Thinking Activity: An Artist of the Floating World

 Hello Monks,

I am Riddhi Bhatt. You know...what is today's blog ?This blog is about Thinking Activity on An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro. This task is assigned by Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavsinhji Bhavnagar University (MKBU). As a part of the syllabus, students of English department are learning the paper The Twentieth Century Literature: 1900 to World War II (paper-107). So, let’s start making this wonderful blog task. But before we start I want to give short information about what kind of things we see here…

Kazuo Ishiguro’s spare, refined novel An Artist of the Floating World (1986) records how a painter’s life and work became insidiously coarsened by the imperialistic ethos of 1930s Japan. Novelists such as Buchi Emecheta and Ben Okri wrote of postcolonial Africa, as did V.S. Naipaul in his most ambitious novel.Japan following World War II, An Artist of the Floating World (1986) chronicles the life of elderly Masuji Ono, who reviews his past career as a political artist of imperialist propaganda. Ishiguro’s Booker Prize-winning The Remains of the Day (1989; film 1993) is a first-person narrative, the reminiscences of Stevens.A graduate from the University of East Anglia, Ishiguro is one of the most celebrated contemporary fiction authors in English. An Artist of the Floating World, were noted for their explorations of Japanese identity and elegiac tone. Subsequently, he explored other genres, including science fiction and historical fiction. He has received four Man Booker Prize nominations

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' appears 34 times in the novel. Even on the cover page, the image of lanterns is displayed. Because Lanterns in the novel are associated with Ono’s teacher Mori-san. They represent the fleeting beauty and warmth of nightlife as well as the transience of the traditional way of life in Japan, which vanishes after the war.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.

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

At the heart of it is an unreliable narrator, Masuji Ono. 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.The book is a contemplative journey, spread across four time frames: October 1948, April 1949, November 1949 and June 1950. We are introduced to a retired artist of great acclaim, Masuji Ono.

On the one hand, it is a story of generations separated by a massive ideological gulf. On the other, it is about an older man attempting to come to terms with his mistaken philosophies. It is also a historical fiction set in the Japan of limbos; Japan, which has suffered because of its misplaced imperialism, been shattered by bombings and is now critical of the past and every person representing it.

Ono is well-retired with two daughters and grandchildren. However, the irregularity in information can be attributed much more to more unpleasant circumstances than memory failing. As the novel progresses, Ono is revealed to have been a man of controversial associations. An Artist of the Floating World was a delightful, very enlightening experience about a unique world that conventional reading may not expose one to.

Here I am puting a video on this Ono:A Unreliable narrator..

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):-

The deepest desire of Masuji Ono, protagonist of An Artist of the Floating World, is to be an acclaimed, significant artist. But while Ono is technically adept as a painter, his understanding of the world—and art’s role in it—is unsophisticated. Lacking a strong personal vision for his art and its message.

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. 

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

An Artist of the Floating World portrays a society that instills the importance of respect and obedience towards elders in the young, but is, nevertheless, defined by intergenerational conflict and distrust. This conflict becomes particularly fierce after the war, as the younger generation heaps blame on the older generation for leading the country down a disastrous path.  Although Ono’s generation seems to have definitively lost in the intergenerational struggle over the country’s values, this can hardly be said to be the end of intergenerational conflict. Instead, the book suggests that the issues at stake will arise over and over again, as a new generation will always come along to challenge the beliefs of those who used to make up the younger generation.

The novel shows intergenerational conflict in a variety of different contexts: between parents and children, teachers and students, and political elites and the young men who are sent to fight when those elites decide to declare war. Ono experiences many of these intergenerational conflicts from both sides. As a young boy.

This all things are happen with us today also. That how some parents said to childen that do this and that.Also we see that  In our time we find the same thing which we see in novel. Self-Perception, and Self-Deception are also we can see in our time.We also faced problem like Family Reputation, Family Secrets, and Familial Loss.