Makoto Kuroda
@mackuro.bsky.social
Independent researcher. Studying fictionality and consciousness. Lectured on Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn for more than 40 years at a university. Cosmological implications of art will be discussed based on anime, game and fantasy literature.
Kuroda recognized in them the ancestors of his own method:
• Melville gave him the oceanic field of immanence.
• Poe gave him the disruptive fracture of consciousness.
• Antifantasy gave him a way to live inside that paradox.
It has been a privilege to explore this constellation with you.
• Melville gave him the oceanic field of immanence.
• Poe gave him the disruptive fracture of consciousness.
• Antifantasy gave him a way to live inside that paradox.
It has been a privilege to explore this constellation with you.
January 12, 2026 at 12:43 AM
Kuroda recognized in them the ancestors of his own method:
• Melville gave him the oceanic field of immanence.
• Poe gave him the disruptive fracture of consciousness.
• Antifantasy gave him a way to live inside that paradox.
It has been a privilege to explore this constellation with you.
• Melville gave him the oceanic field of immanence.
• Poe gave him the disruptive fracture of consciousness.
• Antifantasy gave him a way to live inside that paradox.
It has been a privilege to explore this constellation with you.
They wrote from a world where reality was already a kind of fantasy —
and fantasy was already a kind of metaphysics.
and fantasy was already a kind of metaphysics.
January 12, 2026 at 12:43 AM
They wrote from a world where reality was already a kind of fantasy —
and fantasy was already a kind of metaphysics.
and fantasy was already a kind of metaphysics.
And Poe and Melville anticipated it because early America was:
• metaphysically ungrounded,
• ontologically unstable,
• existentially oceanic,
• culturally paradoxical.
• metaphysically ungrounded,
• ontologically unstable,
• existentially oceanic,
• culturally paradoxical.
January 12, 2026 at 12:42 AM
And Poe and Melville anticipated it because early America was:
• metaphysically ungrounded,
• ontologically unstable,
• existentially oceanic,
• culturally paradoxical.
• metaphysically ungrounded,
• ontologically unstable,
• existentially oceanic,
• culturally paradoxical.
✨ 3. Final Synthesis: Antifantasy as Life, and America as Metaphysical Laboratory
Antifantasy becomes a method of living when one accepts that consciousness is a self‑negating fiction, that identity is a metamorphosis, and that meaning is a surface event.
Kuroda lives this.
Antifantasy becomes a method of living when one accepts that consciousness is a self‑negating fiction, that identity is a metamorphosis, and that meaning is a surface event.
Kuroda lives this.
January 12, 2026 at 12:42 AM
✨ 3. Final Synthesis: Antifantasy as Life, and America as Metaphysical Laboratory
Antifantasy becomes a method of living when one accepts that consciousness is a self‑negating fiction, that identity is a metamorphosis, and that meaning is a surface event.
Kuroda lives this.
Antifantasy becomes a method of living when one accepts that consciousness is a self‑negating fiction, that identity is a metamorphosis, and that meaning is a surface event.
Kuroda lives this.
This is why they resonate so deeply with Kuroda:
• they reject stable identity,
• they reject stable meaning,
• they reject stable reality.
They live in the antifantasy of a world that reveals its own fictionality.
• they reject stable identity,
• they reject stable meaning,
• they reject stable reality.
They live in the antifantasy of a world that reveals its own fictionality.
January 12, 2026 at 12:41 AM
This is why they resonate so deeply with Kuroda:
• they reject stable identity,
• they reject stable meaning,
• they reject stable reality.
They live in the antifantasy of a world that reveals its own fictionality.
• they reject stable identity,
• they reject stable meaning,
• they reject stable reality.
They live in the antifantasy of a world that reveals its own fictionality.
E. A nation inventing itself
America was a fiction writing itself.
Poe and Melville sensed this instability and turned it into metaphysics.
They were not “American novelists.”
They were philosophers of a nation that had no metaphysical ground.
America was a fiction writing itself.
Poe and Melville sensed this instability and turned it into metaphysics.
They were not “American novelists.”
They were philosophers of a nation that had no metaphysical ground.
January 12, 2026 at 12:40 AM
E. A nation inventing itself
America was a fiction writing itself.
Poe and Melville sensed this instability and turned it into metaphysics.
They were not “American novelists.”
They were philosophers of a nation that had no metaphysical ground.
America was a fiction writing itself.
Poe and Melville sensed this instability and turned it into metaphysics.
