Beyond the Other World: Locations of Murakami’s Other World

        We have extensively discussed in class the concept of the other world and its supernatural aspects as well as the theory that it is a representation of the world of death. However, most of the other worlds we have encountered in the context of this class are located in remote areas of Japan, such as Junitaki and the sanitorium in a Wild Sheep Chase and Norwegian Wood, respectively. There are other locations which could be considered the other world, such as in “Samsa in Love”, which is set in the modern Czech Republic. Similarly, “Ghosts of Lexington” is set in Lexington, Massachusetts. All these locations are either familiar to Murakami, being in Japan or Massachusetts, where he lived for some time. The other countries his main characters travel to are all located in the West, which are at least somewhat familiar to Murakami and a Japanese audience. 

        However, there are other locations mentioned which are even more foreign than the US or the Czech Republic. For example, in “Barn Burning,” the main girl travels to North Africa, specifically Algeria, after father’s death. Also, in Norwegian Wood, though it turns out to be a lie, Midori tells Toru that her father is living in Uruguay. Both these countries are more unusual locations for people to travel from Japan and seem more ‘foreign,’ as they are not economic and political powerhouses. In addition, the main character does not go to these more obscure other worlds, but rather more minor characters. There is also little description about the experiences of those characters in the other world, it is typically mentioned but the reader does not go to this other world with them. 

        These locations, though they are quite different from the typical other worlds in Murakami stories, also seem to portray death. The most obvious example is in Norwegian Wood, while Midori claims her dad has moved to Uruguay, it is revealed later that Midori lied and her father is dying in the hospital. She explains that before the brain tumor, however, her father had expressed a desire to go to Uruguay. In this sense, Uruguay represents both a world of death, but also a world of dreams and aspirations. In “Barn Burning,” the main girl, shortly after her father’s death, chooses to travel to Northern Africa, upon which the main character introduces her to his connection with the Algerian embassy. She seems to go to Algeria to flee her father’s death, but she returns with a Japanese man, who later kills her under the guise of ‘burning barns.’ Though both deaths in this story both occur in Japan, this mysterious trip to the other world of Algeria is both the girl’s form of fleeing death and bringing death back with her. 

        I couldn’t find any information about whether Murakami had a personal connection to either Uruguay or Algeria, but these other worlds seemed quite distinct from the other worlds we have seen in his writing. But at the same time, they seem to represent a sort of detachment from reality and seem to indicate a sense of death more strongly than his typical settings for the other world, which as the reader, we able to accompany the protagonist there. 

Sarah