In the beginning you are a distant turquoise triangle incongruous against sand.
All around, some one has taken a straight edge across the sea and then folded up the sky to box in us homo saps.
Sentry trawlers crawl their stations along the cloudwall perimeter.
Closer in, thoughtless speedboats laugh across the waves, diesel waterbugs.
Skiers trudge behind, trying to play catch-up.
Birds pepper the sky..
And here and there bobbin heads pop up, as jellyfish nudists sprawl motionless tanning themselves along the surf.
A long-ago engineer built his clam dam to further contain this ocean, but now it is more breach than construct, debris among the former fish.
Mini Vesuvii dot the shoreline, cold openings to another, yet hidden, world.
Your neon triangle slowly sprouts bucket-crafted sandcastle appendages, as your shape begins delineation.
All along the beach, a patchwork of erratic crowd heaves. Can there really be a fractal that describes the geometry of herky-jerky humankind?
Tuxedoed canine trio scratches in harmony, sniffs for an 8 count, resumes its rhythmic bowing to metronome waves that gently assault bathers white, bathers red, bathers brown. Colors evolve like chameleons.
Children, even those with beards, sport in the mer. Mothers coddle eager sea urchins, while youths (and used-to-be youths too) ogle maidens who gleam and undulate in sunsparkle.
The clockwork dogs resume their symphony.
And then, of a sudden, your nippled battlements fully confront. I espy your sandy tourney field, your flying buttresses, your emblazoned portcullis smile. And marvel at the royal keep impossibly curtained behind that turquoise tapestry.
But my feet continue dutifully on their rounds: today they must lay down their permanent sign track, announcing to all posterity my once-existence. Ye seekers after truth and/or beauty.
Here indeed is the ever-changing unchanged, infinity in miniscule, eternal now, pastless while ancient, futuring into forever. This everybeach.
All cosmologies compress and store in islands of indelible sand. All philosophy unravels on this strand, expands beyond knowing. And is humbled proudly in the doing.
I finally achieve beach end and turn to survey my day’s work: my ozymandias footprints already ruins.
And yet, the entire cosmos kaleidoscopes behind me out from your turquoise neon triangle, like the promiscuous eye of God.
we claim
not to be cats
yet our fur is up
uncoiling the snake
hidden strands of DNA
new diet
she only eats
the muffin tops
space station
blinks at me
I recite a poem
1964 the summer of warped LPs
whiskers
in my gallery
cats
long before
it was complicated . . .
it was complicated
finding all
the missing data
spam folder
her empty life
she collects vintage jars
to hold nothing
barman icing cocktails shrinkflation
2 am
the call that changed
our lives
rusty train tracks
nobody asks
where they go
breaking camp
in the lemongrass
field mice
chance of rain Silicon Valley in the cloud
lunch break
on city park bench
time with Buddha
designer shoes
she trips over her
privilege
spilling their pain
so others know
survivors
upturned turtle
in the road
shell-shocked
pregnant . . .
her dancing shoes
still fit
holding
my boots together
desert sand
Once upon a time, in an ancient land, there lived two neighbors named Olimboy and Davronboy. They lived peacefully side by side.
One day, Olimboy was going to the market to sell his sheep. Davronboy saw him and said:
— Please sell my sheep too. I suddenly have some work to do.
Olimboy was a kind and generous man, so he could not refuse.
He took both sheep and went to the market. There, he handed them to a seller named Lochin. After some time, Davronboy’s sheep was sold. Olimboy waited, hoping that his own sheep would also be sold.
Then Lochin said to him:
— Your sheep has not been sold yet. It is time for me to leave. Give me my share, and take your sheep back.
Lochin took the money from the sold sheep and left. Olimboy started walking home with his own sheep.
The day before, spring rain had fallen heavily. On the way home, Olimboy slipped in the mud and fell down. His clothes became wet and dirty. By the time he reached home, the wind had dried his clothes, but the mud stains remained. Soon he caught a cold.
Davronboy saw him in that condition and became suspicious.
— His clothes are muddy, and he looks upset. He only has his own sheep with him. Something must have happened to my sheep, — he thought.
The next morning, Davronboy angrily went to Olimboy’s house and dragged him to the judge.
When they arrived, Davronboy said:
— Greetings, honorable judge. I came to ask for justice. I asked this foolish Olimboy to sell my sheep at the market. Yesterday evening he returned home with muddy clothes and looking miserable. He only had his own sheep with him. I think he did something to my sheep. Please solve this matter.
The judge looked at Olimboy and asked:
— Well, Olimboy, what do you say about this?
Olimboy smiled slightly and explained everything that had happened the previous day. He also said that he was feeling sick and could not visit Davronboy’s house.
