without too much of a jolt, so to speak. This is an extremely humbling experience for Haruhi, and considering how much the scene with Mori later on plays on that, I actually considered Haruhi being a bit more resistant and unsympathetic here--or at least, giving her a stronger sense of denial. Ultimately, I stuck with how this passage originally came out, with Haruhi repentant but coping and not utterly broken. Taniguchi's parents I threw in because it seemed unavoidable to meet them. Guilt is more powerful than anger. Haruhi could've proved her power to Taniguchi's mother and explained herself, but she doesn't want to be feared, and that's exactly how any reasonable person, after learning their son had been attacked by some magic-wielding girl, would react, isn't it?

After a brief stop at Haruhi's home, we get a chat between Haruhi and Mori. I admit, I deliberately pulled a fake-out here, making it sound like Asahina (big) was coming to talk to her. Make no mistake: the many faces of Mikuru Asahina will play a big part in this story, but not in this passage. Originally, I'd planned for something much quicker, shall we say---that Koizumi would go with Haruhi to show her closed space, trying to show her the consequences of her actions without revealing himself as an esper. Over time, I decided against that. We're all savvy here. We know that any sustained deception against Haruhi pulled at this stage is likely to have catastrophic consequences. Koizumi being involved in that would be exceedingly dangerous. On the other hand, the Agency isn't likely to want Haruhi to know what she is, but they definitely want to keep her under wraps and maintain the status quo. They would see this as an opportunity to lock her down for good. Hence, we have Mori, and her presence here both protects Koizumi as well as signals his lack of overt approval. Yeah, this isn't Koizumi's idea. He's already stated he'd go with the brigade over the Agency if push came to shove.

So we have Mori, and I definitely wanted Mori to come off sympathetic on one hand while still pushing Haruhi with a horrendous lie on the other. This is dramatic irony, so the audience has to do a little reading between the lines. Of course Mori isn't losing sleep over Haruhi just because she's seen her powers--the knowledge of what Haruhi can do has been beamed into her head. How can she be an actress if she's constantly having to bug out and kill a celestial? We can definitely sympathize with Mori, knowing that this is nothing she volunteered for but was chosen arbitrarily. But as I said, the Agency would see this as an opportunity to end the recent volatility, and in that, Mori is a reluctant but assured actress, playing on the sense of innate morality she knows Haruhi must have. That's what makes Mori's ploy so insidious. I hesitated for a moment to give this character the task. We know so little about her in truth, but if you're going to go for breaking Haruhi, you're going to go all the way with it. Mori does. And that's why I like this scene.

The next major scene is in the club room, which, combined with a change I made to the above, I was able to fix up from a rather confused initial draft. Originally, I had Koizumi find out what Mori had through Haruhi by himself. Then, I had Kyon get involved, punching Koizumi in the face for his seeming involvement. I think as written now the scene is much improved and more organic in the flow of events. By this point, Haruhi has sworn off her powers to protect the world from herself, but how long can that really last? How long can she be satisfied with that, knowing she's just put all her hopes for an amazing world aside?

That's what makes the baseball half of this chapter powerful. It brings all these memories back to Haruhi, forcing her to confront what she wants with what she's chosen to do. Who is this old woman? Who's the one who sent those tickets to Tsuruya's home? As Kyon says--it's someone who means to mess with Haruhi, to force the dissonance to the forefront of her mind. I did what research I could into the process of going to Koshien Stadium to see the Hanshin Tigers play. I picked the nearest home date on a weekend in mid-June from this year, which conveniently happened to be against their arch-rivals, the Yomiuri Giants from Tokyo. In the seventh inning, the fans really do blow up suggestively-shaped balloons and release them to sputter out their air. Koshien is a historic ballpark of just slightly a more modern vintage than Wrigley Field or Fenway Park. I know not everyone's a baseball fan, so I tried to focus on Haruhi's nostalgia rather than the strict experience of the game (which, admittedly, was a pretty boring game past its halfway point).

Then we get Asakura, and I admit, I hesitated to include her in this after using her as a tool from Mori's conversation, but Asakura is the natural, most sinister choice. You've got to love the way she goes about things. Threaten fifty thousand people? Sure, why not, it'll be fun right? Eheh. I struggled a bit to figure out how to end this chapter--just with Asakura revealing herself? No, we want to connect this to Nagato, too. Let's leave Haruhi with as many questions as we can, after all. Asakura's role in this story isn't finished, of course. There's much for Haruhi to learn about herself and her powers. Her world view is really going to get upended.

