Becoming a Citizen of the Floating World

            Over the course of a semester I have learned a great deal about what it means to be a citizen of the floating world. Floating in between different cultures and worlds is by no means an easy task, as shown by the authors we investigated.  These authors or “Artist of the Floating World”, have shown the struggles and hardships that come with floating in between different cultures.  Furthermore, being a responsible citizen of the floating is also a very difficult task to achieve. How does one become a responsible citizen of the floating world?  This question can be answered by taking an examination of the literature written by authors Kazuo Ishiguro and Salman Rushdie. 

            In Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, “An Artist of the Floating World”, the protagonist Masuji Ono showed how important the choices we make in our lives are to being a responsible citizen of the floating world. These choices or narratives give people a sense of identity and always seem to be in a state of change.

             In Ishiguro’s novel, Masuji Ono makes a major change in his artwork that ultimately changes his life.  He gives up the traditional Japanese Ukiyo-E style to paint militaristic propaganda for the state department during the war.  This change however did not come without consequences. The choices Ono made in his younger years and during the war seem to be frowned upon by Japan’s younger generation.  During his daughter’s wedding arrangement party Ono says, “All I can say is at the time I acted in good faith.  I believed in all sincerity I was achieving good for my fellow countrymen.  But as you see, I am not afraid to admit I was mistaken.” (123). Ono knows he made some bad choices but he takes responsibility for his actions and is able to admit he made a mistake.  By acknowledging his mistakes Ono comes to realize that a lot of the choices he made were compromised by his own values and the values of his culture.

            When Ono looks back on his life he knows the narratives that made up his identity.  The narrative Ono composed for him self is not well liked by his society but he still has a strong since of self. When Ono is visiting his old friend Matsuda for the last time he says, “Of course, we took some bold steps and often did things with much single-mindedness; but this is surely preferable to never putting one’s convictions to the test, for lack of will or courage” (202).  Masuji Ono takes responsibility for what he did and demonstrates how to become a responsible citizen of the floating world.

            Salman Rushdie has lived a very eventful life to say the least. His novel, “The Satanic Verses”, about the Prophet Allah ended up resulting in a five million dollar Fatwa, bounty on his head and forced him into hiding for many years.  The events in Rushdie’s life show how words have different meanings to different people.  He has shown that to be a responsible citizen of the floating world people need to recognize how important words are as carriers of cultural meaning.  This is demonstrated through the controversy over his novel “The Satanic Verses”.

            In Rushdie’s short story, “The Prophets Hair”, he shows that what people say and what people actual mean can actually be very different.  The father in the story, Hashim believes he is this religious and virtuous man but in actuality he is a greedy man.  For example, he charges a seventy percent interest rate to the people he lends money to and feels he is rightfully justified to do so.  Hashim says he does it, “to teach these people the value of money; let them only learn that, and they will be cured of this fever of borrowing borrowing all the time- so you see that if my plan succeeds, I shall put myself out of business”(41).  Hashim’s words do not match his actions.  If he was really a virtuous man he would not be charging a seventy percent interest rate or be lending out money altogether.  People at times need to reevaluate their own perceptions and think about the words they use or else they can end up with a faulty mind set, like Hashim.

            Both Ishiguro and Rushdie have shown how the choices we make and the words we use need to be carefully evaluated before we make a decision.  They have also demonstrated the types of skills needed to be a responsible citizen of the floating world.  I believe to become a responsible citizen of the floating world we need to expand our horizons and take into consideration other culture’s values and beliefs.  We need embrace both the local and global aspects of our lives to make our selves more in tune with the floating world.  By doing so we can find out what is truly important in our lives even when we are caught between different worlds.  Being at home in the world is not an easy thing to do, but if we think about some of the skills shown by Ishiguro and Rushdie we will be able to truly be citizens of the floating world.