mintcar

I finished re-reading Wind-up Bird Chronicle (Murakami) today ... to even describe the emotion it draws out of me would do it NO JUSTICE; in fact, it would be tragic! The vividness, depth is unsurpassable, and to tell you about what i think of it would be like showing you a b&w copy of a field of grass to describe to you what dew on a crisp morning feels like. SIGH. You just have to read it. If you need more persuasion, it's about a man who loves his wife. Hahah ... okay, if that's not enough, he becomes a prostitute. Of sorts. You have to read it.

Don't read the following statement if you don't want my theories to taint your reading of this book! IT'S A SPOILER.

Here's what I think about the nature of the characters, because every micro-story and character is meshed in this narrative, (meta-narrative, meta-meta-narrative) crossing paths in time and space: each of the women Toru meets starting from page one is a permutation, parallel in a transitory world, or embodiment of a trait or life moment, of his real wife, Kumiko -- including the sexy woman on the phone, Creta Kano, Nutmeg, May. (But, not Malta Kano, who I believe is the alternative world version of Kumiko's dead sister). Also, bear in the mind the connection between Boris the Manskinner and the brother, Noboru Wataya. It's possible to stretch the parallel between the incest between the brother with Kumiko and her sister, and the nation of Japan's nationalist undoing (and sort of ethnic cleansing -- which is really delicately and relatively briefly illustrated) ... I think Murakami here makes a lot more generalities than specifics, probably because the sensitivity of the issue his Japanese audience, plus, it's hard to talk about it without sounding trite. But, I still think he could have made more of an 'opinion.' However, the threads are there, and it's really open to interpretation, like a lot of great (ahem) postmodern masterpieces. Here are some of the main themes I really like: (1) Evil, lust, uncontrollable & destructive sexual urges within a precise, calculating mind (which is, in the end, despicable), (2) Unconditionally faithful love, (3) Catastrophic change, without evolution, (4) Separation of self and body ... and the split of one person into multiple beings existing in ... (5) Alternate realities ('dreams' which are true). And overarchingly ... all varieties of PAIN and intimacy with DEATH ... and its counterparts, sleep (see above), life, love. Landscapes, societies, joined souls meshed timelessly. It's po-mo, but really not. A mentality of detachment corroded. It's so great.

The unreal is not necessarily unnatural.



Blah blah blah.

BUT ... reading has left me really spent. It's a depressing book!!! (Even though it's beautiful, provoking, [relatively] optimistic) ...

I'm going to add more stuff about it later--

As an end note: I miss RO.