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The Coin - Chapter Two notes

Chapter Two on FFN

Ever since I changed the way I outline and stopped writing dialogue in advance, I've taken a hard look at the outlines, trying to ensure that they have sufficient material to give pacing and time. What I understand now, having written this chapter, is that often times it's not about what you had planned but what you didn't plan, what comes to you as you're writing. I think that's a big reason why this is a 12000-word chapter and not 6- or 8- instead.

With the initial outline, I didn't plan that Haruhi would call up Kyon. Rather, she'd just shut herself into her room and work on her powers all night. In this respect, I think expansion was necessary. There has to be a progression of thought process, and this way, we got to see a little bit of Kyon's reactions. What's Kyon trying to do here? Haruhi's exactly right: he encouraged her, and now he's backing off. I personally think Kyon is of two mind on this--that he's weary of the masquerade and doesn't mind if Haruhi realizes her powers, but on the other hand, while he likes the excitement around her, I think Kyon's pretty attached to the times in which he has a normal life.

Of course, this is the beginning of delving a little bit into Kyon and Haruhi's relationship dynamics. Haruhi's signals are pretty clear while Kyon is more evasive. Kyon's selective obliviousness powers are legendary, after all, and to really understand where he's coming from, one has to answer the age-old question: just why would he avoid a relationship with her? It's possible he's not attracted to her, of course, but there's also the unequal pairing dynamic that has to be considered. Someone who can will him to her bedroom just by thinking about it should frankly give him pause.

But let me not jump too far ahead. This scene with Kyon and Haruhi I changed a bit on Brian Randall's advice. There was an element of hostility that I'd thought was natural just from Haruhi's personality, but it didn't serve any real purpose, and it served to paint Haruhi as having "regressed" toward her antagonistic, book one personality. That's really not what I'm trying to do, though I think her frustration at finding people unwilling to embrace the unknown is absolutely essential.

The scene with Haruhi's father was something I inserted, adding upon the outline. When I visualize him, I see a guy in a green vest with black-rimmed glasses. None of that matters, of course. It's his advice to Haruhi that's meant to be pertinent: to make bonds with people, specifically with one person, but the general sentiment is the same. Here we start a veritable hurricane of references, which I don't generally get to do. Negima and Star Wars are just for starters. Originally, Haruhi was going to get control of her power in her bedroom, but the dishes scene was a good way to implement how I'd like her powers to be portrayed--with things just spontaneously changing off-screen. On a practical level, that probably won't stick (everything else in this chapter is very visual and in real time), but I thought it was a powerful way to do the initial realization. And then we have Nagato watching her again. The Entity is definitely looking on.

As with the Haruhi's father scene, the short snippet with Haruhi starting a stalled car I added to give a little pacing. We quickly get to the gravity scene in the classroom, and this one I thought about for a good while to make sure it'd work. The bulk of that calculation is detailed in the chapter notes on FFN. It's actually a good, basic problem in Newtonian mechanics, just to get a ballpark figure.

To give Haruhi some time to cool off a bit, I added this scene with Haruhi at the convenience store, since she'd need to go there anyway to set up the next scene. As I said, the Entity is watching, and it should come as no surprise who the mysterious, always-smiling girl might be. Haruhi realizing her powers is something the Entity must necessarily take a keen interest in, even if it means no longer simply observing.

Though it may not seem it, I think the scene in the club room is the centerpiece of this chapter because it really underscores the magnitude of what's changed. Dare I say no one was really prepared for it? Well, that'll change, as Koizumi, Asahina, and Nagato consider the best thing to do for achieving their ends: preserving the stability of this world, the integrity of the future, or learning the secrets to auto-evolution, whatever the case may be. Those are the goals of their masters, I should say. What these three exceptional people want for themselves may well be a different story. As for Kyon...well, we'll get to that in a few moments.

Like I said, I think it important that Haruhi have strong reactions to things, especially when they don't go her way, but to highlight her growth, I do feel like those reactions must subside quickly. So Haruhi has to, er, find a way to relieve her frustrations. I admit, this was a scene I hesitated to write at first, knowing the territory it would take the story if I followed through. Nevertheless, I felt like I thought things through, and this scene sets up the following as it should. I made a conscious choice not to be pornographic in detail here. Truthfully, such details don't appeal to me, and I didn't think they befit the scene, either. With Asahina, Haruhi's feelings may have a distinct physical component. With Kyon, I think the attraction is on a more intellectual level. There's an element of wanting to convert him to her mindset and feeling like there's a challenge in doing so. There's an element of appreciating that he sticks around, that he reminds her of John Smith (but that she uses that as an excuse, not really admitting to herself how she feels). There's an obvious duality being invoked here with the metaphor of the electron and the positron, reinforcing that, while Kyon and Haruhi act like opposites in a lot of ways, they're still very similar and very, very linked.

