Япония: цивилизация, культура, язык 2022

ЯПОНИЯ: цивилизация, культура, язык 2022 242 another parent must be “dead” for them from now on. Finally the parents have to reunite in order to help their son, who seems to be lost in his fears without knowing what the true is. The illusion of a “ghost” and of a “visit from the world of dead” happens to the boy when his parents are “so far” from each other: Otsuichi used SO as an abbreviation for “Significant Other” – a spouse who becomes alienated – and this alienation arouses “a ghost”, this time a fictive one. “This Child’s Picture is Not Finished” is a story of a mother who had long been dreaming of an encounter with something magic; but it appeared that she was not prepared to such an encounter when she found out that her little son has an ability to make his fantasies real and to change the world around him by magic – always in an inadequate way since he is only a child and knows very little of life. She is scared and embarrassed which makes the boy ashamed and alienated, as well as makes him do ruinous magic even against his will – he nearly turns into a dangerous monster because in the eyes of his mother he already is a monstrous creature; but when themother accepts her son’s supernatural power they both are finally in peace with his abilities, trying to gain control over them. Like in the story “Once Upon a Time In the Evening Park” (a monster hidden deep down in the sand, unable to get out without the boy’s help), the image of a monster is metaphorically born from the inside of the human character (a monstrous boy born from a regular mother); and it is up to the human to decide whether to let it out or not. “The Song of the Sun” 7 represents the post-apocalyptic world where the last robot created another one which is 7 Otsuichi. Hidamari-no Uta (The Song of the Sun) // in: Zoo-1. Tokyo, 2006. Pp. 163-205. (In Japanese).