Death Note Notes

[lynkemma]

When I finished my Master's degree in English in 2005, I sincerely believed I'd never want to do literary analysis, ever again. Then I happened across Death Note, and changed my mind. However, what with one thing and another, I don't have the mental capacity to write a neat and pretty article/essay on it right now, so the following are basically

Comments

[peppermintwords]

Hi :). I myself did my BA in English Literature this year so I love analysing stuff

[lynkemma]

Yes, isn't literary analyses fun? ^^ It's nice to poke at the structure of a story and see what's there.

Thank you for commenting, it was interesting to hear a Muslim perspective. I'm an atheist myself, so it's educational to learn how you interpret it. And that saying about coming to the Devil of one's own free will is very apt, I think - that's very much what Death Note is about. Light isn't really corrupted by the note, he corrupts himself.

[peppermintwords]

Yes, but I think it's canon that the notebook has some kind of power to make a person want to use it, so I guess eventually, Raito just lost it o.o
And I forgot to say this but I love all the things you said about Raito and L's relationship - they are connected in many ways *_*.
I'd love to read more of your analyses :).

[lynkemma]

That's very true. Personally, I feel very sorry for Light, to be honest.

And thank you! I'm very glad you enjoyed reading it, and I might get round to more analysis later. If so, I'll post a link in death_note.

[lynkemma]

Thank you! I'm glad to hear I pointed out some new things. ^^

And the beauty of literary analysis is that as long as the text itself supports a reading, it doesn't really matter what the author intended. Having said that, I totally agree with you, it's incredibly hard to find read-worthy series after Death Note.

[luvhyde]

=D I loved reading this~ I -wish- I could write 'notes' like you XD It's amazing how deeply you've analyzed this anime/manga! =D I can't wait to read "A queer reading" haha...

[lynkemma]

Aw, thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it. ^^ And if I get round to writing a Queer Reading, I'll definitely post a link in death_note.

[serria]

This was a fascinating read. :-)

I'm in complete agreement with your first point. Ryuk is a spectator and represents a spectator throughout the entire series, with minimal interference though ironically the whole Death Note series is attributed to him. But as an "otherworldly" species, if we look through Ryuk's eyes, his perceptions of humanity are, what I think, the ultimate conclusion of Death Note is. The line about Light believing he was chosen and Ryuk responding that it was completing random is a huge indication of this. Something else that made this evident was Light asking if Ryuk was going to take his soul away now - to punish him - to which Ryuk responds he won't be doing a thing, and even chuckles at the thought of how human's minds work

[lynkemma]

Thank you for such a thoughtful and interesting comment!

Those are very good points about Ryuk. From the perspective of the Shinigami, humans just aren't important enough to warrant punishment or rewards. From a human perspective, of course, it's strange to think that Light can become such a mass murderer and not get any kind of punishment for it. In fact, he gets the same fate as everyone, and that is frankly startling. It's such a nihilist story, really - no matter how you act in life, death is equal. Personally, I believe that that is in fact how the world works, but given how used we are to think in terms of divine or human justice, it's almost shocking to see the lack of punishment in Death Note.

Those are good points about Soichiro. I would add to that that he doesn't really face more moral dilemmas than L or Light, but unlike them, he actually takes them seriously. Both L and Light have a "for the greater good/means to an end" attitude to morality, whereas poor Siochiro tries to make the right decisions.

[the_penumbra]

Very well thought out. I agree with most of your points, particularly the similarity between L and Light - to my mind, bith are right, both are wrong and neither is justice.

Your section on Light's two deaths was particularly interesting as I had never seen it from this point of view - certainly, I cringed and mentally berated Kira for not being able to die with some semblance of dignity. The point you emphasise -of the sheer futitily of Light's 'sacrifice' so to say -fits in very well with the explanation you give.

[lynkemma]

bith are right, both are wrong and neither is justice.

Beautifully put. That about sums it up, I think.

And yeah, Kira/Light's death is cringeworthy, for a variety of reasons. I think it's an incredible punch-in-the-stomach ending, because of the sheer futility of everything he's done. Poor Light.