When I wrote the scenes that follow this point, Haruhi didn't realize she'd teleported Kyon to her room at all. Even here, she doesn't until the very end, mostly because I felt her realizing it and understanding the consequences was a more neutral sort of revelation than the one I originally ended with: Kyon rejecting her, albeit obliquely, and Haruhi storming off in a rage. Again, that's part of Brian Randall's influence, and I think it makes sense. It risks oversaturating people on Haruhi's anger if she were to do it repeatedly from this early in the work. The revised version here makes her more vulnerable and her reactions less disproportionate.

Something that bugged Brian was that Kyon wouldn't outright call her out on this or, more broadly, that he wouldn't just tell her the truth of things right now. For my part...that would cut through a lot of the story. Heh. But beyond that, I really feel like Kyon's trying to prepare Haruhi here, trying to get her to think bigger about consequences before he really lets the cat out of the bag and, in doing so, tells her she has power of that magnitude. It's a tricky balance, and as we see, it may be somewhat misguided, but in telling her he wants to be there (through the oblique retelling of Disappearance) and that he has faith in her, he's definitely trying to give her support and invoke a bond of trust. I think back to "Remote Island Syndrome" and how Kyon never seriously thought Haruhi could be responsible for a murder. It's ironic that she hits upon that line here, but I think Kyon's trust at that moment still stands. As much as Haruhi is wont to do whatever she wants, Kyon still believes her to be a fundamentally good person. Maybe this is something Koizumi encouraged him to do, and instead Kyon decided to go about it in his own way. Regardless, it almost works. Almost.

So we conclude with Haruhi looking for wonder in others and not finding it, and this time, Taniguchi's harsh words wound her because she's afraid he's right. Taniguchi's anger over this bag is, of course, set up in a passing comment right after Haruhi ends her gravity spell.

To come in chapter three, the lid comes off, and we'll see Haruhi humbled by what she's done. Not everyone watching her will be happy with that.

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Haruhi novels 9-11 omnibus in LaTeX

The Dissociation & The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya, omnibus edition in LaTeX

I've been working on this for a little while now, slowly tearing apart the PDFs and EPUBs put together by ultimatemegax and other translators. I thought this would be a fun way to put these three books, which comprise an arc in an of themselves, together and to learn a little more about LaTeX. Let me say, the ins and outs of character encoding are "fun" in the not-so-fun sort of way. Even so, after saving images by hand out of the PDFs and messing with changing smart quotes to LaTeX style, I have a finished product. It's not perfect, I'm sure. There are probably lots of things I've missed, particularly with peculiarly-formatted text. That said, it's workable and I can always put in a revision.

The contents of the main file are below. The full text is put into various subdocuments.

\documentclass[ebook, 10pt, openany]{memoir}
\usepackage{fourier}
\usepackage[pdfpagelayout=TwoColumnRight]{hyperref}
\usepackage[calcwidth,nobottomtitles*]{titlesec}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{textcomp}
\usepackage{CJK}
\usepackage{latexsym}

\newcommand{\pbreak}{\pfbreak}
\renewcommand{\chaptermark}[1]{\markboth{\textsc{The Dissociation} \& \textsc{The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya}}{\textsc{#1}}} %customizes headers
\renewcommand{\sectionmark}[1]{} %prevents sections (alpha-# and beta-#) from changing headers
\newcommand{\qs}{~}

\renewcommand{\verbatimbreakchar}{} %used for yuki.n> terminal sequences, allows verbatims to wrap with no indicator

\begin{document}
\frontmatter

\title{The Dissociation \\ \& \\ The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya}
\author{By Nagaru Tanigawa \\ with Illustrations by Noizi It\=o}
\date{May 25, 2011}
\maketitle{}
\wrappingon{} %verbatim wrapping
\newpage{}
\setcounter{tocdepth}{0} %toc reads unnumbered; better than using chapter* and manually adding toc entries
\tableofcontents{}
\newpage{}
\sloppy{}
\include{ds-translators}

\include{ds-notes}

\mainmatter{}

\setcounter{secnumdepth}{-2} %nothing numbered

\newpage{}
\include{ds-dis} %contains the full-color images before the main text, etc.
\include{ds00}
\include{ds01}
\include{ds02}
\include{ds03}

\include{ds-sur1}
\include{ds04}
\include{ds05}
\begin{CJK*}[dnp]{EUC-JP}{min} %chapter 6 has japanese characters, requires CJK package and proper encoding of the .tex file (in this case, euc-jp)
\include{ds06}

\include{ds-sur2}
\include{ds-07-12}
\end{CJK*}
\end{document}

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