Responsible Citizen of the Floating World

           Change can be a wicked adversary. Change can also be catalyst for new opportunities. As the end of this school year comes to an end I cannot help but feel forlorn about the past, however beneath is hope for the future. I am currently about to end my junior year of college at the California State University, Chico. Chico is situated comfortably between the Sierra Nevada and Pacific Range in Northern California. It is a beautiful town where the seasons have turned, spring to summer, and the charged atmosphere of change surrounds the students. The feeling is only compounded because several of my friends are graduating. As my friends move on they will become citizens of the floating world. An English teacher of mine, Mr. Burton, wrote a book titled, Artists of the Floating World. The book analyzes four authors who provide poignant views on the “Floating world.” Professor Burton expands on different aspects of the floating world, “A major premise of this book is that, because larger blocs of the world’s population than ever before are in a constant state of dislocation and movement, the experience of floating has become an increasingly common one.” (Burton Preface) 

              As people experience the floating world they are thrown head long into the churning waters of the unknown. As cultures converge and collide the people of the world must decide what narratives will shape their lives. Professor Burtons explains in his book that, “A narrative, most literary critics agree, is a meaning-making activity, a highly deliberate rhetorical construct. It is a way we give shape to the world around us and the world of our experiences.” (Burton 37) So as my friends graduate they will begin the journey threw the floating world. They will be faced with the question: How do you become a responsible citizen if the floating world? They will make decisions as to what narratives they will let shape their lives.

               This semester I was introduced to two authors who share differing views on the floating world and the narratives of life. The first book I read titled, An Artist of the Floating World, was written by Kazuo Ishiguro. The book is about an old artist, Masuji Ono, who is stuck between the past and future of Japan post WWII. The Second book I read is titled, Jasmine, written by Bharati Mukherjee, Her book is about an Indian immigrant’s desperate need to escape her past. Both authors offer vastly different views on how to navigate in the floating world. 

                 In Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, An Artist of the Floating World, the main character Ono is experiencing a paradigm shift. The novel is set in post World War II Japan. Ono experiences inner conflict over whether to accept the new westernized Japan or to cling onto the old imperialistic Japan.   

                 Ono’s struggle is most easily understood through his dealings with those younger than himself. In one instance he is thinking about his son-in-law and others of his generation, “These days I see it all around me; something has changed in the character of the younger generation in a way I do not fully understand, and certain aspects of this change are undeniably disturbing.”(59) Ono’s displeasure with the younger generation mirrors how he feels about the shift from Japanese to western culture.  

              Ishiguro uses another character, the Hirayama boy, as an analogy to Ono’s situation. The Hirayama boy is a man with the, “mental age of a child.”(60) He is known throughout Ono’s town because he wanders the streets singing patriotic songs.  This was not a problem before the war; after the war it is a problem. The Hirayama boy is beaten up for singing these songs. Ono cannot comprehend why someone would beat up a mentally handicap person singing old songs. Ono’s lack of comprehension shows that he has not come to grips with the end of the old imperialistic Japanese paradigm. To some extent Ono is the Hirayama boy.            

                 After showing Ono’s having a hard time grasping the younger generation, it should be pointed out that as the story progresses we see Ono coming to terms with his past. Ono actually faces up to his mistakes concerning the war, “As far as I am concerned, I freely admit I made many mistakes, I accept that much of what I did was ultimately harmful to our nation, that mine was part of an influence that resulted in untold suffering of our own people.”(123) He goes on to say, “I am not afraid to admit I was mistaken.”(124)

                   Ono is not some vigilante wishing for the days of the old empire. He is willing to admit his mistakes. Some would say that older generations can never fully accept a paradigm shift. Ono sees the changes, acknowledges his past mistakes and is willing to make his narrative one of adapting, changing with the times, accepting the future, not clinging to the past. In some part he placates for his family, for future generations.