Random thoughts about literature in the series

oneeyedkingken:

I am sending this as a submission and not a ask to avoid sending you multiple ones. It’s a little confused because I am following a train of thoughts, so some parts maybe should be a little more organized.

I have some thoughts about the “love and revolution” quote. In chapter one Kaneki describes himself as the protagonist of a tragedy and states he wants to be born for love and revolution. In both cases he chooses a narrative for himself and a part of me thinks this is his way to cope with his low self-worth.

I mean, we have seen that it’s not unusual for Kaneki to choose a particular narrative who puts him in the role of the hero and we have seen many times how in each narrative he chooses there are limits and we have seen people who care about him calling him out on it.

Touka does so directly during the bridge scene when she compares Kaneki to one of the heroes of his books.

Hinami as well refuses Kaneki’s narrative where he has put her in the spot of the damsel in distress.

Arima refuses Kaneki’’s narrative as well during their fight showing how faulted it was.

In short I think Kaneki talking of love and revolution and him seeing himself as a revolutionary hero may just be one of said narratives which will lead him to hurt himself.

About it I think it’s relevant the contrast between Kaneki and Haise. Haise never thought of himself as a hero. He didn’t want to realize something big, he didn’t want love and revolution. He simply wanted a normal and simple life with his family.

Basically I think there are two different tendencies into Kaneki: one part of him wants to live with the people he loves and to be happy while the other one wants to be a hero and to realize something big (does it remind you of anything? What about “This time make sure to do something which will allow you to be loved by everyone. A good thing, a bad thing it doesn’t matter”?). I think that for Kaneki’s character arc it will be important to find some kind of balance between these two tendencies.

This train of thoughts leads me to think about other characters as well and about their relationship with literature and how they affected Kaneki.

1) Eto: she obviously loves literature and is a writer herself. I think Kaneki’s tendency to build a narrative for herself and for others is present in Eto as well. She created the idea of the OEK and is trying to shape Kaneki to accept the role.

2) Arima: I think it’s interesting about him that he seems to have become an avid reader only after having met Kaneki. Another interesting thing is that he too, like Kaneki prepared a precise narrative for their battle in Cochlea and that said narrative is the same of Kaneki just with their roles inverted. If Kaneki wants Arima to kill him, Arima wants Kaneki to kill him and in the end he convinces Kaneki in taking the part he wanted him to play. Arima showed his agency in dying and found the strength to do so because of Kaneki and he did so by building a narrative himself. I know that saying Arima was able to do so because he started to read books is stupid, but books were a very important part of his relationship with Haise and it’s interesting how he used his agency to build a narrative like Kaneki usually does.

3) Touka: I have always found pretty interesting that in a world where literature and books are so important and used to explain relationships and connections a character so important like Touka made it clear she can’t stand literature. She also doesn’t have any literary theme going on while Arima for example was full of them (the crossbreed, Chirin, the little prince) and even the poem associated with the picture of her family wasn’t written by her, it was Kaneki’s POV. I think this is a nice contrast with Eto in particular and I think it becomes eye-catching once you realize that Touka directly compares Kaneki to a tragedy hero and aggresively refuses the role he self-imposed.

As I said before I think Kaneki has two tendencies and if people like Eto and Arima encouraged the tendency of himself in which he wants to accomplish something important and big, Touka encourages the part of him who wants to simply live and have a normal life. I think it’s important Haise didn’t like Eto’s book and was shown to be so attracted by Touka even if he didn’t remember her.

Of course I don’t think it is a rule that whoever likes books will encourage Kaneki to become a hero and that whoever doesn’t will encourage him to live a simple life. The clowns don’t seem to have a literary theme going on, but manipulated Kaneki a lot and Hinami wanted him to go back at Anteiku despite being an avid reader herself.

 All in all I think the role of literature inside of the series is pretty ambiguous. Books are used to establish relationships, but also to manipulate others like Eto does with her victims where she uses her ability as an author to her advantage. People are moved by books like it happened with the last book written by Sen Takatsuki, but people can also give books superficial reads and misunderstand them like the ghoul expert who keeps talking about ghouls like animals.

Submitted by anonymous.