So we have another Hifuu CD on our hands. It’s been four years since the last time I got to translate one of these. As usual with these stories, there are a lot of translation notes, but I’ve strove to make this translation an accessible and enjoyable one, so you can ignore the notes if you want to. I doubt that this is your first time reading one of these if you are here, but in the impossible case that that is true, please read all of the Hifuu stories, starting with Dolls in Psuedo Paradise (which isn’t really Hifuu, but should always be included as such). [link]
Enjoy.
Notes:
燕石 “Enseki” (literally “Sparrow Stones) is a really rare word, but is a perfect fit for this CD. The word refers to the false jewels that can be found at 燕山 “Mt. Sparrow”. They look like precious stones but they are worthless, sort of like fool’s gold. So the word refers both to the fakes, and also the act of treasuring something as if it were rare, when it is really commonplace and worthless. In addition to this there was a series of rare books/journals written in the Edo period named 燕石十種 or “Ten Types of Enseki”, filled with strange tales and curiosities and customs. There were six series with ten parts each. I would say there’s a direct connection.
博物誌 “Hakubutsushi” is literally translated as “Document(/Magazine) of Broad Knowledge” (what it means is clearer if you understand that 博物館 Hakubutsukan is “museum”, and not limited to a museum that deals with history) but it is also the Japanese translated title of Pliny the Elder’s “Naturalis Historiæ” (Natural History), which was the first sort of encyclopedia ever compiled. A good modern corollary is a scientific journal, and I have translated it as such, but this is why the subtitle is called “Our Supernatural History”. Incidentally this “Natural History” included descriptions of things that were pretty much Western Youkai.
(I think) 他愛も無い “Tawai mo Nai” is a phrase that is best understood as “of no concern to others”. Like you can get all excited about this silly thing, but those who aren’t involved could care less. So there’s a little more meaning than just “silly” in the title of the first track.
Maribel Hearn (マエリベリー・ハーン) is an approximation, where Merry’s first name has been posited as being closer in pronunciation to “my reverie” or a corruption of “mulberry”. Either way, it’s a play on words off of Yukari Yakumo. (紫八雲)
While most cases of “seeing the other world” are done only by Merry, Renko has shared in this experience on occasion, which is why in the translation of track 2 we have phrases like “they had seen”.
“Itako” are (usually blind) fortune tellers native to Tohoku (North Eastern Japan). There’s one in my town. “Necromancer” and “shaman” have been used as translations, but I thought it best to leave it.
In track 4, the “world where common sense does not apply” is reality on the quantum scale, where physics begins to unravel, the behavior of gravity becomes unclear, and interactions have to be explained with a different set of rules. Renko’s university major is (super) unified physics, which concerns the reconciliation of physics across the boundary where quantum effects overrule physics on a larger scale. So when Merry is poking fun at physicists, she’s also poking fun at Renko. Incidentally, Merry’s field of study is relative psychiatry.
As for “An Instant Transcends a Planck”, the word for “instant” used carries the meaning of 10^-15, equivalent to a “femto” in SI Metric Units. The word used is also associated with time, and so if we take one “instant” to be 10^-15 seconds, or a femto second, it is longer, or in otherwords transcends the Planck unit, a Planck second, which is 5.3 * 10^-44 seconds.
“Youkai” in track 5 remains untranslated because there is no all encompassing word in English that properly expresses it.
“Unstained See”[sic] is not a typo, even if it is probably supposed to be “Unstained Sea”.
永遠の三日天下 “King for a Day, Forever” can also be easily translated as “Eternal Short-Lived Reign”, literally, it is “Eternal Reign of Three Days”
Thoughts:
I see track 1 as a reference to WWII, where both Germany and Japan produced better quality weaponry, (esp. in the beginning) but were both ultimately crushed by the powers that outstripped them in volume and speed of production.
I’m glad to see that e-books don’t make it into the future.
In the afterword, ZUN is criticizing the loud minority. In the past if people rose up with a voice of opposition, it meant there had to be a lot of people behind it. Now, because it’s so easy to be loud, people mistake a loud voice today as having the same amount of people behind it when that may not be true. In Merry and Renko’s world, things have progressed to the point where that has all balanced out, and “quality” is important above all else.
