Thinking Activity :An Artisti of Floating world

Hello Readers ,

            In this blog I would like to discuss about  "An Artist of Floating World"  .This  novel come into our syllabus. This blog is a part of my classroom thinking activity given by  Dr .Dilip Barad sir .

                       First of all ,  we can see about the novel ;

About Novel :-

                   An Artist of the Floating World is a novel by British author Kazuo Ishiguro, published in 1986. Ishiguro is a prolific and well-known novelist, famous for his books The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go. He has won the Man Booker Prize and won the Nobel Prize in 2017, and was knighted in 2019. 

           An Artist of the Floating World, his second novel, is an example of his earlier writing, and was well-received, earning a Whitbread Award. This novel is particularly well-known for its use of an unreliable narrator, Masuji Ono. It tells the story of Ono, a retired Japanese artist trying to come to terms with changes in his country after the Second World War. Ishiguro himself was born in Japan, but emigrated to the United Kingdom as a child and did not return to Japan until after publishing An Artist of the Floating World. He has said that, by writing about places with which he is unfamiliar, such as post-war Japan in this novel, he is able to write more imaginatively. Here is one video for better understanding the novel.

Let's , we can discuss few questions and answers :

1).'Lantern' appears 34 times in the novel. Even on the cover page, the image of lanterns is displayed. What is the significance of Lantern in the novel ?

'Lantern' is an important symbol of the novel. Lantern' appears 34 times in the novel. Lanterns in the novel are associated with Ono’s teacher Mori-san, who includes a lantern in each of his paintings and dedicates himself to trying to capture the look of lantern light. For Mori-san, the flickering, easily extinguished quality of lantern light symbolizes the transience of beauty and the importance of giving careful attention to small moments and details in the physical world.

                        Lantern is an old-fashioned, aesthetically focused, and more traditional way of viewing the world.  Lanterns, then, symbolize an outlook on life which prizes small details and everyday moments above the ideological concerns of nationalists or commercial concerns of businesspeople. 

2).Write about 'Masuji Ono' as an 'Unreliable Narrator'. 

The novel is structured as a series of interwoven memories described by Masuji Ono. Ishiguro uses a variety of techniques to convey the fallibility of Ono's recollections to the audience, gradually revealing that Ono is an unreliable narrator and undermining the audience's faith in his story. Ono is an unreliable narrator, disguising his motives and spinning recollections to portray himself more favorably. 

                      Although he denies making mistakes, his true feelings slowly seep through and the evolution of his character is expertly revealed by the reactions of his worried daughters.Ono does feel real guilt over his past, but he struggles to admit this — even to himself. His guilt tarnishes everything, turning the most innocent of comments into accusations. He lingers long over stories of those who choose to commit suicide to apologize for their mistakes.Once an acclaimed painter, Ono is our guide through post-World War II Japan and its sociopolitical and emotional trauma; felt in extremities like the once-vibrant pleasure districts destroyed by bombings and kids who loved Popeye and Godzilla.

 

3). Debate on the Uses of Art / Artist (Five perspectives: 1. Art for the sake of art - aesthetic delight, 2. Art for Earning Money / Business purpose, 3. Art for Nationalism / Imperialism - Art for the propaganda of Government Power, 4. Art for the Poor / Marxism, and 5. No need of art and artist (Masuji's father's approach)

                      Artistic vision that seeks to create purely for aesthetics sake, focusing on visual beauty without illuminating any deeper meaning, is represented in Moriyama’s partiality for capturing the fleeting and temporary ‘floating world’, but which consequently leads the artist into the guilty pleasures of a decadent lifestyle. 

                 The production of large-scale commissioned, stereotypical pieces are seen in those produced at Takeda’s firm, which preferences commercial benefit over a commitment to technique, and which portrays it’s artists as production-line workers rather than as having any real artistic talent. Matsuda’s ideal that art should go beyond a representation of visual beauty to serve larger socio-political purposes shows how art can be reappropriated and manipulated by other agendas, and how in turn, the artist becomes publicly associated with the subject matter and responsible for its influence.

       

               That art serves no purpose other than to drive the artist into a life of self-absorption and depravity is presented through Ono’s father whose prediction that such a life will befall Ono ironically comes true for a time.The novel further explores the dire consequences which befell artists whose art is viewed as divergent. Moriyama demanded strict adherence to his art principles, with students who departed from his style being expelled from his class, including Ono. Wartime artists whose work diverged from the Japanese Imperialism style had more serious repercussions, seen when Kuroda is interrogated and imprisoned. 

                     

                      This raises larger questions about art, in terms of whether art should be politicised or serve only as a source of gratification. Arguably, the war would have continued despite Ono’s posters. Perhaps if Ono had retained the ‘narrow view’ of which Matsuda accused him, staying true to his aesthetic ideals throughout the war.Masuji Ono's father believed that there is no importance of art in our life. But I want to say that not everyone has the ability to be an artist.

 4). What is the relevance of this novel is times?

           The novel’s protagonist and narrator, Masuji Ono, focuses almost entirely on the relatively narrow world of a single city. Every literary work has its own importance. In other words we can say that there was purpose behind any of the work. Why are they writing this all, because they want happened in past will never be repeated. And some artists are driven by the wrong person and unconsciously they make the work which inspires people to do wrong things. 

               In the end, the contrast between Ono’s narrow focus on his city and the nationalist and imperialist themes of the work that brought him acclaim proves that Ono was an opportunist who painted propaganda.In the end, the intense focus on physical spaces and how they look at different moments in time that characterizes Ono’s narrative also suggests what might have been a truer path for him as an artist. Instead of work that focuses on human subjects or political messages, Ono’s true talent lies in capturing a place at a particular time.

         We can also connect this novel with  today's time . Sometimes we also do some floating things. The World is also like floating. When and how it changes, Nationalism can be seen in our society we never know.  They believe that we have to do something for our nation through art. We are living in a floating world. Which changes every second. So we have also part of this world.

Thank you....