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Alright, Higurashi thread. I might do it in stages rather than all at once. Spoilers ahead, reader beware....
Like True Detective or Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday, Higurashi uses the framework of conspiracy theory to talk about wider societal, religious, and philosophical issues. This is because a Conspiracy centralizes and organizes things- and it mimics the action of...
...more metaphysical forces like God or Fate, from which it is often practically indistinguishable, introducing an element of uncertainty that is crucial to stories about faith, doubt, and perception.
On a religious level, Higurashi talks about the layers of separation between God and man's conception of God. In a sense, it's an example of apophatic theology, showing God primarily in contrast to everything else in Creation, especially human religion
Like Girard, Ryukishi07 is commenting on the contrast between the scapegoat mechanism and Christ/Hanyuu, who comes to break the power of the scapegoat mechanism and preach forgiveness & "bearing one another's burdens"
Human religion is based on either
1. Exalting yourself will-to-power style
2. Sacrificing an innocent victim and then deifying them
Either way it's based on lies & the crushing of the powerless
1. Exalting yourself will-to-power style
2. Sacrificing an innocent victim and then deifying them
Either way it's based on lies & the crushing of the powerless
Christ/Hanyuu offers a different way- mutual forgiveness of sins & the bearing of one another's burdens. The truth shall set you free.
Instead of mystifying rituals, victimization, and superstitious fear- Christ comes to raise human consciousness as a whole to a new level. The kingdom of God is within you.
Interestingly Hanyuu died and rose again long before the events of Higurashi. So her return is a Second Coming, which explains the Apocalyptic themes in Higurashi. But instead of defeating the power of Antichrist in linear time, she does so in a kind of time loop
The time loop connects the story to Hindu ideas of the four Yugas, or ages. The lush flowery June landscape with happy people at the beginning of every arc isn't a coincidence- it's an invocation of the primordial Golden Age/Garden of Eden
Thus- every arc recapitulates the Fall of Man and the descent into Kali Yuga. The fact that the arcs get progressively shorter reflects the "cycles within cycles". Hanyuu breaks the shorter cycle and restores the Kingdom on Earth, at least for a while.
That's all for now, also check this thread out https://twitter.com/gnostiquette/status/1305823964313378820?s=20
