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About ThisNameLies
 Death Note for Dummies I'm tired of people thinking the point of Death Note is "go write people's name in a notebook to kill them", "asking if capital punishment is just", "an ethical debate", and/or "meant just for entertainment." Don't claim things are overrated unless you understand them first. Note that my observations will be based only on the anime. I'm also tired of people saying that the second season was pointless, it was meant to mirror something else, I'm aware people are entitled to their own opinions but it's really getting frustrating seeing how some unreasonable people are interpreting 2+2=5. As Light said it, "Like they would understand... what fools!" (sardonic) Death Notes ARE REAL. Death Note as a real book Death Note = A Hero of Our Time (Sense the irony?) Death Note = Death Poem + Suicide Note "A death poem (辞世の句, jisei no ku?) is a poem written near the time of one's own death. It is a tradition for literate people to write one in a number of different cultures, especially in Japan." "A suicide note is a message left by someone who later attempts or commits suicide." The writer of "A Hero of Our Time" died after writing it in a situation similar to that described in his book. Also remember how Near made an exact copy of the Death Note at the end even thou it could have been unnecessary in the storyline. "On July 25, 1841, at Pyatigorsk, fellow army officer Nikolai Martynov, who felt hurt by one of Lermontov's jokes, challenged Lermontov to a duel. The duel took place two days later at the foot of Mashuk mountain. Lermontov chose the edge of a precipice for the duel, so that if either combatant was wounded, he would fall down the cliff. Lermontov was killed by Martynov's first shot. Several of his verses were posthumously discovered in his notebook." The writer's Death Note... if you touch it you'll be able to see who the Shinigami are. Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it, history is repeating itself... I'm pretty sure the Authors of these two works are thinking the exact same thing. "The preface is the first and at the same time the last thing in any book. It serves either to explain the purpose of the work or to defend the author from his critics. Ordinarily, however, readers are concerned with neither the moral nor the journalistic attacks on the author--as a result they don't read prefaces. Well, that's too bad, especially in our country. Our public is still so immature and simple-hearted that it doesn't understand a fable unless it finds the moral at the end. It fails to grasp a joke or sense an irony--it simply hasn't been brought up properly. It's as yet unaware that obvious violent abuse has no place in respectable society and respectable books, that education nowadays has worked out a sharper, almost invisible, but nevertheless deadly weapon, which behind the curtain of flattery cuts with a stab against which there is no defense. Our public is like the person from the sticks who, overhearing a conversation between two diplomats belonging to hostile courts, becomes convinced that each is being false to his government for the sake of a tender mutual friendship. This book recently had the misfortune of being taken literally by some readers and even some reviewers. Some were seriously shocked at being given a man as amoral as the Hero of Our Time for a model. Others delicately hinted that the author had drawn portraits of himself and his acquaintances . . . What an old, weak joke! But apparently Russia is made up so that however she may progress in every other respect, she is unable to get rid of foolish ideas like this. With us the most fantastic of fairy tales has hardly a chance of escaping criticism as an attempt to hurt our feelings! A Hero of Our Time, my dear readers, is indeed a portrait, but not of one man. It is a portrait built up of all our generation's vices in full bloom. You will again tell me that a human being cannot be so wicked, and I will reply that if you can believe in the existence of all the villains of tragedy and romance, why wouldn't believe that there was a Pechorin? If you could admire far more terrifying and repulsive types, why aren't you more merciful to this character, even if it is fictitious? Isn't it because there's more truth in it than you might wish? You say that morality will gain nothing by it. Excuse me. People have been fed so much candy they are sick to their stomachs. Now bitter medicine and acid truths are needed. But don't ever think that the author of this book was ever ambitious enough to dream about reforming human vices. May God preserve him from such foolishness! It simply amused him to picture the modern man as he sees him and as he so often--to his own and your own misfortune--has found him to be. It's enough that the disease has been diagnosed--how to cure it only the Lord knows!" In one sentence, the author found the world a horrible place to be. The writer talks about an invisible weapon that education has created, that is the Death Notes. Cast and Events Ryuk = Narrator/Yanko Light Yagami = Pechorin L = Grushnitsky Justice = Misa Amane/Kiyomi Takada/Sayu Yagami = Princess Mary/Bela/Vera Mihael Keehl = Kazbich Nate River = Azamat What Mello and Near wanted = Karagyoz Teru Mikami = Werner Soichiro Yagami/Tota Matsuda = Maksim Maksimich Naomi Misora = Mermaid Raye Penbar = Blind Boy Anti-Kira Group = Everyone Else The crime Light helped solve = The Fatalist L Arc = Princess Mary FBI Arc = Taman Mello/Near Arc = Bela