It's time to gear up and take a look at some Espresso Love Themes and Layers. These are from the top of my head at the moment, and are not absolutes or the law, and these are limited interpretations as readers will see different things. If you have any other ideas do speak up!
- Freud's Super-Ego, Ego and Id. Naoki is split into Super-Ego and Shirayuki's Id. Shizuka acts as the compromising and catalyst layer of Ego. Shizuka and Naoki as Anima and Animus.
- the idea of that most individuals are lost or unsure of their own identity and are in perpetual constant soul-searches and by looking outward, people find themselves in the external world - Naoki's answers and self came from interactions and manifestations in other characters. Did he project himself onto the world and form characters or is he constructing himself according to external influence?
- There is no reality, the world is made up of subjective perceptions and shifting unrealities. Any part of the novel could very well be a figment of imagination or someone else's belief or idea. Simulacrum, representations, imitations, reinterpretations, mass reproduced duplicated images, or by extension, realities, without knowing the origin or recognition of any actual true reality.
- Naoki sees Shizuka visually, whereas she first perceives Naoki by literally reading his mind
- Mass phenomena of sex and desensitization parallel with capitalism, and Naoki x Shizuka contrast of a deep metaphysical connection and soul-searching through sex
- Human reproduction in resistance against expiration, where the original concept of biological and genetic inheritance is transformed into the continuation of memories, ideals, love and more.
- Carl Jung's Collective Unconscious or Plato's abstract universals or Absolute Mind of Hegel or Spiritus Mundi etc. the greater pool of all humanity, civilization, history, wisdom, thought and imagination, as an universal connection and knowledge
- I think therefore I am
- Coffee order representing past, identity and personality, from no specific order to the memory-loaded drink and lifeline
- coffee in its various stages: finished marketed product with no background or story, the artificial manufacturing and selective processing in plantation, and the magical homegrown coffee tree in nature; as analogy of human beings?
- Rock to jazz to classical (Nirvana, Mi Hyun's OOR, flumpool magazines, Clark Terry alarm, ambient Jazz, classical etc)
- Urban environment into Nature for refinement and enlightenment, back into the urban with the enlightenment
- Yin Yang polarity shifts between Shizuka and Naoki. Shizuka being the Yang, active agent in the beginning, and Naoki being passive, until it begins to reverse. At the end, Naoki must be the Yang.
- Capitalist society creates a natural hegemony that converts proletariat into flat soulless images who service the system. The bombardment of images, while humans become images themselves
- Love in the novel is a deep complementary metaphysical unconditional connection between two people, who have completely exposed the totality of their true selves to one another
- The intellect, the philosophical mind of Naoki, is the core of the being - but he isn't human until he gains emotion and memories. Intellect manages and controls emotions. The Super-ego and Ego controls the Id. Consciousness prevails through trials and suffering
- Simultaneity, while something happens, something else in parallel is happening. Duality and parallel realities or worlds i.e. The Cause vs personal journey. Dreamscape vs reality. Jackson Pollock while World War II
- Greater forces beyond the characters, the flow of the universe, many things out of human control. Circumstance, fate, action and reaction, unforeseen
- Despite these greater forces, it's worth it to try and fight on, seek answers, til the end
YOU ARE READING
Espresso Love: Fragments
Random[Spoiler alert] Supplementary bonus content for flagship literary fiction novel, "Espresso Love" in the form of short stories including prequel, sequel, memoir, alternate-universe, spin-off, collaborative and interactive fun! Please read Espresso Lo...
