Analytical Essay on 'The Most Dangerous Game'

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Reading, The Most Dangerous Game

Outline:

Literature: The Enigma of Amigara Fault written by Junji Ito

Parameters:

Appeals through our feelings- reading is dangerous because it greatly shapes the person’s mind as he traverses into every word and meaning through his feelings. In reading, we exposed our minds to different profound ideologies and perspectives about life that intend to interest us and change our current state of mind. It is one of our greatest weaknesses when we let our feelings and emotions control us.
Metamorphosis of our minds- It plays with our minds and eventually succumbs into it as we dive deeper into the experience. Sometimes, those experiences can lead to massive changes; can be either positive or negative. Metamorphosis can sometimes be irreversible which leads to a more serious case if that metamorphosis leads to a negative change of a person. It is the conversion of man that is dangerous in the part of reading. The change will solely depend on the ideas and knowledge inside it.
Diverts us from the truth of life- Reading plays a big role in the development of the person because it fills the spaces with knowledge and understanding into the mind. The downside is, reading materials should be right. Right in a sense that it needs to cultivate and introduce the truth of life to a person not the other way around because as Brodkey has mentioned, this process might produce a monster. A monster that is away and detached from reality.
Shapes our judgment of reality- A product of reading is also a man’s judgment of reality. A person may not be reliant on himself but to the knowledge of what he had learned. Although it is a good effect if you think about that, it greatly diminishes based on what kind of knowledge did he learned about that, What is his interpretation? What truly is the idea that the reading is trying to share? Moreover, if the case is a negative type of knowledge it causes the person not to realize what is the difference between the truth and the untruth of himself.
Provides a sense of style and things- In the process, reading let people copies and introduce ideas and style he can apply and in his everyday life. It also depends if the book is good to classify if the sense of style and thing is good not only in a person’s life but also in the society because remember, metamorphosis can work also in a large-scale.

Intention of Critical Essay: Exploratory

Critical Essay:

What specific reading, literature, or writing from books, letters, or even social media that you regret reading because you find it dangerous?

This is about the story of a fault that drove people into insanity. It begins with the protagonists venturing out into the Amigara Mountain after an earthquake to find human-shaped holes at the fault that they saw on a TV report. Somehow, people are unnaturally drawn into these holes. Desperate to find their holes as if they have the feeling that the holes were created for them to enter. This leads to protagonists experiencing panic, crisis, and even nightmares as they dove deeper into the psychological horrors that these holes are acting on the people including them. It is between the urge; as the victims refer to as the calling of their holes to enter, and knowing that once they entered it is only the matter of being trapped and their limbs, torso, and neck stretched to every direction, like torture for eternity.

I regret reading this story because it changes my perspective on what my mind can do. Do we have full control over our minds? Are there still mysteries inside it that we are incapable of understanding? Maybe those secrets can link up to our psychological distress that challenges our society’s philosophy and morality. I remember the first time I read this story and it completely made me doubt my mind and develop a temporary fear to my surroundings and myself to the extent that I have become paranoid of my consciousness always looking out and always cautious. If you read the story and the way that it is illustrated to the viewer, you may find it grim but if you find yourself reading it for the second time this will open up curiosity and awareness. The way that this story was able to affect you through your feelings and the sudden introduction of an idea causes you to change. Just like what Harold Brodkey has said, ‘It is eerie that why did the writer bother?’ In this case, why did Junji Ito even bother writing and illustrating this story? Why are these people entering the holes? Is it just to create fear among the readers? Does he have any deep intention? Is it necessary? Like a painting, this story was created for self-interpretation and understanding.

Freud, Sigmund (1920). In his Beyond the Pleasure Principle, he identifies two drives that shape our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. One is Eros or life emphasizes on sex as a major driving force of human nature, bringing of life or procreation for the survival. Although it does not only include sexual concepts but also in cooperation and socialization with other people. The other one is Thanatos or death emphasizes on aggression, keeping us protected to those variables that may attempt to harm us. Aggression also arises from the death instincts or impulse that drives our actions towards destruction. Sigmund Freud also classified two things under Thanatos, one is that normally, people channels their death instincts outward of themselves. However, there is the death instinct that people channels inwards that causes self-destruction and death called the death drive. It is the death drive that will uncover the meaning of why the people of the Enigma of Amigara Fault felt the sudden urge to gravitate themselves towards their death and destruction.

According to Oxford Reference in 2011, the death drive is the elimination of tension. In the case of the people in Amigara, the tension is the voice that they are hearing and the urge to enter their hole to eliminate the tensions they feel. This leads to them trapped inside and eventually their self-destruction. Finding out that there is a correlating psychological concept about the story opens up the mind that the writing is not just writing based on a person’s imagination but rather has deeper roots that it tries to resurface to bring conversation and arguments among the readers. It shapes the judgment of the reality of the people in a way that there is a formation of the doubt to the mind and cautiousness to the surroundings. This is where the development of the instinct to get away from the mechanism of death drive happens. A person will become aware of the lingering fact that there is a dormant feeling that may be awakened by a stimulus that may overcome the mind of a person at a certain point in time. Knowing this may even turn into a more serious fear for some people, and that is my case.

