The Beauty of the Mundane

Across the entirety of Murakami's literary work, many common aspects seem to reappear on a regular basis. From the cat crossing the street to a sudden miscommunication between friends, the union of such parts later composes the puzzle that is known as daily life. Certainly, the Japanese Author is neither the first nor last writer that will set his narration and characters in the real world. Murakami's experience as a translator also highlights said aspect, as the inspiration drawn from his translations evidently bleeds through his works. Still, every puzzle piece within Murakami's novels is highlighted by the absence of its surroundings. In other words, Murakami makes sure to insist on the beauty and importance of every single aspect of everyday life.

The concept of mundanity has been present in Murakami's writing ever since the author's first novels. For instance, A Wild Sheep Chase both majorly contributes and gives voice to Murakami's overall stance on life. While the deeper meaning of the novel has never been clear and is still open for interpretation nearly forty years later, a strong aspect of the book is the comparison between men and sheep. Both creatures live their daily lives undisturbed, naturally moving from one task to the next without questioning the deeper meaning of their actions. Not even human's ability to think critically separates them from their wooly specimen. When the girlfriend and the caretaker entertain a conversation about what sheep do over the winter, the caretaker is very clear in stating the similarities between the two species. For example, answering the girlfriend's question of whether sheep get bored or not, the caretaker replies "Do you get bored with your own life? (...) Well, Same with the sheep, they don't think about stuff like that, and it wouldn't do them any good if they did."

Nevertheless, confirming that the mundane is present everywhere does not imply that life and the aspects which compose it are mundane as well. For Murakami, life is more of a space in which any emotion can be experienced at any level. Similar to Kierkegaard's concept of the swinging pendulum, the mundane is simply the pause between one sentiment and the next. Within the story of Tony Takitani, the mundane could simply be interpreted as the protagonist's apathy towards the rest of the world, towards the missing attachment to his distant father, and towards his childhood lack of interest in anything that does not involve drawing. Tony Takitani lives so submerged in his own lack of interest in the world that he removes himself from the chance to feel anything at all. Yet, moments like seeing his future wife in a dress for the first time or the death of his father only become more intense because of Tony's previous perspective on life. 

Tony Takitani only gives voice to one aspect of reality: life cannot be entirely white or black but is instead composed of different shades. A Perfect Days for Kangaroos, on the other hand, focuses on the importance of seizing fleeting moments that could be gone within the following day. In the story, the message is expressed by the couple's sense of urgency to see the baby kangaroo before it grows up, dies, or has any other inconvenient event happen to it. The fleeting nature of the kangaroo is highlighted by its juxtaposition to the reoccurring beer that the protagonists routinely grab together. Regardless of the novel, a proper analysis of the work at hand will always reveal a new element to Murakami's view of the mundane. 

Daniele