Then he took the money for the sold sheep out of his pocket, handed it to Davronboy, and said:
— Evil for kindness…
After saying this, he quietly left.
Moral of the Story
Dear reader, learn a lesson from this story. In life, people should not judge others before knowing the full truth. Think carefully before making conclusions, because kindness should never be answered with suspicion or evil.
Muslima Murodova is a laureate of the Zulfiya State Prize. She is the author of one poetry book and four anthologies. She is also the recipient of the “Jadidlar Izdoshi” and “In the Middle East Scientific Uzbek Creators” badges of honor.
She is the winner of numerous competitions, and nearly 25 of her creative works have been published in well-known international magazines abroad. Muslima Murodova is a poetess and a young creative talent who has earned more than 50 international certificates
DIGITAL DIPLOMACY: TRANSFORMING INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN THE AGE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Jamilova Zaxro Farrux qizi
University of World Economy and Diplomacy,
Faculty of International Relations, 1st year student
Annotatsiya. Ushbu maqola raqamli diplomatiya fenomenini, uning kelib chiqishini, asosiy vositalarini va xalqaro munosabatlarga ta’sirini o’rganadi. Tadqiqot ijtimoiy tarmoqlar, sun’iy intellekt va elektron hukumat mexanizmlarining zamonaviy diplomatik amaliyotga integratsiyasi masalasini ko’rib chiqadi. Natijalar shuni ko’rsatadiki, raqamli diplomatiya davlatlarning xorijiy siyosatini amalga oshirish usullarini tubdan o’zgartirmoqda — aloqa tezligi va keng auditoriyaga erishish imkoniyatini oshirgan holda dezinformatsiya va kiber xavfsizlik kabi yangi xavf-xatarlarni yuzaga keltirmoqda. Maqolada raqamli diplomatiyaning kelgusi rivojlanish istiqbollari va O’zbekistonda diplomatik aloqalar taraqqiyotidagi roli ko’rib chiqiladi.
Kalit so’zlar: raqamli diplomatiya, xalqaro munosabatlar, ijtimoiy tarmoqlar, e-diplomatiya, Twitter diplomatiyasi, kiberdiplomatiya, xorijiy siyosat, omma diplomatiyasi, ma’lumot texnologiyalari.
ЦИФРОВАЯ ДИПЛОМАТИЯ: ТРАНСФОРМАЦИЯ МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫХ ОТНОШЕНИЙ В ЭПОХУ ИНФОРМАЦИОННЫХ ТЕХНОЛОГИЙ
Аннотация. В данной статье исследуется феномен цифровой дипломатии, её истоки, ключевые инструменты и влияние на международные отношения. Рассматривается интеграция социальных сетей, искусственного интеллекта и механизмов электронного управления в современную дипломатическую практику. Результаты показывают, что цифровая дипломатия коренным образом изменяет способы осуществления государствами внешней политики, повышая скорость коммуникации и охват аудитории, одновременно порождая новые риски: дезинформацию и угрозы кибербезопасности. Статья анализирует перспективы дальнейшего развития цифровой дипломатии и её роль в Узбекистане.
DIGITAL DIPLOMACY: TRANSFORMING INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN THE AGE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Abstract. This article examines the phenomenon of digital diplomacy, tracing its origins, identifying its principal tools, and assessing its impact on contemporary international relations. The study investigates the integration of social media platforms, artificial intelligence, and e-government mechanisms into modern diplomatic practice. Findings indicate that digital diplomacy is fundamentally transforming the ways in which states conduct foreign policy — enhancing communication speed and broadening audience reach, while simultaneously generating new risks such as disinformation and cybersecurity threats. The article addresses future prospects for the development of digital diplomacy and its role in Uzbekistan’s diplomatic engagement with the international community.
Key words: digital diplomacy, international relations, social media, e-diplomacy, Twitter diplomacy, cyber diplomacy, foreign policy, public diplomacy, information technology.
Introduction
The rapid advancement of information and communication technologies over the past two decades has fundamentally reshaped virtually every domain of human activity — and diplomacy is no exception. The emergence of digital diplomacy, also referred to as e-diplomacy, cyber diplomacy, or ‘Twiplomacy’ (diplomacy conducted via Twitter), represents one of the most significant structural shifts in international relations since the formalization of modern diplomatic practice in the seventeenth century. Where traditional diplomacy relied on face-to-face negotiations, official communiqués, and formal bilateral channels, digital diplomacy operates across social media platforms, virtual summits, secure encrypted communications, and AI-assisted analytical tools that operate in real time across borders and time zones.
