Even before I finished the book, I was already thinking about what to write. I was pretty sure about what was going to happen. It did.
Anyway I was remembering studying existential literature because NW with all its frustrations seems to fall into this category for me. (As an aside I was very surprised to read the note at the end of the novel about the enduring popularity of this book in Japan.)
I looked up a bit of info about existentialism on the web:
“Existentialism … generally held that the focus of philosophical thought should be to deal with the conditions of existence of the individual person and their emotions, actions, responsibilities, and thoughts, … and maintained that the individual is solely responsible for giving their own life meaning and living that life passionately and sincerely in spite of many existential obstacles and distractions including despair, angst, absurdity, alienation and boredom.”
“… existentialists see that the only certainty for each one of us is death, and that the individual must live in the knowledge of that certainty.”
“Prominent themes in existential literature:
• Life is suffering.
• Life is not fair.
• Individual alienation, the loss of a sense of identity, is perpetuated by the labels and categories we use to describe people.
• Individuals are free to choose how they will respond to the painful existence in which they find themselves.
• Because they are free, individuals are also responsible for their own actions.”
I know it’s not a perfect fit, but it makes some sense of the novel for me. I found this last section livelier and quite humourous in parts, but I kept waiting for the news about Naoko.
Thinking back to university, both then and now, I have always found it difficult to respond to existential literature. I always chose the other options for essays and exam answers! It is the isolation, futility and inactivity of the characters’ lives (the swamp, as Toru calls it) that always strikes me. Therefore it is hard to comment on their motivation or actions. In the case of Toru and Midori, I feel at least that they have youth on their side. All of their suffering, and it has been considerable, has occurred in their teenage years. We know that Toru survives because he is our narrator. He has continued as a witness. First, he was the witness to Naoko and Kizuki, and Nagasawa and Hatsumi, and Naoko and Reiko. Now he makes a living as a witness in the form of a journalist.
I also had a thought about the last section on p 293, below the space. I think it is possible that this section takes place in the present, in Toru’s 37th year, and that he and Midori have stayed together on and off all this time. In my imagination I think he never confided in Midori the truth about his past and the influences of all the characters we have come to know. Being overcome emotionally by the song on the plane has signaled to him that he has to start over with her on a basis of truth, even after all these years, so he calls her from the airport.
Showing posts with label Norwegian Wood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Norwegian Wood. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Norwegian Wood Week 4
I have been thinking about two pairs of characters this week: Toru and Nagasawa, and Naoko and Midori. I was reminded of my first year philosophy class and although I don’t remember enough to attach names to the various thinkers we studied, I am going to use the word “intent.”
In the book we think of Nagasawa and Toru as two very different kinds of people. Nagasawa seems like a bit of jerk and Toru is quiet and nice. However when we look at some of their actions they are exactly the same, ie. going out drinking, picking up girls and sleeping with them, while supposedly committed to a single woman. Nagasawa expresses intent while Toru always just seems to be going along for something to do, but it is essentially the same sort of aimless amoral behaviour. On p. 208, Nagasawa actually says, “We’re a lot alike, Watanabe and I,” and I feel this is true. Yet we perceive Toru as the “better” of the two men.
I feel that Naoko and Midori are also flip sides of the same coin, but again our perceptions or evaluations of the two are different. They are both crazy, but Naoko has retreated to the hostel while Midori is out there in the world dealing with matters from day to day. She is presented as a bit wild and maybe promiscuous with all her porn talk, although so far she has not acted on this, while Naoko is leading a “better” more ascetic life. I began to question my judgments of these characters based on their “intent” rather than their actions. Maybe if we look at just the actions, we see that Nagasawa and Midori are just more honest and engaged with the real world than their more passive counterparts.
I was also happy to find out that Toru becomes a journalist, and this seems very apt. He has a profession in which the highest achievements come from eliminating one’s own voice, self and opinions, and accurately documenting the world.
Also too bad about Hatsumi. Has HM chosen a sub-set of Japanese characters who suffer from mental illness or despair or is the book supposed to be a commentary on Japanese society? Or the world in general? Do any of the suicides in this book have any commonalities? How about the survivors? I will think about this myself!
