Momo! Where are You?
(March 14, 2025)
Momo! Where are You? (March 14, 2025)
Thanks to the progress of internet technologies, we can access to the latest news instantly wherever we are on the earth. Every individual can watch and/or listen to the same news, yet each individual takes the news differently. Each one of major news companies has its own channel on YouTube. When an important news is released, we can see how people react to the news by thumbing through viewers’ comments. In the 21st century, the news companies and news consumers seem to behave in the following manners;
(1) Each news company edits the news in its own style which reflects the company’s view.
(2) Each news consumer chooses a news company that suits his/her view.
(3) Such consumer behaviors give each news company incentives to intensify the further specialization so as to accommodate and enclose its consumers.
(4) Because of the news companies’ specializations, each news consumer stops watching/listening to any other news company but the one he/she chose.
(5) The above process (1)-(4) forms a cycle that makes the world people as bipolar as can be.
It is as if each individual chooses an echo chamber in which he/she feels cozy and secure because the voices he/she hears are the echoes of his/her own mind. (You may want to listen to Everybody’ Talkin’ by Harry Nilsson (1968).) The comments on an important news in each news channel on YouTube appear monolithic. In each news channel, we do not see diverse opinions. And each news consumer does not want to watch and/or listen to other news channels which make him/her uncomfortable.
Lately, especially in the past few years, it looks like the world is losing sense. Maybe, somewhere in the past, we stepped into the twilight zone. In It’s a Good Life (1961), folks in a small town are forced to live in a world created by a little boy Anthony (Bill Mumy). The boy can materialize anything he wishes. People are forced to be the boy’s cronies. You had better not argue with Anthony because he can turn you into a jack-in-the-box. There are some episodes in The Twilight Zone (1959-1964) which depict mean and savage characters in children. But, maybe, what scares us more is a mean and savage child in an adult, especially when the adult is a powerful national leader.
Ever since my childhood, I have been a science fiction reader. The stories influenced my view about the world. Solipsism is a framework (template) often utilized by science fiction writers. I’d like to present some of my favorite stories;
(1) What Mad Universe (1949) by Fredric Brown. The protagonist Keith Winton is thrown into a world created by an avid science fiction fan. The story is hilarious. Fredric Brown laughs at Sci-Fi community; writers, editors, publishers, and fans alike, the community in which Brown himself is also a prominent figure.
(2) The Man in the High Castle (1962) by Philip K. Dick. In the story, the reality is the world in which the Axis countries won WWII. It is said that there is a man in the high castle who writes stories about an alternative world in which the Allied countries won WWII. So, here is a twist. We, the readers of The Man in the High Castle, live in the story written by the man in the high castle. The walls separating the alternative worlds are not quite solid. In the story, Tagami Shinsuke, who is stationed at San Francisco as a member of the Japanese Occupation Head Quater, gets a glimpse of the alternative world through the thin layers of possibilities.
When I read Das Schloss (1922) by Franz Kafka, the story inevitably reminded me The Man in the High Castle. A sequence of unfortunate events prevents K, the main character, from reaching and entering the castle. Maybe, there is a man in the castle who writes a story of K. Maybe, the man in the castle is in deep depression. Therefore, K is frustrated and tormented by the progress of events because K is an alter-ego of the man in the castle. The man in the castle prevents K from reaching, entering, and meeting. By writing a story of K, the man in the castle can observe the state of his own miserable mind objectively. If the man meets K, his alter-ego, he is forced to internalize K’s misery which is also his own misery. Therefore, the meeting is unbearable for the man in the castle.
(3) The Iron Dream (1972) by Norman Spinrad. Like The Man in the High Castle, the Iron Dream is a story in story written by a crazed artist-painter whose identity is well known in our real world. At the end of the story (spoiler alert), there is a book review written by a psycho-analyst who lives in an alternative world where WWII was avoided. There are three layers of alternative worlds; one in which we (the readers) live, one in which the author of the Iron Dream and the book reviewer live, and the story of the Iron Dream. The author of the Iron Dream, which is a story in story, reminds us the crazed fanatic Franz Liebkind (Kenneth Mars) who wrote the script for the stage play Springtime for Hitler in The Producers (1967).
(4) Shoshu Reijo (Conscription Letters) (1964) by Komatsu Sakyo. The story is about a modern-day Japan which is gradually taken over by an alternative world in which WWII is still going on. By the end of the story, readers will be horrified by the crazed state of mind that happened and could happen in the future anywhere in the world.
The progress of internet technologies enables each and every one to upload his/her opinion which could be seen and/or heard all over the world. So, the technologies could promote democracy for each and every one. Nowadays, the electric-virtual world is filled with plethora of information. Everybody’s talkin’. But aren’t they his/her own echoes of mind which he/she is listening to? It seems like the world nations are separating into echo chambers, and the communications among the echo chambers are getting smaller while the conflicts among them larger.
Momo is a little girl in the eponymous story for children written by Michael Ende in 1973. Momo is a listener. Those who are in troubles visit Momo (you can always find her in the park) and talk to her about their troubles. Momo does not give advises or suggestions. Momo does not criticize anyone. She just listens. Yet, people feel relieved and a little easier. Maybe, those who are in deep troubles are too confused to organize their thoughts, evaluate their current situations, and search for ways to overcome the troubles. So, finding someone who listens is a first step for healing of and dealing with troubles for those who are in the troubles.
It is natural and inevitable that people have different opinions. Maybe, we need to listen mutually so as to understand each other, and to avoid conflicts and violences.
Momo! Where are you? We need you more than ever.
References:
Brown, Fredric, What Mad Universe (1949).
Dick, Philip K., The Man in the High Castle (1962).
Ende, Michael, Momo (1973).
Kafka, Franz, Das Schloss (1922).
Komatsu, Sakyo, Shoshu Reijo (Conscription Letters) (1964).
Spinrad, Norman, The Iron Dream (1972).
It’s a Good Life (1961), S3. E8. of The Twilight Zone, 1959-1964.
The Producers (1967), written and directed by Mel Brooks, distributed by Embassy Pictures.
Everybody’s Talkin’, performed by Harry Nilsson (1968). The song is created by Fred Neil in 1966.
P.S.: I’d like to add Eye in the Sky (1957) by Philip K. Dick to the list. The story slipped out of my mind. I need to read the story again because I was too young and naive to understand when I read the story for the first time. The story reflects the political-cultural environment of the period.
Dick, Philip K., Eye in the Sky (1957).