The importance of digital diplomacy extends far beyond the mere adoption of new communication tools. It represents a broader democratization of diplomatic communication — enabling governments to speak directly to foreign populations, bypassing traditional media intermediaries, and allowing non-state actors to participate in international discourse in unprecedented ways. At the same time, this transformation carries significant risks: the rapid spread of disinformation, the vulnerability of diplomatic communications to cyberattacks, and the risk of diplomatic misunderstandings amplified at the speed of social media.
This study is grounded in the contemporary international context, where digital tools have become indispensable instruments of statecraft. The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically accelerated this transition, forcing diplomatic services worldwide to shift virtually all their activities online — from consular services to high-level multilateral negotiations. This shift, initially imposed by necessity, has now become permanent, raising fundamental questions about the future architecture of global diplomacy.
This article addresses the following key research questions: What are the defining characteristics and principal tools of digital diplomacy? How does digital diplomacy alter the relationship between states, publics, and international institutions? What are the principal risks and opportunities associated with the digitalization of diplomatic practice? What role does digital diplomacy play in Uzbekistan’s foreign policy? The aim is to provide a comprehensive analytical account of digital diplomacy as a contemporary phenomenon, drawing on existing scholarship, documented state practice, and observable trends in international relations.
Literature Review and Research Methodology
The academic study of digital diplomacy emerged in the early 2000s, initially as a subset of public diplomacy scholarship. Cull (2008) was among the first scholars to systematically examine how digital technologies were reshaping public diplomacy, arguing that the internet created new mechanisms for governments to shape foreign public opinion and build soft power. His framework of public diplomacy as a set of listening, advocacy, cultural, exchange, and broadcasting activities provided the conceptual foundation upon which subsequent digital diplomacy scholarship built.
Bjola and Holmes (2015), in their edited volume Digital Diplomacy: Theory and Practice, provided the first comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding digital diplomacy as a distinct field. They distinguished between the use of digital tools for public communication (social media diplomacy) and their use for internal diplomatic processes — including data analytics, digital archives, and secure communications. This distinction remains analytically important, as the two dimensions pose different opportunities and risks.
Manor (2019), in his book The Digitalization of Public Diplomacy, examined how foreign ministries worldwide had adapted to the social media environment, analyzing the Twitter and Facebook strategies of over fifty diplomatic services. His central argument — that digital diplomacy is not simply traditional diplomacy conducted through new channels, but a qualitatively different mode of diplomatic engagement — is now widely accepted in the scholarly literature.
Pamment (2016) contributed important critical perspectives, examining the limits of digital public diplomacy and questioning whether the apparent openness and interactivity of social media engagement translated into genuine diplomatic influence. His research found that most diplomatic social media accounts functioned primarily as broadcasting tools, with limited genuine two-way engagement, raising questions about the actual communicative effectiveness of digital diplomatic strategies.
More recent scholarship has focused on the risks associated with digital diplomacy. Bjola and Pamment (2016) examined how disinformation campaigns conducted through digital channels had become a significant tool of state competition, documenting how actors including Russia, China, and Iran had used social media platforms to undermine adversaries’ diplomatic positions and public credibility. This dimension of digital diplomacy — its dark side — has become increasingly prominent in both scholarly and policy discussions.
This article employs a qualitative analytical methodology, drawing on systematic review of the academic literature, analysis of documented state digital diplomacy practices, and examination of relevant policy documents from international organizations including the United Nations, the European Union, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Case studies from the diplomatic practices of leading digital diplomacy actors — including the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Uzbekistan — are used to illustrate key analytical points.
Results and Discussion
Core Instruments of Digital Diplomacy
Analysis of state digital diplomacy practices reveals four principal categories of digital instruments currently deployed by foreign ministries and diplomatic services worldwide. The first and most visible is social media diplomacy — the use of platforms including Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and, in Asian contexts, WeChat and Line — for official diplomatic communication. By 2023, virtually all UN member states maintained official social media presences for their foreign ministries and diplomatic missions, representing a near-universal adoption of this tool within a decade.
The second major instrument is the virtual summit and digital conference infrastructure developed rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Video conferencing platforms, secure virtual negotiation environments, and hybrid meeting formats have now become permanent features of diplomatic practice. The 2020 G20 Summit, hosted by Saudi Arabia, and the 2021 G7 Summit in Cornwall, which incorporated extensive virtual participation elements, demonstrated both the viability and the limitations of virtual high-level diplomacy.
The third instrument encompasses AI-assisted diplomatic analytics — the use of data science, machine learning, and open-source intelligence tools to support diplomatic decision-making. Foreign ministries including those of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Singapore have invested significantly in AI tools that monitor international media, analyze social sentiment across foreign populations, and model potential international reactions to policy decisions. This represents a qualitative shift in the intelligence and analytical capacity available to diplomatic services.
