Zaregoto Volume 4 5 Psycho Logical Spoilers ahead up until volume 5 4300https://i0.wp.com/englishlightnovels.com/wpcontent/uploads/2014/05/zaregoto.jpg?fit=7502C380ssl=1w=640 The Zaregoto series Zaregoto referring to the English word nonsense is a multifaceted deep and rich tale of a boy twisted and torn seeking redemption. And of a little girl she whom which knew of much of the necessary facade to live as told an elegant life or so is said to have been. In any case the world unforgiving and cruel as it always has been made them one unforeseen day meet. That was what put on forth a pathone psychological. That is to say one of insane logic... This book was fantastic. An arc so filled to the brim with verbose emotion and unending development. Nisioisin knows his way around the usage of the written word it is mesmerizing. Apart from the previous arc Suspension which truth be told Im not a big fan of he can tell this magnificent story through the most layered of characters and interactions. It is slowly becoming one of my alltime favorite series. Speaking of which for this review I want to make clear the following: I have NOT finished reading Zaregoto. This is the last volume I read. And yeah Im missing a lot of information. Regardless I felt like writing some of my thoughts here especially about one of the most fascinating characters Ive experienced Iichan. As for what Ill be talking about I may commit mistakes in my analysis due to my lack of background in some or many areas. Furthermore this book only four installments in is so exhaustingly complex that Im going to primarily focus on these specific volumes. That said here it is my Zaregoto which may or may not be only tackling the Psycho Logical arc analysis. 250https://static.zerochan.net/Zaregoto.Series.full.315946.jpg Ii and Hime ZeroChan 315946 First thing first what does Psycho Logical even mean? Well the definition of the word Google presents us reads as follows: of affecting or arising in the mind related to the mental and emotional state of a person.. This seems about what wed expect that which occurs in the mind. However we are presented with an interesting definition once we look into the translation notes Insane logic. This is radically different from what we have just established as the definition. An insane logic which as we know is what Ii uses to resolve the mystery at the end of the book or as the professor puts it: unrealistic incoherent cobbled together farfetched. And well it sort of is. As delusional as the professor may seem from his great loss he is not wrong as we later discover that Ii was just a decoy with the mission to take up as much time as possible for the mission to be accomplished unbeknownst to him. But is it really so different? Is that which stems in the mind so different from an insane logic? Maybe there is more than meets the eye. But so arises the question why him? Aikawa Sacchan and Koutari were all in it together and we can assume that even Kunagisa was eventually aware of all of this but Ii left in the dark was used like a tool. That is not quite right. That is not the question to be answered. We know from Aikawa that she was offered this job and later learned that Ii would be there. So Why is he so perfect for the job? would be more appropriate. Let us dive in a little deeper into Ii as a person. Ii is the dreaded Nonesense user and such he uses his powers his magic his prolific ability for... actually what the fuck does that even mean? Nonsense user? This is no Dungeons and Dragons what even is that? Nonsense could be defined as words that lack any meaning. Ii uses the word Nonsense often throughout the series and it is a survival tactic based on a pernicious worldview that Ii has forced upon himself. As the story progresses we slowly learn about his tragic past and how deeply rooted his sentiments of dread are. And this is where nonsense comes into play. Ii dismisses his reflections and inner struggles as mere nonsense. Problems that lack any logic and so he shall withstand and endure his trauma presenting himself as a spectator. Nothing more than a mere observer that does not choose and is simply taken along by the waves of his environment. Ii is absorbed by cognitive dissonance. He is made to notice this clash of interests in which his actions contradict his line of thought. A cognitive dissonance forms under these circumstances and causes discomfort until resolved. When presented in one people have one of two options. We either make the dissonance seem unimportant or we change our attitude or actions. Ii chooses the former. People are known for being reluctant to change as it would mean reframing their persona which as we can see is not of his interest on a surface level at least. Change is scary and how we see ourselves is how we see other people. A similar type of dissonance is seen toward Kunagisa and the fear of change and losing her is overwhelming. It is tragic to see Ii as he is presented to us as a piece of shit. And his cruel behavior we can see is a disease spread from his fingertips. Again I have not read past this point in the story so I do not really know of his backstory but that is beside the point here. Ii is a person above all and something so very interesting that is part of this arc is the idea of that which is not. Artificial intelligence. https://static.zerochan.net/Zaregoto.Series.full.2357173.jpg Ii and Zerozaki ZeroChan 2357173 Can I say something selfish? I love you. This right here is so immensely powerful as it serves as a stepping stone for Ii in his odyssey toward selfacceptance and it genuinely crushed my heart when we take into account a certain red girl not Jun but another she whom which embraced her selfishness and expressed her love no matter the cost. Dont be so spoiled he would say and above all he could not under any circumstance follow her stead. How could he express his feelings? And so a new interesting topic arises. Theres no meaning. There is just an action. For everything. Dont try to dodge the question. I dont get what you are saying. In other words a clockwork orange. For those who have not seen the movie A Clockwork Orange is a movie directed by Stanley Kubrick. It shows the story of a man a wrongdoer and explores the concept of conductist psychology. This is a discipline of psychology it has some variants but I dont deem the distinction of much importance for this that poses the core of human actions are based not on the existence of the mind but the virtue of actions and their implicit value. This quotes main subject is Kasugai. It is not a coincidence that she experiments on animals and dogs as a matter of fact which is nice parallelism to one of conductisms most renowned exponents Ivan Pavlov. She implies that actions are the basis on which the world operates and for that they can be torn and manipulated. In a fashion similar to Alex from A Clockwork Orange even when Ii may be cruel he is a person above all else and in the movies case Alex is deprived of life in the form of these experiments and on Iis case by his hand. He has the appearance of a human but as Ii is a selfproclaimed inhuman. As such he is a Clockwork Orange juicy on the outside but a mechanism a prisoner of his regrets. He loses his humanity in his attempt at resigning from the thought of his emotions. Actions or lack thereof simply occur. To choose or not to choose. Ii is taken by the current. As we saw from the nonsense he tries to refrain from acknowledging his problems proclaiming that his mind is mere nonsense. 