Appendix3
This appendix is for Rin-chan, one of my best friends in the Internet, as the emails I promised, to share our feelings and loves about the characters in Inuyasha and the bounty of having a chance to read it.
Time and Memory
One of my classmates told me about his experience on the last vacation when I arrived at school, enjoying the grandeur of Niagara Falls. "It's really gorgeous!" he said while calculatedly circumventing my envious eyes, "It's really deserved visiting and I'll probably never forget it, you know, when I got there and felt the power of the nature, the only consciousness that I carried was happiness and consternation.” he continued his topic without a sign of end, but I was called away. Yes, memories, how long will them last? I don't know, but time is bound to dilute it as what it has already done to all of ours if we don't do anything. Such a kind of rule is so whenever how reluctant we are, but this doesn't mean we can do nothing.
One day (about two years and three months ago), my younger sister and I met accidentally at my uncle's house. She carried one of the books of Inuyasha with her. “Wanna have a look?” she asked, “Okay!” yep, this reply made my acquaintance with Inuyasha.
“Hey, are you listening to me?" My classmate's voice disrupt my thought, “I'm sorry, I was absentminded. “Never mind.” he smiled and said, “I've got a present for you.” He opened his bag and gave me a book--Norwegian Wood. “It's written by a Japanese guy, I figured that you would like it.” “Thank you very much, Tony.” I smiled back although I had never heard of it before. Then, I began to read the preface: “I do need that time, though, for Naoko's face to appear. And as the years have passed, the time has grown longer. The sad truth is that what I could recall in five seconds all too soon needed ten, then thirty, and then a full minute-like shadows lengthening at dusk. Someday, I suppose, the shadows will be swallowed in darkness.” “Recall”, this word constrain me to return to the former ponder.
For the book was not the first one, I couldn't understand the content well, but I learned off the title-Inuyasha. After two months without a little attention to it, I went to the mainland to celebrate the Spring Festival with my relations where I met Inuyasha again, on the hogmanay of 2002.That day I bought 19 video records in a small grocery with great fortune for it was the only shop that sold Inuyasha at that time, and spent the whole night watching them. I envy those people who can forget the plot they've already made acquainted quickly for reabsorbing in the process of watching or reading is a lavish enjoyment just as the process I experienced that day, one of my happiest days.
When I was in the middle school, I met Ranma, also a character portrayed by Rumiko, whom I thought I liked after a few books reading. But that kind of feeling disappeared quickly just as rubeola in a child. Even so, there were inevitable some reasons that caused the affection.
At that early night, I acted as a beholder watching the story of Inuyasha without an obsession with it. Then something crouched in my mind emerged out, my core values on love which were aroused by the loyal and devotional spirits in both Inuyasha and Kagome. Now I figured that I fully understand the instant feeling about Ranma – he shares some similarities with Inuyasha albeit they are not enough to me. Then, gradually, I take my roll as Kagome because I’ve found the man I have been longing for.
I felt a little hungry, and then I stood up, headed to a deli nearby for some food. On my way there, I met Mandparn. “Hi!” he grinned and asked, supposedly pretending to be debonair. “Hi.” I replied with a deadpan and then got away. “Lee, why are you so inhospitable to him?” Katerla halted me and said. “Really? Inhospitable? Maybe I don’t like these dandies like him.” “Oh, he it not that bad, you know, he…” “…has changed 3 girl friends, right?” I cut in, “ Well, it’s true but… yeah, I know you, how about YOUR Inuyasha?” “ He is FINE, thank you.” We joked with happiness. She is one of my best friends and she knows me well. Then I found myself a seat, sat down in the shafts of sunshine and continued my thought in the postcard images of spring.
I was not a sentimental person. My tears seldom welled up because of novels and movies, but that time, when I saw that Inuyasha was going to give up his love on Kagome to protect Kikyo, I cried. I cried like a sap even all my friends came and asked me what was wrong. And, of course, I began to adore Kagome for she carries such a kind of heart that can permit two women simultaneously existing in Inuyasha’s heart, and I also benefited a lot from her that are honorable, useful and that enlightened me on devotion, and that helped me established some of my core values.
“Five seconds, ten, and thirty …” I read this sentence again, and I knew that I differed most from the author when it came to managing our memories. I tended to be positive while the author seemed to be more negative. To me, there certainly exit laws to rule our memories, to strengthen them, and to etch them in our cerebra. Association and repetition are two of them, and above all, you need constant desire and determination to memorize what you want to remember. I thought that there was no need to explain repetition for nearly all of us had suffered rote. A clue can help us especially when it is ridiculous or logical. For example, the word “cornucopia” is hard to bear in mind just by repetition, but if we recognize that “cornucopia” is similar to “corn + copious (=abundant)”, we will easily learn it by heart. Another typical example is a learning method in scientific study. If we know the logical structure of the theory, which shows the deductive or inductive process of it, it will be much easier for us to recall the whole theory. The last thing that I want to accentuate is that desire and determination are prerequisite, which means that if any of them is lost, no effect will exist at all.
Let’s come back to my experience that day. Wind blew then, which brought me the smell of soil of the grove behind and soothed and filled me. I love wind, not only because it’s a part of nature, but it has some connection with Inuyasha. Yes, he always uses wind as blade and dog is also the proxy for wind in an ancient legend.
After I finished all the books of Inuyasha I could find, I stepped up to the Internet where I found both the latest chapters and people who were like me—we were all taken fancy by the manga. Every time I logged into Inuyashabbs or Popgo, I could feel a kind of abandon, dainty abandon, which also leaded me to a bit of violent emotion and confusion when I logged out. In fact, those Inuyasha fans in the internet are also doing the same thing—continuously reinforcing their memories no matter they are conscious or not.
Maybe this kind of leaping style has made you troubled, I’m not too thrilled either, because the content that can be written down is too much, so much that I can’t reveal them all in this little appendix and some of it is only for me. ^_^ I just want to show you my attitude towards memories, especially about Inuyasha—we can resist the dilution to our memories derived from time although it sounds surreal. If you still don’t believe it, please ask me any questions about Inuyasha 20 years later, you can be assured of satisfactory answers.
Kagomelee
Monday, April 26, 2004