The fourth instrument is e-consular services — the digitalization of visa processing, citizen assistance, document authentication, and other consular functions. This dimension, while less visible in public diplomacy terms, has had the most direct impact on ordinary citizens’ experience of diplomatic services. Countries including Estonia, which developed one of the world’s most advanced digital government systems, have demonstrated the potential for fully digital consular engagement.
Table 1.
Principal Instruments of Digital Diplomacy and Their Applications
Instrument
Primary Function
Key Examples
Adoption Level
Social Media Platforms
Public communication, direct engagement with foreign publics
US State Dept. Twitter, EU High Representative
Universal (193+ states)
Virtual Summits
High-level negotiations, multilateral conferences
G20 (2020), COP26 hybrid sessions
High (post-2020)
AI Analytics Tools
Media monitoring, sentiment analysis, policy modeling
UK FCDO, US State Dept.
Advanced states only
E-Consular Services
Visa processing, citizen assistance, document services
Estonia e-Residency, EU digital visa
Rapid expansion
Secure Encrypted Communications
Confidential diplomatic correspondence
EUNet, diplomatic cable encryption
All professional services
Source: Compiled by the author based on analysis of foreign ministry digital strategies and academic literature (2024)
Opportunities Created by Digital Diplomacy
Digital diplomacy has generated a range of significant opportunities for states, international organizations, and diplomatic practice as a whole. Most fundamentally, it has dramatically expanded the speed and reach of diplomatic communication. Where traditional diplomatic communication — through official press releases, press conferences, or formal diplomatic cables — might take hours or days to reach its intended audience, a social media post from a foreign minister can reach millions of people in multiple countries within seconds. This compression of diplomatic time has real consequences for crisis management, where the speed of communication can significantly affect how events unfold.
Digital diplomacy has also substantially lowered the barriers to participation in international discourse. Smaller states, which previously struggled to make their voices heard in an international environment dominated by large powers with extensive diplomatic networks and media reach, can now use social media to communicate directly with global audiences at minimal cost. The foreign ministries of countries such as Iceland, Estonia, and Rwanda have developed sophisticated and internationally recognized digital diplomacy presences that punch significantly above the weight their size would traditionally allow.
Furthermore, digital tools have enhanced diplomatic transparency and accountability. Live-streamed negotiations, publicly accessible UN General Assembly debates, and the official social media communications of diplomatic services have made diplomacy more visible to domestic and international publics than ever before. While full diplomatic transparency remains neither possible nor always desirable, the general trend toward greater openness has strengthened public understanding of and engagement with international affairs.
Risks and Challenges of Digital Diplomacy
Despite its significant opportunities, digital diplomacy also carries substantial risks that scholarship and state practice are still working to fully understand and address. The most extensively documented risk is disinformation — the deliberate use of digital channels to spread false or misleading information for strategic purposes. State-sponsored disinformation campaigns, documented in detail following the 2016 US elections and the information environment surrounding the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, demonstrated how digital tools could be weaponized to undermine other states’ diplomatic credibility, sow domestic division, and complicate international negotiations.
Cybersecurity represents a second major risk domain. Diplomatic communications systems have become high-value targets for state and non-state cyber actors. The 2020 SolarWinds hack, attributed to Russian intelligence services, compromised the US State Department’s communications systems, illustrating the vulnerability of digital diplomatic infrastructure to sophisticated cyberattacks. Similar incidents have been documented involving foreign ministries in Norway, Germany, South Korea, and multiple other countries, highlighting the systemic nature of the cybersecurity challenge.
A third significant risk is the phenomenon of digital diplomatic incidents — situations in which poorly worded or ambiguous social media posts by diplomats or officials create or escalate international tensions. Unlike traditional diplomatic communications, which are carefully drafted, reviewed, and filtered through established bureaucratic processes, social media posts can be made impulsively, misread across cultural and linguistic contexts, and amplified by media and social networks before diplomatic services have the opportunity to clarify or retract them. Several documented incidents have demonstrated how a single tweet can create a bilateral diplomatic crisis requiring days of official engagement to resolve.
Table 2.
