Too Big To be A Sword
Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . I have become obsessed with the Japanese manga series Berserk . A dark fantasy set in medieval Europe, it features a powerful but flawed protagonist called Guts. His sword the Dragon Slayer is described repeatedly thus: "That thing was too big to be a sword. Too big, too thick, too heavy and too rough. It was more like a large hunk of iron." You can see readily why this tortured hero, who fights not only the demons around him, but also the worse ones within, should draw to him teenage boys and all who have kept the wounds of male teenage-hood. In interviews, the creator of Berserk, Kentaro Miura, owns up to the influence of Friedrich Nietzsche. Of particular relevance is the German philosopher's warning, that "whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster." It is a warning that is of great pertinence, as I see it, to our political moment. In...