Why The Lives of Eccentrics?
Or rather, what motive did I have in creating a series around that theme? I don't have an answer to that. But I've got to remember something, find some reason for it. I know it's in my mind somewhere.
When I was a kid, I often heard about the time a famous mountaineer was asked why he wanted to climb a mountain. The mountaineer's response was something to the effect of, "Because it's there." It was an answer I understood entirely, and yet one I couldn't understand at all. And, being a kid, thinking about the future, I thought, "Why do people choose the jobs or careers that they do?" Politicians, doctors, soldiers, clergymen, judges, and all the other prominent people in society... What made them want to take those positions? I felt that it was something I was incapable of understanding. And isn't it terrifying being, say, a karate practitioner, a racer, or a diver? Does whatever motive they have surpass that fear? Doctors have to see blood, and enemies attack karate practitioners all the time... It was a way of thinking I could never hope to possess.
Around the same time, I heard rumors in books or from acquaintances: that a French painter named Gauguin went to an island named Tahiti on the other side of the world just to paint, and passed away there; that there was a woman who continued to build her mansion for the rest of her life; that a man once lived for weeks at the top of a chimney; that some scholars insisted that the inside of the earth is hollow, and that gravity allows us to gently enter the interior through a hole at the North Pole.
"What in the world? Why would someone do that? Why would they stake their lives on something like that? There's not much to be gained from it, but I can't help but feel there's something wonderful about it all...
What does it mean to be human, anyway?"
As a kid, I used to read and listen to stories like those with that thought in mind. And when I heard about those people, while I considered them fools, I also found myself listening to their stories with my full attention. I found myself feeling some kind of hope, or courage, or maybe empathy toward their foolish and worthless actions. I often get the feeling that I, too, act with no clear motive and fail without ever knowing the reason why. Within the lives of eccentrics exists an ode to humanity no different from that found in the biography of a great man. That is my motive in writing this series.
...That said, these biographies are based on facts, but I also had a set of selection criteria in mind. I read a lot of books and did a lot of searching to find individuals worth drawing, but it wasn't easy to find eccentrics who met my criteria. After all, my selection criteria was criteria for an ode to humanity. That strict selection criteria is as follows:
Hurdle No. 1: An eccentric must believe that their actions give people hope or peace of mind. (It wouldn't do to depict, say, a criminal.)
Hurdle No. 2: An eccentric must keep up their eccentricity for the rest of their life. (Temporarily conspicuous spirits and those who give in later in their lives are false eccentrics, and do not deserve respect.) In other words, it has to come naturally to him or her.
Hurdle No. 3: An eccentric triumphs over their enemies. (However you want to interpret triumph, it always involves winning against some kind of enemy.)
The people who satisfied these three hurdles are the ones depicted in this book. There's an
inventor, an
athlete, and even
one from the country of Japan we take such pride in. There are
two women, and even a pair of brothers. I think it's safe to say the characters are diverse. At the risk of repeating myself, it's not about following in their footsteps. They are by no means social heretics, but unique people with extraordinary passions, and the fact that they existed provides hope and peace of mind to the future of humanity.