The only Murakami I have read has been what we have read together in class so I am unable to speak on his other works. As a byproduct, this post is more of a musing. I would love to hear if others with more experience with Murakami have noticed anything in regards to what I am bringing up.
We started this semester by reading The Long Goodbye alongside A Wild Sheep Chase. Our discussion revolved mainly around Chandler's influence as a Detective Fiction writer with his style and wacky metaphors. An interesting element to his writing is how his time fighting in WWI affected his crafting of Philip Marlowe. A man based on the knight errant with a hidden past and righteous moral code. Then later on in our class, I gave presentations on Kurt Vonnegut and J.D. Salinger as they are influencers of Murakami. Then we read Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway and I noticed an interesting pattern: WWII veterans. While Vonnegut and Salinger's involvement in the war is far more on the ground and gruesome than Hemingway's, all three men served. Hemingway was a war correspondent and was even awarded the Bronze Star Medal for heroic actions in France. A Perfect Day for Bananfish reflected on war trauma and Slaughter House Five is essentially a war novel told through the lens of science-fiction.
The experiences Chandler, Vonnegut, Salinger, and Heminway suffered informed their sardonic and multi-dimensional framings of the human condition. Again, I cannot speak to works beyond what we've discussed in class but I feel this thread of trauma led to scenes like that final existential moment with Rat.
Jade Rona
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