Summary
Flesh & Blood tells the story of a boy named Kaito Togo who accidentally fell into a wormhole and time-traveled to the 16th century in England. Then he joined Jeffrey -who is a pirate captain- and his crew as a fortune-teller to survive the war between England and Spain and became friends with them. But the more he saw the more he realized that many things are different from the history he had learned from books. Just when the war between England and Spain is about to start, Kaito got infected with Tuberculosis and has to find the way back to the 21st century so he can get medical treatment before going back to the 16th century to help his friends.
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Response
I chose this story because it is one of the stories I like and re-read when I am bored. What captured my interest is how Kaito, the protagonist, grows up and learned from what he has done in the story. As I said in the summary, he joined the pirate crew as a fortune-teller, but before he met the crew he had met a spy from Spain called Vicente and Kaito had decided to tell the truth that he came from the future and told Vicente what is a cause of his death afterward to support his fact which, of course, Vicente did not believe it and almost kill him after he heard that Spain will be defeated, despite the clothes and things Kaito had on him. So when Kaito met Jeffrey, he changed his plan and made up his background story, used his knowledge and the language skills he has to pursue Jeffrey and his commander to accept him as a fortune-teller to make sure that he secured his safety.In my opinion, Kaito is a smart seventeen years old boy, but what he decided to do is like a double-edged sword that can hurt himself if he does not be careful enough. For example, I think, making up himself as a powerful fortune-teller who has his words become true for 100% is risky. Even though he can secure his safety for he knew that Jeffrey and his commander will do anything to protect him because they think he will help them win over Spain, he is drawing many people who an ill-intent into him at the same time. But after he had learned about that, he tended to do fortune-telling only when it is needed, especially after he found out that many things are different from what he had learned at school and from books he had read before, which is impressive for me because I do not think I could handle the situation well enough to survive tough time as much as he did. When I was seventeen years old, I did many same mistakes and still have no intention to learn from it, such as reading books without sleeping until the next morning comes and ends up going to work with my eyes almost closed just because I wanted to know the ending of the story. I did that many times since I was a high-schooler and I still do. It is a bad habit that might never be cured.
Sadly, Flesh & Blood does not complete yet and I am waiting for the next book to be released but there is still no sign of it to be published for 4 years already. I hope the author will release the next book before I completely forget this story because I do not think I can finish reading 24 books plus a new one in just one night.
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I really wish that Aom had told us a bit more about how things were different in reality from the 16th century history we learned in school. But I like that idea for a theme in a story: history is rich and complicated, so it's almost never as simple as the versions told to children in high school, who should also be taught to have a healthy critical approach to traditional history telling. I remember when I was studying history in school that it sounded as though the European's, mainly the English, who discovered Australia and colonized it from the late 18th century on were heros civilizing the native Australians and their land. That is how the white people thought of themselves, but the reality was not so wonderful for the native Australians that the Europeans killed. And a few days ago, I enjoyed some turkey for America's Thanksgiving Celebration, but that also celebrates the theft by the British, the same one's who defeated Spain in Aom's story, of the Americas and the killing of the native Americans by the greedy English colonists taking land, gold, and riches for their Queen Elizabeth in England, and later for a series of equally greedy English kings.
ReplyDeleteHappily, when I got to university, I starting reading a lot more detailed history, and history that looked at things from other perspectives. One of my favourite historians is the classical scholar Mary Beard, a professor of classics at Oxford, who writes brilliant analyses of events from ancient Greece and Rome, which she then relates to Western civizilization today in addition to getting beneath the acts of the emperors and armies.
I completely have not answered Aom's question for readers. It is an interesting question to think about, but the other thing that caught my eye in her response is the confession that she sometimes stays up reading all night long. That's something I can relate to: ever since I was in school, I've been tempted to read just a little bit more, and a little bit more, and a little bit more, until the next I know is it's 4:00 AM and soon time to get up!
ReplyDeleteI can also relate to having to wait for the next installment of a story to come out. I started reading J.K. Rowlings story about Harry Potter in the late 1990s, and had to wait for years to finally get the last book! And as each one came out, I would rush to buy it and then ... read it in one sitting, until 4:00 in the morning it that was how long it tool. It's a very bad habit I still have to work to control. And it isn't just fiction, I can also get excited by philosophy, history or even science and end up staying up way beyond my bed time, or if I'm working on an exciting essay or other piece of work, the same can happen.