Makoto

I'm finally at the epilogue. I'd almost forgotten that one of the things I was trying to do with my (original and wrong) understanding of makoto was the idea of a character archetype; the sort of foolishly truthful, pure-hearted naivete of Sir Gawain, or Parsifal, the "pure fool." I'd even referenced the impetuous and prideful Susunoo in that context.

Probably a mistake, as I hadn't really explained anything from the Kojiki other than the story of Amaterasu in the Cave of Heaven.

In any case, the true sense of makoto seems to be "the real truth." It works well in a context of "the truth revealed." And that phrase about "even a lie may hold the truth" fits in just so well with the idea of Penny playing with, and often wanting to discard, the various masks she puts on during this adventure, and finally coming to accept that she really is, under everything, a badass adventurer.

It did mean rather artificially cramming that saying in there. I'd been a lot more cunning in sneaking in things like "Yuki no Shingun" or even "Hotaru no Hikari." For less payoff, too (pity, though; the reader never got the full translation of the former and so when Penny, fleeing into the national park, says "anyhow, they never intended us to return" the reader isn't going to get the effect I'd intended.)

So that took a bit of work but now I'm finally revising the very last scene of the book. That one involves what I call "The God Game." That is, the original conceit of the series was that Penny, playing a character named Athena and visiting the temple of the goddess Athena, manages to catch the attention of said goddess.

So each story so far has, intentionally, some element of the ineffable. In the Kyoto book, Penny sees lights up above Fushimi Inari Taisha that are strongly implied to be the kitsune no yomeiri -- A Fox's Wedding. And during her yuki-onna stratagem up on the slopes of Haku-san, there are briefly heard mysterious noises from the mist; as if the yokai are real and have come out to help her chase away the punks pursuing her.

There's not going to be one in the Paris book, by the way. Nothing mystical at all.

But that leaves me with not being sure in the epilogue how much Penny is going to pick up on some of the dropped hints in this and previous stories. So I'm going back and forth a lot on this. If for no other reason than that this is an epilogue and should really be focused on closing out this story. Not setting up a new one.