Opportunities and Risks of Digital Diplomacy: A Comparative Assessment
Dimension
Key Opportunities
Key Risks
Communication
Speed; global reach; direct public engagement
Misinterpretation; diplomatic incidents
Public Diplomacy
Low cost; broad audience; soft power building
Echo chambers; algorithmic distortion
Information & Intelligence
Real-time data; open-source analytics
Disinformation; information overload
Security
Encrypted channels; rapid crisis communication
Cyberattacks; data breaches
Institutional
Greater transparency; e-consular efficiency
Digital divide; unequal access
Source: Compiled by the author based on Bjola & Holmes (2015), Manor (2019), and documented state practice (2024)
Digital Diplomacy in Uzbekistan’s Foreign Policy
Uzbekistan’s engagement with digital diplomacy has developed significantly since the 2016 political transition and the launch of the ‘New Uzbekistan’ reform agenda under President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. The country’s diplomatic modernization drive has included a deliberate effort to develop digital diplomatic capacities in line with the broader digitalization of Uzbekistan’s public administration. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan maintains active presences on major international social media platforms and has developed a bilingual (Uzbek and Russian) online information infrastructure for both public diplomacy and consular services.
Uzbekistan’s digital diplomatic profile has grown notably in conjunction with its increased international engagement. The country’s successful hosting of international summits and its active participation in regional organizations — including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and various UN bodies — has been accompanied by systematic digital communication strategies designed to build Uzbekistan’s international image and communicate its foreign policy positions to global audiences. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ website and social media channels have become important channels for projecting Uzbekistan’s identity as a reform-oriented, open, and constructive international partner.
The University of World Economy and Diplomacy, as the primary institution responsible for training Uzbekistan’s future diplomatic cadre, has a particularly important role in integrating digital diplomacy competencies into diplomatic education. The inclusion of digital diplomacy, cyber policy, and information technology governance in the curriculum of international relations programmes directly addresses the requirements of a diplomatic profession that increasingly demands fluency in both traditional diplomatic skills and digital communication tools.
Conclusion and Recommendations
This study has demonstrated that digital diplomacy represents a fundamental and irreversible transformation of international diplomatic practice. The integration of social media, virtual communication infrastructure, AI analytics, and e-government mechanisms into the daily work of foreign ministries has altered not only the tools of diplomacy but its fundamental logic — the relationship between diplomatic actors and the publics they engage, the speed at which diplomatic events unfold, and the range of actors who can participate in international discourse.
The principal opportunities identified in this analysis — enhanced communication speed, democratized access to international discourse, greater transparency, and improved efficiency of consular services — are real and substantial. They point toward a future in which digital diplomacy can genuinely contribute to more open, accessible, and effective international engagement. However, the risks — disinformation, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, the potential for digital diplomatic incidents, and the structural inequalities of the global digital divide — require equally serious attention from both scholars and practitioners.
Based on the analysis conducted in this article, the following recommendations are offered for diplomatic services, educational institutions, and policymakers. First, foreign ministries should develop comprehensive digital diplomacy strategies that integrate social media communication, cybersecurity protocols, and staff digital literacy training into a coherent framework, rather than approaching digital tools in an ad hoc manner. Second, the development of international norms and agreements governing cyber diplomacy, digital espionage, and state-sponsored disinformation should be treated as a high-priority diplomatic agenda item for multilateral forums including the United Nations.
Third, diplomatic education programmes — including those at Uzbekistan’s University of World Economy and Diplomacy — should systematically incorporate digital diplomacy competencies, including social media communication strategy, digital security, information literacy, and AI tools for diplomatic analysis, into their curricula. Fourth, states should invest in building the digital capacity of their smaller and developing-country diplomatic partners, addressing the digital divide that currently limits the ability of many states to engage effectively in digital diplomatic space. Fifth, diplomatic services should establish clear protocols and review mechanisms for official social media communications to minimize the risk of digital diplomatic incidents arising from ambiguous or impulsive online communications.
In conclusion, digital diplomacy is not a passing trend but a permanent structural feature of twenty-first century international relations. The states and diplomatic services that develop the skills, institutions, and strategies to navigate this transformed environment effectively will be better positioned to advance their national interests, build constructive international partnerships, and contribute to a more stable and cooperative world order. For Uzbekistan, as a country actively engaged in diplomatic modernization, the development of robust digital diplomacy capacities represents both an opportunity and a strategic imperative.
References
1. Bjola, C., & Holmes, M. (Eds.). (2015). Digital Diplomacy: Theory and Practice. Routledge.
2. Bjola, C., & Pamment, J. (2016). Digital containment: Revisiting containment strategy in the digital age. Global Affairs, 2(2), 131–142.
3. Cull, N. J. (2008). Public diplomacy: Taxonomies and histories. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 616(1), 31–54.
4. Manor, I. (2019). The Digitalization of Public Diplomacy. Palgrave Macmillan.
5. Pamment, J. (2016). Incommensurable or symbiotic? The relationship between traditional and digital diplomacy. In C. Bjola & M. Holmes (Eds.), Digital Diplomacy: Theory and Practice. Routledge. pp. 57–73.
