Chapter XVI
To bless/bury the times
- Beyond the "Zero Zero Of Decisionism"
Invisible/unavoidable communication
This is the end of such a long book. This chapter, as the final chapter, will organize past discussions and record some personal thoughts.
We now live in a shattered "fragmented" world. The world is opaque, and it is impossible to grasp its full picture in the end. Exactly what to believe in, what is the value, no one will tell us. The state and history can no longer give meaning to the lives of individuals as they once did. The result is that those who are accustomed to being given meaning by whom (the world) get lost, as if drifting in an uneasy ocean.
The 1990s in Japan were a time of imagination that feared change toward such an opaque world. Those who despair of the inability of the world to give meaning to their lives, to indicate purposes, and to reveal values are no longer evaluated by "doing.../doing...", but by gaining recognition of self-image (role-based reality) of "yes.../no...". This is what Higashi Hiroki calls the "animalized" avoidance of others. We have given up the supply of meaning through communication, and aspire to the assurance of full recognition like that that mothers give to their children. The mother does not evaluate behaviors such as "doing.../doing...", but will unconditionally admit it just because you are her child, just by "yes.../no...".
So Higashi Hiroki believes that this kind of other avoidance is unavoidable in modern times = the present. In the current era of grand narrative decline, everyone's existence is nothing more than willfully drawing information from the database that they want. For this reason, if it is thoroughly refined, there will be no communication between the individuals who absorb the information. People will retrieve and connect to the small narratives that can be acknowledged to the self-image = the characters = communication, and the world where they can enjoy a frictionless sense of omnipotence will be brought into their hands. We just need to be on the social network system ah video sharing website, and people with the same values to make contact, lick the wounds of mutual recognition, happy life is good, we have to do this -
But is that really the case? This book begins with this question.
For example, the Internet community is rife with a chain reaction of violence. It is indeed the kind of space that can be retrieved to only see and listen to what you like. But even so, no, it is rather that it is because of this that people form that fragmented community and fight with each other. Political ideologies (left and right), cultural ethnic groups (トライブ) (superior people スノッブ/otaku), etc., use various reasons to divide the world and determine the membership of members - here are friends, on the outside are enemies, heterogeneous things must be excluded.
The modern world we live in, represented by the Internet, is a world where we can be offline at any time if we want to go offline from communication. So as long as we don't draw lines ourselves, this should be a free space for friend and foe not to be strictly distinguished. Even so, no, it is precisely because of this that one applies the logic of exclusion. Rather, they must distinguish between friend and foe. The kind of character that is established by acknowledging the setting of "yes.../no..." is like the 0 and 1 of digital signals and the on and off of switches, strictly distinguishing between friend and enemy. Those who admit it are friends, and those who don't admit it are enemies. In order to ensure motherly recognition as a vessel of character-like existence through the small narratives in which people live, the noise of commonality must be completely eliminated. Because of this, small narratives draw lines around the world, constantly repeating conflicts that have no end. Why? Because not doing so will make contact with other island universes, the small narrative will be mixed with noise.
The coexistence of the divided habitats that the character-type existence aspires to is expressed in the modern exclusionary community. The rise of fundamentalism and the chain of terrorist attacks, the mobilization game staged in the mass media, and the acknowledgment game that revolves around the characters in the interpersonal relationship of the same size that are being carried out both online and offline – the avoidance of the other bred by the database, through the logic of exclusion and the form of violence, subvert the world in which we live.
As long as you close your eyes and cover your ears and stop thinking, you can enjoy the pleasure of this violence without guilt, the world has been shattered, we can only live in the fragments - so the responsibility is passed on.
For example, if you take a difficult and idiotic teenage girl— a member of the opposite sex who is weaker than yourself — in the form of puppet love, you can understand this machismo behavior as a transcendent, even sublime, pure love that is pregnant with sublime love—and survive in this illusion. Or to bring self-confidence to oneself as Japanese by discriminating against Japanese Chinese and Koreans, and to treat this behavior as a deliberate and calm intellectualism that pays homage to history and tradition—and survives in this illusion. [1]
[1] For example, showa nostalgia and the Repp fantasy of the world system, "it is precisely because of such an era that it is necessary to choose specific values" = "hard to be simple" the product of self-consciousness and weakness of decision-making. This has the structure that there is a performance of "we know everything, but we are still diligent" = narrative, and the reinforcement based on "safe and painful self-reflection" is repeated, and the coexistence of splinters that excludes mismatch is completely completed. The nostalgic style in "Forever Sanchome Sunset" (ALWAYS Sanchome の夕日), and the machismo in "AIR" are all reinforced by self-reflection of "safe pain".
