Alona Yemlyutina
Make some pop corn, magic horn!
When spring came, the woman sent her husband to saw some millet in the fields so they could have kasha in addition to crusts. So he did. As the grains started to sprout, the man became very glad of it. But one day he found the plants trampled down by a stork. This scene made the man absolutely vexatious. He went home and told his wife about losses they suffered. Recognizing their desperate situation, the woman remembered about the gun they had and decided to shoot that stork down so they could have meat instead of kasha. So the man went into fields hunting for the stork. As he saw the bird as he had expected, the man was already going to make a shot while the stork started to speak with a human voice to the man. It turned out not to be aware of the fact that the millet belonged to a local peasant. He asked to forgive him and gave a bundle as a compensation for the caused damage. First the man thought it was a trick, but the bird insured him that this was a magic bundle. One should have asked it to untwist and to provide food and drinks with code words "Satisfy our hunger, almighty bundle!" and so this happened in a moment. Also the mentioned procedure took place if the asker desired the blanket to roll up and items to be hidden. Wishing to go convinced of the bundle's magic abilities, the man pronounced those words, and an extraordinary event happened. An abundance of foodstuff appeared in front of him that he had never seen before. Having satisfied his hunger, the man went home to share his feelings of excitement with his wife. The magic bundle was considered by the old woman as a salvation in conditions of food disaster, so she proposed to call together all the local countrypeople who were suffering lack of food. Thus many people from around became permanent visitors of the old couple's every day dinner.
Once, one of the local landowner's employees found out about the magic bundle and informed his chef of that phenomenon. The reaction of the landowner was a sudden intention to confiscate the bundle from those people (which was easy considering their unprotected position) on the grounds that there should not be a single person who could have more or better food than he had. So he went to the village. The peasant could not hide the fact so he told his story and showed the bundle in its action to the landowner. The man had no desire to be deprived of his bundle, but he had no choice as he was proposed two variants of settling the matter. One of them was to give it to the landowner and to get a plenty of ordinary food in return; and the other was to go apart with it by means of force and contra damage.
Having returned to his residence, the landowner forgot of his proposition. He invited guests with dense regularity entertaining them with his new gain.
Following the advice of the woman, her husband went to the landowner's house to remind him of the food he had promised. By getting there the man was refused in meeting his request. Also as a bad welcome the man was given an assault by the order of the landowner.
Bearing desperate feelings, the man went to look the stork in hope to get another magic food-bundle. And when he met the bird and informed it of what had occurred, he got another magic item - the silver horn.
Next day the horn of mystery function became to be another object of the landowner's interests. Willing to know what kind of valuable thing it provided, the landowner run into quite unexpected transformations. After the man said the code words "Make some pop corn, magic horn!" twelve Ninjas* appeared to provide a task of punishing all antagonists in this story. Only when the landowner agreed to leave the land without any luggage, the punishment was over.
*In Japanese history, a ninja (忍者) is a warrior specially trained in a variety of unorthodox martial arts.
3rd Feb. 2009
The Hedgehog in the Fog: I and the big Other
"The Hedgehog in the Fog" cartoon of 1975 contains the recognition of the postulate that a human being is afraid and not well known of himself. This psychological fact which is quite of a problematic nature is revealed in a person of a little forest animal - the hedgehog.
The usual every night occupation of this character is counting stars with the Bear, a close friend of the Hedgehog. The stars-engagement for them is like watching a movie. They do not consider the sky as the inaccessible celestial body. The Friends contingently divide it twain in order to specify and appropriate this extra-earth challenging screen by exacting stars in it. This mathematical meditation is usually accompanied with the tea ritual. Such a way of spending the night time is hardly to be referred to work and neither to entertainment. The author apparently offers to consider this a lifestyle. In any case, denomination of joy is evident. To make a new perception of it, life circumstances collide the Hedgehog with a series of unplanned experiences. Unexpectedly for himself, the animal meets his phobias and weaknesses and if does not resolve, then at least asks some questions about his personality.
From the very acquaintance with the character, a viewer feels the rhythm of his mind. The animal thinks about upcoming meeting with his friend, about high suitability between raspberry jam and tea and mainly about the increased emotional tone of the Bear as a result of this jam investment. This last dream is particularly valid in view of the fact that the Bear is a well-known adherent of sweet food. The Hedgehog is absolutely lost in reverie about the forthcoming smell of juniper twigs in the fire and the visual amusement which he used to find in the object of the sky.
