My boyfriend recently introduced me to a digital manga – you can’t really call it “game” because there are very few choices, actually – called “Doki Doki Literature Club“.
I guess, I should have heeded the warning at the beginning, that it might not be suitable for someone suffering from depression. It’s really nicely done and the first character you encounter is the main characters childhood friend. She’s a cheerful girl, always trying to make everyone around her happy, always has a smile for everyone. When you join her literature club everyone is tasked with writing a poem to share for the next day. I don’t want to say too much about it, because if you like manga – or even if you don’t – it’s a creepy but very entertaining story to follow and it only takes a little more than an hour.
I just want to say that her second poem really touched me; I have no idea about poetry. I recognise classical poems, I know sonnets, but the patterns and rhythms of modern poetry often escape me. Hers stuck with me, I guess, because I found so much of myself in her character.
This is probably not the right way to look at this topic, but when I followed her story to the end my first thought wasn’t sadness or horror, it was admiration. My first thought was that – although she wasn’t portrayed like that at all – she was courageous in her decision. In one final choice she had the courage to put her own interest above that of everyone else.
Sometimes I wish I had that courage.
Anyway, this is her poem that I liked so much.
Lost in Thought 