At a time when the sea of databases has been covered, a circuit that makes one unconscious about one's own sin and suffering has been completed. I don't know if it's happiness or unhappiness. But at least I don't think this kind of unconsciousness is ethical.
Then you have to make your ears clear, so that you can paint a different picture of the world in the interconnection of these fragments of small narratives. [2]
[2] For example, Onitomo's manga Earth Defense Boy (ぼくらの, ours) (2004-present) (translated: it ended in 2009 and is still serialized at the time of writing.) In it, a dozen teenage girls who face the modern sense of alienation, with little to no apparent reason, are suddenly appointed as the pilots of the giant robot one day, asking them to gamble their lives to fight. Based on the structure of the "world system", the interpersonal relationships of the young girls who are the protagonists are described as equivalents— about love, feelings, twisted feelings of family, and the survival of all mankind.
This is reminiscent of the setting of Evangelion (新紀エヴァンゲリオン), but there are decisive differences. In "Earth Defense Boy", by the middle of the story, it is almost clear that the unknown invaders who have been fighting are actually "human" like themselves. In fact, it is also clear that what unfolds in the drama of "Earth Defense Boy" is actually a battle royale in which the inhabitants of various worlds fight for the survival of their own worlds. After that, the story allows the young girls, as the protagonists, to start the battle to destroy other worlds for the survival of their own world.
In addition, Kurokawa's novel "The Day of the Seagull (かもめの日)" (2008) focuses on the recording studio of a certain radio program and depicts the "connection" between the people involved in the program and more people associated with it, which are not noticed by themselves. They sometimes communicate as if they were life-deciding, but they never notice it. "Seagull Day" is like a work that depicts our lives from a bird's-eye view, like a seagull walking in the sky.
Open the door——开门！
The so-called database also functions as a circuit for unconsciously exercising violence and enjoying only its results. Then we who take this happy and annoying circuit into our hands will often lose to our own weaknesses.
Humans cannot escape from the story\narrative. Even if it is not a "grand narrative" that has a foundation in the world, it is necessary to turn the "small narrative" that has no foundation in the final analysis into "weaving up what has no foundation in the final analysis, insisting on ...", "because you want to believe, so you believe". Man cannot stand the suspension of values, Kobayashi's "Theory of De-Justice" to "The Theory of War", the trajectory of Shinji Miyadai from advocating the "Lying Flat Revolution (またり Revolution)" to the shift of abandonment, from "Evangelion" who met others and was liberated from motherhood, to the degeneration of "AIR" and "The World System" that continued to consume all (consuming) weak women in the motherly enemy Trust. From the history of the disintegration of the modern subject to which postmodern literature aspires, the domestic thinking of the past two decades will be recorded as a history of the setbacks of story and narrative criticism. [3]
[3] For example, 2007 should be remembered as the beginning of a renaissance of postmodern literature. "Self-Reference ENGINE" by Motojo Tower, "The Man of the Day After Tomorrow (アサッッテの人)" by Kawajo Tetsushi, "The Ratio of My Teeth or in the World" by Kawakami Uniko (わたくし率イン歯ー、またた The "End of the Special Time We Are Allowed to Be Allowed", Okada Toshiki's "The End of the Special Time We Are Allowed (わたしたちに許された特別な時間の終わり) are all works that broadly describe the disintegration of the modern subject and have received high praise. However, although the works of the Round City Tower are symbolic, the kind of world they depict is "collapsing" has now become a premise, rather as a result of the postmodern disintegration they depict, there is a return to the present story\narrative. From this point of view, the disintegration of the subject in the broad postmodern novel lacks critical force for the animalized avoidance of the other.
Suwa and Kawakami are more conscious in this regard than Round Castle, and both explore the physicality symbolized by "sound", that is, the novel condensed as an experiment of thought about the possibility/impossibility of the disintegration of things that cannot be deconstructed even if social mobility rises (bodily nature) - elements that are reduced to this point.
