BOBC

WIKINDX Resources  

Perkins, Chris. "Flatness, depth and Kon Satoshi’s ethics." Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema 4.(2012): 119–33. 
Added by: joachim (05/04/2014, 13:52)   
Resource type: Journal Article
Language: en: English
Peer reviewed
DOI: 10.1386/jjkc.4.2.119_1
BibTeX citation key: Perkins2012
Email resource to friend
View all bibliographic details
Categories: General
Keywords: Animation, Ethics, Japan, Kon. Satoshi, Randformen des Comics
Creators: Perkins
Collection: Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema
Views: 26/521
Attachments  
Abstract
This article offers an exploratory reading of two works by Kon Satoshi: his debut Perfect Blue and the television series Mōsō Dairinin/Paranoia Agent. The goal of this article is to work through the relationship between social ontology and ethics embedded in these two examples. To do this the article develops a concept of ontological flatness, both as a description of the specific late modern phenomenon of the levelling of value distinctions between previously differentiated and privileged sources of social identity, and a method of representation Kon uses in order to both portray and critique this condition by pushing it to its logical conclusions. It is argued that rather than a gleeful celebration of this postmodern flat condition, there is a distinct modernist humanism in Kon’s work: whereas the effect is ontological flatness, the goal is always to regain a sense of rooted perspective, or depth. This Archimedean point is anchored to a concept of the responsible human actor, who works through existential suffering as a matter of ethical obligations outside of historical and technological determination. Thus, while representing the postmodern experience of the self, in this aspect we can situate Kon’s critique within a modernist tradition in Japanese political thought.
  
WIKINDX 6.8.2 | Total resources: 14513 | Username: -- | Bibliography: WIKINDX Master Bibliography | Style: Modern Language Association (MLA)