In the book we think of Nagasawa and Toru as two very different kinds of people. Nagasawa seems like a bit of jerk and Toru is quiet and nice. However when we look at some of their actions they are exactly the same, ie. going out drinking, picking up girls and sleeping with them, while supposedly committed to a single woman. Nagasawa expresses intent while Toru always just seems to be going along for something to do, but it is essentially the same sort of aimless amoral behaviour. On p. 208, Nagasawa actually says, “We’re a lot alike, Watanabe and I,” and I feel this is true. Yet we perceive Toru as the “better” of the two men.
I feel that Naoko and Midori are also flip sides of the same coin, but again our perceptions or evaluations of the two are different. They are both crazy, but Naoko has retreated to the hostel while Midori is out there in the world dealing with matters from day to day. She is presented as a bit wild and maybe promiscuous with all her porn talk, although so far she has not acted on this, while Naoko is leading a “better” more ascetic life. I began to question my judgments of these characters based on their “intent” rather than their actions. Maybe if we look at just the actions, we see that Nagasawa and Midori are just more honest and engaged with the real world than their more passive counterparts.
I was also happy to find out that Toru becomes a journalist, and this seems very apt. He has a profession in which the highest achievements come from eliminating one’s own voice, self and opinions, and accurately documenting the world.
Also too bad about Hatsumi. Has HM chosen a sub-set of Japanese characters who suffer from mental illness or despair or is the book supposed to be a commentary on Japanese society? Or the world in general? Do any of the suicides in this book have any commonalities? How about the survivors? I will think about this myself!
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Norwegian Wood Week 3
One motif that repeats throughout this section is silence, versus noise. Toru seems hyper-conscious of the quiet at the sanitarium perhaps because the whole situation is so novel. He notices everything related to this, for example the absence of people walking around, the curtains drawn, etc. On p. 102 he talks of steeping himself in the silence, which then brings memories of Kizuki to him. Then he experiences the dining hall; there are people, but they are quiet and subdued in their conversations. He is “surprised to find himself missing the buzz of people. He wanted to hear people laughing and shouting for no reason, and saying overblown things.” He says he can’t relax in the quiet.
Yet he sleeps so soundly on Naoki’s couch. It is as though he is at peace in these surroundings.
This seems quite Canadian in a 21st century way. Most people have to go out of their way to be with nature and experience “peace and quiet” literally. I think of all the cottagers and visitors who travel up our way to be able to sit by a lake with their phones and other distractions removed. They find this rejuvenating and seek it out whenever they can. I know that when my son and I lived in Toronto we certainly did this, taking off regularly to go camping. I still remember how my ears would ring as I tried to fall asleep in the silence.
It also reminds me of decisions I have made in my life, first to move north and secondly to pursue living in locations that have very little background noise, whether of traffic or appliance motors. However this is all relative. We chose not to offer to purchase my father-in-law’s place in Emsdale because of the hum from Highway 11… but my friends who live in town couldn’t hear it and couldn’t understand this!
I am also reminded of a friend who can’t fall asleep without noise of some kind – and runs a fan in her room constantly to provide it.
But back to the story… I think Toru is refreshed by the silence while finding it unnatural. At least he is questioning the setting and its role in the lives of the various inhabitants.
Yet he sleeps so soundly on Naoki’s couch. It is as though he is at peace in these surroundings.
This seems quite Canadian in a 21st century way. Most people have to go out of their way to be with nature and experience “peace and quiet” literally. I think of all the cottagers and visitors who travel up our way to be able to sit by a lake with their phones and other distractions removed. They find this rejuvenating and seek it out whenever they can. I know that when my son and I lived in Toronto we certainly did this, taking off regularly to go camping. I still remember how my ears would ring as I tried to fall asleep in the silence.
It also reminds me of decisions I have made in my life, first to move north and secondly to pursue living in locations that have very little background noise, whether of traffic or appliance motors. However this is all relative. We chose not to offer to purchase my father-in-law’s place in Emsdale because of the hum from Highway 11… but my friends who live in town couldn’t hear it and couldn’t understand this!
I am also reminded of a friend who can’t fall asleep without noise of some kind – and runs a fan in her room constantly to provide it.
But back to the story… I think Toru is refreshed by the silence while finding it unnatural. At least he is questioning the setting and its role in the lives of the various inhabitants.
Norwegian Wood Week 2
Congratulating myself for not peeking at your posts – here is my Week 2. I am really looking forward to reading your thoughts and commenting this week.