Ending = Maksim Maksimich Ryuk's conclusion = Introduction to Pechorin's Journal Light/Kira and Pechorin "There are two men in me--one lives in the full sense of the word, the other reasons and passes judgment on the first. The first will perhaps take leave of you and the world forever in an hour now; and the second . . . the second?" Remember L said that they cannot catch Kira if it is an entity that travels from person to person, well seems like it really is traveling between fantasy and reality. Light/Pechorin and L/Grushnitsky Gurshnitsky "My friend, I hate men in order not to despise them--otherwise life would be too disgusting a farce." Pechorin "My friend, I despise women in order not to love them--otherwise life would be too ridiculous a melodrama." The author probably hates men and despise women... Light and L are probably also metaphorical to the ethic struggles within one person, meaning they are the same person. Schizoid personality disorder and Asperger's Syndrome are closely related where Schizoid is more of a choice of not wanting to socialize with others, Asperger's is more of an inability(it is a type of Autism) however people with Asperger's can learn to socialize fairly well, however that is only appearances, another one of those internal struggles between how to choose your appearance to other people. If L won then the writer probably wouldn't have written such a story in the first place as Grushnitsky was not in the rest of Pechorin's story. Reason L/Grushnitsky died "'Fire!' he replied. 'I despise myself and hate you. If you don't kill me, I'll stab you in the back some night. The world is too small to hold us both...'" He despises himself because he knows himself too well, that why he hates men to avoid knowing them. Also the author mentions half of Light/Pechorin's soul died. Light/Pechorin and L/Grushnitsky might both have different halves of a soul. Light/Pechorin's Past "Yes, such has been my lot since childhood. Everyone read signs of non-existent evil traits in my features. But since they were expected to be there, they did make their appearance. Because I was reserved, they said I was sly, so I grew reticent. I was keenly aware of good and evil, but instead of being indulged I was insulted and so I became spiteful. I was sulky while other children were merry and talkative, but though I felt superior to them I was considered inferior. So I grew envious. I was ready to love the whole world, but no one understood me, and I learned to hate. My cheerless youth passed in conflict with myself and society, and fearing ridicule I buried my finest feelings deep in my heart, and there they died. I spoke the truth, but nobody believed me, so I began to practice duplicity. Having come to know society and its mainsprings, I became versed in the art of living and saw how others were happy without that proficiency, enjoying for free the favors I had so painfully striven for. It was then that despair was born in my heart--not the despair that is cured with a pistol, but a cold, impotent desperation, concealed under a polite exterior and a good-natured smile. I became a moral cripple; I had lost one half of my soul, for it had shriveled, dried up and died, and I had cut it off and cast it away, while the other half stirred and lived, adapted to serve every comer. No one noticed this, because no one suspected there had been another half. Now, however, you have awakened memories of it in me, and what I have just done is to read its epitaph to you. Many regard all epitaphs as ridiculous, but I do not, particularly when I remember what rests beneath them. Of course, I am not asking you to share my opinion; if what I have said seems ridiculous to you, please laugh, though I warn you that it will not annoy me in the slightest." Shows signs of Asperger's Syndrome. Light/Pechorin's Motivation "Can it be, thought I, that my sole mission on earth is to destroy the hopes of others? Ever since I began to live and act, fate has somehow associated me with the last act of other people's tragedies, as if without me no one could either die or give way to despair! I have been the inevitable character who comes in at the final act, involuntarily playing the detestable role of the hangman or the traitor. What has been fate's object in all this? Has it destined me to be the author of middle-class tragedies and family romances--or a purveyor of tales for, say, the Reader's Library? Who knows? Are there not many who begin life by aspiring to end it like Alexander the Great, or Lord Byron, and yet remain petty civil servants all their lives?" A reference that the author does not really like writing. "I am very glad of it, for I love enemies, though not in the Christian way. They amuse me and quicken my pulse. To be always on one's guard, to catch every look and the significance of every word, to guess intentions, foil conspiracies, pretend to be deceived and then to overthrow with a single blow the whole vast edifice of artifice and design raised with so much effort--that is what I call life." Bipolar Disorder... Reason Light won't make the deal/Why Pechorin won't marry "I'd make any sacrifice but this--twenty times I can stake my life, even my honor, but my freedom I'll never sell. Why do I prize it so much? What do I find in it? What am I aiming at? What have I to expect from the future? Nothing, absolutely nothing. It's some innate fear, an inexplicable foreboding . . . After all, some people have an unreasoning fear of spiders, cockroaches, mice . . . Shall I confess? When I was still a child, some