Norwegian Wood (1st Reading Journal_ Ch.1-3)

             Though I only read the first three chapters of a book with eleven chapters, I already fell in love with its tone. The personal voice of the narrator is cynical, yet honest and descriptive. The narrator seems to tell the audience what actually happened and how he really felt at the time. This authentic tone helped me sympathize more easily with him in various situations. Moreover, he definitely has got some wit in his voice. His cynical and detached tone while describing funny situations such as the line “The fever stayed high for a full day, but on the morning of the second day he jumped out of bed and started exercising as if nothing had happened, and his temperature was absolutely normal” makes it even more humorous. Along the elaborate depictions, there are also parts that can be considered “cheesy.” Death exists, not as the opposite but as a part of life. Life is here, death is over there. I am here, not over there. Although the overall mood is quite gloomy and dark, the voice itself goes neither too sentimental nor dramatic; rather, it blends well within the text, and therefore generates positive effects.

             Throughout the story, the most interesting part was the relationship between the characters. Based on the information given until now, Kizuki and Nagasawa seem to be on the parallel line. They both have strong oratory skills -the ability to “inspire people in awe”- which force the narrator to wonder why they “chose” him, “a person with no distinctive qualities, to be [their] friend.” They are both authentic and caring to him, with their “attractive” girlfriends. Despite these similarities, the narrator clearly states that “[his] relationship with Nagasawa stood in stark contrast to [his] relationship with kizuki.” He feels attached to Kizuki’s sincerity because Kizuki shared his “talents” only with the narrator and Naoko. On the other hand, he admits that he “never once opened [his] heart to [Nagasawa]” because Nagasawa uses this “talents” to tempt girls. But I suspect that the clear difference in his perceptions towards them may have been distorted or exaggerated due to the abstract reminiscence of Kizuki. He may unconsciously want to remember Kizuki with his positive sides only. I am curious whether the parallel relationship between the two would be intensified throughout the story.

             Although Naoko seems to be the most important character here (the narrator’s vague yet strong memory of her pushes him to start the flashback in the first place), how she affects the narrator after all is still unclear. I get the complicated feelings involved in their relationship and the consequent atmosphere of the story, but it is hard to express it in a few words. In my point of view now, the narrator’s complex affection for Naoko is not truly towards Naoko as a person but towards “the girl who once was my best friend’s lifelong lover,” whom he cannot -or should not- express his feelings directly when considering Kizuki’s death and the convention of the society. As Georges Bataille argues in his book “Eroticism,” people in general feel more excited about something that they are restricted in doing so. Although not directly stated in the text, the invisible yet present restriction in dating a (dead) friend’s ex-girlfriend may have made him more obsessed with his feelings. I am looking forward to see what further influence Naoko and the narrator’s desire for her will have on him.

             Considering the individual characters and their relations, sex and death are likely to be the recurring themes of the story. The narrator openly discusses his sexual life and puts certain amount of emphasis on it. For a long time, sex has been a rather vulgar topic that is often discussed separately from pure love. It is possible to infer that Murakami wanted to show the inseparable nature of the two concepts. In a similar sense, people do not like to talk about “death,” primarily because they are afraid of it. The narrator, however, states that death is only part of his life. Death is related to his best friend Kizuki; sex is related to Naoko and other possible girls. I get the feeling that I should pay closer attention to these two concepts as the story progresses and try to find out how they are used here for what purpose.

             Overall, I loved the beginning setup of this book. I am so excited to read more, and yes I am being very serious. I want to see the big picture as soon as possible so that I can really discuss this book in depth. J

The Game

As I type each word, I anxiously stare at everything around me, fearing anything might find my mistake on the keyboard. My eyes are now stuck in the water bottle next to me. Whew, the bottle is not watching me at all.

But that notebook has been on my desk since last month. That girl on the front page seems to be looking at me. I hate those eyes, those blue penetrating eyes on me. Though I try to evade her look, I have no choice but to make eye contact. I wonder if she is the reason I can’t type nothing- I mean anything.

Step, step, step.

The endless wave of stairs approaches me as I face it directly. I must take every single step in a perfect manner. It seems ending but endless. Sisyphus.

Game Rules:

1. Get to the end of the stairs

2. Use your steps evenly

I start with the right foot. First step, second step, third step, and so on. Am I balancing between both feet? Maybe I put more pressure on the 13th step than the other steps. What should I do? Okay, that was my left foot. Now I have to put more pressure on the 20th step so that the overall power I spend for each foot is even.

