{"id":20990,"date":"2025-01-30T12:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T18:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/?p=20990"},"modified":"2025-01-30T12:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T18:03:09","slug":"displaying-symptoms-of-neurodivergency-over-houseki-no-kuni-one-of-them-being-writing-another-blog-on-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/2025\/01\/30\/displaying-symptoms-of-neurodivergency-over-houseki-no-kuni-one-of-them-being-writing-another-blog-on-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Displaying Symptoms of Neurodivergency Over Houseki no Kuni (One of Them Being Writing Another Blog on It)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

Picture this: you wake up early on a weekend. It isn’t late in the day, but it’s early. I-have-school-today early. I am gripping your shoulders with foam falling from my mouth. There is a corkboard behind me.<\/p>\n

Houseki no Kuni<\/em>, English translation being Land of the Lustrous<\/em>, created by Haruko Ichikawa. A manga I can best describe as a psychological horror with symbolism down to the very\u00a0chairs\u00a0<\/em>and enough details to feed you into an entire new year. Yes, it’s the new year. It’s been the new year. I arrive here today with even more conclusions on this story; even more info to share. I still haven’t been able to get the final translated volume, but when it releases- when it releases.\u00a0<\/em>You will be waking up early again.<\/p>\n

I woke up early on day whatever of whatever and immediately spiraled into this. I grabbed volumes off my shelf, splayed them open, and by god-\u00a0MAJOR SPOILERS-\u00a0<\/strong>I realized a detail so major it was PUT IN A VOLUME’S COVER.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

THE RIGHT EYE<\/strong><\/p>\n

(as depicted in the manga. I know it looks like the left but the manga says its the right.)<\/p>\n

+ EYES OVERALL<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eyes have always had an important part in Houseki no Kuni.\u00a0<\/em>In fact, what I realized was both more eye-related details, and the symbolism of the right eye itself. Both of these are intertwined though. They’re both still eyes. I’m going to tell you all of this information I have between my scrabbly little claws. To even get to the right eye we have to understand what eyes in Houseki no Kuni<\/em> symbolize. Generally in art, eyes are considered gateways to the soul. Fitting for Houseki no Kuni,\u00a0<\/em>but there’s more here.<\/p>\n

Eyes, pretty much stated, are symbols for happiness.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

“Happiness.”<\/p>\n

“I want…”<\/p>\n

“…To be happy.”<\/p>\n

This is a page after Kongo tells Phos to take his right eye. It is a climax of everything. It is the feeling of exhaustion washing from your bones. This symbolism in eyes doesn’t just show up here, either. There’s panels depicting sadness where eyes are purposefully hid, over and over again. There’s Dia flinging back arrows with their sword, hair covering their eyes, only to be revealed when they think it may be over. Cinnabar is a character who’s steeped in loneliness and worthlessness, and their design consists of flowing hair over their face, often obscuring their eyes, which may be held downcast. When Rutile is thrown into turmoil over the loss of Padparadscha, their neatly done hair falls loosely over their face. Even Amethyst styles their hair to show both their eyes when they’re made distinct from their twin. Kongo tells Phos to take his eye for happiness, and Phos slams it into their skull.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

You can see it vaguely in this shot, and it doesn’t resurface. Maybe it has the potential to in the final volume, but this shows how happiness isn’t something so easily gained, especially in Phos’ case. But take care to note that this is Phos’ right eye (according to the manga), taken from Kongo’s right eye, which he specified. He didn’t just tell Phos to take his eye. He told Phos to take his right eye specifically.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I could be all leagues of wrong with this, but Houseki no Kuni\u00a0<\/em>has integral aspects in its heavy themes of Buddhism. The right eye in this story could extremely easily be linked to Right View, also known as Samma Ditthi, in Buddhism. Right View is the first, crucial step in the Noble Eightfold Path. From Dhamma Source: “In essence, Right View is the understanding of the true nature of things, which leads to the eradication of ignorance, the primary cause of suffering.” Right View “Is essential for understanding the nature of reality and achieving liberation from suffering.”<\/p>\n

Do you hear that?<\/p>\n

Understanding of the true nature of things? The eradication of ignorance? Liberation from suffering? I said the right eye symbolized happiness in Houseki no Kuni,\u00a0<\/em>but it could very well be some literal representation of Right View. Phos’ whole character arc is based in finding the truth; shaking off ignorance to find out what everything means. Phos was, too, assigned the job of creating a nature and natural histories encyclopedia, way, way back in volume one. That task set all of this off. Do you hear that (again)? They were tasked. With making. An encyclopedia. Of nature and things. Of nature and histories. Of na. of.f of LIFE. RIGHT VIEW IS THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE TRUE NATURE OF THINGS> IM GOING OY SDCRE<S<\/p>\n

And that’s not all!<\/p>\n

God. There’s just. There’s so much to this series. Hold on a moment while I reel and collect my thoughts. We still aren’t even to Phos losing one of their eyes to be replaced with a pearl, then ultimately losing their ‘original’ right eye altogether. Should I make another blog on that? There’s so much more. There’s so much to explain and too little words. You will wake up early another day.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Picture this: you wake up early on a weekend. It isn’t late in the day, but it’s early. I-have-school-today early. I am gripping your shoulders with foam falling from my mouth. There is a corkboard behind me. Houseki no Kuni, English translation being Land of the Lustrous, created by Haruko Ichikawa. A manga I can … Continue reading “Displaying Symptoms of Neurodivergency Over Houseki no Kuni (One of Them Being Writing Another Blog on It)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20990"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20990"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21050,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20990\/revisions\/21050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}