In this section of the book there are several points in which truth or honesty are either discussed or reflected upon. The more I though about this, the more I see Toru emerging as a character who we are to take at face value. He may not have much depth so far, but he seems an honest observer of himself and others, and I think he is getting drawn into complex relationships that will sweep him into whirlpools of deception. The chapter opens with him reacting angrily to the hypocrisy of the striking students. This is the most emotion we have seen yet from the youthful Toru.
I think he would like to go through life taking people as he finds them but I fear this may get him into trouble. When he first meets Midori, she asks him if he likes her hair. When he says ‘yes’ she asks, ‘you’re not lying are you?’ and he replies ‘I like to think of myself as an honest man.’ Later on that page he assures her ‘I’m just an ordinary guy. Like everybody else.’ But these are two quite different states.
The scene where he tries to reach on the phone Midori is troubling. On p. 54 he is told that she is at the hospital, but then when they get together she tells him that her mother died two years previous and her father ran off to Uruguay. And she doesn’t feel like discussing the hospital. Later on she admits that she manufactures information for her map-writing – what a contrast to Storm Trooper. I hope Toru becomes more discerning as the story unfolds. I wonder if she is as crazy as Naoko – the result of having a mother who is either sick or dead, and a father who rejected her and abandoned her. If any of her story is true. All she admits to is having a ‘cold streak.’ p. 76
Midori herself discusses honesty – she tells Toru, ‘I’m not trying to be different. But when I speak out honestly, everybody thinks I’m kidding or playacting.’
This however is nothing compared to Naoko’s thoughts on the subject. In her letter she writes at length about honesty, asking is ‘fair’ the same as ‘honest’. She seems to think so, using the words ‘fair, honest and universally true’ as synonyms. I am not sure that this is the case. Fair can mean simply balanced, as in treating two people the same. Honest and true are perhaps more synonymous.
I thought the discussion of death on p. 77 had some bearing on Toru’s earlier thoughts. Here we have Midori deploring the kind of death that devolves into endless pain and suffering, ‘the shadow of death slowly eating away at the region of life.’ Toru has earlier talked about how he now sees death in life, but he is not ill, there is no disease or pathology. In contrast we have Kizuki’s death. He precedes his suicide by winning at pool because ‘he didn’t want to lose today,’ and then methodically controls the end of his life.
I was waiting for a picture of Tokyo to emerge and was not disappointed! In this section there are great descriptions of schools, restaurants, Midori’s family’s store and apartment, and especially Toru’s trip by public transit to get to her place. I also like the descriptions of the trip to visit Naoko. The author makes it sound so remote – forests, mountains country scenes, and then we learn it is 40 minutes out of Tokyo! Fascinating.
In this section of the book there are several points in which truth or honesty are either discussed or reflected upon. The more I though about this, the more I see Toru emerging as a character who we are to take at face value. He may not have much depth so far, but he seems an honest observer of himself and others, and I think he is getting drawn into complex relationships that will sweep him into whirlpools of deception. The chapter opens with him reacting angrily to the hypocrisy of the striking students. This is the most emotion we have seen yet from the youthful Toru.
I think he would like to go through life taking people as he finds them but I fear this may get him into trouble. When he first meets Midori, she asks him if he likes her hair. When he says ‘yes’ she asks, ‘you’re not lying are you?’ and he replies ‘I like to think of myself as an honest man.’ Later on that page he assures her ‘I’m just an ordinary guy. Like everybody else.’ But these are two quite different states.
The scene where he tries to reach on the phone Midori is troubling. On p. 54 he is told that she is at the hospital, but then when they get together she tells him that her mother died two years previous and her father ran off to Uruguay. And she doesn’t feel like discussing the hospital. Later on she admits that she manufactures information for her map-writing – what a contrast to Storm Trooper. I hope Toru becomes more discerning as the story unfolds. I wonder if she is as crazy as Naoko – the result of having a mother who is either sick or dead, and a father who rejected her and abandoned her. If any of her story is true. All she admits to is having a ‘cold streak.’ p. 76
Midori herself discusses honesty – she tells Toru, ‘I’m not trying to be different. But when I speak out honestly, everybody thinks I’m kidding or playacting.’