Wait, is anyone watching me?

Something blue seems to be shimmering in the corner. I try to avoid it. I firmly put my steps towards the 20th step, balancing my power on the feet.

Finally! I have just typed another word. Is it the right word for the context? Does this word properly represent twenty different words that I have intended?

I erase the word. I go down the stairs again. But what if that girl on the note saw me erasing the word? I can clearly see the blue light at the end of the stairs.

I re-type the same word. I go up to the 20th step of the stairs again. But I don’t think this is the right word there. Am I allowed to erase it again? I have already come down and gone up once. I look around, find no one watching me, and go downstairs. But the eyes!

If it were not for those blue eyes, I would finish everything quickly and completely. I should burn them someday.

Now, I can’t.

I’m not done with the game yet.

[World Lit.]5th Reading Journal: The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World & A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

           

              Two short stories written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” and “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” both bear qualities of magic realism, in which magical elements are permeated into reality as though normal. The “handsomest” drowned man himself is magic to the small village in the first story, and so is the old man with “enormous” wings in the latter. In each story, people’s attitude towards the magic runs counter to one another: whereas the drowned man is extolled by the villagers, the old man with wings gets ostracized soon. On the surface, it may seem like the attitudes of people towards magic in the stories differ from each other, but frankly they are representing and satirizing the same quality of human beings: how people tend to follow the ostensible aspects of the world, and how easily they get influenced by those factors.

        

             In “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World,” Marquez mockingly portrays the process in which people in the village eulogize the dead body just by looking at his external features. As soon as the women see the body, they all agree that he must have been a guy called Esteban. They feel satisfied to know that he does not belong to any other villages, and sigh, “Praise the Lord. He’s ours!” Even the men, who at first think “the fuss was only womanish frivolity,” recognize that “it is not necessary to repeat” that “he was Esteban,” when the dead man’s face is revealed under the handkerchief. After the holy funeral of the man, in which the women linger over trivial decoration because they don’t want to let go of him, the villagers know that “everything will be different from then on” because they will make Esteban’s memorial spread anywhere. 

Most of the analysis that I could find online argue that this story shows how the village gets “inspired” and “positively influenced” by the existence of Esteban. But, I completely disagree with this cliché explanation. I doubt that Marquez tried to depict that Esteban, the magically enormous dead body, had a positive impact on people. Rather, I contend that the whole story was a satirical mockery of people’s pursuit of ostensible values in life. That the villagers begin to praise the drowned body for its physical qualities (plus their mythical belief and imagination purposefully projected on him) shows how they only value external aspects; that they claim their lives’ being changed after meeting Esteban portrays how easily people can get affected and change their overall perspective on life.

On the similar road, Marquez further criticizes the pretentious lives of people in “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” through the depiction of their changing minds depending on the ostensible qualities of matter. At first the townspeople including Pelayo and Elisenda pay much attention to the so-called angel, for he has interesting physical features and is said to cure people suffering with strange diseases. By selling the tickets for meeting the old man, Pelayo and Elisenda earn a lot of money. Consequently, the old man with wings becomes nothing more than an animal in a circus show. People soon pay much more attention to a “frightful tarantula the size of a ram and with the head of a sad maiden” because she has more interesting stories to tell and responses better. They treat the old man and the spider woman not as other human beings, but as different kinds of entertainment; they are not interested in what kind of "people" the man and the woman are, but how much they can get them interested. That the townspeople change their interest with so much frivolity, depending only on the external features shows people’s capricious beliefs and how they lack the ability to look at people beyond the outlook. 

Even Father Gonzaga and the Catholic Church are only focusing on whether the old man can speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. Despite the common expectations on church to be leading ordinary people to a higher place in terms of mental complication, the church described in the story is only pursuing superficiality. Like the portrayal of Catholic Church in “Araby” by James Joyce, church in the story only maintains empty formalities and vanity. It not only seeks those pretentious values, but also greatly influences people with its absolute power of religion. Marquez mocks the reality of church in his times, which only bore conservative authority rather than practical aids.

Throughout both stories of magic realism, Marquez tries to deride people’s behavior in which they don’t understand the greater significance of life, but just stay with myopic vision of the world, following what they can get through their senses and getting strong influences from superficial aspects of life. 

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