300http://static.zerochan.net/Kunagisa.Tomo.full.2105811.jpg Kunagisa Tomo ZeroChan 2105811 Now that we have discussed the conductist view of the mind in which the aforementioned is deemed irrelevant in human behavior. There is another. One that opposes this theory. Kunagisas brain is compared to a machine by Ii. This in psychology is part of cognitive psychology. It is in part based on the supposition that the brain and the mind are like the software and hardware of the body. In other words the mind can be understood as a computer as a machine. Kunagisa as a person is a genius and of no other expertise than computers. For this reason we could assume that she understands herself in a novel manner. She understands what goes through her. And because of this she can embrace her childish behavior. Kunagisa Tomo. But this does not seem to be the case as the sudden appearance of Dead Blue makes us get lost on an apparent solid floor. A Kunagisa that conflicts with her own sense of self. A master of the facade. Now Ii is referred to as a robot as well as seen in this line. Rather the opposite would happen. It is because of the situation we are in because of the position we are in that I must always have a cool head. I must be my usual emotionless thought machine. Like a robot without a soul. But there is a turn of events for the better. Ii is blatantly mistaken. His perceived worldview is nothing but a method of harming himself and poisoning his growth. If we remember Kunagisa makes parallelism of Iis crew to the Wizard of Oz in which Ii would be the Tin Man in search of a soul. Conductism believes in no such thing as a soul. It only believes in that which is attainable by empiric means. On the other hand cognitivism believes in a soul some kind of innate and preconceived idea of the human being. Noam Chomsky for example posed the language we use as somewhat innate due to its complexity. So in this case Ii could search for a soul. However cognitivism brings with it a shade of darkness. As its theory puts away human emotions. It presents human beings as creatures with the use of reason as their innate weapon. But this is a sad reality that would seem as if humanity is nothing short of a clump of robots. Robots whose brain works as a straight line. For this to work the world would have to be preconceived as well. It would have to be something that exists and we have to represent it. As Immanuel Kant puts it the existence of noumena and phenomenon. The thing itself how it is regardless of us and how we represent it respectively. But this shall not be the case. I believe in a better future for Ii and his friends one which permits him to show his emotions and to be not held back by his supposed selfishness. https://static.zerochan.net/Zaregoto.Series.full.2357181.jpg Ii and Kunagisa ZeroChan 2357181 Not everything is lost I believe in a bright future for Ii and as such I present you with the ideas of two very important psychologists Antonio Damasio and Francisco Varela. Cognitivism forgets and puts emotions aside focusing on a more mechanistic and individualistic line which prioritizes functionalism and moves the point away from sociocultural factors. What cognitivism proposes is that emotions play a secondary role which emerges from reason and how it represents the environment. The person makes a value judgment of the context. Today we know that emotion precedes cognition if it were not this way how would we explain those situations where we cannot explain why we like or dislike something? And it is because emotions are something innate and the judgment of reason is something later that we keep in the unconscious. The mind is a network and not a linear sequence and more important than that the computational model presents an idea of the mind through the representation of symbols however there is mutual and unending feedback between our world and ourselves which makes an idea of representation incompatible since for this to be relevant there must be a preestablished world which is what cognitivism proposes but this is not the case. The decisions we make are based on our experience which is constructed by our sociocultural environment which cognitivism does not care about so it fails to see the content. This is why I believe in Ii that his environment can shape him and that his emotions are relevant. That there is a soul for him to find and that he deserves his lost humanity. But I think its important to mention that the context of society or our environment is not one that simply exists out there. Its not like you can see Mr. Context out on the street and greet him good evening. We form and create context depending on our actions and as Ii refuses to choose and is led by the tide of others he does not create an appropriate context for him to develop and flourish. That is why he must be able to acknowledge that others care about him and as he wanders giving zero fucks about himself hell also be hurting his circle. This is why Ii constantly says that bad things happen around him all the time he lacks the perspective to recognize his own worth hence creating pernicious situations around his persona. If we go back to the question from the beginning why is he so perfect for this job we can conclude that Ii is trapped in his flawed worldview. And from this emerges his usage of nonsense his insane logic which he can use to promote this crazy solution to the case of the death of Sacchan. And his lack of emotional pursuit makes all of this possible. But in this case we see his raw emotions his will to be someone. But when won over by nonsense he fails to grasp it. No humanity and no soul. As Zerozaki found his comfort in killing he is also no longer human. He does not feel about his murder he just sees it as a reasonable escape. They are two sides of the same coin. For Mikoko killing was a way to express her emotions and for Zerozaki to suppress them. That is why Ii hated the former and accepted the latter. And as such Ii does not have to kill to show his emotions but he must find a way to do so as Mikoko did. Because we are humans. Because we deserve so. Because no matter what we must be allowed the option to choose. Because being forced into or out of change makes us that nonsense users who are no longer human.