#Kosaku and the others are built different I guess

[oddingram]

[sparklyjojos]

Do you think JJN makes a dichotomie between religion/faith and science/logic? With Dio+Pucci on one side and Kars+Jorge on the other?

(oh wow, that’s a deep question I didn’t expect to get, thank you anon)

I wouldn’t say it’s a clear-cut divide.

On one hand, you could look at the novel and say that there’s a dichotomy, that the narration glorifies logic and isn’t favorable to religion/faith, especially organized religion (I mean… Dio Jesus… the mothman-related mass suicides and other events with people blindly following what they believed in felt like a biting commentary too).

But on the other hand, I really don’t think there’s a dichotomy or conflict between faith and logic in this book, as much as they seem to carefully interact and support each other. The conflict is more about how humanity’s drive to find out How Stuff Works or Why Does X Happen, which propels both science/logic and religion/faith, is not bad by itself, but can lead to very, very bad things, especially if the correct premises lead to wrong conclusions. As in, believe what you want, but even then please don’t forget to fact check. And maybe don’t restart the universe because some vampire dude dressed up like Jesus.

(read more for super long thoughts on faith vs logic, a whole lot of tangents – like, half the post’s a tangent – and me rambling about this book’s concepts of Faith and Meaning and Stories and pretty much trying to explain What I Think This Book Is All About. Also Terry Pratchett’s there for some reason.)

JJN is built around the concept of the Beyonds, which are pretty much personal gods shifting the universe’s narrative to theirprotégé’s favor. They do exist, and the one character who’s unflinching in his faith in them from the start and taken for delusional by other characters, Tsukumojuku, is the one who’s ultimately right. English Jorge survives specifically because he listens to him and starts believing in his Beyond. But also Tonpetti’s prophecies hold true, Kars confirms the existence of souls, and almost everyone and their uncle in the English Jorge part are presumably Christian, though they may not be particularly practicing. When Pucci uses the Bible to interpret the phrase ”fig tart” to mean Kars, this interpretation is true.

So, point number one: faith is not something that’s bad or wrong by itself, or something that only the antagonists have.

Science and logic is found on both sides, too. Pucci is an astronaut, after all. For the chapter or so when Funnier Valentine’s around, he’s the logical, calculating villain with a spaceship and a gun, who ultimately gets defeated by some emotional teenager who struggles with basic algebra but is burning with spirit.

Kars is a bit complicated, because while he sure is a lot more on the logic/science side of the equation, he also appreciates the human tendency to make up stories, and their not-very-logical drive to care about one another. He’s actually super quick to start believing in the Beyond, too, pretty much as soon as he sees Jorge’s memories. But then again he also often chastises other characters for believing in things, so… I guess he’s just being the usual mess of a person that he is. I’ll come back to him later in the post.

(a tangent, but now that I think about it… one of the things I love about canon Kars is that he’s put firmly on the “nature” side in the nature vs science conflict (most obvious when he fights cyborg Stroheim), though he’s sort of a scientist on his own. The striking thing about JJN Kars for me was that not counting that one paragraph where he has wings, he *never* transforms using animal parts. It’s all very machine-like. I wonder how it relates to him being away from Earth life for so long, and his character development.)

—

Now, the thing about Japanese Jorge is that he connects both of these things: logic and faith.

He’s a detective, someone who thinks deeply and analitically about the world, connects facts, always searches for the logical solution to a problem, and is “doubtful by occupation”. Even his favorite genres seem to be mystery and SF. He doesn’t seem to be a follower of any religion. [EDIT 26/12/17: I may have fucked up here – now I remember Jorge yelling “Namu-Amida-Butsu!” near the end of the book, which may suggest him being some sort of Buddhist.]

But he’s also the one to believe that everything has meaning, that everything happens for a reason, and that various events are the universe’s signs for him (well, they are, but he doesn’t know that Beyonds are a thing at that point). He argues with Rohan that mere synchronicity is not a thing, that the random connections are never random. He’s the one to say that Light Dancer Kars’s “fake, meaningless” existence does in fact have meaning when our Kars is baffled as to why. This situation repeats with parallel Kosaku – when Jorge is happy that Kosaku could protect his family, Kars asks “Why are you so hang up on a fake man from a parallel world?”.

Maybe there is a sort of a logic/faith conflict between the teams of Kars&Jorge and Dio&Pucci (though in the end it seems to be more like “logic+belief” against “ignorant belief”)… but there is also a bit of a complicated logic/faith conflict between Kars and Jorge themselves, at least when it comes to the Meaning of Things.

Possibly because of Jorge’s deep belief in that meaning, and because as a happily adopted child he understands that being “not fully the real thing” doesn’t actually matter, he seems to be pretty much immune to existential angst from the very start. Especially when compared to the walking talking Existential Karsis by his side. What’s Jorge’s answer to Tsukumojuku asking: what if you’re the fake one, a copy, a substitute, not the true detective, not the true Jorge Joestar?

Fine, I’ll be the fake, whatever. Your friend, this other Jorge Joestar, he can be the real one, it’s cool. Ha ha ha. It won’t change who I am. Why should I care?

Have I mentioned that I love Jorge yet? I love Jorge.

—

The book goes strong with the idea that Everything Has Meaning – in part because we give it meaning, because it’s a human thing to do. We like to, perhaps need to think we have an important role to play, that we’re a main character in our own story, that everything happens for a reason, and maybe even that there is something up there looking out for us. If we were to rely just on cold dead logic, what appeal is there to life? There has to be a deeper meaning. Whatever it is for us personally, it’s important. Faith is important, sometimes even in completely improbable things. As Penelope said:

Really crazy things happen in this world. And if something this crazy can happen, miracles, dreams, hopeless desires… all of those things might come true, too.