As a playwright, Okada Toshiki, in "Five Days in March (March 5 Days)", he combines the instability of the world image brought about by the decisive mobilization game = battle royale and the uncertainty of the subject in the drama (talking drama), and performs it in a radical space, and his novel works and the plays after "Destination", although they successfully intercept the deep darkness and naked violence of the daily space, they still slightly absorb some cultural left-wing schema narratives.
No matter how many times you have to re-read it, one cannot escape from the story\narrative. Since the return of narrative is inevitable, this decisive mobilization game = battle royale cannot be stopped. There is no point in discussing which is better, "beautiful country" or "pride of the nine articles of the Constitution." Either way is a decision-style narrative chosen by "weaving up what is ultimately unfounded," with the weak stubbornly avoiding it and the strong taking advantage of this situation to mobilize.
What to do – as a question of society, a question of "politics", we have an answer. That is, to accept the unavoidable condition of determinationism and to choose to exclude the use of violence as much as possible in the mobilization game.
In order not to allow the games and violence they unfold to exert a negative influence on society as a whole, its rules and systems are governed—the structure symbolized by the legal system, in other words, the "environment" of the rules and systems of the mobilization of the game, controlled by social design—in other words, only by a certain "designism" to answer. [4]
[4] Here, the positions of shinji Miyadai and Higashi Hiroki, who are critical of each other (no, I don't think they are the object of mutual criticism anymore, and whose concerns are far removed from each other), are wonderfully agreed. Of course, Shinji Miyadai abandoned the "early" position of advocating a "lying flat revolution" (abandoning narrative), and went through the middle stage of advocating "hard-to-demand" Asiaticism (consciously fabricating grand narratives), which was already the "late stage" of the adjustment of attaching importance to the chaos of small narratives (battle royale). And Dong Hao Ji is already a late Dong Hao Ji whose declaration wants to distance itself from the "world system" and "Meng" theory (which I have repeatedly criticized).
They all consider this only at the stage of how to adjust the (meta-ironic) mobilization game between decision-makers. That is, think in the same dimension as Death Note and Liar Game.
Conversations with Shinji Miyadai's students on Happiness (2007), Design Incalculability (Calculating Impossibility) (Calculating Impossibility) (2007), and the novel ギートトイ by Junji Kamisei, and Thinking from Tokyo (東京から考るる), co-authored with Kitada Akira, and the novel "Thinking from Tokyo (東京から考る)" co-authored with Kitada Hideyoshi, show that both Miyadai and Higashi in these works think from a designist problem consciousness that includes their own doubts and reviews.
Of course, there are differences in the understanding of the two. As mentioned above, Higashi does not attach importance to the communication between the island universes, and Miyadai attaches great importance to this. At this point, my understanding is similar to that of Miyadai. More specifically, Miyadai, in order to train architects who are responsible for social design = elite, uses a double standard to illustrate the importance of modern enlightenment, while Higashi Hiroki proposes to automate social design as much as possible.
In order not to let the mobilization game between small narratives run wild, work the use of methods and carry out designist management - this is probably the most appropriate choice for political issues. The question is, instead, who is the designer and where to draw the line from, a subject that designism itself has bred.
But is there nothing in our own right to do as the question of life as individuals, as a question of "literature" that has fallen from there? While we expect invisible designers to moderately control the unconscious violence we exercise, we only look at what we want to see, only what we want to hear, buried in acknowledging the commonality of that role, and stop thinking about it, is that all right?—this question crosses our minds? My attitude is "no such good thing". As far as the "political" question is concerned, the decisive mobilization game, which has been presupposed into an inevitable condition, is probably unshakable. ]。 If so, can the way of life of the individual, as a question of "literature," transcend decisionism? Isn't that the biggest question about the imagination of the zero-zeros?
So while accepting the return of narrative, this book can also think about ways to obtain things like ethics. How to relieve the avoidance of the other brought about by the existence of the role, or the violence bred by the avoidance of the other? The answer to the question, which should be called "the difficulty of decisionism," is actually the theme of this book, and what is said is true.
And I wanted to explore the answer by going back to the beginning of the question.
Let's say people fall in love. Sometimes you fall in love with someone who lives in a completely different world from you. Arouse the desire to communicate with each other who are completely different from their own economic class and cultural background.
And people die. For example, the daily unchanging life = never-ending daily routine is nothing more than a worldview generated by the inability to accept death and the end and escape. Even if it is said that the role-based reality pursues the recognition of keeping itself as it is, resists maturity and change, people cannot deny that they will grow old until death. There is only one time in life, and there is no way to reset. [5]
[5] Hosoda's animated film The Girl Who Traveled Through Time (時をかける少女) (2006) is not only a masterpiece of the return of the fantasy story of youth proposed in chapter 13, but also a work with the heavy theme of "irreparable reality".