—
燕石博物誌 ～ Dr. Latency’s Freak Report
Enseki Hakubutsushi
Journal of Fool’s Curiosities
１．他愛も無い二人の博物誌 (The Two’s Silly Journal of the (Super)Natural)
[Tawai mo Nai Futari no Hakubutsushi]
Our Supernatural History
「――よーし、大分出来上がってるねぇ」
「残りは、体験談とエッセイだけね。
というか、進んでないのはメリーの担当のところだけじゃない」
「ばれた？」
「誰が言い出しっぺだっけ？」
“Alright! The journal is really coming along isn’t it?”
“All that’s left are the essays and narrative sections… Come to think of it, the only parts that aren’t making any progress are the parts that you’re in charge of, Merry.”
“So you found me out, huh?”
“Don’t look at me, you’re the one who brought it up.”
供給過多となった商品は価値が下がるように、人類全てが裕福になる
という事は、この世から金持ちがいなくなる事と同義である。
In the same way that prices fall when supply of a product outpaces demand, when all of humanity is prosperous, the upper class ceases to exist.
情報が電子に記録されるようになってから、膨大な情報が瞬時に手に
入るようになった。それと同時に原始より絶対的な権力を持っていた、
速度や量は価値を失った。
Ever since it became common for information to be recorded electronically, it has become possible to access enormous amounts of information instantly. At the same time, the value of both speed and volume, properties which had from the beginning of time had been symbols of absolute authority, fell drastically.
代わりに絶大な価値を手に入れたのが、質だ。
中でも個人しか持たない特殊な情報は、世の質的セレブ達を熱狂させ
るのだった。
What instead obtained an enormous increase in value, was the property of quality.
Especially affected by this change was unique information available only to particular individuals. It was this sort of information that was the subject of intense enthusiasm among the world’s connoisseurs of quality.
２．凍り付いた永遠の都 (The Frozen Eternal Capital)
[Kooritsuita Eien no Miyako]
Unstained Dystopia
「二人の本を作りたいって言ってきたのはメリーでしょ？」
「そうでした。
でも、文章を書くのって、結構疲れるからねぇ」
「疲れない作業に楽しい事なんて無いのよ。
誰もが思い通りになる便利な世界程、退屈なディストピアは無いわ」
“Merry, aren’t you the one who said you wanted to publish a book together?”
“You’re right. But you know, writing is just really tiring.”
“There’s nothing fun about work that doesn’t require any effort, Merry. I can’t think of a dystopia more boring than a convenient world where everything goes your way.”
情報の電子化が進みきった世界では、電子書籍という物は存在しない。
電子書籍はあくまでも元の本ありきで生まれた物である。だから、本と
言えば、紙の本を指していた。
In this world, where the digitization of information has reached its peak, e-books do not exist. After all, the e-book was a product that was developed on the basis of, and at its core depends on its paper counterpart. Therefore, the book they are referring to is in fact a paper book.
マエリベリー・ハーン（メリー）の思いつきで、二人が見てきた不思
議な世界を本にする事になった。どうやら、自分の見ている世界がタダ
の夢ではない事が判ってきたからだ。
At Maribel Hearn (Merry)’s suggestion, the two had decided to compile a record of the strange worlds they had seen into a book. This was because they both had realized that the worlds they had been witnessing were more than the product of dreams.
３．Dr.レイテンシーの眠れなくなる瞳 (Dr. Latency’s Sleepless Eyes)
[Dr. Latency no Nemurenakunaru Me]
Dr. Latency’s Freak Report
巫女、イタコ、霊能者、超能力者、経済学者……。
Shrine maidens, itako, mediums, espers, economists….
見えない筈の物を見る瞳の持ち主は昔から居た。それらは全てインチ
キ扱いされる対象となっていた。メリーの瞳も、ウイルスに依る譫妄と
診断されることもあった。
Since times long past, there have been those who claim to be gifted with eyes that see what normally should be impossible to see. All of them have eventually come to be treated as frauds. The visions that Merry has seen have been even diagnosed as a delirium brought on by a viral infection.
だが、お酒を呑み冷静になったときにふと思うのだ。
目に見えない物が否定されるのならば、観測不可能な物理学も、遠す
ぎて手の届かない天文学も、もう妄想の域じゃないかと。
それらが事実としてこの世に君臨するのなら、メリーの瞳は事実を超
えた真実と言っても良いのではないか。
However, after taking a moment to drink some alcohol and calm down, it makes you think.
If you were to deny the existence of things unseen, then what of the physics that deal with unobservable phenomenon? What of the astronomy that concerns objects out of our reach? Would not those too enter into the realm of delusion?