old woman told my fortune for my mother, predicting that I'd die through a wicked wife. It made a deep impression on me at the time, and an insuperable abhorrence for marriage grew within me. And yet something tells me that her prophecy will come true--but at least I'll do my best to put off its fulfillment for as long as possible." He likes freedom, probably a sign that the author hates school. Children believe almost anything their told. "Though I am always ready to risk my life, I am not disposed in the slightest to spoil my future in this world for all time to come." Light's/Pechorin's view of people "That is just like human beings! They are all alike; though fully aware in advance of all the evil aspects of a deed, they aid and abet and even give their approval to it when they see there is no other way out--and then they wash their hands of it and turn away with disapproval from him who dared assume the full burden of responsibility. They are all alike, even the kindest and wisest of them!" He believes all humans are the same. Teru Mikami's/Werner's interference and Light's/Pechorin's true plan "You'll spoil everything; you gave me your word you wouldn't interfere . . . And why should it concern you? Perhaps I want to be killed." Probably where reality and fantasy meet, the author might have knew what would happen later when he wrote this. Light's/Pechorin's boredom "Ah, well! If I must die, I must! The world will lose little, and I am weary enough of it all. I am like a man who yawns at a ball and doesn't go home to sleep only because his carriage hasn't come. But now the carriage is here--goodbye!" Boredom seems to be as bad as death for some people. "Although boredom is often viewed as a trivial and mild irritant, boredom, and especially boredom proneness has been linked to an amazingly diverse range of psychological, physical, educational, and social problems." Light's/Pechorin's last thoughts "Why have I lived? For what purpose was I born? There must have been a purpose, and certainly fate must have something noble in store for me, for I am conscious of untapped powers within me . . . But I didn't figure out my destination. I allowed myself to be carried away by the temptation of vain and frivolous passions. I emerged from their crucible hard and cold like iron, but gone forever was the ardor of noble aspirations--life's finest flower. How often since then have I played the role of an ax in the hands of fate! Like an instrument of execution I have fallen upon the heads of the condemned, often without malice, always without regret . . . My love has never made anyone happy, for I have never sacrificed anything for those I loved; I have loved only for myself, for my own pleasure. I have striven only to satisfy a strange craving of the heart, greedily absorbing their emotions, their tenderness, their joys and sufferings--and have never been fully satisfied. I have been like the starving man who falls into a stupor from sheer exhaustion and dreams of luxurious foods and sparkling wines--exultingly he shovels in these ephemeral gifts of the imagination, and seems to feel better--but when he awakes the vision is gone . . . and redoubled hunger and despair remain!" Signs of remorse, feelings of worthlessness of being unable to do anything for anyone. Is aware he is selfish but believes it is human nature like hunger, necessary. Also a reference on escapism contrasting with reality, making reality seem worse than it really is. Hero or Villain? "Perhaps I will die tomorrow, and there won't be anyone left on earth who understands me fully. Some think of me worse, others better, than I really am. Some will say: he was a good fellow; others: he was a scoundrel. And both will be wrong. Is it worth the trouble to live after this? And yet you go on living--out of curiosity, in expectation of something new . . . How ludicrous and how vexatious!" People weren't meant to judge each other, as no one can completely understand an other person. Depends if you're a realist or a romantic. The last sentence seemed like he went from romantic to nihilistic. I find that he was neither either as I'm nihilistic myself, sometimes I wonder why I even try to understand other people's ideologies... maybe because I don't have any of my own... Death Note and The World Death Note controversy People's Republic of China Some schools in Shenyang, People's Republic of China have banned the manga after some of their students started to tease friends and teachers by altering a notebook to resemble a Death Note and writing their names in them. The newspaper Shenyang Night Report called Death Note "poison, creating wicked hearts". One major Chinese newspaper felt that the ban is an overreaction and is inappropriate. Beijing also has a ban on "horror stories" around schools to protect the "physical and mental health" of students, which includes local adaptations of Death Note. China itself is likewise trying to weed out pirated copies of the books and television series, as well other Japanese horror magazines, where no legal publication house prints it. Wang Song of the National Anti-piracy and Anti-pornography Working Committee has said that the series "misleads innocent children and distorts their mind and spirit". Belgium On September 28, 2007, two notes stating "Watashi wa Kira dess" (a more phonetic spelling of 私はキラです or "Watashi wa Kira desu," meaning "I am Kira" in Japanese) were found near the unidentified remains of a Caucasian male. Nothing was found on or near the victim besides these two notes. Belgian police