I don't know why, but I find the character connections between Fyodor and Q (hatred of abilities, religious theming, etc) really interesting. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Hello!
Sorry for the wait!
I think that since we still lack information on Fyodor’s past and his ability and we have just met Q once it is difficult to say for sure, so take my words with a grain of salt.
That said, some comparisons can be made. For example, let’s compare these two scenes:
In both there is an adult hurting a child. It is interesting that in both situations the adult is shown not to hate the child and to actually sympathize with him. As a matter of fact Steinbeck’s behaviour suggests that he is not actually enjoying hurting Q and that he actually finds the idea of torturing a child loathsome.
Fyodor too probably sympathizes with Karma and the whole scene is framed in a way which is horrifying, but that also shows that Fyodor thinks that he is actually helping Karma since he is “freeing” him:
After all, these two scenes appear as clearly linked. In the first one Karma says that he doesn’t believe that a “bad person” like him can be really saved, while in the second one he says that he has finally understood who can save an evil person. This suggests that Karma (whose name is clearly symbolic) has basically accepted Fyodor’s ideology by the time he dies.
In short, we have two adults hurting a child and passing down a specific ideology to their victim. These different ideologies are well expressed thanks to these two phrases on God:
Both Steinbeck and Fyodor blame God/use God as an excuse to justify their actions. However, they use this idea in almost opposite ways.
When it comes to Steinbeck, I have said what he means here:
What Steinbeck says here perfectly shows the problem. He is in front of a child who is crying and screaming and who is asking why they have to suffer and all Steinbeck has to offer as a reply is that it is because it has been decided this way. This is a very fatalistic outlook which fits with this character who says to hate capitalism, but accepts to work for a capitalist and takes on the renmants of said capitalist’s organization. Steinbeck might dislike some parts of society, but rather than trying to change them he has accepted them as unavoidable and has tried to modify his social standing to be on the side of those who use others rather than on the one of those who get used.
In other words Steinbeck is saying that the order of society cannot be changed and that society is a result of God’s will. In short, he is really fatalistic and has accepted the current state of affairs.
What Fyodor says is the opposite. He claims that there is no God because there is no order and the world is full of injustice. That is why he has to become God and to change the world by making it better:
As it is clear they have two opposite positions. Steinbeck thinks that there is God and that his will is impossible to fight and unfair, while Fyodor thinks there is no God and this is why there must be one to transform the world.
These two opposite stances can be highlighted also thanks to a small detail:
At the end of the Cannibalism arc, Fyodor is finally arrested thanks to Fitzgerald and the “eyes of God”. The fact that he is caught because of a technology with such a name is interesting. As a matter of fact even if Fyodor presents himself as God he is often called a “demon” by other characters. There are several reasons for this and I invite you to read this meta by @hamliet on this topic. Here, I would like to highlight a maybe simplicistic one which still fits. Fyodor is a demon because he is currently fighting God aka the way society works and wants to change it. This is why it might be symbolic that he is stopped thanks to Fitzgerald aka a character who represents both social inequality, but also the chances society can offer. Fitzgerald is also the person who in Steinbeck’s mind clearly represents the way the world is run.
Of course both Fyodor and Steinbeck’s answers are wrong and the answer the series endorses is clearly the one Dazai gives here:
Society is unfair, but, despite this, people can still fight to change it. The struggle is not harmonic nor easy and doesn’t necessarily bring more order, but there is still beauty in it.
However, both Fyodor and Steinbeck fail to realize it. The latter accepts things as they are, while the former wants to refuse everything. They are both too extreme and too rigid.
As far as Q is concerned, it is interesting that their reaction is basically the opposite of Karma’s. Karma fully accepts Fyodor’s ideals, while Q strongly refuses Steinbeck’s words. Q curses the world because the world is not kind enough to them. Because of this refusal, we can say that Q is a child who could grow up to be like Fyodor. They are told to accept their destiny, but Q still fights back and this is what Fyodor is doing as well in his own wrong way.
Another similarity between the two is, as you point out, the fact that the root of their unhappiness probably lies in the fact that they were both born with an unwanted ability. Q has been sealed away and left alone because of their ability ater all. As far as Fyodor is concerned, we have yet to discover his ability, but @hamliet came out with an interesting theory. All in all, what is important is that it is clearly a very dangerous ability and that this power coupled with Dostoyevsky’s intelligence ended up isolating him.
Even if we can’t really compare Q and Fyodor in terms of powers as for now, we can still highlight that both characters are linked to the concept of showing people what they repress.
Q does so thanks to their ability:
Their power is called by Dazai mind-control, but what it does is actually to let every person face the things they refuse to accept about themselves. This is perfectly shown when Atsushi is cursed.