This however is nothing compared to Naoko’s thoughts on the subject. In her letter she writes at length about honesty, asking is ‘fair’ the same as ‘honest’. She seems to think so, using the words ‘fair, honest and universally true’ as synonyms. I am not sure that this is the case. Fair can mean simply balanced, as in treating two people the same. Honest and true are perhaps more synonymous.
I thought the discussion of death on p. 77 had some bearing on Toru’s earlier thoughts. Here we have Midori deploring the kind of death that devolves into endless pain and suffering, ‘the shadow of death slowly eating away at the region of life.’ Toru has earlier talked about how he now sees death in life, but he is not ill, there is no disease or pathology. In contrast we have Kizuki’s death. He precedes his suicide by winning at pool because ‘he didn’t want to lose today,’ and then methodically controls the end of his life.
I was waiting for a picture of Tokyo to emerge and was not disappointed! In this section there are great descriptions of schools, restaurants, Midori’s family’s store and apartment, and especially Toru’s trip by public transit to get to her place. I also like the descriptions of the trip to visit Naoko. The author makes it sound so remote – forests, mountains country scenes, and then we learn it is 40 minutes out of Tokyo! Fascinating.
Nowegian Wood Week 1
Hello everyone, just got the book and will try to catch up today. I read the first section yesterday and needed time to think… Mandi, thanks for another lyrical, beautifully written novel. I was hooked from page 1.
So, interesting that the title is actually front and centre. The only words that I remember without looking up (which I will do later) are: “I once had a girl or should I say she once had me.” Certainly introduces the theme effectively, as we soon find out.
I really liked how effortlessly the author deals with the passage of time. We meet Toru when he is 37, and then learn about his youth in 1969. When he is 19, Toru is sort of aimless. He has left home to attend university, but is not engaged in his studies (unlike his roommate Storm Trooper!) We find out a little about his day-to-day activities, including a part time job as a mover. Now in his thirties, he is a man who is writing a book, who has to write things down to fully comprehend them. (p. 5)
I also liked the time shift that occurs during the months that precede Toru’s 20th birthday. I interpreted his walk in the meadow with Naoko as a visit to her at the institution where she has retreated to deal with her mental illness, as she mentions in her letter to Toru.
As always when reading literature, as opposed to genre fiction, I have my problems with the characters and their behaviour. I mean does anyone really, really meet a person and go for long walks every week for months on end, and not talk? This also comes up in conversation between Toru and Storm Trooper, when his roommate asks for advice on what to talk about with girls. What is the bond then, between Naoko and Toru? Is it their lost friend Kizuki, just that, which holds them together and makes Toru fall in love?
I want to find out what happens between these two to create the crippling surge of emotion that Toru experiences on the plane.
I was struck by how few “Japanese” attributes mark the book so far. Neat in a way that other than the names of people and places we could be reading about characters from anywhere else in the world. I wondered about the firefly though, the caging or bottling up of nature.
So, interesting that the title is actually front and centre. The only words that I remember without looking up (which I will do later) are: “I once had a girl or should I say she once had me.” Certainly introduces the theme effectively, as we soon find out.
I really liked how effortlessly the author deals with the passage of time. We meet Toru when he is 37, and then learn about his youth in 1969. When he is 19, Toru is sort of aimless. He has left home to attend university, but is not engaged in his studies (unlike his roommate Storm Trooper!) We find out a little about his day-to-day activities, including a part time job as a mover. Now in his thirties, he is a man who is writing a book, who has to write things down to fully comprehend them. (p. 5)
I also liked the time shift that occurs during the months that precede Toru’s 20th birthday. I interpreted his walk in the meadow with Naoko as a visit to her at the institution where she has retreated to deal with her mental illness, as she mentions in her letter to Toru.
As always when reading literature, as opposed to genre fiction, I have my problems with the characters and their behaviour. I mean does anyone really, really meet a person and go for long walks every week for months on end, and not talk? This also comes up in conversation between Toru and Storm Trooper, when his roommate asks for advice on what to talk about with girls. What is the bond then, between Naoko and Toru? Is it their lost friend Kizuki, just that, which holds them together and makes Toru fall in love?
I want to find out what happens between these two to create the crippling surge of emotion that Toru experiences on the plane.
I was struck by how few “Japanese” attributes mark the book so far. Neat in a way that other than the names of people and places we could be reading about characters from anywhere else in the world. I wondered about the firefly though, the caging or bottling up of nature.
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