6. Seib, P. (2012). Real-Time Diplomacy: Politics and Power in the Social Media Era. Palgrave Macmillan.
7. United Nations. (2022). Our Common Agenda: Report of the Secretary-General. United Nations Publications.
8. European External Action Service. (2023). EU Digital Diplomacy Strategy. EEAS Policy Paper Series.
9. Mirziyoyev, S. (2017). Address to the United Nations General Assembly: Uzbekistan’s Foreign Policy Priorities in the New Era. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
10. Rashidova, M. (2022). Digital diplomacy and public communication in Central Asian foreign policy: Emerging trends. Central Asian Journal of International Relations, 5(1), 88–104.
11. Kurbaliev, A., & Yusupova, N. (2021). E-government and digital transformation in Uzbekistan: Prospects for diplomatic modernization. Uzbek State Studies Review, 3(2), 45–62.
12. Kelerman, A. (2020). The Virtual State: Territorial Management in the Digital Age. Routledge.
Reality and Imagination in Murakami’s The Murder of the Commander and the Ancient Epic of Gilgamesh
The theme of the novel the murder of the commander by the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami is similar to the epic “Gilgamesh” (King of ancient Uruk in the third millennium BC) in many points, although the context is different, but this theme carries an atmosphere similar to that of the epic of Gilgamesh more than a matter of analogues and origins. The novel partly belongs to the mythic world, with no world in which gods and demigods are fraternizing with humans. Did Haruki try to create new legends like The Legend of the mothers in the second part of Faust / Goethe, but in a modern, age-appropriate way We find a lot of points of convergence between the two novels in the part of the forest adventure (reality), although the goal of the trip is different, as well as the vision of the lower World (Fantasy/ metaphor corridors), which is very close to our novel. They are really similar, but they are also different!
The environment in which Gilgamesh lived is very similar to the environment that the author of the yayani painted, where the virgin nature, with all its elements represented: the forest, the Prairie, the mountain (the home of the gods), the river – sea – ocean (the boundary between existence and nothingness), the cave (dwelling), the Horned Owl, and the crow (representing the cycle of day and night life). If Gilgamesh( two-thirds God, one-third human), the Japanese author chose the hero of his novel An Artist (Painter) and art also carries divine inspiration, and both are described by his extreme predilection for women, then in the epic of Gilgamesh : his lust does not leave a virgin for her lover, neither the daughter of a warrior nor the wife of a nobleman, and yet this is the patron of the city, wise, handsome, stubborn[!],
And in our version he himself happens to say: .. And I don’t know why! I never felt any guilt about seducing women who were learning at my hands. It even seemed to me that having a sexual relationship with them is quite normal, like asking someone we run into on the street about the clock. Just as Gilgamesh took “Enkidu” as a companion on his journey in the forest, we find our protagonist taking” munchki” as a companion on his journey in the forest.. And just as Gilgamesh was alone on his journey in the lower world, the hero of our novel was alone on his journey in the lower World.. The results of the adventure in both cases were similar, as we will see.
In the forest Gilgamesh was accompanied by ” Enkidu “and the goal was to eliminate” Humbaba”, the God of the forest, we read: After twenty leagues breakfasts, after another thirty leagues they stopped to spend the night, fifty leagues they cut in one day, and in three days Tana had cut the March of a month and two weeks. They crossed seven mountains before reaching the Forest Gate, approaching it in Wonder. They had not yet seen the majestic Azure trees, but they were most impressed by the supports of the gate. It was seventy-two cubits high, twenty-four cubits wide, the axis, throat and shoulder were all elaborate. Her work was made in Nippur-the holy city of Enlil. They went together, leaving the gate behind them until they reached the Green Mountain. …., There Gilgamesh dug a well in front of the setting sun. He went up the mountain and put good food on the ground and said: “O Mountain, O home of the gods, gives me a comforting dream”. Then they took each other by the hand and lay down to sleep, and the sleep flowing from the night contained them….
And the next day they cut twenty leagues, and then they had breakfast, and after another thirty leagues they stopped to spend the night. They dug a well before the sun went down and Gilgamesh climbed the mountain, put good food on the ground and said: “O Mountain, O home of the gods, sends a dream to Enkidu. Send him a comforting dream…, and when they came down from the mountain Gilgamesh grabbed the axe in his hand, and knocked down the cedar trees. When Humbaba heard the noise from afar, he became angry… Humbaba came out of his powerful House made of cedar trees, and the.., the eights wind blew on hambaba, smeared his eyes, paralyzed his mobility, he could not run or run, and he was forced to surrender. Gilgamesh heeded the word of his companion, took the axe in his hand, took off the sword from his region, struck Humbaba with a stab of his sword in the neck, and his comrade Enkidu struck the second blow. At the third blow.