Fyodor does so thanks to his intelligence since his strategies put people in situations which challenge them. This is clearly shown when he tricks Rampo and Kunikida:
As shown above Fyodor has the ability to confuse even characters like Rampo who are usually never tricked.
The same can be said about Q who manages to shock Dazai:
In other words, both Fyodor and Q are feared by other characters because they force them to face their most frail and unwanted parts.
I would like to explore this point more in regard to Fyodor and in order to do so I will use chapter 42.
This chapter shows again a recurring motif I particularly like i.e. the problem of escaping a locked room.
Fyodor’s fake ability after all is said to be the power of trapping people in his own mind and once Ace finds himself locked in a room he has the problem of escaping. However, the twist is that the room Ace needs to escape is not really Fyodor’s mind, but his own:
After all, we were warned at the beginning of the chapter:
The point of Fyodor is not that he traps peope in his own mind, but that he traps them in their own.
All in all Ace loses because he can’t leave his own mind. As a matter of fact he can’t let go of the way he perceives things. He doesn’t stop to verify the information he is given and thinks that he is the one with the advantage when he is not. In short, the room he has trapped Fyodor in is symbolic of his own mind and of his own short-comings and this is why he, like Lucy, is the only one having the key of such a room. However, Ace, like Lucy, fails to properly use the key and he is manipulated by Fyodor to leave the room in another way:
Fyodor “frees” Ace just like Atsushi frees Lucy and like Rampo frees both himself and Mushitarou. However, Fyodor does so in a completely different way:
As a matter of fact Fyodor equals freedom with death:
Fyodor thinks that the only way to escape one’s own mind is not to create connections and to learn other viewpoints on things, but it is to simply leave everything behind. This extreme belief is probably born by Fyodor’s difficulty to develop relationships with others:
He has stated that it is difficult for him to talk with people because he is much smarter than others and so he can’t see them as equals. Because of this, it makes sense that Fyodor himself can’t probably really escape his own mind.
Fyodor’s belief that he is somehow different from others is explored through his parallelism with Ace.
All in all Ace is a person who feels superior to others and treats others like objects:
His ability highlights two things.
1) It shows that he sees people like tools.
2) It underlines his convinction that he can give value to other lives even if these lives are not really precious by themselves.
Fyodor shares these two flaws. He uses people as tools and manipulates them and he thinks that he can actually free them and so help them by killing them.
However, Ace is proven wrong and he dies precisely because he is not that better than others as he thinks he is. His tragedy is that he never really gives up on this convinction and dies without realizing his own weaknesses and inferiority.
Now, Fyodor is trying to become God when he is just a human, so it would make sense for him to fail for the same reason Ace did aka because he understimates other people. This is basically what Dazai tells him after all:
Dazai recognizes that humans are foolish, but also states that this foolishness can be good. Fyodor doesn’t see that and this is why he is gonna fail. Let’s just hope that he, differently from Ace is able to see his mistake before the end.
In conclusion, Fyodor uses people’s darkest sides in an attempt to show them how pathetic they are, so that they can accept his idea of liberation. Despite this, it is possible that deep down the reason why Fyodor acts as he does is the same as Q’s. Q is simply lashing out and they are tormenting people because they treat them like a crazy monster, so they want to show others that they too are monsters and that they too are crazy. Dostoyevsky has created an elaborated ideology to justify what he does, but it is possible that he too is just trying to prove that he is right and that others are in the wrong.
These are my thoughts up until now! I hope they were useful!
A plea to the archivist: tales of the Grey Lady, those we've lost and, more importantly, those we haven't. Is there a way to get close enough to see her beauty and live?
Weave a veil of spider’s silk, embroider it with thread the color of the sky, wear it always in her presence and despite this only look from the corners of your eye. She will hate you, but she will always hate you and everything, and this will make no difference in the long run.
I wrote some Javascript code to sort through AO3′s Shinsou Hitoshi RSS feed and only post stories where he is one of the main characters.
The code tests for things like where his name is in the character and ship lists, if he’s mentioned in the description or additional tags, if there is some student ship not featuring him listed first, etc.
Basically I figured out what rules did the best job of consistently allowing stories I wanted for the feed (aka, Shinsou focused ones), while removing ones I didn’t, and just let the code take it from there.
If you’re curious about my personal preferences, I like fics with any of the following: Todoshindeku, platonic/brotherly Shinsou and Izuku, and/or Dadzawa and Shinson.
I have one real exam to sit and the one I just submitted is one that you send online. I’ve got a ten day wait until I find out. I think I did well, though, I mean... I got through it without panicking or feeling nauseous so I hope that means I did well! Thank you so much for checking in! <3
