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Player: Mikael Johansson
Nature: Hedonist/Rebel
Nationality: Franco-Japanese
Allegiance: Sorbonne
Strength: 5, brawl 5
Dexterity 5, athletics 5, drive 2, firearms 3, martial arts 5, melee
5
Stamina 5, endurance 5, resistance 3
Perception 5
Intelligence (philosophy) 5, academics 4, computer 2, linguistics 5,
science 4, philosophy 5, theology 3, gameplay 4, mathematics 2, literature
2, calligraphy 2
Wits 5, rapport 3
Appearance 4, intimidation 2, style 3
Manipulation 3
Charisma (oratory) 4, etiquette 3
Backgrounds: mentor 2, father 2, resources 3
Merits/flaws: Ambidextrous (1p), costume fetish (1p, 19th
century clothing), obsession Nietzsche (2p), minority (1p), speed reading
(2p), time sense (1p).
Willpower: 3
Taint: 0
Quantum: 1
Megaintelligence 2 (philosophical prodigy), megaperception 1 (ultraperipheral
perception), megawits 1 (group awareness), megastrength 1 (precision),
megadex 1 (perfect balance), megastamina 1 (resiliency), megamanipulation
1 (persuader)
Akira was born in 1980, the son of a Japanese family living in France.
Showing a great deal of promise he was sent to the finest schools, and
excelled in many areas despite his somewhat narcissistic personality.
In early 2005 he quietly erupted and suddenly became as good at go, philosophy,
martial arts and everything else as he truly believed he was. He became
a young renaissance person, equally able to do devastating literature
critic and kick through a brick wall. That his obsessions and peculiarities
(such as his tendency to wear impeccable 19th century suits
and debate Nietzsche in any circumstances) grew just added to his charm.
Further development: He rejected the idea that he was a nova when it
was suggested to him by ENA and Nova subdirectorate of the DST. He claimed
he was instead a human living to his full potential, a true overman in
the Nietzschean sense. Besides, he found the concept ‘nova’ riddled with
inconsistencies and assumptions that he set out to dissect in a series
of academic papers. Later these papers grew into Also antwortete Anahita
- a Tale of the realization of Man (Albin Michel 2005), his debut
book. Half academic dissection of novas, half a novel of ideas in the
style of Nietzsche and Ayn Rand. While critics generally dismissed the
novel part the philosophical half established Akira as a philosopher to
watch for in French intellectual circles. His main theme was that novas
were just one way of achieving potential, and likely not even human potential.
In opposition he suggested his own form of Nietzschean humanism, seeking
true human realization. He continued by rapidly publishing his Essay
aux Essaies (Sorbonne, 2005), a collection of apparently contradictory
academic papers radically undermining all traditional knowledge and philosophy
while hinting at a new, as yet undefined, philsophical method. By now
Akira had become the premier European intellectual on the subject of novas
and their relation to humanity despite still not having any formal academic
degree.
When the final disaster struck he made sure he and his beloved Sorbonne
survived and set out to ensure that the new society would have the right
philosophical footing.
Powers: Seraph is simply smarter, faster, more aware, more charismatic,
more witty, more resilient and more skilled at most things than any normal
human.
Novas - the
new new supermen
Review in Le Monde
With a foothold in such arcane sources such as the ancient mystic
cults of the medieval gnostics and such banal elaborations as
the modern comic book and Hollywood movie pictures of supermen;
realizing to a certain extent the old dreams of hybridical greeks
and Nietzsches Übermensch - a concept not ventured in since early
20th century fascistical idea streams, we now slowly see the build-up
of a Promethean pan-European organization; bringing the fire of
the as it were Nova phenomenon to man under the tentative control
of the sheer power of German Nova Administrator Oliver Struck
and his fellow Nova coordinators. Any thinker in his right mind
in the discourse of present day France would take a stance regarding
this as either the rally ground for a final insertion of the high
values into the introduction of the as it were next generation
into today, or alternatively as an organization that, in likeness
with the associations for nuclear control, becomes an oxymoron
in its ableptic deed and purpose; trying to reduce itself out
of existence by completely eradicating the source of its raison
d'etre.
This would have been the action of a thinker in his right mind.
Not so, slowly famed Sorbonne philosopher and recent Go master
Akira Murakami, who in his recent pamphletic book (released by
Albin Michel within the week) "Also antwortete Anahita -
a Tale of the realization of Man" tries to bring his manic
ideas out to a broader public. Albeit accompanied with a stringent
treatise delineating his uncannily clear line of reasoning up
to the point of reconstructing Nietzsche’s critique of spirituality
as a slight and not entirely relevant lemma in his grandiose crusade
against most modern streamings, his grandiose work of literary
regurgitation revives an old trick from the other side of the
philosophical frontline - as an analogy to Ayn Rands "Atlas
Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead" series, Murakami
allows for most of the elaborations on his central thesis and
its repercussions to be illustrated in a large, pompous and mostly
rather easily glossed over fictionary novel. Stylistically, this
is boring and repeated at best, manipulative and simplistic being
a more precise and proper judgement on this almost teenaged rebel
cries against the ethics and values of the Sorbonne - and French
- majority of thinkers.
