本日検証したThe Last Unicornの中の戯画的な一場面である「幕間狂言」の箇所において、「時代錯誤」に該当する語句としていかなるものが指摘し得るか、その効果と本作品のアンチ・ロマンス的主題との相関を指摘してみよ。また、類似の事例を自ら考案し、ミニ・ドラマとしての創作を試みてみよ。講座担当者あるいは他のご立派な先生方の授業風景等を参考にして、風刺的演出の手を加えることも許可する。
「ユニコーンが語っていた、かつてのユニコーンを知る古代の人々が行っていたというユニコーンを目標とした狩の仕方」は、テキストAnnotated Last Unicornの11ページに記載があります。
ユニコーンの言葉で
“I have been hunted with bells and banners in my time,” ... “Men knew that the only way to hunt me was to make the chase so wondrous that I would come near to see it. And even so I was never once captured.”
と、語られているのがそれです。
かつてユニコーンを知っていた人々がユニコーンを狩るのに用いた方法は、現代において支配的であるような実利的なやり方ではなく、狩る対象に対する崇敬の念を備えた、儀式的な形式美を備えたものであったのです。
この箇所に対する詳しい解説は、ブログFantasy as Antifantasy Daily Lectureの以下のページにあります。
http://antifantasy2.blog01.linkclub.jp/index.php?blogid=1214&archive=2004-10-22
“アンチ・ファンタシー”というファンタシー文学理解のために設定したキーワードの内実を理解するに当たって、本講座において具体的検証を行った“アンチ・ロマンス”の事例が、テキストThe Last Unicornにおいてはいかなる様相を呈して現れていたかを述べよ。ミクシイのトピックの記載あるいは講座進行の途上において講座担当者が提示した折々の“課題”を適宜応用して自らの理解するところを語りなさい。
… “No, we couldn’t. We don’t know how things are.” She looked sad about it, but she looked firm, too. She said, “Girl, it’s not you worries me. The king is a good man, and an old friend, but it has been a long time, and kings change. Even more than other people, kings change.”
His name was Schmendrick, which I still think is the funniest name I’ve heard in my life. The woman’s name was Molly Grue. We didn’t leave right away, because of the horses, but made camp where we were instead. I was waiting for the man, Schmendrick, to do it by magic, but he only built a fire, set out their blankets, and drew water from the stream like anyone else, while she hobbled the horses and put them to graze. I gathered firewood.
The woman, Molly, told me that the king’s name was Lir, and that they had known him when he was a very young man, before he became king. “He is a true hero,” she said, “a dragon slayer, a giant-killer, a rescuer of maidens, a solver of impossible riddles. He may be the greatest hero of all, because he’s a good man as well. They aren’t always.”
“But you didn’t want me to meet him,” I said. “Why was that?”
Molly sighed. We were sitting under a tree, watching the sun go down, and she was brushing things out of my hair. She said, “He’s old now. Schmendrick has trouble with time – I’ll tell you why one day, it’s a long story – and he doesn’t understand that Lir may no longer be the man he was. It could be a sad reunion.”
I twisted my neck around to look up at him. “Do you think King Lir will come back with me and kill that griffin? I think Molly thinks he won’t, because he’s so old.” I hadn’t known I was worried about that until I actually said it.
“Why, of course he will, girl.” Schmendrick winked at me again. “He never could resist the plea of a maiden in distress, the more difficult and dangerous the deed, the better. If he did not spur to your village’s aid himself at the first call, it was surely because he was engaged on some other heroic venture. I’m as certain as I can be that as soon as you make your request – remember to curtsey properly – he’ll snatch up his great sword and spear, whisk you up to his saddlebow, and be off after your griffin with the road smoking behind him. Young or old, that’s always been his way.”
“And who may this princess be?” he asked, looking straight at me. He had the proper voice for a king, deep and strong, but not frightening, not mean. I tried to tell him my name, but I couldn’t make a sound, so he actually knelt on one knee in front of me, and he took my hand. He said, “I have often been of some use to princesses in distress. Command me.”