If you accept that those things listed above do in fact have an enormous influence on the workings of this world, then could you not suppose that what Merry sees is a truth that transcends fact?
宇佐見蓮子にはメリーが、妄言を吐く物理学者の目を覚まさせる真実
学者に見えていた。
In Usami Renko’s eyes, Merry was a steward of truth who would wake up the physicists who had resigned themselves to making wild and unfounded conclusions.
「書くのが面倒なら、今ここで語ってくれても良いのよ？
後で文章に起こすから」
「あら、蓮子はそんなことも出来るのね、助かるわー。
じゃあ早速、この間ねぇ……」
“If you can’t be bothered to write it yourself, why don’t you just dictate it to me? I’ll write everything down for you later.”
“You really are talented, aren’t you Renko?. That would be such a big help. Let’s get started then. So, the other day…”
４．９月のパンプキン (September Pumpkin)
[Kugatsu no Pumpkin]
Parallel Communication
同じ場所に居て違う物を見る事なんてあるのだろうか。
Is it possible for two people in the same place and time to have completely different observations?
最近、メリーはいくつもの世界を同時に見る事があるのだという。
メリーによると、人はそれぞれ僅かに異なる世界を見ているのだという。
興味深い事に、違う世界を見ていてもコミュニケーションは成り立つら
しい。
Lately, Merry says she has been able to see several different worlds concurrently. According to her, everyone observes a slightly different world. and what is most interesting about this is that despite everyone observing a different world, communication between seperate people is still possible.
メリーは不思議な話をし始めた。
一部の人間だけが見ている変わった世界の話だった。
Merry began a strange tale.
It was about a strange world that was only observed by a select few.
そこには極めて小さい世界で起こる、この世の常識が成立しない奇妙
な世界の話だった。素粒子が空間も時空も飛び越える、奇妙な世界だ。
It was about the strange happenings of a world of the infintesimally small, where the common sense of this world did not hold water. It was a strange world where particles flew across both space and spacetime.
「……一部の人間って、物理学者の事？」
「ご名答。流石ね。
でもね、その常識が通用しない世界に、不思議な生命体が潜んでい
る事は知らないでしょう？」
“…When you say ‘a select few’, are you talking about physicists?”
“Correct! That’s the answer! I knew you could figure it out. However, I bet you didn’t know that within that world where common sense does not apply, there are strange life forms lurking about.”
５．須臾はプランクを越えて (An Instant Transcends a Planck)
[Syuyu wa Planck wo Koete]
Very Very Short Time
メリーによると、フォトンが支配する人間が見ている世界を『この世』
とすると、別の量子が支配する『あの世』に相当する世界も無数に存在
するそうだ。そして『あの世』にはまた、生命体が棲んでいるというのだ。
According to Merry, if you define “this world” that we humans see as one that is delivered by and subject to the actions of photons, then there exists a countless amount of “other worlds”, which are in the same way controlled by the actions of other particles. Apparently, there are lifeforms that live in those “other worlds” as well.
「その、目に見えないけど身近に存在して、ゆらぎによって現れる事
もある生命体って、妖怪の事だと思うの」
「妖怪……。
そういうと突然ファニーに聞こえるけど」
「まあ、天使でも悪魔でも幽霊でもＵＭＡでもなんでも良いんだけど、
姿は見えないけど事象がたしかに存在する、という物だと考えると
妖怪が一番しっくりくるかなぁ」
“So these lifeforms, which cannot be seen but otherwise exist close by, which due to certain ‘disturbances’ can sometimes appear, well I think that they are youkai.”
“Youkai…. Well when you put it that way, this whole story starts to sound a bit funny.”
“Well, you could call them angels or demons or ghosts or unidentified mysterious animals or anything else really, but I think the word ‘youkai’ which describes things that cannot be seen, things that also have certainly existing phenomena associated with them, is the best fit for this sort of thing.”
確かに昔から妖怪の存在は肯定されていた。
しかし、世界が反証可能性を問われる科学哲学に支配されると、妖怪
の話題は消えていったのだ。
It is a fact that the existence of youkai has been acknowledged by various sources since times long past.
However, as this world has come under the reign of science and philosophy which demand any theory posited leave open the possibility that it may be disproven, the subject of youkai eventually faded away.