are investigating the matter further. United States A senior at the Franklin Military Academy in Richmond, Virginia was suspended after being caught possessing a replica Death Note notebook with the names of fellow students. In South Carolina in 2008, school officials seized a Death Note notebook from a Hartsville Middle School student. District officials linked the notebook to the anime/manga. The notebook listed seven students' names. The school planned a disciplinary hearing and contacted the seven students' parents. The principal, Chris Roger, sent letters to all the students' parents saying "Regardless of the origin of the book, we take the situation very seriously. The safety of our school family is always our top priority. We treat situations like this the same as if a student called in a bomb threat or brought a weapon to school. While there may not be any serious intent to do anyone harm, we cannot and will not take that chance with our students. We will take all steps necessary to ensure our students' well-being." In Gadsden, Alabama, two 12-year-old sixth grade boys were arrested for possessions of Death Notes that listed names of several staff members and fellow students. According to Etowah County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Lanny Handy, the notebook was found the previous afternoon by a staffer. The students were suspended from the county's schools. The students, their parents, and school officials had met with Handy and a junior probation officer. In Gig Harbor, Washington, one middle school student was expelled and three were suspended on May 14, 2008 for having their own Death Note books. A father of one of the students said that the notebook was "an outlet for frustration from about two years of bullying." My thoughts on it Is Light a criminal? Writing into a notebook knowing someone will die from it. It's metaphoric that writers can be potentially more dangerous than serial killers. Are criminals meant to die? Metaphoric to people who can't tell fantasy from reality and really do get "killed" by a book. The people who pretend to be Kira, metaphoric to those in reality that think they can judge others even thou they just write the names of everyone they don't like without even knowing anything about them. The people living in fear of the Death Note is metaphoric to those in reality who see what fantasy can cause and banned it. The media is really like the Kira followers in the book, their blindly following it's popularity without knowing it's underlying message. The Shinigami are those in reality that do not even care what effect fantasy can cause on people seen as they just write for the sake of living forgetting their original purpose, notice how their all have notebooks and are like writers, Ryuk being one of the few exceptions. The people who are against Kira are those in reality who cannot see that Death Note serves as a reminder to those indulged into fantasy not to take it too seriously even thou it is a fantasy in itself(as capital punishment is a reminder not to commit murder even thou it is murder in itself). And finally it's ironic that the writer of Death Note is really like Light that found the Death Note some day dropped by Ryuk and is writing into the Death Note with no guidelines on how he should use it, he is capable of judging people he haven't meet by their reactions to his book through the media, he's doing evil to do good, he might have been the ideal person to find it, he's even using another identity, is able to give people the reactions they expect, pretends to be L and reminiscent of L after being the one to kill him in his book. L saw that it really could have been divine judgment, but no person should have the power to judge others. Another controversial book "The Sorrows of Young Werther was Goethe's first major success, turning him from an unknown into a celebrated author practically overnight. Napoleon Bonaparte considered it one of the great works of European literature. He thought so highly of it that he wrote a soliloquy in Goethe's style in his youth and carried Werther with him on most of his campaigns as an adult. It also started the phenomenon known as the "Werther-Fieber" ("Werther Fever") which caused young men throughout Europe to dress in the clothing style described for Werther in the novel. It also led to some of the first known examples of copycat suicide; supposedly more than 2,000 readers committed suicide." First generation cosplay. I find it hilarious that writing the cause of death is literally related to copycat suicides, as the copycats literally do exactly as the book tells them to. The writer might of found this power amusing so he included it into his Death Note. Shinigami's true purpose "Romanticism is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Industrial Revolution. It was partly a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature, and was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature. The movement stressed strong emotion as a source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror, and the awe experienced in confronting the sublimity in untamed nature and its qualities that are "picturesque", both new aesthetic categories. It elevated folk art and custom, as well as arguing for a "natural" epistemology of human activities as conditioned by nature in the form of language, custom and usage. Our modern sense of a romantic character is sometimes based on Byronic or Romantic ideals. Romanticism reached beyond the rational and Classicist ideal models to elevate