KATANAGATARI 3
AFTER(S)WORD
I’m not sure how to put this into words, since it’s a little hard to grasp, so I’ll just say what’s on my mind, no matter how it sounds, but sometimes a command ceases to be relevant. Whether this happens to you personally or you see it happening from the sidelines makes no difference, it’s a bummer. To give you an example, let’s consider prerecording things off of the television. Say you set your recorder to tape the same TV show every week and walk away; even after the show has made it to the final episode and through its grand finale, the following week your recorder will diligently start taping a completely unrelated show in the same time slot. Thanks but no thanks, right, nice as it was to go ahead and tape the thing. Or how about when a baseball game goes into extra innings, and your show gets bumped up thirty minutes, but the recording starts at the designated time and cuts before the episode reaches its climax? Thanks but no thanks, it’s great to have the episode, but not so much when you were hoping for the whole thing. I’m aware that this comparison to taping television dramas may strike some as idyllic, but this question of commands ceasing to be relevant runs quite deep: I’m not exaggerating when I say it influences every aspect of our world. Thanks to misunderstandings like these, no small number of people have been killed in countless wars. While the central powers may have come to an agreement, somehow word fails to travel fast enough, and the results are tragic. It’s really sad. Along these lines, it’s easy to say, “As cool as machines are, it’s way cooler when people make their own decisions,” but that view is overly simplistic. It’s not uncommon for people to think they’re deciding on their own, when in fact they’re following some directive burnt into their memory. I guess we call it instinct? I’m not saying we should fight our instincts, though, since probably we couldn’t if we tried. Our only option is to do the best we can, to the extent that we can, which is probably the closest thing we have to an expression of our freedom.
Thus ends Book Eight of Sword Tale. Since there are twelve books in total, we are now transitioning from the middle stages to the final stages of the story. I tried to make this Edo episode a little different from the ones before it. To be honest, when I wrote Book One, I didn’t really think that I would make it this far, but here we go─and I intend to keep it up to the end. We’re on the homestretch, but I only made it this far, and with enough energy to finish, thanks to the one and only take’s powerful illustrations. It makes me want to make full use of my time for each of the remaining swords.
Four books left!
NISIOISIN