accomplished
coldSo, I was thinking about Hibari and Mukuro, and their philosophical or symbolic furniture, and figured I’d better scribble it all down before it got away.
Poking at the way Hibari changes over time, it seems to me that he’s got two major influences in what we might call his philosophy or mind-set: Naturalist and Traditional. These are my own terms for them, of course.
The Naturalist aspect is the ‘nature red in tooth and claw’, carnivore/herbivore, survival of the fittest or at least rule of the strongest gig that is his stronger influence earlier on. For a high-profile example of how this philosophy manifests in modern Japan, look up Fukuzawa Yukichi.
The Traditional aspect shows up in his devotion to the school, tendency to wear his school uniform exclusively, and later in his design of his Foundation, and tendency to wear kimono at home. All of these suggest an investment in the values of form and conformity, and, as time goes on, in the aesthetics of wabi and iki.
Pause for translation: Both of those are pretty broad concepts, and Hibari is nothing if not selective in how he adopts Traditional ideas, so let me gloss the aspect of wabi he seems most engaged with as “the beauty of imperfections that arise from a thing being what it is” (e.g. liking a corny anthem because, well, it’s the school anthem and those are pretty much supposed to be corny). I would not say he’s much into the “humility” aspect, for example. Iki is usually translated as “refinement”, which is fine as far as it goes. Getting into the further connotations, I’d say Hibari is most engaged with the aspects of simplicity and what we might call “perfection of manner”, witness the classically sparse arrangement of his future quarters.
These things don’t actually contradict each other, provided we assume Hibari is at the top of the food chain, which Hibari clearly does assume.
And then we have Mukuro. Mukuro draws on the concept of Samsara, Buddhist flavor, the cycle of reincarnation through the Six Realms. To have been through this cycle is not an unusual thing to claim, but remembering each life and being able to draw on the nature of each realm certainly is. Despite having all those strengths at his beck and call, of course, Mukuro is clearly not enlightened, has not escaped the cycle. Indeed, based on his current life’s emotions and actions, he’s probably bound straight for Hell again.
The human state is, however, supposed to be the one from which enlightenment can be best achieved, and I find it very interesting that, after his fight with Tsuna, Mukuro starts using a new signature illusion: lotus flowers. Those are one of the prime symbols of enlightenment. An illusion of a lotus has some rather curious connotations, too. On the one hand, Buddhism does suggest that the world around us is, indeed, illusion, from a spiritual point of view. The illusion of the lotus could be the very purest expression of this, showing that all the symbols of this world we use to explain enlightenment are inadequate. It could just as well be the ultimate symbol of Mukuro’s denial of enlightenment.
I suspect we won’t be able to resolve the ambiguity until we find out what Mukuro’s new agenda really is.
hiccuping with laughter
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writing_101 if you want.
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iffiff for the help, but I am still so confused (not your fault hon...this is just vexing me)!! ARGH!
happy*staring at the info book translations*
Okay. So, when the KHR info book came out, the timeline set ‘current time’ in the middle of Our Hero’s second year of Namimori Middle school, and their ages are given as (for the most part) 14. To be more precise, 13/14, given Kyoko’s age.
This… actually does match up. I kept seeing their ages set at 15, and was wondering how on earth they could be first and second years in middle school and still be 15; that’s the age for a high school first year.
But, no, it looks like the times are not screwed up, and, indeed, these characters are middle school students.
And, theoretically, Hibari’s age is unknown, but it doesn’t seem in character for him to stay in middle school when he should properly be in the high school range, so he’s probably only a year older than they are, if that, and this is going to make my futurefic for Dino/Hibari a bit more difficult to set.
*makes small ‘argh’ sounds*
optimisticI never updated on the situation with my parent's heating issues did I? Well, the first quote they got for replacing the system was £5000. My dad actually agreed to this, then changed his mind once the guy had gone. Guess who had to chase around cancelling it? Yeah, my mum. ¬_¬
Anyhow, I did have a talk to my dad - well, as much of a talk as you can have with someone like him. His first words to me on asking about it were 'it's not cold' and I told him 'That's not the answer!'. ¬_¬ He did get the message eventually though. I don't think he was too happy, but at least he hasn't started accusing my Mum and Brother of turning me against him. (As I told my brother the other day, they need me to stay 'best friends' with my dad so that there is someone he will listen to when he goes off on one like he does.)
My Mum then started doing the runaround to see if they were eligible for financial help with getting the system replaced. She was given the runaround a fair bit and told no quite a few times, but eventually they were told yes and they are eligible for a grant of £2700 through the government's Warm Front scheme. They have to have the system fitted by the company that Warm Front says, but at least then they shouldn't get cowboys. ¬_¬
The only thing is that it's probably going to be a few months until it all goes through, but at least it IS being done. Fortunately their current heating system is limping along and my mum says no-one is to touch it on pain of death, in case they mess it up. ^_^'
Actually, I think my dad may have realised that it may be a good thing to get a new heating system because with no heating system there is no hot water for a bath. At least when our heating went on the blink a few years ago we could use the immersion heater to get hot water. They don't have one so with no heating they are SOL for baths. Well, my dad would be. My Mum would have been able to go to my brother's house. XD
sick