medievalism and elements of art and narrative perceived to be authentically medieval, in an attempt to escape the confines of population growth, urban sprawl and industrialism, and it also attempted to embrace the exotic, unfamiliar and distant in modes more authentic than chinoiserie, harnessing the power of the imagination to envision and to escape." I can't help but feel a lot of modern writers have forgotten their purpose or never learned of it as a lot of what I can find seems to be rather pointless. No wonder Ryuk seemed depressed seeing how everyone around him didn't seem to care, a romantic in a world full of realist... "Realism in the visual arts and literature is the depiction of subjects as they appear in everyday life, without embellishment or interpretation. The term is also used to describe works of art which, in revealing a truth, may emphasize the ugly or sordid." The reality in Death Note/The source of the writer's ideas Death Note Fantasy: A black note book that can kill a person with his name and face. Reality: A story capable of forever changing a person's life with the image of the person it targets. Death Note language for Death Note users Fantasy: What Light learned after obtaining a Death Note. The code used between people that know of the existence of Death Notes that L, an outsider, cannot understand. Words include Shinigami, and showing each other their Books. Reality: The metaphorical language used between writers. The writer's language used in his story and what I'm explaining here and most people don't seem to be aware of the power of writing. Words are as listed for this story, each story needs to be figured out individually. How to use Fantasy: Instructions on how to use the Death Note Reality: Instructions on how to write a story that has a potential to kill people. How it works Fantasy: The Death Note works in ways unimaginable to fulfill what is written, the default is a heart attack, a natural cause. When the Cause of Death is written it'll be fulfilled if possible. If what is stated is impossible it'll go back to the default to fulfill the Death. Reality: The power of writing works in ways unimaginable to fulfill it's intentions, the default is natural changes in the target's life that are unnoticeable unless you're aware of it. If what is wanted is stated than it'll happen if it is possible. Targeting Fantasy: You need to have a name and an face of the person in order to kill them. Reality: As writers to have the image of the person's character in order to target them with it. Controlling Fantasy: The person does exactly as the book depicts. Reality: Some person does exactly as the book depicts. Death Note did a good job as some people are actually writing names into a notebook they made. Effect Fantasy: In the case of Death Note, death. Reality: Changes the lives of the targets, for better or worse. This Explains it Perfectly. Ironically it has the same illustrator as Death Note. Recognition Fantasy: You need to own a Death Note and have Shinigami eyes in order to see who else has one. Reality: You need to be knowledgeable of the literature used to see it. Many Death Notes Fantasy: More than one Death Note, the writer even went though the trouble of having two different Death Notes with differently written titles on the Death Notes and a reference of using English as a common language for writing the rules and stating not all Death Notes come with a "How to use" page. Reality: Other stories out there that can cause invisible but noticeable effects on people, some well known examples are: The Sorrows of Young Werther, Neon Genesis Evangelion, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, The Day After Tomorrow, A Christmas Carol, Romeo and Juliet, and The Bible. There are many more, I don't read a lot so these are all I can think of at the moment. Secrecy Fantasy: Hiding of Death Notes, most people using it for their own interest. The guy that used it on his business rivals. Most people not sensing it other than those that search for the Death Note like the Anti-Kira group. Reality: As few know that the power of writing most people that have one would probably use it for their own interests. The stories that target specific groups of people mostly politics. Most people don't notice those, other than those that know what writing can cause, they probably hate Death Note. Time needed Fantasy: There is a forty second gap between writing and it's effect, if the cause of death is written, the writer will have to wait for it to take effect. Reality: There's time needed before the story will take the intended intentions, if what is wanted is written than the writer will have to wait for it to happen as written. Death Note immunity Fantasy: All people with a name and a face are subjective to it's effects, therefore those without a proper name cannot be affected. Reality: The people that the power of writing cannot affect are those with their identity destroyed, monsters. Fake identities Fantasy: People using fake names won't be affected as it'll miss them. Consequently as someone with the same name which the writer also has the face of will be killed. Reality: People pretending to be someone else won't be affected as the writer would have the wrong image of the person. Consequently someone with the same image of the person the writer is targeting would be affected. Ownership Fantasy: Very vague as the owner is the first person that touches it after it was discarded, however it can be shared and even given to others, however that would mean dividing