All the way to the final chapter, even the final few paragraphs, there were still minor edits designed to make the phrasing sound better or more clearly convey what I was getting at. 'engage' turned into 'partake,' 'a' turned into 'sort of,' and so on. These are quite valuable edits when taken all together, but practically invisible when considered one by one. I doubt anyone rereading the book would even notice what's changed but me. But as someone striving for the perfect book, a book of divine writ, these sorts of minor edits are well worth the effort of finding and fixing.
But for the more casual reader it all comes back to the new Levy section. (Which I also went back and edited a bit for the sake of sounding better.) The justification for this 40th edition is that it now includes Levy. I hope everyone enjoyed the new Levy content in isolation, but it reads much better as part of a larger whole -- when you see what else is going on before and after that, and how the Levy content seamlessly feeds into the future. The only real way to experience lovely Levy is to read the whole book like I have.
Since I still benefited so much from reading this book a 40th time, inevitably I'll have to read it a 41st time and see if I get another flash of inspiration, but at least that won't be needed for a good long while. I encourage people who haven't read the book yet, or haven't read it for many editions worth of new edits, to dive in now with the book at peak performance:
It was the 40th time, so the book wasn't quite as sexy to me as before, but it still packed a wallop. Himeno especially takes the cake. The sex scenes aren't just erotic, though, they're also supercharged with love, which means they can be enjoyed as romance scenes long after their 'punch' wears off. A 70 or 80 year old, with no libido left at all, could still enjoy the segments where Christopher and his waifus get together, because it's so heartwarming to see people get along, to be that close, to care about each other so. It's almost like the point of sex isn't really sex, but the hugging that precedes and follows it.
The name gallery is now perfect. I didn't see a single weak name out of all 1106, and all the kids seem to be assigned to appropriate enough mothers. I'm sure most people think the name galleries are insane, that no author could possibly put that much effort into them, or expect any reader to pay any attention to them. But actually the names are one of the best parts of the book. When you collect together that many admirable people and are reminded of them all at once, the nostalgia is overwhelming. It's like looking at a treasure trove full of sparkling gems all trying to get your attention at once. It's also fun trying to divine the connections between mother and child and which source work the children are from (All the necessary information to find the answer to that is made available by Chapter 56). The children characterize the waifu who has them, and reminds you that all said waifus exist not just at the rare points in Christopher's life when their conversation is narrated but throughout his life. He's constantly interacting with all of them.
Supposing you're not a fan of sex or long lists of names, though, you should still enjoy this book, for the simple reason that you'll never see people be as kind and appreciative of each other anywhere else in reality or fiction. It's possible for people to speak honestly with each other, to lay out their grievances to each other, and still get along. The characters in this book do it. They're not afraid to broach the hard questions or the thorny moral dilemmas, but they never descend to name-calling or mockery. In a spirit of respectful cooperation, they always reach a consensus. They always manage to compliment each other and reconcile. They listen and learn, and ultimately love. This is a romance novel. The romance of all romances, with 100 heroines. (secretly 101). Love is all powerful here, it really does conquer all.
Compared to any other story where love is mocked as something for delusional children, or the real world where most people either never find love or quickly lose it again with breakups, divorce, separations, etc., this book has a magnetic pull where it genuinely offers the real article, the thing we've all been searching for our entire lives, and in such copious amounts that it never runs out. You can have your fill of love and actually be satiated by the end. It's unimaginable. A feat no other story has ever attempted. Enough love to fill up your heart for the rest of your life. If you feel the effect ebbing, just go read the book again and refill. It works for me.
In this book there's romantic love, love of God, love for mankind's highest ideals and accomplishments, parental love, platonic love between sister-wives, and the congratulatory self-love that comes from knowing you did the right thing and a job well done. There's enough love to go around. A lifetime of love for all, for any reader who wants it, who wants to experience it, it's all there.
Now that I've finished this project it's time to turn to another love story, Irotoridori no Sekai. The free version came out, but when I tried to run it my computer just gave an error message. I assumed the problem was that the free version hadn't cracked the copyright protection so I bought the commercial version -- then it produced the same error message. After that I investigated the cause of the error message and fixed it, but sheesh. A waste of $30 bucks for nothing. My computer gives me fits every time I try to play a visual novel, any visual novel is always a headache. I hope the story is worth it. On the bright side maybe this will encourage the company to translate more good visual novels in the future, so the purchase wasn't entirely a waste.
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