Alas, the more difficult question is not whether Murakami is right
or wrong in his thesis that the very concept of Novahood - and
further the morality (or lack thereof) in organizing Novas, whatever
they may be, in his words, but rather the question whether or
not Murakami with his aged and disruptive attacks on all and every
postwar thinker will reach out to the populace and arouse further
than before the not entirely welcome remains from a people that
did bring forth the Vichy and other abhorrations. It would seem
that even given the recent reformation of Gustave Pernot we still
have an influential thinker within our borders and our culture
who is about to form himself to the spearhead of a more and more
difficult to handle force; siding himself with Le Pen and the
likes of his. Is Sorbonne really proud as a site of learning to
bring this kind of debater out from its gates? With a diploma
from the strongest philosophical prowess we have to show? It would
be questioned whether a reformation of French education is such
a bad idea still given this kind of produce.
Corinne de Lavoissier
Le Monde
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Excerpt from
"Also antwortete Anahita"
p. 259, line
10
"'Behold!', said Anahita, with a sweeping motion out towards
the massif centrale. The sky lit up with a burst of energy from
the crevices. 'This is what you have bargained for. The fickleness
of the Novae. The goodwill of otherworldly self-proclaimed gods.
Will you really deny godhood for yourselves? Why are you headed
blindly into slavery?'
Friedrich was standing silently, watching the sky and frowning.
'What good will it make us then, just blindly opposing them? They
are stronger, faster, and equipped with powers I have only read
about. What can I do? Why would I want to care?'
'Fool!', Anahita dismissed his protesting. 'He who will not care
for his own life has not deserved living it. He who willingly
enters slavery is nothing more than a slave. The future lies in
the hands of the overman. The fulfilled man. It could be these
.. freaks. Or it could be me. You ask me why you should want to
care? I ask you how you cannot. To submit your own destiny to
beings of glass and steel is naught more than reverting to the
religions of old. To stay in one place, do one thing, and not
even try to move forward is the way of the beetle; the way of
the slave. Humanity is about potential. About seeing your place
and finding it. Transcending it. Anything less than godhood for
yourself is too little.'
She leaned out over the railing. 'Anything less than a goddess
is too soon for me. Too little. Too petty.'
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Essay aux Essaies
"Essay
aux Essaies" is a collection of 12 academic philosophical
essays. Each on their own is quite publishable and very readable
and entertaining. Taken together they appear at first glance to
form a totally mad whole. The main theses presented are:
1
From
a Lockean state of nature a collectivist socialist government
is derived as being necessary.
2
The
derivation in (1) is proven to be impossible to achieve.
3
Proofs
of impossibility in philosophy are proven impossible to achieve.
4
From
a Hegelian perspective on history postmodernist deconstruction
is derived as being a necessary consequence of Hegelianism.
5
Essay
(4) is deconstructed and demonstrated to be merely yet another
example of how historical determinism produces phallic oppression
of women.
6
Essay
(4) is deconstructed and shown to imply the death of God and faith
in general, and subsequent resurrection as a neo-religious movement
that is predicted to arise within one year of publication.
7
All
religions are demonstrated – collectively – to be directly damaging
to youth and children.
8
Religion
is demonstrated to be deeply integral in personal growth and maturation,
especially during adolescence.
9
Algebra
is demonstrated to be yet another tool for oppressing female Asian
spear-throwers.
10
The
role of telepathy in language understanding; a critical overview.
11
The
conceptual failure of time travel.
12
The
impossibility and necessity of a grand unified theory in physics.
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Review of
Murakami Akira: "Essay aux Essaies" by Rolando Fuenteelba
Murakami Akira's
"Essay aux Essaies" represents the logical end-product
of traditional philosophy: a withering demonstration of the insufficiency
and simultaneous contradictoriness of all existing systems. Had
the author stopped at this point, it would merely have been an
useful demonstration why the ivory tower should be abandoned by
the taxpayers (who by then should have realized they no longer
needed to be taxpayers to the non-existent state either). But
the ambition of the author is clearly to use this pleroma of everything-is-possible/nothing-is-permitted
to launch his own Big Bang, the shape and dynamics of which remains
so far hidden.
The basic problem with this approach is clearly that Akira is
returning to his ancestral roots in seeking to go beyond any system
by first posing us a koan and then standing by with a leap of
kensho for us, no doubt to be revealed in his next missive. The
absurdity of deliberately revealing such an insight is of course
a deliberate part of the koan. Had he merely been standing guard
at the koan with a rod, ready to strike anyone unwise enough to
go beyond it, I would gladly have joined him in the vigil.
But his fundamental failure is his return to the old system: he
has escaped all the western systems - enlightenment thinking,
analytical philosophy, Hegel, postmodernism, religion, mathematics,
science and linear time - only to fall into an eastern system.
He remains trapped, and does not see it.
Wherein lies the real trap? The assumption that there is any system,
anything to reveal.
"Form is empty; emptiness is precisely form. Form is indistinguishable
from emptiness and emptiness is indistinguishable from form. The
same goes for sensation, concept, conditioning force, and consciousness"
Once one moves beyond the western urge to build a system, the
Zen urge to jump out of the system and the human urge to publish,
there only remains the joy of acting. The vibrancy of acting expressed
in the essays is astounding - clear, poetic and wild. That is
the real treasure of the essays, not their goal.
Rolando "El Bombardero" Fuenteelba
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