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The dialectic assumes some things are true, these being that:
From these qualifiers we enter the chronological order of the dialectic in the instances of three ends to a fight.
From this fight, the dialectic is formed; I will now list the traits of the Master and of the Slave
Eventually the master realizes that recognition from a subject he does not recognize is illegitimate, there is no longer one worthy of being his equal and therefore he is once more reduced to an object. The slave however, who desired power less than his will to live, becomes recognized; not through an “other” but through his creations, he sees his tangible impact on the world and the manifestation of his consciousness through art and labour.
Mon kills because he feels dominant to the “other” and simply because he has the ability to do so, this is evidenced in his statement to Toshi, “every creature possesses the power to let others stay alive or kill them… Use it." Because Mom is always dominant in his relationships he is unable to be “recognized” by another subject(an equal) as a self-consciousness, he remains unsatisfied and therefore continues to destroy, satisfying what Hegel calls first order desires. Hegel expands on this idea of animalistic desire and directly connects it to self affirmation much as Mon does through his terrorist attacks on Japan; from which he cultivates a sense of self. Whenever Mon states "i affirm myself" the phrase is always followed with some sort of extreme violence, this can be represented in Hegelian terms with negation in which Mon takes an object outside of himself and either transforms it (in most cases killing it) or letting it live as his slave such as in the case of Toshi. Mon lives and affirms himself through negation and collects those “below” him to aid him in the fulfillment of his desires. Mon thus first fits the bill of the "master" in Hegel’s master slave dialectic; the reason I specify “first” in this scenario is due to fact that Mon’s relation to the dialectic changes vastly throughout the story, I will present these changes as phases of development thus phase one is Mon’s phase of what I will call “Primitive Mastery”. As stated previously, Mon only lives to fulfill base desires as an animal would, due to this he possesses a self-confirming sense of domination over the world around him, Mon has never met an equal who necessarily possesses the ability to recognize him as a self-consciousness.
Phase two of Mon’s development begins with his first encounter with God, in this case represented with the massive bear-capybara Higumadon; After Mon’s attack on the Aomori police station he finds himself face to face with Higumadon (whether this is a delusion or actually godly intervention by Higumadon is still up to interpretation). Mon is utterly beaten and finds himself unable to kill after understanding the absolute fear/dread a man goes through before death. This parallels the scenario that Hegel presents the Dialectic through, two beings equally powerful and equally confident in their self-consciousness engage in a fight, afterwards one submits to the other and in doing so becoming the slave (Mon), only due to this submission does the other become the master (Higumadon). Within the traditional progression in the dialectic, the slave’s fear of the master becomes a motivating force to create and change the world around him through labor, Mon however does not create, he and Toshi reach a state of cooperation due to Mon’s more subdued state and they submerge Japan in a state of fear (almost seeming to mimic the master) in a sense “preparing” the public for Higumadon’s attack on Otome. Another part of the slave’s position under the master is the idea of “preparation” in which the slave transforms an object in order for the master to negate it, the most simple example is food preparation; the slave kills a hog and chops it into edible pieces for the master to eat or negate.
Mon and Toshi initiate an age of terrorism in Japan by feeding upon the emotions of the populace; they manipulate the prime minister into stripping nude for national television, create a crime wave of 7 times the traditional murder rate, and prompt a nationwide investigation motivated by fear (much like the slave) to find their locations. While Japan dips into this state Mon and Toshi travel to Otome to carry out their plans where they are intercepted by Maria; she becomes incredibly important to the story later on, eventually allowing Mon to transcend his reliance on others for affirmation. Mon is even more docile in Maria’s presence as she represents the motherly love that Mon was never able to experience as he grew in the contempt of his parents; due to Maria’s replacement for a mother, Mon seems to revert in age, behaving like a child. This can be read like a literal interpretation of a passage in Thus Spoke Zarathustra in which a priest encounters the prophet Zarathustra after his visit to the mountains, “Zarathustra is transformed, Zarathustra has become a child, an awakened one is Zarathustra. What do you want now among the sleepers?”. Coincidentally (or most likely intended), the transformation into childlike existence is the start of both Mon and Zarathustra’s transformations to becoming Ubermensch or Overman, men unconstrained by the morality of the common people who seek to rebirth the world much like they themselves were "reborn".