Humbaba fell; he was lying in the stillness of the dead. The chaos came after that, it was Humbaba who they knocked down was the guardian of the forest, this is who haramoun and Lebanon were trembling at his words. Now the mountains have moved the hill ranges have moved, because the keeper of the Cedars is dead. So the hero of our novel was accompanied by his friend” munchki”, and the goal was to check the sound of the” bell”, which our hero hears in his hut, and its source is the forest. We read: I caught the flashlight by hand. “Munchki” came out of the door, took out of the trunk of the Jaguar a large flashlight, which seemed to have prepared him for this adventure. Then we climbed the seven steps into the wild forest.
The Moonlight was not the same as yesterday, but it illuminated our foothold. We turned behind the mock-up of the temple, making our way through the branches to the Crouch of the rocks. And then we heard the hearing there again. There is not the slightest doubt that a mysterious sound is seeping out from among the voids of the rocks. “Munchki” slowly circled around her, examining her voids very attentively using the light of a lamp. But he did not find anything out of the ordinary. Just a number of ancient rocks covered with mold, randomly stacked on top of each other. He turned to me. His face in the moonlight looked to me like a mask. Did my face look the same to him; you see “It could be someone, asking for help,” he said, as if talking to himself.
But who was it that managed to get under this pile of heavy stones?”” …, Menchik kept thinking deeply, and then he said: a professional company should be called to remove that amount of rock. The workers used a special car to transport a small excavator to the top of the mountain. We continued the work from a distant place, almost all the rocks were removed at mid-noon, we discovered other stones under the crouch, lined up relatively regularly, forming a flat stone base, resembling a square with an area of two meters from each rib, and under it a solid grid, and its depth is less than two and a half meters. Completely surrounded by stones. It seems that its bottom has only natural soil; completely devoid of grass.
The room was completely empty: no trace of someone calling for help, no mummy resembling stiffened flesh. Except that at the bottom there is a bell. When the workers left, the place was overshadowed by the usual mountain silence. The place that had been turned upside down looked as sad and painful as a human skin that had undergone surgery. The branches of the Jungle, which were proud of their height and prosperity, crashed under the weight until the last breath. The rain had completely stopped, but the sky was clouded with gray, overcast clouds.
And if Gilgamesh and his companion Enkidu dared to the forest and its guardian, it was the reason for Enkidu’s death, as we will explain, as it was the reason for his journey to the lower world; in search of immortality. The same act brought a similar result to the “munchki” of the hero’s companion in our novel, in which the latter had a near-death experience. In the epic of Gilgamesh we read: ANU said to Enlil: “one of them should die, because they have killed the bull of heaven and killed a lamb, let him be the one who stripped the mountains of cedar trees”. But Enlil said: “Let Enkidu die, but Gilgamesh will not die”. And so Enkidu fell ill, he lay down before Gilgamesh and the tears flowed from his eyes in Rivers. Gilgamesh said to him: “beloved brother, why are they leaving me to take you?”
He also said, “Do you see, do I have to sit outside the door of the spirits next to the ghosts of the dead, and never see my beloved brother again?””. And in our novel we read: Menshki said: “about the stone hole in the forest. I spent about an hour there the other day. I sat on the bottom of it alone without a lamp, after I closed it and piled heavy rocks on top of the lid. And I asked you to come back in an hour to get me out of it. Do you remember”…”Death is not the cruelest thing that I feared when I was locked in a closed and dark place.No.no? I was scared when I thought that I was risking staying alive like this forever. I was really scared then. A breathtaking fear. I was hallucinating, I saw the walls coming together to crush me. It is necessary to overcome this fear if one wants to survive there. He should win over himself. And this is the benefit of a near-death experience.”
The epic of Gilgamesh, as an introduction to the underworld, was based on the story of the flood in ancient Iraq (the epic environment), an ancient Sumerian and Babylonian myth that predates religious narratives…The Japanese writer based his novel on an ancient Japanese legend, The Legend of the mummified Buddha Mummy : a Buddhist monk from ancient times, following the path of death to achieve eternal enlightenment, built a room of stones underground, equipped with a bamboo tube emerging from the surface of the earth to provide ventilation.
Before entering it, the monk follows a diet known as” mukujiki”, so that if he dies his body does not decompose, but turns into a fully mummified mummy. The weather was decided to get out of there after three years and three months. Thus, the monk’s mummy is placed in a coffin inside the temple, and people make pilgrimages to him in worship and distress. And in the lower world in the epic of Gilgamesh we read: when Gilgamesh heard this he complied with what the scorpion man said, he followed the path of the sun to his east through the mountain. And as soon as he cut one league, the darkness intensified around him. He couldn’t see anything in front of him or behind him, there was no light. Two hours later it was very dark…..
