Societies Alteration of Perception with the Prohibition and Confinement of our Imagination
“Paranoia Agent”
Human-kind is famous for its consistent growth and evolution, thus tossing aside old ideals and practices behind to keep up with the pace of what is compatible within the ever-changing perpetuation of “today’s” society. While we as people inadvertently playing our role in the many realms of society, how well of a grasp do we have of our understanding of the world, and what causes our minds to negotiate our moral compass.
A story within Satoshi Kon’s Paranoia Agent, begins with a girl named Tsukiko Sagi. Tsukiko is a shy graphic designer that created a worldwide hit, that formed into a popular obsession over her pink dog design identified as Maromi (similar to the Hello Kitty fandom). Tsukiko is then pressured into an emotional crisis by her job to follow up with another groundbreaking design and becomes overwhelmed by the pressure to even commit to a new design. Thus causing her to delete, after delete after delete each creation. As Tsukiko tirelessly works, her Maromi doll suddenly comes to life. Maromi begins to speak to her and comforts her saying things will be alright and distracts her from negative media related to her online.
Furthermore, Tsukiko is then assaulted by a kid on skates with a bat one night, hitting her straight across the head. She wakes up in the hospital the following day, relieved of her duties and the burden of her work. The word gets out instantly after she reports her encounter with the “Kid Slugger”, which blew up within the media and is swiftly inoculated into mass society. The Kid Slugger assault cases arise after her incident, as the media coins his efforts of “lifting people from their world burdens.”
In the end, Tsukiko made up her encounter with the Kid Slugger and the incident was actually all self inflicted.
“A social sphere may be defined as an area of activity where the actors are able to unite in sharing understandings, rules, and principles, regarding the activity.”(Galligan,2006)
Tsukiko played two roles, she was an actor of a social sphere in her work place and she was a creator of a new implementation into the social sphere. With Tsukiko’s story she was held at mercy of the works of societal pressure injecting its influence into her perceived reality. Thus internalizing it emotionally and while affecting her life daily. With this societal pressure she balanced her sense of reality with fantasy to continue on. Her fantasy is her manifestation of the talking Maromi. Her limits were met causing her to emotionally breakdown even with the help of her comforting Maromi personification, resulting in the manifestation of the Kid Slugger. Furthermore, psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan states “Choosing as the standard of that reconsideration of ethics to which psychoanalysis leads us, the relationship between action and the desire that inhabits it… the relationship between action and the desire which inhabits it in the space of tragedy functions in the direction of triumph of death.”(Lacan,1960) Meaning our own intimate conception of ethics can be reconstructed within ourselves, but if this conception is led by realms of catastrophe it leads us down toward our own downfall.
Tsukiko was in the realm or social sphere of her work place that influenced her perception of reality. She worked, and coped with the conditions she was met. She accommodated for the tragedy this realm brought to her leaving her at a state she could not handle herself, thus being the reason Maromi came to life. Her actions and desires would have led her down an unfortunate path but instead she recognized her compliance toward the social sphere, that she was victim to. Altering her sense of self and forming a new idea, or concept being the formation of Kid Slugger. Which later became her escape and shifted into a new law or concept within society’s social sphere that people unconsciously abide to.
To conclude, reality is malleable and simply abides toward our own human perception. Our grasp of the world is always changing, allowing our moral compass to be tested to their limits each and everyday. Within any environment we are consumed by paradoxical amounts of ultimatums that allow us to engage in interactions and decisions or naturally just escape them. So ask yourself this, what does it take for you to take control of your own reality.