６．シュレディンガーの化猫 (Schrödinger’s Phantom Cat)
[Schrödinger no Bakeneko]
Schrödinger’s Black Cat
「妖怪はどこに消えたのかなぁ、と考えていたらね、見えて来たの。
今も妖怪の棲む世界が」
「それってもしかして、別のブレーンワールド……」
「何それ」
「物理学者にしか見えない世界の一つよ」
“Just when I was thinking to myself, ‘I wonder where all the youkai have disappeared to…’ I saw it, the world where youkai still reside.”
“Is what you’re referring to possibly a parallel brane-world…?”
“What the heck is that?”
“It’s one of the worlds that only physicists can see.”
地理的、地学的か、それとも偶然か判らないが、昔から別の世界が
見えやすい場所の事を聖地と呼んでいた。神社なんかはまさに聖地だ。
There are several places in the world that whether for geographical reasons, geological reasons or pure coincidence – I don’t really know, but for whatever reason there are places that since times long past have been called holy sites, where it is supposedly easier to see other worlds. For example, shrines and the like certainly fall under that category of holy site.
神社で猫を見たというメリー。
しかしその猫は、決して誰の目にも留まること無く、障害物に当た
ることも無く自由に動き回っていたらしい。
メリーにはすぐに判った。あれは量子の隙間に潜む、妖怪猫だと。
Merry said she saw a cat at a shrine.
However, apparently this cat went unnoticed by all others present, and it seemed to move freely through any barrier that stood in its way.
Merry immediately realized that this was not a normal cat but a phantom cat, one that lurked in the gaps between quantum particles.
「へぇ、量子的に観測不可能な猫……。
観測するまで生きてもいるし死んでもいる。
まるでシュレディンガーの猫のようね」
「私が観測したので、生きている事で確定したけどね」
“That’s interesting. A cat that is impossible to observe through the actions of quantum particles…. Until it is observed you could say that it is both living and dead, just like Schrödinger’s cat.”
“Well you could say that, but I observed it, confirming that it was alive.”
７．空中に沈む輝針城 (The Shining Needle Castle Sinking in Midair)
[Kuuchuu ni Shizumu Kishinjou]
Gravitino World
メリーの言う、『あの世』とは生き物が居るだけで無く、常識の通用
しない奇妙な世界らしい。
The “other world” that Merry referred to, was a strange world that not only contained lifeforms but also contained things that overthrew the preconceptions of this world.
「お城が浮いているのも見た事があるわ。
しかも逆さになって」
「グラビトンの構成が異なれば性質も異なる。
メリーが見たのはそういう別のブレーンなのかもね」
「不思議と懐かしい感じがしたのよねぇ。
良いわよねぇ、木造の天守閣って」
「え、そっち？
お城ってシンデレラ城の様な物を想像してたんだけど」
「どっちかって言うと松本の方」
“I also saw a castle floating in midair, and to top it all off, it was upside down.”
“If the structure of gravitons are different then their properties should be different as well. It is possible that what you saw lay on a parallel brane.”
“I got this strange sense of nostalgia when I saw it, you know? There’s just something wonderful about wooden castle keeps.”
“What? You mean that kind of castle? I imagined something more along the lines of Cinderella’s castle.”
“If I had to compare it to something, it was much more like the castle at Matsumoto.”
不思議な世界の話を何処か楽しげに話すメリーだったが、ふと何かを
思い出して身を震わせた。
どうやら楽しい思い出だけでは無いようだ。
Merry seemed to be enjoying herself as she described what she had seen in this strange other world, but suddenly she shivered as if she had just remembered something.
Apparently, it wasn’t a very pleasant memory.
８．禁忌の膜壁 (The Taboo Membrane)
[Kinki no Makuheki]
Another Membrane
幻視が出来る物理学者によると、この世は薄い膜（メンブレーン）の
ような物で出来ているらしい。そしてそのブレーンがいくつも存在する
のだとか。
According to the physicists that capable of seeing the unseen, this world is apparently constructed of and upon a thin membrane. There has also been talk that there are multiple such “branes” that exist alongside ours.
メリーが見ているのはそのブレーンワールドなのだろうか。
Is what Merry is seeing one of those other brane-worlds?
彼女曰く「この世とあの世の間には、ちょっとした境目があって、
そこには往来を強く拒む、何ががある。ちょっとしたコツを掴めば簡単
に渡れるようになる」そうだ。
According to her, there is something that forms a boundary with very strongly rejects passage between this world and others. However, once you get the hang of it, it apparently really isn’t that difficult to pass through if you know what you’re doing.