The curiosity to uncover the true meaning behind those words and illustrations and to satisfy it caused me a great change in myself. If you think about it, the process of getting interested in that reading and being curious about the meaning is already a part of the tension. Putting myself in the experience of wanting to learn more and understand the whole ordeal is already in the death drive, which I fear to get into. In this case, the outcome is that it shapes my judgment about my reality, it lets me carve through my feelings and I unconsciously copied the sense of style in a way that I become wary and cautious all the time.

What are the origin and the cause of death drive? According to Gerber (2019). In his article Eros and Thanatos: Freud’s two fundamental drives, ‘The withdrawal of libido from the world seems to be rather inherently destructive, and it might be because the absence of Eros gives rise to the absolute rule of the self-destructive death drive.’ The absence of Eros, the sexual drive inside a person causes him to succumb to the destructive properties of the death drive. The love that should balance with the Thanatos inside of a person is lacking. In the story of the Amigara fault, one of the protagonists emphasizes that ever since she was a child, she did not feel the love from her parents and the care from her friends and that she is always alone in life. The lack of Eros inside of her that drives to answer the call of the inner voice. She succumbs to the urge of eliminating the unbearable tensions that cause her to fall into oblivion.

In scientific researches, a probable connection between death drive and the everyday life of a person may be visualized in the phenomenon of L’appel du vide or the call of the void. According to Mandic (2016). In his article of ‘L’appel du vide’: The call of the void, ‘Standing at the top of the Eiffel tower on a beautiful, sunny day in Paris, my first thought was ‘I could jump’. Not ‘What a stunning view of a culturally rich metropolis’ or ‘I wonder what the City of Light looks like at nighttime’, but ‘I could jump off of this tower in just one leap’, and I wondered why.’ There is a tension between the mind of the person whether to jump or not, but clearly, it is harmless because it is just a sudden feeling, an urge, and curiosity about what will happen and that jumping off will never be the action. Compare to the death drive that happened in the story, this is a harmless example of a probable connection between Sigmund’s idea. Other examples according to Mandic are when in driving; sometimes there is an impulse to swerve across the lane and crash your car into the opposite traffic, a tree near the road or even to jump the car unto the bridge. When in the train station, seeing an approaching train might cause an urge for someone to think about jumping on the rails when the train is near. These are just some examples that researches could think of a probable connection to Sigmund’s idea.

There is also a theory about the death drive that it plays a role in compelling balance in destructive forces. According to Berry (2011). He cited Comer, 2011 about the statement, ‘In many countries during times of war, suicide rates drop. In some countries when homicide rates are low, suicide rates rise, and vice versa. Interpretation of this data lends itself to the belief in an innate drive which compels balance in destructive forces.’ A theory that death drive plays a big role in balancing the population. There is something that will keep its balance or that will cause balance. Although this does not have a real connection in the story, a possibility is a possibility and it should be considered as a maybe.

After all the definitions and origins, there is no concrete study about the death drive. It merely explains the tendency of a person to do these kinds of things under the psychoanalytic theory and the trying to interpret and understand the meaning of the story. The main point is, before the moment of reading the story; I did not have any insights nor awareness about the possible innate drives and the fear of the possibility of succumbing to it. The power to give fears to the readers and to put curiosity into the minds is what makes reading the story dangerous. It opens up the mind of people and introduces ideas that will circulate throughout a lifetime. It also might be considered as an example of the statement ‘scarred for life’, as it manipulates the feelings and overall changes our minds. Still, questions will always exist, after researching and trying to find out the meaning. It will not answer the questions purely but instead will generate more questions. It will always depend on the reader to interpret and provide his answers to supply his curiosity.

Reference:

Cherry, K. (2019, August 22). Freud’s Theories of Life and Death Instincts. Retrieved October 9, 2019, from https://www.verywellmind.com/life-and-death-instincts-2795847.
Freud, S. (1920). BEYOND THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE. Retrieved October 9, 2019, from https://www.libraryofsocialscience.com/assets/pdf/freud_beyond_the_pleasure_principle.pdf.
Gerber, T. (2019, February 16). Eros and Thanatos: Freud’s two fundamental drives. Retrieved October 9, 2019, from https://epochemagazine.org/eros-and-thanatos-freuds-two-fundamental-drives-50a82a11a389.
Ito, J. (2012). The Enigma of Amigara Fault. The Enigma of Amigara Fault. San Francisco, California: NA Viz Media.
Mandic, M. (2016, February 11). ‘L’appel du vide’: The call of the void. Retrieved October 9, 2019, from https://uclpimedia.com/online/lappel-du-vide-the-call-of-the-void.
Pierre, D. (2019, August 30). Death Instinct (Thanatos). Retrieved October 9, 2019, from https://www.encyclopedia.com/medicine/psychology/psychology-and-psychiatry/death-instinct.

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Analytical Essay on ‘The Most Dangerous Game’

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