And after he had cut eight leagues, Gilgamesh uttered a loud cry, for it was so dark that he could not see anything in front of him or behind him…, and after twelve leagues the sunlight flowed. And there (the garden of the gods) lived by the sea, the woman who owns the vineyards, the winemaker “sidori”, who advised him, saying: there down in the forest you will find “archanabi” Noti “atnapishtim” (Noah), maybe she crossed the water with him! And already he crossed with him and got to “atanapishtim.As Gilgamesh was alone, he did not have a boat to cross, he had to find the Nauti, and the directions were uncertain. The hero of our novel is carried by the Nauti (faceless) to the other bank of the river on a boat too; in search of “Mariya akikawa”…
He describes the boat: it’s just a wooden box floating on the surface of the water, I didn’t understand what was driving the boat, but we were moving towards the opposite bank, in absolute silence. I don’t hear the sound of an engine or any machine of any kind .It is a description that is almost identical with the boat, the note and the journey of the epic “Gilgamesh”, atenapishtim says, in secret, updating himself: Why does the boat sail without ropes and mast, why the sacred stones are broken, and why the captain does not lead the boat?”! We read from the account of the murder of the commandant a description of the lower world: after that, I made up my mind and bent over like a man on all fours, inserting my upper half into the hole…, its height ranged from sixty to seventy centimeters, and its width did not reach one meter.
And it seemed to me that it goes on endlessly, like a natural tube of darkness, narrowing in places and widening in others. Sometimes it takes the form of a horizontal curve, and the upward slope is sometimes and the downward one is in Phase… I tried to turn around. It was impossible to change the direction of travel. Terror took over all over my body. And I literally froze in that place…, and with great difficulty .My heart was making a restless sound, like the sound of an iron window window being shaken by a violent wind. The burrow grew narrow, and it was difficult to advance. A severe panic swept over me, and my limbs became immobilized, as if paralyzed. My breathing became hard and heavy. The burrow ended abruptly. My body rushed into a space of emptiness in which there is nothing. Finally, I understood. You are located in the hole that is behind the model of the temple in the middle of the wild forest!
Daniel G. Snethen grew up on a farm & ranch in south-central South Dakota. Here, he gained a great appreciation for all living things. Snethen holds an M.S. degree in Zoology and his B.A. in biological education. Dan has spent the past thirty years teaching science, coaching oral interpretation of literature and directing plays on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation at Little Wound School in Kyle, SD. Snethen directed the romantic comedy Mallard’s Road, which can be streamed on Tubi. Daniel writes poetry and short-story fiction. Among his pets, past and present, are kangaroo rats, desert wood rats, scorpions, rattlesnakes, ferrets, tarantulas, hawks and of course dogs. His favorite piece of literature is Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. Snethen has had many an odd encounter: including being sprayed by skunks, being stung by a scorpion and bitten by a pocket gopher. Daniel claims there should be no taboos when it comes to writing and the best writing comes from experience. Write what you know, even when writing fiction—infuse it with partial truths and the reader will be able to suspend disbelief. Snethen is the current vice-president of the South Dakota State Poetry Society and one of the former editors of their biannual poetry journal Pasque Petals.
Dubbed “The Baudelaire of our time” by John Shirley, primary screenwriter of THE CROW (1994), Alex S Johnson aka Kandy Fontaine has served as a secretary to the stars, collaborated with Tom Sullivan (New York Times bestselling author of IF YOU COULD SEE WHAT I HEAR), been platformed by R.U. Sirius (Mondo 2000 magazine featuring William S Burroughs), archived at The Widener Library (Harvard University) as well as being a Special Guest with Pickles (Alea Celeste Williams) on the Maggiore On Bowie Show. He has published under Nocturnicorn Books work by Caitlin R Kiernan, Kari Lee Krome, Poppy Z Brite, Jarboe, David J Haskins, Carmilla Voiez, Cristina Deptula, Anna Taborska and Lasara Firefox Allen and has read alongside icons such as Ellyn Maybe, Danielle Willis, Richard Modiano, K.R. Morrison, Marc Olmsted, Tricia Warden and Iris Berry. His hundreds of short stories, essays, poems, and articles have also garnered rave reviews from the likes of World Fantasy Award finalist Anna Tambour (“A poet even when writing prose”), Lambda Literary Award-winning author Jan Steckel (“a master of the pathetic fallacy”), and Hannah Breschard, cult author, journalist and David Bowie collaborator, who saluted him as “a legend.” Johnson runs Nocturnicorn Books from his home in Carmichael, California.
