Berserk: Sword and Sorcery Manga as Nietzschean Tragedy?

 “...to live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering.” - Gordon W. Allport

Berserk is the story of Guts, a mercenary known as the Black Swordsman. The story is set in a medieval fantasy world which includes elements of horror and the supernatural. 

Berserk Deluxe Edition Volume One collects the first three volumes of the regular editions in a larger format and on better paper. While volume one of the regular editions is an okay introduction to the character and the world, the story really gets going in volumes two and three. 

I’ve seen Berserk referred to as a blood-soaked sword and sorcery epic. That’s a good description. Guts puts his weapons, a tricked-out crossbow and a rather large sword to good use pretty quickly. The art doesn’t hold back in terms of violence and gore which may turn off some readers. The action and battle scenes are outstanding. The scenes of gore can be off-putting. 

As the story progresses it becomes apparent that there is more going on than just wild action scenes. The art is amazing but it’s the hints of a deeper story that have made me want to keep reading.

Which brings me to another point. In an interview in the Berserk Guidebook, Miura talked about his influences. He mentions all kinds of things including American action movies, the Fist of the North Star manga, Robert E. Howard, The Name of the Rose (1986), magic, witchcraft, and Disney movies. I find this really interesting but on top of that it looks like Miura was also influenced by philosophy. 

I found a video on YouTube titled Berserk as a Nietzschean Tragedy. It mentions that Berserk includes allusions to Plato, Descartes, Hegel, Jung, as well as Nietzsche. It also states that Berserk is an example of the paradox of tragedy. This refers to tragedy, while something that people want to avoid in real life, is something that people sometimes seek out and can get emotional catharsis from in fiction. Because of the events in my life over the last few years I’ve found myself more and more interested in philosophy and the storytelling found in tragedies. 

So, is Berserk a Nietzschean tragedy or an adolescent fantasy about a guy with a big sword? I’m thinking it’s a little of both and I’m intrigued to read further.

Fear by L. Ron Hubbard

"The state of being 'grown up' was a state beset by as many worries, and just as false, as those of childhood." - from Fear by L. Ron Hubbard

Fear is a psychological thriller-horror novella written by L. Ron Hubbard in 1940. Soon after a university professor writes an article mocking the existence of devils, demons, and other superstitions, he loses four hours out of his day. He also loses his hat. He starts meeting strange figures and he starts seeing something out of the corner of his eye. He’s warned that if he finds his hat, he’ll find his four hours, but if he finds his four hours he’ll die.

I had never taken L. Ron Hubbard seriously enough to want to read any of his work, but then as I was re-reading Harlan Ellison’s introduction to Angry Candy, I came across a quote where he talks about Hubbard after his death:

“...and despite the looneytunes scene his Dianetics and Scientology had become, he was always still just Ron Hubbard, who’d written To the Stars and Final Blackout and Fear and Typewriter in the Sky and Slaves of Sleep, all of which great pulp fiction I can still still reread with pleasure…”

I looked up more information about the book. It turns out that Fear is considered a pioneer of modern psychological thrillers. Authors who have praised it include Robert Silverberg, Algis Budrys, Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, and Stephen King.

So I decided to give it a try and I enjoyed it. It’s atmospheric and creepy in a pulpy way. Some parts felt like an episode of the Twilight Zone, other parts felt like an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The ending hits hard. It puts something that kept coming up throughout the book in a new perspective. While it has a great ending it took a little too long to get there. I think it would have worked better as a short story. 

L. Ron Hubbard had quite the writing career before Dianetics and Scientology. He wrote science fiction, horror, westerns, mystery, and adventure. I liked Fear enough that I’ll check out the other books Ellison mentioned. 

Addendum:

The black and white artwork above is by Edd Cartier. It's from the July 1940 issue of Unknown Fantasy Fiction in which Fear was first published.