The Hedgehog meets with new sensations connected with the extra-high humidity in the Forest. The next few minutes they are supplemented with an aesthetically-social impression which is provoked by the sudden appearance of a white horse. Simple but quite an absurd question arises in the mind of the Hedgehog, which concerns the ability of the Horse to drown in the Fog in case of falling asleep. An attempt of the protagonist to address the Horse does not cause any reaction in the recipient. The Fog significantly obstructs the perception of visual information. So the Hedgehog makes an auditory effort to identify the location of the Horse. But instead he finds himself surrounded by the aggressive sounds of the Forest and the Night. The feelings of the animal are focused on fear. The context is filled with images of negative nature. The imagination of the Hedgehog generates the presence of undefined beings and physical confrontation with them.
A tree of a big size appears to be one of those beings. It draws attention of the Hedgehog with its parameters and puts the animal in state of the Other. A brown leaf falls from the Tree, and starting from this moment the voice of the Bear calling for the Hedgehog is periodically heard in the forest. The notice of losing the valued jam suddenly interrupts the research interest of the Hedgehog. Fear mixes with hopelessness. The Hedgehog understands that he has lost his way. There comes a state of panic and inability to control the situation. The animal finds impermanent comfort in the functional assistance of a firefly as a possibility to determine the boundaries of what is visible. But the insect is not stable and effective enough in conditions of the Forest.
The Distant voice of the Bear periodically returns the Hedgehog into a usual condition. However, the Forest keeps occupying a dominant position in the perception of the animal. In addition to fear of owls and bats, the Hedgehog is frightened of such forest creatures as the snail and elephant. Anxiety and hopelessness become the only feelings of his. The need for reality and certainty increases. The voice of the friend of the Hedgehog is joined with the man's best friend, the dog. It is obvious for a viewer that it does not feel disoriented in the bad weather conditions. It is even valid to say about irony in the behaviour of the Dog over the state of the Hedgehog. The Smiling Dog is a new look at this situation as a paranoid one. But even this sign does not sober the Hedgehog. Having fallen into cold water, he concludes that he has appeared in the river and allows himself to surrender to the flow. As the river flows, the visual information the Hedgehog gets constantly changes. Besides the animal is wet, there is a probability to drown. The horse emerges in his mind, and the Hedgehog keeps confidence. This is an important and unclear moment in this cartoon. The Hedgehog is not in a fear condition any more. Once again he faces with a certain being, but it does not frighten him. However, this contact is of a different nature. First, it is tactile. Second, it takes place in the water of unknown origin. This Being asks the Hedgehog a simple question: "Who are you?"
Doubts about the social equality, which were provoked by dichotomies - "the Hedgehog - the Owl", "the Hedgehog - the Night", "the Hedgehog - the Forest" - are replaced by realization of a clear fact that the Hedgehog is a hedgehog and he has just fallen into the river.
Since his fall, the viewer notices not only the disappearance of fear in his behaviour, but the entire emotionality of his. Upon arrival at the shore, the Hedgehog expresses gratitude to the Being in a very formal tone. In a short time, the Bear appears in the narrative. He greets his friend excitedly with questions about his long absence, accompanying this with telling about preparations for the night of their plan. The figure of the Bear almost explodes the situation with vitality. The time, the smells around, the taste of jam, the temperature of the air - everything becomes clearer. But the Hedgehog does not alter by the activity of the Bear. In the emotional sense, we can state the loss of his image. Despite the unique form and content, this cartoon provokes contrast reactions in a viewer. The ambiguity is in determining the exact image of the Hedgehog, and specifically in changes he has bared. Among the assumptions, we can conclude two versions:
1. The Hedgehog has a fragile sensuous constitution. After the emotional experiences of the Forest, he is suffering a temporary autism.
2. Being relatively small in size and unable to resist psychologically the stress subjects, the Hedgehog did not survive in the Forest environment.
The state of being alone can make significant changes in a man. Instinctively, the individual tries to avoid this in personal and public relationships. In other words, people are creatures of couple and social nature. At such a state of things, friendship and love and expression of other human feelings are the main components of the living sense, equally as the ability to see the sense in a matter of stars.
17 Jan. 2010
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