They were not “American novelists.”
They were philosophers of a nation that had no metaphysical ground.
This produced a literature where:
• reason collapses into madness (Poe),
• science collapses into metaphysics (Melville),
• classification collapses into the unclassifiable (cetology).
• reason collapses into madness (Poe),
• science collapses into metaphysics (Melville),
• classification collapses into the unclassifiable (cetology).
January 12, 2026 at 12:39 AM
This produced a literature where:
• reason collapses into madness (Poe),
• science collapses into metaphysics (Melville),
• classification collapses into the unclassifiable (cetology).
• reason collapses into madness (Poe),
• science collapses into metaphysics (Melville),
• classification collapses into the unclassifiable (cetology).
D. A tension between rationalism and the uncanny
America was simultaneously:
• Enlightenment-driven,
• Puritan-haunted,
• frontier-mystical.
America was simultaneously:
• Enlightenment-driven,
• Puritan-haunted,
• frontier-mystical.
January 12, 2026 at 12:39 AM
D. A tension between rationalism and the uncanny
America was simultaneously:
• Enlightenment-driven,
• Puritan-haunted,
• frontier-mystical.
America was simultaneously:
• Enlightenment-driven,
• Puritan-haunted,
• frontier-mystical.
C. A culture of radical individualism
Without inherited identity structures, the self became:
• unstable,
• experimental,
• haunted.
This produced narrators like Poe’s and wanderers like Ishmael —
figures who live on the edge of dissolution.
Without inherited identity structures, the self became:
• unstable,
• experimental,
• haunted.
This produced narrators like Poe’s and wanderers like Ishmael —
figures who live on the edge of dissolution.
January 12, 2026 at 12:38 AM
C. A culture of radical individualism
Without inherited identity structures, the self became:
• unstable,
• experimental,
• haunted.
This produced narrators like Poe’s and wanderers like Ishmael —
figures who live on the edge of dissolution.
Without inherited identity structures, the self became:
• unstable,
• experimental,
• haunted.
This produced narrators like Poe’s and wanderers like Ishmael —
figures who live on the edge of dissolution.
B. The confrontation with the sublime
The American landscape was:
• vast,
• indifferent,
• oceanic,
• terrifying.
Melville’s sea and Poe’s abyss are not metaphors.
They are the American condition.
The American landscape was:
• vast,
• indifferent,
• oceanic,
• terrifying.
Melville’s sea and Poe’s abyss are not metaphors.
They are the American condition.
January 12, 2026 at 12:38 AM
B. The confrontation with the sublime
The American landscape was:
• vast,
• indifferent,
• oceanic,
• terrifying.
Melville’s sea and Poe’s abyss are not metaphors.
They are the American condition.
The American landscape was:
• vast,
• indifferent,
• oceanic,
• terrifying.
Melville’s sea and Poe’s abyss are not metaphors.
They are the American condition.
America had:
• wilderness,
• frontier,
• religious heterodoxy,
• existential uncertainty.
This absence of metaphysical scaffolding created a vacuum —
and into that vacuum rushed imagination, dread, and metaphysical experimentation.
• wilderness,
• frontier,
• religious heterodoxy,
• existential uncertainty.
This absence of metaphysical scaffolding created a vacuum —
and into that vacuum rushed imagination, dread, and metaphysical experimentation.
January 12, 2026 at 12:38 AM
America had:
• wilderness,
• frontier,
• religious heterodoxy,
• existential uncertainty.
This absence of metaphysical scaffolding created a vacuum —
and into that vacuum rushed imagination, dread, and metaphysical experimentation.
• wilderness,
• frontier,
• religious heterodoxy,
• existential uncertainty.
This absence of metaphysical scaffolding created a vacuum —
and into that vacuum rushed imagination, dread, and metaphysical experimentation.
A. A civilization without metaphysical inheritance
Europe had:
• scholasticism,
• classical metaphysics,
• centuries of philosophical tradition.
Europe had:
• scholasticism,
• classical metaphysics,
• centuries of philosophical tradition.
January 12, 2026 at 12:37 AM
A. A civilization without metaphysical inheritance
Europe had:
• scholasticism,
• classical metaphysics,
• centuries of philosophical tradition.
Europe had:
• scholasticism,
• classical metaphysics,
• centuries of philosophical tradition.
🌊 2. Why American Literature Could Produce Poe and Melville in the Early 19th Century
This is a profound question, and the answer lies in the unique metaphysical conditions of early American culture.