Still, searching for this meaning, for the connections between events, may turn destructive, especially when connected to strong emotions like fear. When the people on La Palma fear that the dreadful night from years before may happen again and thus “create” the Mothman, when Pucci clings to the belief that the metal plate that killed his family had fallen from space – even if it wouldn’t be physically possible – because it fits the narration in his head, when English Jorge and Lisa Lisa create a monster simply by expecting a monster to exist, they fall victim to the human tendency to make up stories, string the events of our lives into a narration, and expect new events to follow that narration.

And yet, for all their “side effects” – for all the confirmation bias, and maladaptive defense mechanisms of some Wounds, and being prone to manipulation – we need to have stories, and to see our own meaning in them.

As English Jorge learns, to believe in Beyond means to believe that you are the main character of your own story. And that means you aren’t helpless, you don’t have to lie down and wait for others to save you. You can break out of the locked room made by your own fear. You can act, and your actions matter.

— 

Having meaning is so important to us, that if what you thought was your meaning is taken away from you, it’s deeply terrifying. Even Tsukumojuku is unsettled when his Beyond leaves him. But he’s perfectly fine when he understands hiss role in the Beyond’s plan, even if it’s a grim one.

As for characters who couldn’t deal with loss of their meaning that well, we have two different alternate Karses who’d been told they and their worlds are fake. One of them (the single braid one) turns his shock and fear to wrath and rampages through the world, thirsty for blood of Funny Valentine, yelling “So you’re the one who created this world? I did not give you permission, and I will not allow it!”, a roundabout way of expressing “if I don’t matter, I’d rather not exist at all”.

The other is the Light Dancer Kars. After discovering he’s not “real” and doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, he intends to commit suicide. But just seconds before it, he stops, and instead dances. He makes a mandala out of light, and tells our Kars and Jorge that he understands why he’s been clinging to life for so long, and that he can see our Kars is not special and feels the same sadness that he does (which begs the unsettling question: could this mean that our Kars, and the entire loop of universes from the novel, are all fake as well, though maybe a little closer to the “true” universe than the Light Dancer’s world is? Probably not… though it’d explain the disrepancies between the book and canon, and would actually be a fitting plot twist). At the end, the Light Dancer tells our Kars to rejoice in his suffering, or even: to rejoice because he may suffer.

Our Kars is lost in thought after that. Something unsaid has happened between the two, some sort of quiet understanding. You could argue how it influenced our Kars, and Jorge for that matter. Even if our Kars is doomed to forget the Light Dancer minutes later via Bites the Dust… there still was a point to the Light Dancer. Maybe because Jorge remembered him. Or maybe solely because he existed. He had meaning, even if logically he shouldn’t have mattered.

And the mandala that the Light Dancer makes, his overall attitude, and the possible reference to the First Noble Truth? That’s some heavy Buddhism influences. And thus we wrap around to the “Kars is on the logic/science side and not at all on the religion/faith side”, and say, well… maybe not that one particular Kars.  [EDIT 26/12/17: also, all Stands of Our Kars have three heads and six arms, and Jorge notes they look like Ashura statues]

But our Kars is not all that very logical himself. Just like in canon he’s still a massive hypocrite. For all his talk about how utterly stupid and deadly exposing himself to outside forces during atmospheric entry would be, he sure has no problem doing exactly this and almost dying mere kilometres away from Earth, just to save three humans he’d known for all of four hours, seemingly without any reason other than “just because he could”.

After all, this is the kind of a guy who’d launch himself into a rock wall and bounce off it several times like a pinball just so a bunch of tiny, short-lived, meaningless flowers may live just a little bit more. And then he’d go play the cold calculating chessmaster who doesn’t care about anyone or anything.

And that’s why we love him.

—

If I had to sum it up, I’d point to what Funny Valentine says after revealing Jorge is a Singularity.

Feel free to doubt as you like. You thought a while before answering, right? Do as you always do, and don’t let those wheels stop spinning. I don’t want you to have faith in me. I want you to have faith in yourself. I want you to believe that there is no one who can take your place.

Think critically, but still have faith. Have faith, but still think critically.

And that is it, pretty much.

—

—

(and now for something completely different)

I joked before about how Pratchett-like this book gets at times just because of narrativium and weird names (“Darlington Motorize” is only a step away from “Adora Belle Dearheart”, and don’t let me get started on “The Funniest Valentine was the first person in history to be named The”). But it also really did feel like I was reading something that came from the same place as Hogfather, with similar commentary on the nature on humans as story-telling animals and their burning need for both logic and faith, and giving meaning to things around them.

(And supernatural beings gaining life solely because you believe in them. And physics-breaking powers working simply because they seem like something that would work in a story. And a protagonist facing the villain armed with just a fire poker and the sheer power of belief. And–)

I’m mentioning this because I thought about some cool Hogfather quotes to end this post with, to show what I think may also be a theme in JJN.

Also just because I can and if you haven’t read the Discworld novels, then what are you doing with your life.

HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.“Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—”YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.“So we can believe the big ones?”YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

.

“Now… tell me…”

“WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU HADN’T SAVED HIM?

“Yes! The sun would have risen just the same, yes?”

NO.

“Oh, come on. You can’t expect me to believe that. It’s an astronomical fact.”

THE SUN WOULD NOT HAVE RISEN.

(…)

“Really? Then what would have happened, pray?”

A MERE BALL OF FLAMING GAS WOULD HAVE ILLUMINATED THE WORLD.”