Well, this is the second time I'll have to type up this post... 'coz my computer decided to eat it. Well, mot my computer, really. I'm using my grandmother's office computer and that's the reason I accidentally deleted my entry. I'm not familiar with this keyboard... that's my story, I'm sticking to it so nya!
Oh well, this post is regarding the story "
Snow, Glass, Apples" by Neil Gaiman. Well, we were talking about how methaphysics entails looking beyond the surface "reality" of things. An I think that Neil Gaiman's story is an excellent illustration of looking beyond the surface. He presents a different take on the "wicked stepmother" and delves into the "what if". What if she had good reasons for doing what she did? What if she really wasn't the villain in the story?
Well, I've never really been content with most non-anime cartoons because the villains in most of them are evil simply because they are. There is no complexity involved and reality isn't that simple. Take the story snow white, for example. The evi
A pic of the wonderful Juri
scanned from an artbook by the
wonderful person who manages
ohtori.nu
l stepmother decides to do away with the princess because said princess is prettier? I mean, come on! What happened to them killing the current heir to get the throne for themselves. That reason, I would have accepted but for something as superficial as beauty? Evil for the sake of having someone to be evil. Of course, it really wouldn't do to have the viewers sympathizing with the wicked stepmother. And look at their portrayal of Snow White! infinitely nice, infinitely kind even the furry woodland creatures flock to her (not to mention conversing with a well and the well replying). It's just not real. Their characters are too clean cut. I prefer the intricate and often times confusing stories involved in Anime (not that there aren't any silly Anime series, there are may of those pointless stories out there but the good ones I stumble upon more than make up for the disastrous flops and fanservice fests.) More often than not, you'd have fans sympathizing with the supposed villains of the story. Take the series Revolutionary Girl Utena for example, Every single character there is so complex that if not for the insistent focus on Utena herself, you wouldn't know who the hero(ine) of the story was. (Yes Utena fans, even Akio, Saionji and Touga) Well, every single character is complex and if you take the time to look it up on google or something, you'd get flooded under the sheer number of character analyses available. That is because the story lends itself to interpretation. Each character has their own reasons for their actions and people can find themselves relating to these characters and more often than not they relate with characters other than the protagonist (Personally I sympathize with Juri ^_^ Juri-samaaaa.)
Well, the main thing I learned from Anime and what Gaiman's story bring forth is the fact that people are complex creatures with many hidden depths and although it's easy to say that he or she does something because he/she is either "good" or "bad" things are never that simple. People have reasons for their actions. They have perfectly valid reasons for what they do. And if there is one thing I've learned from my Critical Thingking and Law professors, it's that validity has nothing to do with right or wrong. The concept of right and wrong is highly subjective, at least that is what I believe.
There was a discussion in philosophy class a few days back where we were talking about wisdom and my prof said that a part of wisdom is the ability to know and act on what makes other people happy. But I realize that that is practically impossible. With our varied experiences and backgrounds we can never really know what will make the other happy. More often than not, we act based on what WE know and what WE believe is the right course of action but sometimes that isn't what the other person wanst or what they need. Because of this, arguments and misunderstandings arise. I think that it is important for us to realize that people seldom do things for the sake of being malicious and that there is usually a reason behind their actions; reasons that they believeare right though we may not accept or understand those reasons. Chances are that they think we're wrong based on their own reasonings.
If we take a bit of time to think on this, I think we'll be able to keep from hating the person. We'll be able to distinguish between not liking the person and not liking his actions...
Well, that was as preach as my doomed first draft so I'll have to lighten it up like i did the first. Here is a fun quote still in the theme of looking beyond the surface appearance of things:
Because you have to wonder: how do the machines know what Tasty Wheat tasted like? Maybe they got it wrong. Maybe what I think Tasty Wheat tasted like actually tasted like oatmeal, or tuna fish. That makes you wonder about a lot of things. You take chicken, for example: maybe they couldn't figure out what to make chicken taste like, which is why chicken tastes like everything.~ Mouse from The Matrix.