…and he said, “Lisene? Lisene, I should have a bath, shouldn’t I?”
I didn’t cry. Molly didn’t cry. Schmendrick did. He said, “No, Majesty. No, you do not need bathing, truly.”
King Lir looked puzzled. “But I smell bad, Lisene. I think I must have wet myself.” He reached for my hand and held it so hard. “Little one,” he said. “Little one, I know you. Do not be ashamed of me because I am old.”
I didn’t notice the unicorn. Molly must have, but she didn’t say anything. I went on petting Malka, and I didn’t look up until the horn came slanting over my shoulder. Close to, you could see blood drying in the shining spiral, but I wasn’t afraid. I wasn’t anything. Then the horn touched Malka, very lightly, right where I was stroking her, and Malka opened her eyes.
…It looked at me for the first time, past the horn and the hooves and the magical whiteness, all the way into those endless eyes. And what they did, somehow, the unicorn’s eyes, was to free me from the griffin’s eyes. Because the awfulness of what I’d seen there didn’t go away when the griffin died, not even when Malka came alive again.
『化物語』13話で戦場ケ原ひたぎが、「私の声をやっている齋藤知和さんは、、、」という台詞を語っているように、舞台(フィクション)の上の人物が楽屋(舞台やフィクション作品を構築する背後の現実)のことを参照しているというのが、典型的な「楽屋落ち」でした。これは、フィクション世界そのものが自身がフィクションであることを自覚している、という特有の構図として捉えてみれば、「メタフィクション」と呼ばれるフィクションの中にある興味深いシステム構造性として理解されます。これはクルト・ゲーデルがの「ゲーデルの定理」で示したように、論理の系が系としてのそれ自身についていかに正しく語り得るか、という「自己言及」の論理構造と深く関わる主題として、一昔前には結構流行っていた話題だったのです。
ところで『最後のユニコーン』において顕著な、作品の中のキャラクターが自分がフィクション世界の中で作者によって書かれた、あるいは読者によって読まれつつある一つの抽象的造形物であることを明確に言明するような自己言及性については、黒田は『アンチファンタシーというファンタシー』(2005年)の中で「代表的なポスト・モダニズム的メタフィクションの戦略である、作中人物自身が自分がこの作品世界の一登場人物であることを語る、という仕掛けをファンタシーの中に導入した先駆者がピーター・ビーグルなのである。」(p. 18)と無謀にも決めつけていますが、これは実はさらに以前の真の先駆者の存在が果たしてあるかどうかを検証するのは不可能に近い困難な作業になることでありましょう。つまりこういう話題は言っちゃったもの勝ちで、もしも誰かが「いや、もっと以前のこの作品に先例があるぞ」などと反証してくれれば、むしろ面白くなるといった代物の指摘なのです。ところが面白いことに、ビーグルの後援者であり親友でもあるConner Cochran氏も、ビーグルとの対談の中で黒田と同様の指摘を行っているのでした。これは星雲賞を受賞した"Two Hearts"を収録したThe Last Unicorn Deluxe Edition (2007年)に収録されている"A Conversation with Peter S. Beagle"において確認することができます。以下に該当部分を引用してみましょう。
You had also succeeded in your goal of making the book both a fairy tale and a parody of the form, which had to be even confusing. That was six years before William Goldman's The Princess Bride pulled off the same trick. Nobody was talking about "metafiction" then -- fiction about fiction, fiction playing with the form and making self-referential commentary. In fact, the three books most often credited with officially launching metafiction as a critically-recognized form, instead of the occasional tricksy sport -- John Barth's Lost in the Funhouse, Robert Coover's The Baby-sitter, and William H. Gass's Willie Master's Lonesome Wife -- all came out slightly after The Last Unicorn. (p. 271)
The witch’s stagnant eyes blazed up so savagely bright that a ragged company of luna moths, off to a night’s revel, fluttered straight into them and sizzled into snowy ashes.
p. 36
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A few grains of sand rustled down Mommy Fortuna’s cheek as she stared at the unicorn. All witches weep like that.
p. 37