LoT Book CLub - Book 2 - Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

[tracilicious]

I really like the Noboru as Toru's other theory. He does mention quite a few times that they are exact opposites and that the other doesn't even exist in each own's world.

It also lends credence to Alex's theory of none of it happening. If Noboru is Toru's other, he probably isn't even a politician at all, or real for that matter. Malta and Noboru met, but if they are both fake it doesn't matter.

[€uroMeinke]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

Which raises for me the possibility that none of the events described really happened. That it is all just the metaphorical coping of a man who has learned his wife was unfaithful and waiting to see how they cope with that.

But that's most likely going to far.

Perhaps, but I get this as a real possibility too, that all (or much) of this is a product of Toru's dream world and thus all the characters are really facets of Toru.

What I picked up in my second reading was the concept of "imagination." Boris warns of people using it to ill consequences in the camp, and you have to wonder how much is going on in Toru's imagination and possibly preventing him from acting in a decisive fashion. I was also more intrigued by Cinnamon's "Chronicle" - Toru speculates that much is imaginary since Cinnamon nor Nutmeg actually experienced it and rather obejct of thier current life made their way into a sort of fictional mythology (But I love the concept of creating one's own personal mythology), I wonder if this is comments somewhat on our own benign ways of reinventing our pasts?

Which leads me to think about Murakami dealing with Japanese War attrocities, which were very real horrors and hardly the product of imagination. This struck me very differently than say post-war German writing which is very heavy handed and guilt laden about dealing with the events of that hemisphere.

I'm also intrigued by the running theme of "prostitution" Creta, a prostitute of the mind and one-time flesh, Nutmeg and Toru essentailly prostituing their own psychic abilities (Toru even compares what he does with Creta). And even the conclusion Komiko's confession of being with many men, sounds more like a prostitute than her out having a good time.

On the other end of the spectrum is May, all sexual tension, but remaining virginal and in some sense being Toru's savior/confessor at the bottom of the well, and she provides solace at the books end. As to why Toru never got her letters - May herslef in her last letter confessed she addressed the notes "vaguely" so perhaps these are letters written never intended to be read, though the last one expresses some regret for that. From May's perspective, it may have been to protect her from being vulnerable confessing her thoughts in her new life.

I could go on and on, but I'll stop now and read some more.

[€uroMeinke]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

That being said, here are a few bits I wrote down. Nothing particularly enlightening in terms of digesting the whole book, I'm more drawn to little bits of observational wisdom:

* I found very vivid and familiar the description in chapter 2 of the ettiquette of cooking dinner and waiting before eating until your spouse comes home, even if they are late. You know you're not required to wait, but you do anyway. Of course, that was immediately followed by obvious clues that she was cheating on him, so it was also quite heartbreaking.

* I reference page 33, in chapter 3. He described the torture of being interupted during some long internal train of thought, and never being able to figure out what it was that you were thinking about. I HATE that.

* "If the Dali Lama were on his death bed and the jazz musician Eric Dolphy were to try to explain to him the importance of changing one's engine oil in accordance with changes in the sound of the bass clarinet, that exchange might have been a touch more worthwhile and effective than my conversations with Noboru Wataya." Ha!!! Freaking love that.

*Book 2, Chapter 10 (page 258), May posits that high concepts only exist because death exists. Without death, we'd have no urgency, and no reason to care what life's all about. There's always be time for that later.

* While Mayama was in the well, he asks, "What's the essential difference between 11 hours and 23 hours?"

Like I said, nothing earth shattering, but the two Murakami books I've read are rife with those little gems that make me pause and appreciate his insight.

I love all of these, especailly the one I bolded - been one of my philosophical precepts for ages, so it made me smile when I read it again.

[€uroMeinke]

And another thing - this comment caught my attention because I feel exactly opposite:

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

I was thinking about the "other" world and how unsubstantial it seemed. Often in stories when you have an other world it is more developed and understood. There's no full explanation in this book for the other world and it's much more dreamlike and vague.

I can't say that I like this idea as much as other concepts in the book. It leads me to feel unsatisifed with it. It seems almost lazy to me in retrospect, as if the whole concept could be described in one sentence: "There's this other world, and it's like a hotel, but you don't see faces, and Kumiko is represented by the woman in the bed, and the other people are just kinda there." It felt weak after the length of build-up, even though it does bring about an end to the story.

Unlike a Tolkien or Rowlings, I don't think Murakami set out to create an "other" world with complex rules, histories, and mythologies - rather it is this vague other that remains almost erily ambiguous - there are no rules to pin things on, you just have to ride with the flow of experiences as Toru does and draw conclusions from your intuition rather than your intellect. I loved that aspect of the book, but I can easily see how someone else might not.

[€uroMeinke]

Adding more to my above comment - I think the ambiguity is a great foil to Toru's insistance to keep things "concrete." he himself is struggling with where reality ends and the other world begins. He gives people concrete names, becasue the people themselves alone are perhaps to ethereal. In the end it may well be Toru's attempt to make sense of Komiko's infidelity, and make concrete his own ambgiguous feelings.

[Not Afraid]

I love the ambiguity in Murikami's writing, but I find I prefer things less spelled out. I think that is why I've been thinking quite a bit about the various passages about imagination. He requires much more use of the readers' own imagination to try and fit things together and, something they just don't fit. I sort of like this ambigious aspect. I find it much more interesting as a reader than when things are spelled out to me with many facts. When I list many of my favorite writers, many of them have at least some aspect of ambiguity.