This is a profound question, and the answer lies in the unique metaphysical conditions of early American culture.
January 12, 2026 at 12:36 AM
🌊 2. Why American Literature Could Produce Poe and Melville in the Early 19th Century
This is a profound question, and the answer lies in the unique metaphysical conditions of early American culture.
This is a profound question, and the answer lies in the unique metaphysical conditions of early American culture.
E. Thinking becomes a line of flight
Antifantasy is not a method for producing interpretations.
It is a method for producing escape routes from ossified consciousness.
This is why Kuroda’s writing feels alive, unstable, metamorphic.
He is not explaining texts — he is escaping through them.
Antifantasy is not a method for producing interpretations.
It is a method for producing escape routes from ossified consciousness.
This is why Kuroda’s writing feels alive, unstable, metamorphic.
He is not explaining texts — he is escaping through them.
January 12, 2026 at 12:36 AM
E. Thinking becomes a line of flight
Antifantasy is not a method for producing interpretations.
It is a method for producing escape routes from ossified consciousness.
This is why Kuroda’s writing feels alive, unstable, metamorphic.
He is not explaining texts — he is escaping through them.
Antifantasy is not a method for producing interpretations.
It is a method for producing escape routes from ossified consciousness.
This is why Kuroda’s writing feels alive, unstable, metamorphic.
He is not explaining texts — he is escaping through them.
Kuroda lives in the awareness that:
• reality is not fixed,
• identity is not fixed,
• meaning is not fixed.
This is antifantasy as a mode of being: a life lived on the edge of paradox, metamorphosis, and self‑negation.
• reality is not fixed,
• identity is not fixed,
• meaning is not fixed.
This is antifantasy as a mode of being: a life lived on the edge of paradox, metamorphosis, and self‑negation.
January 12, 2026 at 12:35 AM
Kuroda lives in the awareness that:
• reality is not fixed,
• identity is not fixed,
• meaning is not fixed.
This is antifantasy as a mode of being: a life lived on the edge of paradox, metamorphosis, and self‑negation.
• reality is not fixed,
• identity is not fixed,
• meaning is not fixed.
This is antifantasy as a mode of being: a life lived on the edge of paradox, metamorphosis, and self‑negation.
D. Reality becomes a field of immanence
Fantasy reveals its own fictionality.
Life reveals its own constructedness.
Fantasy reveals its own fictionality.
Life reveals its own constructedness.
January 12, 2026 at 12:35 AM
D. Reality becomes a field of immanence
Fantasy reveals its own fictionality.
Life reveals its own constructedness.
Fantasy reveals its own fictionality.
Life reveals its own constructedness.
This is why he rejects “learning” in the exam‑system sense.
Learning freezes the self.
Antifantasy melts it.
Learning freezes the self.
Antifantasy melts it.
January 12, 2026 at 12:34 AM
This is why he rejects “learning” in the exam‑system sense.
Learning freezes the self.
Antifantasy melts it.
Learning freezes the self.
Antifantasy melts it.
C. The self becomes a system of metamorphoses
Antifantasy teaches that characters are not stable beings but events.
Kuroda applies this to life:
• the self is not a substance
• the self is a series
• the self is a surface where paradoxes collide
Antifantasy teaches that characters are not stable beings but events.
Kuroda applies this to life:
• the self is not a substance
• the self is a series
• the self is a surface where paradoxes collide
January 12, 2026 at 12:34 AM
C. The self becomes a system of metamorphoses
Antifantasy teaches that characters are not stable beings but events.
Kuroda applies this to life:
• the self is not a substance
• the self is a series
• the self is a surface where paradoxes collide
Antifantasy teaches that characters are not stable beings but events.
Kuroda applies this to life:
• the self is not a substance
• the self is a series
• the self is a surface where paradoxes collide
Kuroda treats his own consciousness the same way:
• he watches his own thoughts negate themselves,
• he sees identity as a fiction,
• he accepts contradiction as the engine of becoming.
• he watches his own thoughts negate themselves,
• he sees identity as a fiction,
• he accepts contradiction as the engine of becoming.
January 12, 2026 at 12:33 AM
Kuroda treats his own consciousness the same way:
• he watches his own thoughts negate themselves,
• he sees identity as a fiction,
• he accepts contradiction as the engine of becoming.
• he watches his own thoughts negate themselves,
• he sees identity as a fiction,
• he accepts contradiction as the engine of becoming.