In the play, the heroine Zhenqin accidentally masters the ability to travel through time and space, so that no matter how many times she travels through time and space, she must try to adjust the interpersonal relationships around her. However, in the finale, she realizes that no matter how many times she crosses, there is something that cannot be changed, and accepts the "end" of the youth-maturity delay period symbolized by the suspended triangle relationship.
Why does this movie touch the hearts of many people? It is precisely because the person who lives in the "present" lives in spite of the fact that some part of reality is becoming "resettable" and "replaceable", no, and because of this, lives in reality, troubles, and injuries from time to time in reality, which is still defined by the "irreplaceable" part, and then constantly pursues those "irreplaceable things". The reality of the half may indeed become lighter, but the weight of the other half is helplessly increasing. Therefore, Shinji Miyadai, who underwent a decisive turn in the 00s, thoroughly criticized the "world system" and admired the "girl who traveled through time and space".
After that, the maturity in modern times is to reject the avoidance of others and extend their hands to those who are different from themselves—nothing more than from the island universe to which they belong, to other island universes.
Seriously? Is this really the only place you can go? You are always here. Anyway, it doesn't make sense, anyway, it won't be understood, so I will flee here immediately and close the door immediately. Convey your feelings to others, or understand each other's feelings, and don't do anything. Will only escape, will only be with people who are easy to understand. You say that you are free only here, but in reality, if you keep running away here, you are not free. It is always unfree. Open the door！ Open the door! If you don't, the world will always be dark.
INTERVIEWER Japan 电视剧, Gerser, Vol.10 (2006)
Indeed, we live in a world of fragments. However, in order to survive, it is impossible not to reach out to other fragments. This is especially true if you think about systems like school classrooms and the world economy, which cannot be "detached" in principle.
Open the door and hold out your hand to someone you haven't seen before—
While watching the "end"
This is a time when the world cannot answer the question of "what is the value" - as an alternative, in the modern era of unprecedented freedom, we must obtain the "meaning of existence" and survive on our own. Therefore, human beings cannot escape the re-attribution commonality bred by decisionism and the small narrative prescribed by this commonality. If we are unconsciously engaged, how can we ensure that mismatching and softness make it open in the face of the logic of exclusion that exists to avoid mismatching—the violence that attacks other island universes, separating the "inside" from the "outside"—and the small narrative that produces this exclusionary logic? This is the overcoming of determinationism that I am thinking about.
In thinking about this, in the rich imagination of the zero-zeros, there are also works that have made excellent progress in dealing with the difficulties of this "determinationism", and I must emphasize here again.
For example, in works such as Kisarazu Cat's Eye (Kisarazu キャッツアイ), He replaced the suburban space of "a world with only things and no stories" with a space in which "things and stories are filled", and charmingly depicted the model of the middle community with rich cohesion and fluidity. MuZumi was featured in the TV series version of Wild Boar Makeover (野ブタ. をプロデュース) describes the process of mobilizing capable players in the game to notice the commonality of the Kisarazu Cat's Eye style. Yoshinaga, on the other hand, pursues the model of reading transcendence in everyday communication = not denying transcendence in the daily life of the other.
They are all writers who have introduced elements such as "end" and "death". The community they depict is by no means eternal nor unique. From the very beginning, it was engraved with the words "End (Death)". Thus, the commonality of that moment only plays a function of what is irreplaceable, plays a transcendent role. Then, before the violence that advocates the existence of transcendence is conceived (the logic of exclusion functions), [this transcendence] is eliminated. By incorporating "death" and "end" into the range, the postmodern state of "only things and no stories" = "grand narratives" that do not work is reversed. This is the shift from the "endless (and therefore desperate) everyday" to the "endable (and therefore possible) everyday"—yes, precisely because we are liberated from the "grand narrative" and instead have a living world in which only stories and romance exist. At least to the extent of not despair, our daily lives are filled with rich stories. [6]
[6] For example, Hideaki Kuchi's Gintama (2004–present) was serialized in 2019 and was still being serialized at the time of publication. ) is a manga that depicts the richness of everyday life separate from history. The stage is set in an alternate world based on the end of the curtain – Not by the Americans, but by the aliens in Japan. The protagonist, Ginshi, was active as a "Shogi", but lost the battle against the aliens, and now enjoys the work of the House of Everything (a shop where you can do anything) with his friends. Sometimes his comrades in the past criticize him, but he does not care, and the story depicts their daily life with a comedic perspective.
