The Historical Implications of The Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

I found that Strecher’s text on “Magical Realism and the Search for Identity in Haruki Murakami” provided further insight into the intentions of Murakami’s The Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. In his text, Stretcher discusses Murakami’s audience as the “post Zenkyōto era” generation (264). This greatly influences Murakami’s work because this generation is defined, according to Stretcher, by its search for identity. I think that this is particularly evident in The Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.

First, Strecher writes that, “unlike the previous generation, which understood hunger and deprivation and could define itself in terms of affluence via its own participation in the efforts of the rapid-growth era, Murakami’s generation, like the generation in the United States that reached maturity in the 1950s, did not understand affluence as a goal in itself, and this could not identify in those terms” (265). I think what Strecher means here is that, in a more developed world, self-identification relies less on survival and the material. Murakami’s narratives thus appeal to a generation that is in search of an identity—a generation on a “pilgrimage” of sorts.

The Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is a good example of this. Murakami writes that all five friends were from “suburban, upper-middle-class families,” with parents that “spared no expense” on education, and that their families were generally “peaceful and stable” (9). This is an important component because it takes away problems regarding the material, so that the attention is focused solely on inner-identity. 

The lack of color in Tsukuru’s name also strips him of a sense of identity, and makes him feel isolated. All of his friends (with colors in their name) seem to have fixed personalities. Tsukuru, on the other hand, “was the only one in the group without anything special about him” (15). However, though I have not read the entire book, I assume that his obsession with trains represents a certain transience. To me, trains in books have always represented a state of transience, and I think that Murakami making Tsukuru be interested in trains means that identity is not meant to be fixed and easy to categorize (like colors), but rather, always in flux. 

In all, I found that Stecher’s text helped me understand Murakami a bit more. Then historical implications that Strecher discusses unpack why Murakami might write his characters so that they are “quiet,” “detached,” and “losing their capacity to know or understand themselves” (265); his characters mirror the generation in which he is catering to. 

Lexi Nasse

 

Gibson, Murakami, and Chandler?

Some debate the extent of how Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland was influenced by the writings of William Gibson. One Gibson story in particular cited is “Johnny Mnemonic,” one of Gibson’s first short stories, originally published four years before Hard-Boiled Wonderland. But there’s another element that piqued my interest. Mainly, Gibson's fantastically set but bitter and gritty prose shares a few commonalities with one of Murakami’s greatest influences, that being Raymond Chandler.

Gibson was termed the “noir-prophet” of cyberpunk, someone that was not the only forebearer of the genre (Phillip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and the film it inspired did as much for the genre as anything Gibson wrote), but one that provided a solid literary foundation. “Johnny Mnemonic” may be the first evidence of this foundation, yet it does contain some elements I'd find Chandleresque. The first is the titular Johnny’s monologue, which the story never strays from, just like Chandler never strayed from Marlowe’s monologue. The second is what Gibson does with this monologue. Johnny gives vivid similes (“It all made sense then, an ugly kind of sense, like bags of wet sand settling around my head.”), typecasts characters with gritty introductory monologues (“I didn’t know very much about Squids, but I’d heard stories, and I made it a point never to repeat them to my clients.”), and gives plenty of semi-lengthy descriptions (“The wood was silver with age, polished with long use and deeply etched with initials, threats, declarations of passion.”). That said, Gibson separates himself from Chandler (and closer to other writers) in a few ways. The first is something Gibson shares with Murakami, that his readers are frequently transformed not just to a different metaphorical world, but one that is radically different in a fantastical or magical sense. The second is something Gibson doesn’t share with Murakami or Chandler, in that his already gritty subject matter can be sometimes taken to radical lengths (To be blunt: I don’t think Murakami or Chandler would spell out a red swastika). - William

Murakami and the Great Gatsby

Strecher's article was very interesting as it really helped paint a picture of the overarching themes of identity in Murakmi novels. Even though it talked a lot about novels we have not read in class,  I felt that he covered them effectively enough that I could see the link between the different works. I felt that it was very helpful information in one place for our creative writing pieces. One line that stood out to me was when he talked about the early protagonists of Murakami before "South of the Border, West of the Sun". He talks about how they are all "so absorbed in themselves and their own problems that critics are united in dubbing them jiheiteki, a medical term meaning "autistic" but in this case perhaps better expressed with the idiom "self-centered"  and how his "characters are too out of touch with their society, though this is generally understood to be a symptom of the times." This reminded me a lot of the writing in The Great Gatsby where there is extensive descriptions of people suffering and poverty and more but the main characters pay no attention to any of these things. Both the old and newly rich are absorbed in their own goals and status as a symptom of the roaring twenties. Similarly in Murakami, the early main characters ignore things like the Zenkyoto movement and the suicide of Mishima which act only as background for the stories. This really emphasized another point of similarity between Murakami's writings and his favorite work of literature. I really like how I keep noticing different things about his sources every time we read something new it is truly fascinating. 

Celine

 

Women in Murakami's Magical World

After completing the Strecher reading I could not help but think back to that Mieko Kawakami's interview and her points on women in Murakami's novels. There were a lot of points made about identity and the self in our reading and my mind could not help but wander back to Kawakami's points about women in Murakami failing to stand alone. A portion that called my attention again was this:

"It's not possible for these women to exist on their own. And while female protagonists, or even supporting characters, may enjoy a moderate degree of self-expression, thanks to their relative independence, there's a persistent tendency for women to be sacrificed for the sake of the male leads." 