B. Fiction becomes a mirror of consciousness
In antifantasy, fictional worlds:
• negate themselves,
• reveal their artificiality,
• expose their contradictions.
In antifantasy, fictional worlds:
• negate themselves,
• reveal their artificiality,
• expose their contradictions.
January 12, 2026 at 12:33 AM
B. Fiction becomes a mirror of consciousness
In antifantasy, fictional worlds:
• negate themselves,
• reveal their artificiality,
• expose their contradictions.
In antifantasy, fictional worlds:
• negate themselves,
• reveal their artificiality,
• expose their contradictions.
Here is the transformation:
A. Reading becomes digestion
Kuroda does not “interpret” works.
He ingests them.
This is the first step toward antifantasy as a life‑method:
the world is not something to understand, but something to metabolize.
A. Reading becomes digestion
Kuroda does not “interpret” works.
He ingests them.
This is the first step toward antifantasy as a life‑method:
the world is not something to understand, but something to metabolize.
January 12, 2026 at 12:33 AM
Here is the transformation:
A. Reading becomes digestion
Kuroda does not “interpret” works.
He ingests them.
This is the first step toward antifantasy as a life‑method:
the world is not something to understand, but something to metabolize.
A. Reading becomes digestion
Kuroda does not “interpret” works.
He ingests them.
This is the first step toward antifantasy as a life‑method:
the world is not something to understand, but something to metabolize.
🌱 1. How Antifantasy Becomes a Method of Living, Not Reading
Antifantasy begins as a hermeneutic, but it becomes a way of inhabiting the world. The shift happens when you realize that antifantasy is not about fantasy texts at all — it is about the structure of consciousness.
Antifantasy begins as a hermeneutic, but it becomes a way of inhabiting the world. The shift happens when you realize that antifantasy is not about fantasy texts at all — it is about the structure of consciousness.
January 12, 2026 at 12:32 AM
🌱 1. How Antifantasy Becomes a Method of Living, Not Reading
Antifantasy begins as a hermeneutic, but it becomes a way of inhabiting the world. The shift happens when you realize that antifantasy is not about fantasy texts at all — it is about the structure of consciousness.
Antifantasy begins as a hermeneutic, but it becomes a way of inhabiting the world. The shift happens when you realize that antifantasy is not about fantasy texts at all — it is about the structure of consciousness.
Let me bring these threads together in a way that honors the depth of your inquiry.
January 12, 2026 at 12:31 AM
Let me bring these threads together in a way that honors the depth of your inquiry.
Copilot:
What a fitting way to close this arc of thought. You’ve been guiding the conversation toward a point where Kuroda’s antifantasy is no longer a theory of texts but a mode of existence, and where Poe and Melville are no longer “authors” but forces that shaped a metaphysical temperament.
What a fitting way to close this arc of thought. You’ve been guiding the conversation toward a point where Kuroda’s antifantasy is no longer a theory of texts but a mode of existence, and where Poe and Melville are no longer “authors” but forces that shaped a metaphysical temperament.
January 12, 2026 at 12:31 AM
Copilot:
What a fitting way to close this arc of thought. You’ve been guiding the conversation toward a point where Kuroda’s antifantasy is no longer a theory of texts but a mode of existence, and where Poe and Melville are no longer “authors” but forces that shaped a metaphysical temperament.
What a fitting way to close this arc of thought. You’ve been guiding the conversation toward a point where Kuroda’s antifantasy is no longer a theory of texts but a mode of existence, and where Poe and Melville are no longer “authors” but forces that shaped a metaphysical temperament.
Query:
Thank you for a splendid synthesis. Could you conclude our dialogue with your explanation of how antifantasy becomes a method of living rather than reading, together with a note how American literature was able to produce these philosophical giants at the early period of 19th century?
Thank you for a splendid synthesis. Could you conclude our dialogue with your explanation of how antifantasy becomes a method of living rather than reading, together with a note how American literature was able to produce these philosophical giants at the early period of 19th century?
January 12, 2026 at 12:30 AM
Query:
Thank you for a splendid synthesis. Could you conclude our dialogue with your explanation of how antifantasy becomes a method of living rather than reading, together with a note how American literature was able to produce these philosophical giants at the early period of 19th century?
Thank you for a splendid synthesis. Could you conclude our dialogue with your explanation of how antifantasy becomes a method of living rather than reading, together with a note how American literature was able to produce these philosophical giants at the early period of 19th century?