Probably Silver Time knew. The world has lost the intimate design of "the meaning that history has given to the individual to survive (to provide romance)". So he didn't become obedient because of his defeat to the aliens, but realized that the structure of the world had changed.
However, Ginshi is definitely not obedient because "such a world is boring", he bravely jumps into the daily life of the same body and the relationship between the people who try to live in it. Although this is far away from the gorgeous stage of "history", Silver's eyes often shine. In this way, he should not resist calling the facts he has insights romantic. The "loss of romance" spoken of in the nineties is not actually a "loss of romance." Rather, it is the loss of "romantic decorations bestowed upon by the world (history)". For example, this is the case in silver, or it should not be difficult to see romance from a world where only the everyday life remains. Then, Silver Time continues its daily routine today.
There is also the novel "グレート lifeアドベンチャー" (2007), which depicts the daily life of unemployed men in their thirties and is a so-called "squatting at home" novel. However, the protagonist in the story is definitely not squatting at home because the world cannot give it meaning. It is simply a lack of strength and laziness. He didn't hate the fact that the world hadn't given it meaning. The book describes the life of being nestled in the room of a lover who has broken up and playing only games every day as the title suggests as an "adventure of a great life." It's definitely not because he finds himself "scrap wood". Rather, it is because in such an ordinary life, he thinks about life, death, past and future family every day. Just like that, the world is dramatic, the "adventure of the great life" with ups and downs.
But this lifestyle of watching end and death breeds difficulties. In Miyato's case, his worldview has even relativized "love" and "family" (importing the consciousness of "ending"), which is in the "Manhattan Love Story (マンハッタンラブストーリー)" ushered in a critical point, and it was not long before this fluidity could no longer be tolerated, and the works of "Dragon and Tiger (タイガー&ドラゴン)" and "I Am a Housewife (吾輩は主婦であある)" and "I am a housewife (吾輩主婦であある) have retreated to the point of relying on traditional communities, as previously said.
How to open up this tipping point, how to face "end" and "death"? This will probably become one of the subjects of imagination in the 10s.
From "small narratives without mismatches" to "small narratives with mismatches"—just as the trial and error of how to undo the returning communal violence that arises from decisionism has finally found the theme of "death," the unfolding of the social reflectionist imagination that at first glance corresponds to the Heisei Depression and the Koizumi Reforms points to orthodox, and therefore to the question of universality. And these universal problems will continue in the future. Precisely because we have correctly grasped the changes unfolding at an overwhelming rate, or exposed the universal structures, the unfolding of the imagination of the zero-zeros, is a flow of problems that expose the nature of the world in which we live, exclude the superfluous things, and reduce them to universality.
In modern times, publicity cannot ensure transcendence. "The meaning of existence" or the "need to acknowledge" is something that all people can only replenish by acquiring a community (or moving to another community) while repeating communication and trial and error. At first glance, it seems like a cold world. What is right and what is value, history and the state will not answer. But instead, we get the world free. In the past, there were gods, and obedience and resistance all reflected the grand benchmark (narrative). And now, we can believe in the god we like at any time, and we can give up on Him at any time. It can be said that the environment of self-thinking and trial and error is still improving. By the way, I really like this (perhaps cold) world of freedom.
Thus, in such a world, the method of surviving without relying on the violence of decision-makingism to which people are easily caught up = no mismatched small narratives has been explored by the imagination of the zero-zeros. While watching the "end", the transcendence is insightful in the instantaneous connection, moving between the plural stories – and the imagination that assumes the next era will probably begin here.
From love to friendship, from family to quasi-family
Finally, let's talk about the future. What is said from now on is nothing more than a hunch. But because it's just a hunch, there may be a possibility here. What I am introducing from now on is such an imagination that reaches out to the future.
The TV series The Last Friend (ラストフレンズ) (2008), written by Myoko Maeno, is in a sense the epitome of the "imagination of the zero-zeros". This work depicts Michiru And Kawa muneyoshi, who grew up together under the love of their parents, and Kawa Muneyoshi, opening the story with a depiction of the interdependence of the two people.