「その往来を拒む何かって、三途の河じゃないの？」
「多分、昔の見える人はそう名付けたんでしょうねぇ」
“Is this thing that rejects passage as you say, the Sanzu River?”
“That’s probably what people who saw it in the past named it.”
ブレーンは河の流れに晒された染め物の様なものなのだろうか。
I wonder if a brane is like a dyed cloth floating in the flow of a river.
染め物に書かれた模様が、上手に河を渡り、別の染め物に移る。
簡単に言うと、メリーの行動はそんな事なのかも知れない。もちろん、
簡単には出来ないけど。
Perhaps a pattern from one cloth could cross through the flow of the river and move to another cloth. If you were to put it simply, maybe that’s basically what Merry has been doing. Of course, it’s not as if what she is doing is really all that simple.
だけど、別の染め物に模様が移ってしまったらどうなる？
それは模様では無く、汚れとして認識されてしまうだろう。
But what happens when the pattern from one piece of cloth transfers to another? Usually when that happens, it is not thought of as a pattern, but a stain.
「――異物が混入したら排除しないと」
「え？ どうしたのメリー。
何か上の空だけど」
「あ、え？
私、何処まで話したっけ？」
「『あの世』で見た物の話よ。
メリーが見てきた物を纏めて博物誌を作るというのが、
この本のテーマなんだから」
“…if a foreign substance adulterates our world, we must exterminate it…”
“Huh? What’s wrong, Merry? You seem to be a bit out of it.”
“Oh, umm… What was I talking about again?”
“You were talking about what you saw in ‘that world’. The theme that we’re running with is that this journal is a compilation of all of the things that you’ve seen.”
９．故郷の星が映る海 (The Sea in Which Our Home Planet is Reflected)
[Kokyou no Hoshi ga Utsuru Umi]
Unstained See
ダイバーシティに富んだ森を見た。
低地を好む生物を寄せ付けない誇り高き霊山を見た。
神秘的な霧で奥の深い湖を見た。
I saw a forest rich in diversity.
I saw a spiritual mountain standing proud and tall, which kept away those living things that like to lurk in lower grounds.
I saw a deep lake immersed in an occult mist.
そこには美しいだけでは無い、自然があった。
これらが目に見えない量子の世界の隙間に、潜り込んでいた。
There was a nature that was more than just beautiful.
All of these lay in unseen world, which hid within the gaps between quanta.
ところで、性質の異なる量子が支配するブレーンに行くと、一体
どうなるのだろうか。
As for what happens when one goes to another brane-world, dominated by these particles with different properties, well…
メリーは思い出して、恐怖に顔を歪めた。
…as Merry remembered, her face contorted in fear.
１０．ピュアヒューリーズ ～ 心の在り処 (Pure Furies ～ Where the Heart is)
[Pure Furies ～ Kokoro no Arika]
Pure Furies
「私を見つけると、そこに棲む妖怪達が襲ってくるのよ」
「ええ？
って、何かメリーって化け物に襲われる癖があるね」
「まあもう慣れたわよ。
やっぱり、異物だって判るんでしょうね。
私から見たら、妖怪達はゆらいで見えるように、相手からも
私が幽霊のように見えるのかもしれないわ」
“So when they found me, the youkai that lived in that other world attacked me.”
“What, really? …Well actually I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. You do have a knack for getting attacked by creatures of all kinds.”
“I’m already used to it. I suppose they really can tell right away that I don’t belong. From my perspective the youkai appear unclear and wavering, so perhaps from their perspective I look something like a ghost.”
形の無い量子達が縦横無尽に真空を駆け回る様に、妖怪も空を飛ん
で襲いかかって来たという。
In the same way that shapeless quantum particles endlessly race to and fro across the vacuum of space, the youkai in that world flew through the sky and swarmed to attack her, Merry said.
「で、どんな妖怪だったの？
河童？ 天狗？」
「人型だったわ。
でもね、『あの世』の世界では姿は意味を持たないのよ」
“What kind of youkai were there? Kappa? Tengu?”
“They were human shaped. But you know? In ‘that world’ form really has no meaning.”
せめて意思疎通が出来れば、と思う間もなく、メリーは夢から
覚めていた。
Before Merry even had the time to wish that she and the youkai might be able to come to some sort of understanding, she woke from her dream.
