Bounce with it....bounce with it

Newton’s third law of motion, that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, is a preface to the existentialist movement. As Newton describes an object in motion, Nietzsche and Kierkegaard described a mind in motion, without boundaries. The existentialist movement which passed through French philosophers such as Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sarte around the mid-twentieth century would open eyes widely especially from a religious standpoint. Existentialism is the idea that every individual creates the meaning and essence of their life, as opposed to a deity or higher being that has control over the individual. Existentialists tend to focus on the human existence, therefore placing all responsibility on the individual, and any action they have shall inevitably return to that individual. This is the case in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Artist of the Floating World, where our protagonist Masuji Ono is in limbo somewhere between his past and his present.

Ono turns out to be quite a dynamic character throughout the novel, as we find out more and more about him as his feels the need to pass on information. On one side of the story Ono holds his head high and is a proud individual, proud of the way he has lived his life and the accomplishments he has achieved. Alternatively as we move further towards the end of the novel it appears that everything that Ono, our narrator, is spoon-feeding us may not be the extent of the truth.  Ono is obviously flustered throughout the story with events in his past, most powerfully the events during the great war. As an artist, Ono is compelled to let out his feelings, through his fingertips and onto the canvas, it is the essence of an artist to be able to transform emotionally charged energy into a tangible product. Ono however is facing the problem that he has left behind much regret in his past, and he is unable to escape the feelings of guilt and remorse.

Ono’s work transformed as did both his life and the lives of everyone around him. As wartime took precedent propaganda paintings were needed, and paintings of Geishas learned as an apprentice to Master Moriyama would have to be saved for a time of peace and tranquility. Ono’s actions find there way to come back and haunt him later in the novel, but much of the damper in Ono’s life is his own doing. It is the continuous beating in his head that brings Ono down not the Americanization that he is so fearful of throughout the novel. Ono was not a huge militaristic leader, instead he was a naïve artist in search of something to grasp onto, which he found in the Japanese culture that has built him up since childhood through his days of drinking and it is his now in his elder years that he goes back and tears himself apart for swaying with the wind in a time of global conflict.

It is the clouded mind of Ono that disrupts his continuity and not some larger force. Although there was much change in Ono’s life, it was his actions and decisions that led him to be the man living in Akira Sugimura’s house on the hill with the commanding view. Ono will be stuck with his miserable mindset unless he is to actually do something about the way he feels and not mope around in distress about how things could and should be different. It is quite possible that accepting what he does not want to accept would be the best way to flip his clouded mind.