Beyond Time and Space: Physical, Psychological and Spiritual Mobility in the Fiction of Haruki Murakami
My journey with Murakami-san began with the Norwegian Wood and since then I’ve made friends with many twisted and warped characters through his break-the-stereotype novels, the path hasn’t ended cause that’s how immensely infinite and over-arching his creation(s) are…
“The taxi’s radio was tuned to a classical FM broadcast, Janacek’s Sinfonietta- probably not the ideal music to hear in a taxi caught in traffic.…Aomame settled into the broad back seat, closed her eyes, and listened to the music.” (1Q84, Haruki Murakami,2012) Murakami’s world is a phenomenal creation of its own that not only transfers the characters back and forth between their past and present in one way or another but does the same to the reader as well. Reference to music, books and a world predominantly frequented by cats and spiritual elements is what sets apart Murakami from other writers of his genre. Aomame, the female ultra-religious devotee turned contract killer is a curious character of sorts as does Fuka Eri, the original writer of the hit book “Air Chrysalis”. Psychic, physical and spiritual fluidity-cum-mobility takes the center stage in the works of Murakami from 1Q84, where the existence of parallel worlds and ‘little people’ is the new normal to Kafka on the Shore, where a fifteen year gets tangled in a web of oedipal myth and an old man who despite his loss of reasoning and intellect is proficient in cat language. Murakami in his interview on the Sputnik Sweetheart, had previously hinted upon the world of shamanism and spiritualism, the existence of which cannot be explained either by reason or logic. Setting apart Norwegian Wood from other works which is unusually realistic, his works like the Sputnik Sweetheart, 1Q84 and Kafka on the Shore are profoundly mobile not only in terms of the domains of psyche and spiritualism but also in terms of the imagistic capability to transport the reader to a realm that can only be reached by traversing the pages of the ink. I have read many Japanese novels from Mishima’s Sea of Fertility teratology to other translated vintage works, none could captivate me as did Murakami, through his unique ensemble of the real and surreal.
Aomame like ‘green peas’ and such seemingly unimportant yet intimate tidbits regarding the female protagonist not only makes us, the reader hyper-aware of the intimacy we share as a bond among the character, author and reader but is also a clever trick of slowly but gradually involving the reader in the realm of story-telling and fiction. This is exactly where Murakami flourishes and rises above his contemporary post-modern writers who knows how to actively engage his readers in his world of hyper-surrealism and mysticism. Memories, dreams and visions actively entwin the readers and characters together, where the abnormal interpretation of equally abnormal motifs and symbols and an ambiguous conclusion remains adamantly stuck to the readers’ conscience compelling them to reflect beyond the purview of the novel. An open-ended structure has been the norm of Murakami’s works. It is not only Aomame who traverses from a normal world of 1984 to a parallel world of 1Q84 but us readers do the same with her across the ‘Metropolitan Expressway’ that changed all our previous conceptions for ever forcing us to come with a blank slate of visualizing innumerable probabilities and possibilities. Although fictional upfront their portrayals can be strangely traced to the world of flesh and blood. Tengo, the male protagonist is a cram school teacher who leads a seemingly normal life with his older married girlfriend only to have his life making a complete turn with his association of “Air Chrysalis” and its author, Fuka Eri. Parallel worlds in one form or another do exist whether in memories or in dreams where the real and fictional converge and diverge just as it happens in Kafka on the Shore. Whether you are relaxing on a your favorite couch or reading at your table with the lamp suited to your mood, you in every possible way would either find yourself amidst the vast forestland with Kafka probably wondering aloud like him about the ‘boy named crow’ or all the strange occurrences that have been happening around. Aomame’s enforced isolation in a world with two moons would seemingly become yours as well, as yours would slowly dissolve and dissipate into hers, making every fine thread existing before a conundrum of sorts. A vortex would open somewhere deep within just like the door to Narnia, connecting the fantasy with the real making the cherry blossoms during the sakura festival waver as if you would be passing by it, the shrill monotonous cry of the cicadas and the pleasant summer heat of the Japanese clime beating down upon your tanned contours would be a welcoming symbol of becoming one with the text and the addressee, yet semantically hidden ‘you’.
Japanese fiction be it in the form of novel, poetry or manga bear an overwhelming synesthetic ability that reigns as an unequal competitor when it comes to the works of other countries, although Asian fictions has a plethora of surreal mysticism surrounding it and since I have read some works in translation be it Central Asian, West Asian or East Asian, Japanese fiction especially of Haruki Murakami has opened before me an unparalleled world of magic realism and mysticism. The unusual manner of writing with “abnormal things happening to normal people” as was quoted by Murakami in an interview, and a volatile world of rapidly warping people and places, Murakami indeed does weave a ‘chrysalis’ of visual memory, a Pound-like imagistic galaxy of his own where neither psychological nor physical nor sexual constraints know any bound. Sumire and Miu’s lesbian love in the Sputnik Sweetheart opens up another domain of the Japanese author-cum-maestro’s realm of specialty where sexual fluidity makes Sumire equally mobile. Flashbacks and mystical visions while being wide awake is a unique combination Murakami plays at as a Ferris wheel ride being strangely symbolic of the multiple worlds that exist side by side with the one being aware of comes to a life changing halt. The trope of time travel (‘Isekai’) where the Aristotelian unities are not only defied but intentionally sidelined is yet another non-normative trait of the works. The universality of the natural scenery, curious concepts like ‘maza’ and ‘dohta’ (1Q84), recurring motifs of being trapped in a world of one’s own subconscious like the ‘town of cats’ that Tengo travels, defies the restraints of spatial immobility; all of these from witnessing the slow decay of Tengo’s father into a metamorphosed chrysalis resonant of Gregor Samsa’s transition of the same in Kafka’s novel as well as that of the Buddhist closer to Japanese Shinto belief of attaining ‘moksha’ to the ever changing past and present of Kafka Tamura’s world bears a repertoire of all mystical yet psychologically determinable mysteries deeply ingrained in the human psyche and soul. The Jungian prototype of mythical archetypes like signs, symbols and animals (cat and raven) makes a close yet distant connection with the world of Murakami as the author has always seemed reluctant to associate with the established, defined and drawn lines of interpretation quite alike his own creation, Fuka Eri.
Novels of various genre have a flavor unique to its own pattern but what Murakami does is that he defies and deifies the fine line drawn amongst every genre making it a mélange whose raw essence gives off a tangy flavor of the earth, an aroma familiar yet alien at the same time enforcing the potential of mobility enabling the readers to cross boundaries with the characters at the same time. Even though I have restricted my source to a limited number of books, writing on Murakami had never been easy and I admit with a blatant and blunt confessional tone that it never will be easy, in the days to come. Murakami’s works in the superficially unexciting covers bear the majestic magnificence that readers like me read to escape the mundane world of immobility strained due to travel restrictions as of now, monetary disavowal, gendered staticity into the domain of infinite possibilities. Murakami makes a reality of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time through his own readers, ascribing to us his untampered if not complete vision of mobility beyond time, place and space.
References
Haruki Murakami. 1Q84. 2012. Vintage Books.
Haruki Murakami. Kafka On the Shore.2005. Vintage Books.
Haruki Murakami. Sputnik Sweetheart. 2002. Vintage Books.
Haruki Murakami. Norwegian Wood. 2003. Vintage Books.
Haruki Murakami Blog. https://www.harukimurakami.com/
