Kino's Journey: Tower Country

[TGLS]

I don't know who this Chuck Sonnenberg guy is, but it's nice he let Chuck host his reviews on his Youtube channel.


youtu.be/XOCyFSURKKs

Regardless, I watched this episode after the last episode, which colored it a little differently. I can't help but feel it's like an exaggeration of a generation poem, or perhaps monument building and ruin value (It literally has no purpose but to collapse).

[lugalzagessi712]

Regardless, I watched this episode after the last episode, which colored it a little differently. I can't help but feel it's like an exaggeration of a generation poem, or perhaps monument building and ruin value (It literally has no purpose but to collapse).

I've noticed that as a pattern of the Kinos Journey episodes, as if the creator(s) are pointing out the futility of life with a lot of them have a "everything was for nothing" or pointing out the absurdity of tradition motif. Not all of them but it's reoccurring enough that I'm noticing a thematic pattern.

[Formless One]

I think it has to do with why the series is subtitled "The Beautiful World". Many of the tragic situations and "life is futile" situations seem to come down to a matter of perspective. The men working on that railroad, for instance, did work that was ultimately pointless because it was undone by the next man just a few miles away that each was unaware of. Even Kino seems to think their jobs are pointless and tries to nudge them into realizing it. But each man is doing it because he or his family just needs the money, a practical and down to earth motivation that everyone can relate to. They are distracted by mundane concerns and thus do not see the bigger picture that Kino and the audience have been let in on. The tragedy is that their lives are transient and being thrown away... but then, they subtly remind Kino of the same fact in herself. Does her life have meaning when she is literally a transient? But maybe its an unavoidable conclusion, as frankly no one lives forever. The moments that Kino lives for aren't what you might traditionally think of as "fun", but they are meaningful in their uniqueness.

Likewise, I think that's why Kino doesn't affirm one way or another whether its the kid who is crazy or his whole society. He looks at the tower as a project that should have a goal of some sort, a point at which they stop construction and let the tower do... whatever the tower is supposed to do. And it seems that has been forgotten, leaving a good argument for everyone else being nuts. But whatever its original purpose, it seems to have transformed over the last two centuries into being the centerpiece of a massive multigenerational piece of performance art. They all feel joy at seeing it fall down because that is the culmination of their life's work-- and it was not unexpected at all. Like a sand painting, what seems to make it meaningful to them is precisely the fact it is transient, if very long lived. Like a game, it was always expected to end at some point, and the interest was in seeing how long it could last before they had to start all over. Now Kino can see the kid's point, if you don't find beauty in that moment of destruction and see towers as functional objects that should fulfill a practical, neigh cognizable purpose, then the whole town would appear to be insane. And like him, she is a nonconformist from a country where that can get you killed. But Kino herself is dedicated to finding moments of beauty in the world that last only in memory, like the memory of seeing someone invent powered flight for the first time; that event can only happen once and before long aircraft become as mundane as the materials they are made of. So she can't exactly call these people crazy for living their lives for a moment of beauty, before getting back to the hard work of making it happen all over again, but different this time. Perhaps that is why she suggests building the new tower with more elaborate materials and methods in order to make more clear its purpose as an art project; at least then its purpose will speak for itself rather than causing existential confusion. Unlike with the men on the tracks, I think this is less a traditional tragedy and more of a tragicomedy. I think a Fatalistic reading isn't what is intended, but more of a Bhuddist or Absurdist one. Its saying that we can, in fact, find meaning in the absurd or the transient. But we have to choose to do so.

As for the "absurdity of tradition" point, I read it as the show acknowledging that traditions are where a lot of people find meaning, but also acknowledging the problem of following a tradition without thinking or realizing you have a choice in following a tradition or not. The episode with the three cities that are all doomed by their respective traditions seem to highlight this. The kingdom in the middle is the only one whose traditions are malleable, to such a degree that their only tradition is changing their traditions in order to impress people! Their situation is ironic in that they will never create a concrete identity for themselves as long as they remain unaware of it, and thus cannot make an informed choice about their future. But it is at least a better fate than the other two cities, who end up at war because one of them won't question the source of their traditions and the other won't change their traditions even to make life there less unpleasant. I think choice and awareness are the key elements to understanding how Kino's Journey approaches tradition, just as choosing to embrace the absurd in order to enjoy life is key to the show's perspective on fatalism.

[CrypticMirror]

Even Kino seems to think their jobs are pointless and tries to nudge them into realizing it. But each man is doing it because he or his family just needs the money, a practical and down to earth motivation that everyone can relate to. They are distracted by mundane concerns and thus do not see the bigger picture that Kino and the audience have been let in on. T

I think the thing it highlights is that if you have to make work to make money, then the tragedy is that you are wasting people's lives forcing them into a task when you could just give them the money and let them decide how best to enlighten their lives spending it in a way that makes them happy. Money is a fiction, labouring for labouring's sake is not a virtue; that is a message that is super timely now, and we are all trapped in that system because we cannot bring ourselves to imagine an alternative or even take a step back and see it. We make prisoners of ourselves.