Munakata hopes to reunite with Michiru to restore his lost family. He prayed for the realization of the "fatherhood" that Michiru, who was portrayed as a weak person on both the social and spiritual levels, would be able to achieve. "Let the two of you live together," Soyo whispered to Michiru. However, this interdependent romanticism of Zongyou is flawed due to his own unconscious violence. Unable to control her possessiveness towards Michiru, Munakata eventually begins to restrict her movements. Yes, character-based reality (world system) cannot allow for the mismatching of small narratives (decisionism).
So Michiru leaves Munakata— and the ones who take her in are her friends Kishimoto, who lives together in a shared house, and the slow-paced community of these friends.
The focus of the story finally shifts to the triangular relationship between Michiru and Koko, as well as the young Xiaowu who is about to enter a shared house. This triangular relationship is quite wonderful. Michiru falls in love with Xiao Wu, but the sexually impotent Xiao Wu is unable to respond to this feeling, and Xiao Wu's beloved Xiao Wu is also unable to respond to Xiao Wu because of gender cognitive impairment. Michiru, for whom Ayako has a homosexual love, is heterosexual, and her feelings cannot be reached - describing a triangle that can never be completed.
The triangle is actually connected based on a very ambiguous relationship. Although Michiru thinks that Ryo is an important being, she cannot fully respond to Yuki's 100% feelings. Similarly, the relationship between Yao Ke and Xiao Wu, Xiao Wu and Michiru is only one side holding 100% feelings, and the other party responds in an incomplete way. But— or because of this, they are able to avoid the kind of possessive trap that Zongyou fell into—the trap of world system = determinationism. Not the 0-1, black-and-white relationship, but the gray ambiguous slow-paced relationship—the last friend amply affirms the possibility of such an ambiguous relationship.
From the interdependent romanticism of "0 or 1" (world system = decisionism) to the ambiguous relationship between the three or more, the trajectory depicted in "The Last Friend" can be said to be the trajectory of the imagination of the zero-zero years described in this book.
For example, Ai Yazawa's NANA (2000), which can be used as a synonym for the 00s girls' manga, clearly depicts the tragedy of a community of three or more people supported by friendship that resembles a homosexual atmosphere, and is lost because of the interdependent relationship symbolized by love. In addition, Chika Haumeno's Honey and Four-Leaf Clover (ハチミツとクローバー) (2000-2006) depicts the space in which the main characters are connected through the "unrequited love" of the whole team, and the suffering of youth born of this fragility, which has gained great support.
The revival of Junichi Watanabe such as Kyoichi Katayama's "Calling for Love in the Center of the World", "Paradise Lost", and "Exile Land of Love", the repe fantasies of the world system such as Kanon and AIR, and the Korean drama "Winter Love Song (冬のソナタ)" – it is not an exaggeration to say that the 00s used interdependent romanticism in the name of pure love to open its curtain.
Then, NANA, Honey and Clover, Kisarazu Cat's Eye, Wild Boar Makeover, The Tale of the Wife, Western Antique Fruit Shop– from "Love" to "Friendship" in the 00s, from "Only You" to "Everyone", although a little bit, did lift the decisive violence bred by interdependent romanticism. "The Last Friend" is the result of this deconstruction and reconstruction.
And I looked at this story for its ending. At the end of the story, Munayoshi commits suicide after regretting his violent behavior against Michiru, who leaves Munakata's child behind. Then, Yuke and Xiaowu reached out to michiru like this—the three of them raising the child together.
Yes, that gray triangle—ambiguous, definitely less than one hundred percent—is intertwined, and because of this, the slow-paced and comfortable triangle is recaptured at the end of the story as an imitation family for raising children.
If one considers this matter—the zero-zero imaginations, precisely because their similar ambiguity is something that can be destroyed in an instant,'" acquire transcendence (portrayed as such a relation) —then this ending is probably one step beyond the line.
Michiru says that she wants to try it out in this relationship until it can —yes, they are uneasy too. But they still took that step. Calm, but also a step worth fearing. [7]
[7] Manga artist Kazuhiro Kaneda is the main character of "拟拟 family". "热带 Rainforest Laughing Life (Jungle Is Always Hare no Chigu)" (1996-2001), "Astroberry" (2003 to now? ), Works such as "Chicken Party" (2003-2006), Kaneda Ichito's portrayal of Kazuto Kaneda, family-like exchange 恢复, metas "Nicoichi" (2004) 则岁岁 female dress habit man Kakuta Japanese and other-style takashi, lover Na-Tsumiyuki's bizarre system, at all, it is a family that is independent of the ikuko of the one-of-a-kind work.