Rebirth tends to be a great theme throughout TWIM, whether it be the rebirth of Mon as the Overman, Toshi´s rebirth into a demon, or Maria´s rebirth in the Waltz for Maria arc; each of the main subjects of the story change. Mon´s rebirth takes place on the run when he and Toshi are staying with Maria´s friend Junko, at the time, Toshi is absorbed in himself, transforming his own moral system and in a sense submitting to the idea that he is a demon. Mon within phase one was continuously trying to convince Toshi of his wicked nature, oftentimes encouraging him to blackmail the women that Mon raped and to of course build his pipe bombs. After months running from the police Toshi begins to dissociate from his former self and all his past connections, in almost retaliation against his past self he threatens the TV stations broadcasting his fathers statement to the public and to Toshi himself.
When Toshi´s outburst occurs it seems almost surprising, he rejects the recognition that he had in his previous life to become a deranged serial killer, but in the process of doing so he is recognized by the whole world. Toshi throughout the story never truly becomes a demon, his outburst against the TV shows that he is still bothered by the memories of the past and thus he remains a slave; both in fear of the world but still seeking its recognition. Toshi is a failure, a false rebirth; Mon, his master, has tricked him, he is the true rebirth, the Overman.
Mon´s rebirth into the Ubermensch (or phase 3) takes place in three stages, Fetal, Childlike, and Adult. The fetal stage occurs all within Maria´s lap, Mon recounts all of his childhood memories expressed like an explosion, a big bang within his own reality. From this vision he wakes into the childlike stage. Maria, having metaphorically become Mon´s mother, is overcome with emotions when Mon wakes; going insane, she is dragged into a massacre as Mon has lost all fear of the Higumadon and escaped the dialectic. He has projected all of his emotions upon her and becomes once again a husk, able to kill as he no longer remembers absolute fear.
This Mon is the Ubermensch, however he lacks ideology, there is no drive for anything other than satisfaction. In fact there is barely anything distinguishing stage two Mon from phase one Mon except for one thing, Mon is no longer a master, he no longer regards Toshi as a slave, for Toshi has become the slave of the world, not Mon´s. Toshi, and Mon´s inherent sense of dominance over others was the only thing tying Mon to the dialectic. In his rebirth he no longer has these ties to the world, he is experiencing it for the first time, like a child. This reality presents a problem; Mon is massacring people who he regards as equals, no longer does he view them as inferior consciousnesses, through his massacre we see that he no longer desires recognition, he desires to rebirth the world just as he did.
Maria dies. A focal point in Mon´s development as he loses the mother from which he projects upon his own emotions, distraught, he calls upon the Higumadon, a feat only possible by an equal to it, a god, or an overman. Mon by this stage has not just succeeded the dialectic but become equals with the Higumadon, a god in its own right with no superior. Mon has become an adult within three days; unlike Zarathustra in the traditional Nietzschean canon, Mon does not bring new meaning to the world in the absence of god; Mon is the harbinger of the world's destruction. Instead of bringing new meaning to life on earth he begins new life on a distant planet, springing from his corpse, in a final act of god.
Due to this, Apollo later came to be known as the first neoclassical ballet. After George Balanchine left Paris for America he gained experience dancing in broadway and hollywood acts, places which would directly impact his conception of what a ballet could be. He would spend much of his professional dancing career there, honing his technique and choreography into what i can now only refer to as "distinctly Balanchine". Balanchine would later move to new york after an injury would prevent him from dancing professionally, there he founded the New York City Ballet Studio Company and School of American ballet with the arts patron Lincoln Kirsten who would continue to finance his creative endeavors. These two organizations were based upon his new technique as opposed to already established disciplines such as Royal ballet or Russian Vaganova ballet. His first piece in America; Serenade, was an instant classic, the ballet (which i performed recently) incorporated elements of choreography from the tragic ballet Giselle and a very modern jazz styling of the port de bras (carriage of the arms). From then on Balanchine — or Mr.B as he was known to those close to him — created many ballets all consistent with this styling such as the Jewels series of works and the short piece "Square Dance".
Accompanying Balanchines new form of American ballet was a drastic rise in the standards of skill required to be considered a "real" professional ballet dancer, suddenly century old pieces performed regularly in Europe were required of the much less skilled american dancers. A large race to the top in New York ensued in which hundreds of ballet studios were founded and then collapsed, each with either a novel technique or simply trying to replicate Balanchine. Until the Baryshnikov era however the Balanchine discipline of ballet reigned supreme in America.