I focused on this in my second reading of the interview because of points brought up by Strecher in regards to the way Murakami uses magical realism compared to other authors in the genre. It was stated that "magical realism in Murakami is used as a tool to seek a highly individualized, personal sense of identity in each person...". If this is to be taken as law in Murakami's writings it once again calls into question women's role in his works. Kawakami's main criticisms, along with many other women's, were associated with the fact that women never exist wholly as their own individuals in his works. If magical realism is supposed to work as a means to showcase and create an individual identity it would seem as though Murakami is only achieving this with his male characters. The female character's self is always dependent on or irremovable from her male counterpart. A very real albeit incredibly non-magical reflection of reality. 

Jade Rona 

Murakami's Frustration without having real automony?

    Strecher's interpretation of Murakami searching for identity by playing with the "unconscious" and "Other" in his fiction is interesting. Strecher's argument is convincing, but I think Murakami is only exploring his characters to a certain degree because I feel like Murakami has a purpose for each of his characters. Although interpretations could differ, I think Murakami is sometimes expressing his frustration with not having real autonomy. In A Wild Sheep Chase, the people that accept the special sheep gets to be at the top of society (for a while), but it took away the character's individuality. When the people are "sheepless" they are essentially useless to the society. The Rat made an active choice to stop the sheep, but in a way he was kind of also forced into it because of his circumstances of being chosen by the sheep. Similarly in chapter 3 of the Hard-Boiled Wonderland, the weird scientist has the ability to change people. He removed the sound from his granddaughter, and the he could turn down the narrator's hearing. Nothing was by the individual character's choice. I think maybe this is a way of Murakami expressing his frustration for people not being able to pursue the things that they really want to do. 

    Part of this analyses also extends to the female narrator in Sleep. She doesn't like her role as the typical "housewife", and finds herself enjoying life after she could no longer sleep. In exchange her sleepless nights, she gets to read for entertainment. A light bulb lit up in my head when someone shared their theory that the story is about sexual assault. I was confused by the ending, but I think it portrays the narrator's inability to do anything in that situation. The shaking in the car could be symbolic of her body being shaken while she was assaulted (or was assaulted again at the end of the story?). I think in those moments, there is really nothing they can do besides detaching themselves from their body. 

-Rose

Possible 'Other World' in Murakami's "Sleep"

 As we have previously discussed in class, the presence of an 'other world' is very common in Murakami's work. In Norwegian Wood the 'other world' is the facility that Naoko lives in and in A Wild Sheep Chase it is the rural village in Hokkaido. Obviously these places have large significance to the narrative of both works and are also a place where the protagonist undergoes some significant psychological change. This led me to wonder if there is an 'other world' in Murakami's short story "Sleep." 

There clearly isn't a physically distinct 'other world' in this text, as the narrator doesn't go on a journey of any sorts, but I think that the 'other world' in this work could be the world that the narrator enters into while she is reading. Reading becomes something that the narrator does instead of sleeping in this work. An essential biological need (sleep) is substituted with reading, something that is typically thought of as non-essential/for pleasure, yet the narrator does not seem to suffer any adverse reactions due to this switch. Reading then seems to be almost an essential biological process for the narrator, something she must do in order to function. Sleep, and dreaming, is also often thought of as entering a different world, the realm of the subconscious or some other plane of existence. In replacing reading for sleep, I think Murakami is saying that reading has a similar function: it has the ability to transport the reader into a world that is not their own, thus an 'other world'. 

I think this is quite clear from the way the narrator describes her reading experience. She says, "I found myself capable of reading Anna Karenina with unbroken concentration" and then a bit later, "I plunged into Anna Karenina and kept reading until the sun came up" (Murakami 88, 89). We see that while the narrator is reading her concentration is completely focused on the story, so much so that she forgets the world around her and time seems to function differently while she is reading. She does not recognize the typical processes of the world around her because she is engrossed in another world. This is evident in the way she almost forgets to make lunch for her husband, even though this is a task she does every day. It is clear that her experience in the world of the book she is reading fundamentally alters her internally, thus aligning it with characters' experiences with the 'other world' in other Murakami texts. 

-Maggie Farren

Strecher Discussion Questions

1. If magical realism "bears certain political and cultural specificities," was the Zenkyoto a main influence of Murakami's established mystical setting? Keeping the events of Zenkyoto in mind, do you think that the United States contributed towards the loss of a collective Japanese identity?

2. Before answering the following question, read the excerpts found in Strecher's article.

"The sheep must gradually eliminate the contents of the host's mind in order to replace them with itself. Thus, the host enjoys the contentment of luxury, and freedom from the tediousness of thinking, but no longer enjoys the personal fulfillment of an individual identity."

"how are Japanese of Murakami's generation and beyond to define themselves as individuals in the post-Zenkyoto era? (...) Indeed, one significant reason that the student movement found such favor with young people in Japan was that it provided a means of self identification, connection with something positive and dynamic."

Although the question has been asked multiple times in class, Strecher's article can allow us to answer it from a different perspective. In A Wild Sheep Chase, what does the sheep represent? Could it be linked to the affluence Strecher said Japan witnessed after WW2?

3. "Murakami's use of magical realism, while closely linked with the quest for identity, is not the least bit involved with the assertion of identity." Do you believe that the protagonists from Murakami's novels assert their own identity by the end of the story? 

4. "He tells Shimamoto that he has long been aware that something has been missing from inside him, and that only she can restore this." In light of the interview read last week, do Murakami's female characters contribute to the self-realization of the novel's protagonist?

5. Is the contrast between light and dark, the conscious world and the unconscious realm, only present in Murakami's more surreal works, or also in more realistic stories like Norwegian Wood?

- Daniele Piperno