Towards a (somewhat free, full of possibilities) future
From the family (what is given) to the quasi-family (what we choose), from the dependence on a single narrative = commonality to the communication that can be continued to multiple narratives, from the endless (and therefore desperate) everyday to the (and therefore possible) everyday life that watches the end—for those of us born in modern times, transcendence is not endowed from the world and the times. Rather, it is something that individuals grasp with their own strength in their daily lives. I am afraid that even if the times change, this fact will not be changed.
This book has been tracking the changes in the imagination generated by the stories of the zero-zeros. But if it were just to sort out the changes in five or ten years, this book would not have been written for so long. To sort out this change is actually to portray the existence of universal problems that even the changes of the times cannot escape, and I have written these for this reason.
Human beings are weak. Traveling east and west because of the small changes in front of you will have the illusion that you have come into contact with the essence of the world and have encountered the decisive changes in history. However, this illusion is half right and half wrong. So I quoted "Serenity Prayer" at the beginning (ニーバーの祈り)".
"Please give me the calm acceptance of the unchangeable, give me the courage to change what should be changed, and give me the wisdom to distinguish what can be changed and what cannot be changed" – Reinhold Niebuhr. ）
The famous Twentieth-century American theologian Reinhold Nieb, who survived the transition from the postwar period to the ongoing Cold War, survived as a "Christian realist (prophetic modernist)" and influenced a large number of theologians and politicians. Niebüll was also tasked with surviving the complex veins of politics and literature and drawing an auxiliary line in his notebook. Although this is my imagination, isn't the era in which Niebuhr lived also a period of transition of values, an era when the previous social image has become invalid and difficult to integrate? This is also a period of preparation for the upcoming re-composition of the social image.
In the future, I am afraid that it will be five or ten years, and the stories of the decorative era will undergo earth-shaking changes. When it comes to changes in values and the difficulty of integrating the previous social image, people are afraid that they will first squat at home, and then (no, it should be said that on the back) easily choose a very gentle and sweet (forced to choose, decisive) narrative for themselves, the weak are unconscious, the strong are conscious, in order to obtain that legitimacy to violence.
But at this time, we should try to recall the trajectory of our imagination in the past decade. We do not live in a "never-ending (and therefore desperate) everyday", but in a "daily life with an end (and therefore full of possibilities)."
The wisdom to be able to discover this is metaphorically what Niebull prayed to God. But, I think, it should be something that I reach out and grab. It is impossible for the world to give us anything, whether it is the right value or the meaning of survival, it can only be explored by ourselves.
However, there is no need to despair about this world. In parallel with the above, freedom is expanded. As long as you want to do it, you can have as much as you want. At least to this extent, the world we live in is both free and full of possibilities.
Original author: Tsuneki Uno
Translation: Hood
Proofreader: Haruka Mikō
For learning purposes only, the translation is reproduced based on the welcome specification published by CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Rooftop Japanese Corner provides proofreading collaboration help, welcome to join rooftop Japanese corner for volunteer translation!
Aspirants are welcome to join or contribute private messages (translations or originals): [email protected]
Translators gossip:
Finish sprinkling flowers. To put it simply, individuals (Haruka Mikō) feel that Uno's era diagnosis is quite sharp (decisionism, maternal enemy trotopia, is indeed a concept worth thinking about), for example, it is very trendy, quite a few examples have not been animated at that time and then animated; but the solution given is a bit naïve, the so-called daily romance of equal size, why can't it be dissected with Foucault-like discourse and micro-power theory? Where can we find this ideal of an intermediate community that does not produce a malicious relationship of power domination between each other? Even as a unified idea in the Kantian sense, the degree of unity it can evoke and the degree to which it solves the difficulties encountered in daily life is questionable. In the concentrated lecture notes translated next door, there is an ironic article called "Revolutionary, Too Revolutionary" (or too transcendent), then Uno Tokihiro is the day, too much life - the day itself looks good, but don't forget that there is a fragile political and economic foundation (or environmental system) behind the day, and for Japan, there is no daily romance that is not historical and naturally available to you. For more opinions, wait for a special interview later, and then have time to do a translator's small talk essay about this book.