１１．永遠の三日天下 (King for a Day, Forever)
[Eien no Mikkatenka]
Everyday Affairs
「折角だから、最後バトル物ぼっくしちゃおうか」
「博物誌じゃなかったの？」
「冒険譚みたいな博物誌も受けると思うの。
ほら、大航海時代の博物学だって、いわば冒険譚でしょう？」
“We don’t get this opportunity very often, so why don’t we turn the end of the story into an exciting battle or something?”
“Wasn’t this supposed to be more along the lines of a scientific journal?”
“I think a journal that reads like an adventure epic would be pretty well received. I mean, all of the literature we get out of the age of exploration is really just a bunch of adventure tales, right?”
「ま、文章に起こすのは蓮子だから良いんだけどね」
「じゃ、そんな感じで改めて取材、始めましょ。
メリー改め、“Dr.レイテンシー”」
「……本当にそのペンネームで行くの？
何か恥ずかしいなぁ」
“Well you’re the one writing it, so you can do what you want.”
“Alright, well with that direction in mind, let’s continue our little interview shall we, Merry? Or should I say, ‘Dr. Latency’?”
“Are you really going to stick with that pen name? It’s kind of embarrassing…”
「量子の隙間に潜む世界を見る博士だもの。
ぴったりじゃない。
男女も判らない、西洋っぽくも東洋っぽくも感じるし」
“You’re an expert who sees worlds that lurk within the gaps of quantum particles. It’s a perfect fit! The name doesn’t suggest male or female, and it has both a western and eastern sort of ring to it.”
内容が内容だけに、著者の詳細は伏せる事にした。
誰の目で見ても奇異な内容の本だったが、一部のトンデモ本マニア
には受けるのかも知れない。
As the subject matter was what it was, they decided to keep the details of their authorship undisclosed. From any reader’s perspective the journal was sure to be perceived as having very strange content, but perhaps it would find a following among maniacs obsessed with outrageous books.
しかし、これは本当にあった話なのだ。
However, this story is one that really happened.
あとがき
Afterword
どうもＺＵＮです。４年ぶりの音楽ＣＤです。
Hello, there. It’s ZUN. This is my first music CD in 4 years.
最近、ＡＩの進化が目覚ましいですよね？
ＡＩが囲碁チャンピオンに勝ち、人間が描いたとしか思えない絵を描き、
小説で賞をかっさらっていく。
Lately advancements in artificial intelligence have been quite remarkable, don’t you think?
You have an AI that has won against a champion in the game of go, AI that have made art you would not have thought possible to have been made by anything other than human hands, and AI that have swept up awards in literature.
それらは技術的な情報の価値が下がっていく過程に現れる現象です。
These are phenomena that have come to be as the value of technical knowledge and information has been on an ever continuing decline.
ちょっと前に、絵の描き方、曲の作り方、ゲームの作り方を講義するのが
流行ったかと思いますが、人に教える事の出来る物は、ＡＩにも習得できる
ということです。
Not long ago, if I remember correctly, courses on how to paint or draw, how to write music or how to create a game were very popular, but now the skills which can be had by teaching these techniques to humans can just as easily be learned by artificial intelligence.
最近は、（本当にそう思っているわけでは無いのですが）つい二言目には
息苦しい世界になった、と言ってしまいます。
Lately, (and I don’t honestly believe this, just to say), I find myself talking about how this world has gotten ever more anxiety inducing.
その理由は、芸能人、一般人関わらず一回のミスも許されない状況と、
怯えて必要以上に謝罪をする企業ばかり見ているからです。
One of those reasons for me bringing that up is that we live in a world where artists, actors and even ordinary people are just not allowed to make mistakes anymore. You look at the news or turn on the television and again and again you see businesses and corporations apologizing far more than is necessary.
何故そうなったのでしょうか。
それは情報の発信が誰でも出来る様になったから……と言うのが第一の理由。
How did it come to this point?
I think first part of the reason for this is that now absolutely anyone can stand up and disseminate information.
第二の理由は、情報過多なのに今だ情報の価値が高いまま、だからでしょう。
The second part of the reason is that while we live in a world overloaded with information, we still ascribe to all information an inordinate amount of value.
思い切って情報信仰を捨ててみると、蓮子とメリーの書いた同人誌（？）を
楽しんだり出来るかも知れませんね。
Once you take the plunge and throw away your faith in information, it may be possible for you to enjoy the doujinshi (?) that Renko and Merry have written together.
上海アリス幻樂団 ＺＵＮ（楽しい事はGoogleで見つからない）
Shanghai Alice Illusionary Orchestra ZUN
(You cannot find truly enjoyable things with Google)