it, with less space to write on affecting less people per person writing. Any person that can write is capable of owning and using one, making any person capable of killing. Reality: Vague as well, as the owning is credited to the first person that creates it, or finds the idea after it was discarded. It can be shared and even borrow from others however it would mean dividing it's power as the people will notice the same idea if seen over and over. Any person that can write convincingly is capable of having the power of writing to alter other's lives. The main character Fantasy: Light, receives a Death Note stolen by Ryuk from some other Shinigami. Reality: The writer of Death Note, reads a book by Lermontov borrowing the concept of a Byronic Hero from Lord Byron. Light's Death Note Fantasy: The only difference between Light's Death Note is he made it clear that he was using it against criminals even thou he became one himself. Also note how his was the only one with a "How to use" page. Reality: The writer is targeting delusional people but has become delusional himself. Notice how only his story comes with a description of the Death Notes. Human stupidity Fantasy: Took them a while before they realized someone was killing criminals. "No matter how stupid people are someone will eventually notice that someone's targeting the criminals." Reality: Do people still not notice that some delusional people are actually making fake Death Notes and are being targeted by a book? I guess China might have saw his true plan and banned it, I don't know about the other places yet. It's funny how the people who are actually right are those that they think are giving an "overreaction and is inappropriate." Light telling people his plans Fantasy: Light tells L of his real plans after L started suspecting him as being Kira and that he wanted his position, that made L unsure of his own suspicion because someone that's guilty won't confess their own plans unless it was already proven. Reality: The writer wrote down all of his plans so that the viewers won't suspect him of actually being the Kira in his own story and that he has done to reality what he has done in his story. It also makes myself unsure is he's trying to do what I think he is. Light's self-deception Fantasy: He forgets from discarding the Death Note and he keeps himself from discussing his own morals. Reality: The writer might not even fully notice his own plans, it is interesting how he can write a story of all his plans without even recognizing them, the human mind works in ways that are unpredictable. Shinigami Fantasy: Most Shinigami don't even care about the effect the Death Notes have on the human world. Ryuk, Rem, and Jealous being a few exceptions. Reality: Most writers of the past don't seem to care what happens as a result of their work. There are however some that do seem to plan what happens, either that or I'm just not a fan of realism. Shinigami's immortality Fantasy: Shinigami cannot be killed by normal weapons, and cannot be seen by those that haven't touched a Death Note. Reality: True writers write stories that cannot be oppressed by force, their influence cannot be seen by those who haven't witnessed the power of writing. Death of Shinigami Fantasy: They write for someone they care about or their time runs out from not killing too long. Notice the life spam of the person killed is added to the Shinigami's life. Reality: They writer states who the story is about, or their work is forgotten from having no readers. Notice once a reader reads the book and gets "killed" their life spam is added to the writer's. Only L could have stopped Kira Fantasy: L's was the only one in any position to stop Light, but L lost. L did leave a lot of clues for his successors to stop Light. Reality: Only the writer could have stopped himself, however the L in him died. He left more than enough clues about himself to be stopped. X-Kira Fantasy: Someone that received his Death Note from Light and helps him with his plans. He ends up ruining his plans in the end because they both wrote Kiyomi Takada into their Death Note. Reality: Someone that learns of the power of writing from his Death Note and writes his own story. It'll end up ruining his ideologies as they'll both have a common factor in their stories. If you can't see who X-Kira is you must be blind, which story appeared almost the same time as Death Note and is extremely similar? Light's communication with Teru Mikami Fantasy: Light uses code to find who he's looking for. Reality: The writer was looking for someone to understand his story and write another one from it. Unseen Kiras Fantasy: The owners of Death Notes that do not show up in the show. Reality: People that know that writing can potentially kill people and use it for their own ends. Light's position as L Fantasy: Light gets watched over by the very people that are against him and cannot talk about his plans out loud. Reality: The writer cannot openly announce his motivation for writing his book, as it'll offend pretty much everyone. Light's sanity Fantasy: Light is slowly going insane after losing L, he wished to be stopped as the Kira in him is winning. Light's going against himself, as he's killing criminals as a criminal, and against using the Death Note as a Death Note user. Death Notes drive their users insane eventually unless they discard them. Reality: The writer senses he is slowly going insane, he didn't really want Death Note to be popular. The writer has written a story that targets delusional people while he is