Apr 28, 2015
It's 10 pages. Go read it now and then see below, because this is a very metaphorical, allegorical story and thus it appears vague or abstract.
Kaoru Fujiwara has a way with her stories. She always prods the psychological - there's always an inherent implication - she impresses a point that she wants to make that may even breach into the taboo. This story has nothing taboo in it. It's probably not even a story as such.
It's almost like a dream-scene, but it's pretty much like a premonition...
It's a comment, possibly a critique of the age, of humanity, of evolution even...
I am sharing my
...
analysis below to get people intrigued by this 10-pager. It is basically what I've also posted in the forum discussion. I would love to hear from you guys what you think and your interpretations. :)
#SPOILER#
It has a lot of references. Did you go read? Did you notice?
The notable ones are:
1) The Tower of Babel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel): "Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them." - Genesis 11:4–9
- The new language of man is technology. The industrial age first, and now the robotics age, and man's dreams and ambitions leading him to achieve the "utopia" of artificial intelligence fused with "humanness". A utopic world never exists, because it is inherently dystopic... it is a paradox. (He also looks downwards when he mentions 'heaven'.)
- Here, the robots are building the Tower of Babel. hahahaha! ingenious! The robots are the ones with the united language now. But there's the possibility that it's shifting perhaps.. and that's why maybe the play with the Leaning Tower of Pisa which was "a design that was flawed from the beginning."
2) Zephyros and Chloris from Botticelli's 'Birth of Venus' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus_%28Botticelli%29)"She is blown towards the shore by Zephyrus - god of the winds - and the breeze Aura, while a Hora of Spring stands on dry land poised to wrap a cloak, decorated with spring flowers, around Venus to cover her nudity."
- The angels at the end, were the same. I'm not sure of the exact meaning here, but in the painting, they were pushing Venus to the shore. It's about giving birth, but it could also be winds of change... ultimately, in Botticelli's painting, it appears that Venus was the purity before sin (before she became Eve - the implication with the garb that she would be clothed into shame).
3) Zeno's Paradox of Achilles and the Tortoise (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno%27s_paradoxes): "In a race, the quickest runner can never overtake the slowest, since the pursuer must first reach the point whence the pursued started, so that the slower must always hold a lead. – as recounted by Aristotle, Physics VI:9, 239b15"
- Heaven also takes a step forward, and thus, you can never really reach it, you can never catch up. And with humanity, there's no "leaving"... there's no stopping. They will keep evolving, keep moving, keep changing.
The stairway to heaven is just that, it's a stairway that never ends. There are so many doors and the more we progress, the more doors open (more languages, more split, more layers).
There's definitely something about the character design though. What's that headcloth ear-covering? What's the reference here? Is he a Messiah?
I can only engage with the translated version. I believe what I read was a fairly good one. I don't know if there were any puns intended when Japanese was being used. I'd love to know though.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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