Season of Alabaster - Vol. 3 Ch. 16 - The Real God

[MangaDex]

 

[Kushikime]

Thanks for the translation. Great work as usual. I heard this ends with Volume 3? How many more chapters is that? Cause I felt like the problems here got a bit rushed so I didn’t know if we close to the end or what.

I’ll definitely be buying all 3 volumes though when the final comes out if that’s the case

 

[K1NGST0N33]

Thanks for the translation. Great work as usual. I heard this ends with Volume 3? How many more chapters is that? Cause I felt like the problems here got a bit rushed so I didn’t know if we close to the end or what.

I’ll definitely be buying all 3 volumes though when the final comes out if that’s the case

The first volumes had 6 chapters each, so it's pretty safe to deduce that we should have 2 chapters left...

 

[Loliconi]

Ty for the chapter, Daphie! Machida reflected on what happened and what he really wanted and grew a pair (and as a person, haha) when he had to. Lovely chapter all around.
Even if there really is only ~2 chapters left, with how the dynamics and relationships are treated in this manga I am sure that the outcome will be satisfactory!

But at the same time... I am such a gigantic simp for Sakura-sensei. Praying for the next chapters being spicy.

 

[outinthegardener]

I will sin and make a minor nitpick... The translator note claimed Basquiat was a German neo-expressionist. Jean-Micheal Basquiat was an American neo-expressionist. Like the also mentioned Keith Haring, Basquiat was first "noticed" by the art world for his graffiti painting in NYC in the late 70's. It's apt that the teacher mentioned two graffiti artists who got inducted into the "art world." It's funny that the teacher certified his old man status by referencing two artists who died before Gin was born.

As tax, I'll take an "L" on my big talk about why Sakura hates her former teacher's methods. It wasn't about the "over-philosophization" of the work ruining the "experience" of the work. It was instead about "formalizing" the work into grades and metrics. Maybe that's a lowercase l, they're both intellectualizations that flatten the art.

Did Gin's painting leave on a scar on any hearts? Probably not, nudity+angel wings are pretty high on the list of kitschy clichés, though the cat was a nice touch. It might leave a scar on some dicks. I guarantee beard teacher is fapping one in the bathroom right now.

 

[jonnywarlock]

I like how that cranky old dude teacher came to the rescue. A real educator can never resist the chance to impart knowledge.

 

[Grye]

HEEEEELP

 

[potatoawards]

Really Sad to see this get axed, but It was clear the Author started losing sight in the previous chapters

 

[italus]

Thanks for the update!

 

[Murder3]

Too bad this manga isn't just about Gin and Sakura doing the nude drawing sessions at the school while they getting closer and closer romantically. If really only 2 chapters left, then I don't think it will have a good ending.

 

[danbellucci]

Really Sad to see this get axed, but It was clear the Author started losing sight in the previous chapters

oh was that plot point about himself? dang.

 

[Beregorn]

As tax, I'll take an "L" on my big talk about why Sakura hates her former teacher's methods. It wasn't about the "over-philosophization" of the work ruining the "experience" of the work. It was instead about "formalizing" the work into grades and metrics. Maybe that's a lowercase l, they're both intellectualizations that flatten the art.

Honestly, I think painting and art have very little to do with it: from what I can see in this chapter, she resent him because at the time he didn't want to fuck around with a student. I know, such an outlandish concept, not fucking your students...
And now, to get back at him, she is hampering Gin's artistic growth.
Plus the grooming, but who cares about that, right?

 

[outinthegardener]

Honestly, I think painting and art have very little to do with it: from what I can see in this chapter, she resent him because at the time he didn't want to fuck around with a student. I know, such an outlandish concept, not fucking your students...
And now, to get back at him, she is hampering Gin's artistic growth.
Plus the grooming, but who cares about that, right?

You may be projecting your personal views onto the narrative. We should be careful about describing what we have seen; Sakura has not made any sexual overtures towards her former teacher or towards Gin, and getting nude is not the same as a sexual overture. While it's possible she wanted to be sexually noticed by her teacher, it's also possible she just wanted him to paint her. The story has not explicitly stated her motivations so we're left to fill in the gaps.

I likewise don't see how she's hindering Gin's artistic growth. I'd say she's presenting a specific set of values about what she thinks is important about art, that is different from her teacher's values. Gin is getting both viewpoints and synthesizing his own beliefs. That's growth, not hindering. FWIW I agree with Sakura that reducing a painting to formal elements (compositional balance, proportion, movement, color theory, etc) and assigning it a numerical value on those qualities, is a very beauracratic way to look at art; it denies the experience of looking at art, the symbolic meaning generated by looking at art, the emotional content, the esoteric outside perspective you bring into the art, and so on.

I see no grooming going on. Nudity does not equal sexualization, unless one brings sexualization to the nudity. There's this idea in Western Culture that children are pure and free of sin until society corrupts them, and showing them anything remotely similar to "sex" is repugnant. Ironically this teaches hypersexualiztion of non-sexual encounters, where merely seeing a woman's body is considered sinful.

 

[Beregorn]

You may be projecting your personal views onto the narrative. We should be careful about describing what we have seen; Sakura has not made any sexual overtures towards her former teacher or towards Gin, and getting nude is not the same as a sexual overture. While it's possible she wanted to be sexually noticed by her teacher, it's also possible she just wanted him to paint her. The story has not explicitly stated her motivations so we're left to fill in the gaps.

I likewise don't see how she's hindering Gin's artistic growth. I'd say she's presenting a specific set of values about what she thinks is important about art, that is different from her teacher's values. Gin is getting both viewpoints and synthesizing his own beliefs. That's growth, not hindering. FWIW I agree with Sakura that reducing a painting to formal elements (compositional balance, proportion, movement, color theory, etc) and assigning it a numerical value on those qualities, is a very beauracratic way to look at art; it denies the experience of looking at art, the symbolic meaning generated by looking at art, the emotional content, the esoteric outside perspective you bring into the art, and so on.

I see no grooming going on. Nudity does not equal sexualization, unless one brings sexualization to the nudity. There's this idea in Western Culture that children are pure and free of sin until society corrupts them, and showing them anything remotely similar to "sex" is repugnant. Ironically this teaches hypersexualiztion of non-sexual encounters, where merely seeing a woman's body is considered sinful.

Oh. Hey. Would you look at that.
Guess I was right all along...

 

[outinthegardener]

Oh. Hey. Would you look at that.
Guess I was right all along...

You weren't right until the latest chapter. Also Gin's above the age of consent in Japan. It's a stretch to call it "grooming." I'll give you half a point, since you came back to keep score.

Unless you meant the part about hindering his artistic growth, then you're still wrong.

 

[Simpleton]

I like how that cranky old dude teacher came to the rescue. A real educator can never resist the chance to impart knowledge.

He is stuck in the old idea that "anything ancient we don't understand must have been religious" - but that's fine, it was the curriculum when he was a student and it's still what is largely taught in the generalist field.

(Cave paintings, while possibly also an homage in gratitude and a spell for future grace, were also likely to be used in training and education of hunters, both judging by other signs and markings and because it makes sense once you leave the archeologist mindset and observe humanity.)