delusional, and criticizes other writers, even thou he's a writer himself. Probably mirroring another book he read called "Crime and Punishment". Death Note owner's death Fantasy: The only serious Death Note users are the insane ones that write until their deaths. The Shinigami will write the names of the owners of Death Note at the end, if they haven't discarded their Death Note, into their own Death Notes and the owners of the Death Notes will go to neither Heaven or Hell as they'll become Shinigami until they die as Shinigami. Reality: The serious writers write well thought out stories even thou it will eventually drive the writers insane unless they stop writing. The writers that die while still writing will have their deaths written by the Shinigami they got their book from. Near and Mello stopping Kira Fantasy: They work together to stop Light a few years after L's death. Near ends up causing Light's death with the help of Mello and using X-Kira. Reality: Some people that will eventually see enough of the writer's plan and fly from America to Japan to track the writer down and kill him after exposing all of his plans and finding X-Kira in an intellectual dual, as the law has no power over him. I guess he really was bored when he wrote his Death Note. Irony Fantasy: As seen Reality: Will be All of this "Death Note for dummies" Fantasy: A lot of random facts trying to put together what Death Note is about for the illiterate. Reality: My Death Note, better hope that you're not it's target. The people involved discover the existence of Death Notes Fantasy: Those who touched the Death Notes still see the Shinigami, what they do with it after is up to them as Light did his part. Reality: A few years from now when reality catches up to fantasy, those who know how dangerous writing is will have to decide what to do as the writer has done his part. The Ethical Debate THERE IS NO ETHICAL DEBATE "Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor exact truth, but in the way of feeling." "Many intellectual historians have seen Romanticism as a key movement in the Counter-Enlightenment, a reaction against the Age of Enlightenment. Whereas the thinkers of the Enlightenment emphasized the primacy of deductive reason, Romanticism emphasized intuition, imagination, and feeling, to a point that has led to some Romantic thinkers being accused of irrationalism." Why are people debating over something that's been debated for over centuries? Notice the pun on Light's name and Enlightenment? Why the meaning of Death Note CANNOT be said by the writer "Anti-intellectualism describes a sentiment of hostility towards, or mistrust of, intellectuals and intellectual pursuits. This may be expressed in various ways, such as attacks on the merits of science, education, art, or literature. Anti-intellectuals often perceive themselves as champions of the ordinary people and egalitarianism against elitism, especially academic elitism. These critics argue that highly educated people form an isolated social group that tends to dominate political discourse and higher education (academia). Anti-intellectualism can also be used as a term to criticize an educational system if it seems to place minimal emphasis on academic and intellectual accomplishment, or if a government has a tendency to formulate policies without consulting academic and scholarly study." "Populism is a discourse which supports 'the people' versus 'the elites'. Populism may involve either a political philosophy urging social and political system changes and/or a rhetorical style, deployed by members of political or social movements competing for advantage within the existing party system." "Popular culture embraces a sentimental image of the clown; writers reproduce that sentimentality in the jester, and academics in the Trickster." Notice in the ending song, Light claimed to be a trickster and called the world fools(jesters). Do people still not see why the point of Death Note cannot be said in public? Here's a sentence from my Death Note, "the little brown compact handbook": "In some cultures it is considered unnecessary or impolite for a writer to have an opinion or to state his or her main idea outright." Real anti-intellectuals can tell who is and who isn't. Intellectuals just assume nonintellectuals against intellectualism are anti-intellectual, they are just being manipulated by one. As anti-intellectuals are partly intellectuals themselves, their not fit to work together. "Anti-intellectuals often perceive themselves as champions of the ordinary people" because they literally are, like Light and L. Through intuition, the term anti-intellectual is like the phrase anti-hero, it is through intuition that other anti-intellectuals can know that it implies anti-intellectuals are also intellectuals, and not all anti-intellectuals hate intellectuals. Otherwise they could just use the term non-hero instead. Anti-intellectual does not mean nonintellectual. Also it helps understand terms that can be created such as anti-police and anti-criminal. Anti-criminal would be a better term to describe Light than criminal. L and Light are both anti-intellectuals against each other. No one has the right to take another life, everyone knows that, but what to you do to someone that has taken that right? Light decided to become the one to take full responsibility for everything. It's a trade off of life, kill one save a thousand, save one kill a thousand. Various other Examples of the three group's relation: Nonintellectual <> Intellectual <> Anti-intellectual Feeling <> Reason <> Intuition Time-Traveller <> Alien <> Esper Crimson Denizens <> Lords of Crimson Realm <> Flame Haze Britannia <> Suzaku <> Lelouch Beastmen <> Anti-Spiral <> Spiral Histrionic <> Avoidant <> Dependant What I used (deconstruction) Read the link if you want to know what it is, notice it shares many of the same ideas as Death Note, do these phrases remind you of anything? "Derrida (whom older professors often think of as 'the enemy')" "The other person is always absent from any merely rational system." "Sometimes we may be unsure of what is effected, though we are sure that there are effects." "You have to pay the price to read the price displayed." "Some take it as a sign of his genius and others as a sign of his derangement." "Without a kind of obscenity, one could not write about one's mother and her death" "Asks the most adventurous and the most risky questions about our tradition, about our institutions, about our way of teaching, and so on." "About what we have forgotten and, perhaps to our peril, ignored." Signs of another anti-intellectual. History will repeat itself if things continue as they are. Follow this anti-intellectual's words if you wish to avoid it - Albert Einstein: "Imagination is more important than knowledge" "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods." "Let every man judge according to his own standards, by what he has himself read, not by what others tell him." "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." "Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." "Only a life lived for others is a life worth while." "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." "The only real valuable thing is intuition." "Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding." "It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity." "If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" "Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing." "Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts." "The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm but because of those who look at it without doing anything." "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning." "Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them." "No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it." "I have no particular talent. I am merely inquisitive." "It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer." "Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it." "Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized." "If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." "Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking." How many people can see that he regrets it? How many people know what "it" is?(The letter he wrote. My guess on the writer's identity Imagination vs Knowledge: My guess is the writer of "Monster", Naoki Urasawa. He probably used another name and got someone else to do the illustrations so it wouldn't be so obvious. Just a guess... My reasoning... Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, for those that watched "Monster", Johann Wolfgang von Geothe was a German writer, the writer of "The Sorrows of Young Werther" and what Monster was loosely based on. The monster's favorite name was "Johan". Monster's story was based on "Faust"(A classic German legend), Johann Wolfgang von Geothe wrote his own version of "Faust". Another origin for the name could be Johann Georg Hiedler, Adolf Hitler's grandfather. General Wolf - Adolf Hitler's nickname was "Wolf". Adolf Hitler used a Death Note, "'Mein Kampf' (English: My Struggle/My Battle) is a book by Adolf Hitler. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's National Socialist political ideology. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and volume 2 in 1926. Another controversial book." "Monster" and "Death Note" share many of the underlying messages. Johan was able to make children suicide in "Monster", look at what "The Sorrows of Young Werther" did. In Monster, they discussed that writers can have many different names and how a writer can turn themselves into a fictional character. Monster was probably Death Note's beginning. They also discussed that if you become obsessive you'll just be able to know that the stories belong to the same person. Runge's way of solving a mystery was to become the suspect and the only way he was able to track down Johan was to follow a completely fictional trail. L:"Because I'm childish as well." Conclusion After using deconstruction on Death Note, to explain it in one sentence it is: Death Note is literally about writing(writers) causing deaths. Seems like Light really did make the world fools. The writer did a good job relating his fantasy and reality into his book with a lot of metaphorical references. I'm just amazed how many people miss such an obvious point. The populism in Death Note is already beginning... you can also see X-Kira's influence... 2006 Hungary 2007 Georgia(1) 2007 Georgia(2) 2007 France 2007 Great Yarmouth 2008 Tibet 2008 China If you think I'm crazy here's my defense, they thought Tenma was crazy because he saw Johan, even Runge thought Johan was Tenma's split personality. Johan and the monster, the entity that travels from person to person. The monster that borrows people's identities and destroys it with reality, the same as Kira, the by-products of Death Notes... not even the Shinigami know all the secrets of it. Death Note immunity is also known as psychopathy, think about the rest yourself...
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