Tag: World

Murakami’s worlds

Once in a while, we stumble upon an author, just to follow his trail of thoughts.

Haruki Murakami is one of those He too likes writing and running. Not to mention his out-of-this-worldliness (Moon vs Sun).

Murakami’s world often consists of characters who feel detached, more like an observer than participant.

They struggle and strive, often times never arrived. But the journey they took, the travail they faced make it worthwhile. From Kafka to Carver, Murakami exhibits his synthesis skills. His ethos is neither East nor West. In 1Q84, it’s other-worldly ( I read part I and II in Vietnamese, and part III in English, which made the experience even more international).

He dwells a lot not just on the protagonist but also on the antagonist.

And he spared not his protagonists who got flaws as much as the antagonists who got redeemable qualities (aren’t we all!).

His sidekicks sometimes are older men, senile, but with a midas touch (Kafka on the shore) or strong women with a hang-up from the past (tycoon lady in 1Q84).

When it comes to the meaty part (sex), he just touch-bases on the surface to keep the character real (dark realism).

Exhaustive but worthwhile, that’s how a journey with Murakami was.

Just like his 100 km-run. So what do I talk about when I talk about Murakami?

That his novels don’t rock? His flow of thoughts weird? And his characters while other-worldly, yet seem more real if we chose to conspire?

All of the above. And more over, Murakami grows richer in detail and description over time.

I look forward to more developed characters in his upcoming novels. Pick one from his collection, and dive right into his world. Neither East nor West, but then, who needs all those neatly categories, given our blended taste for culture and couture nowadays.

Omega

Since her debut, Skeeter Davis with her hit “The End of the World” has etched in our collective memory.

Since then, we have gone through a series of doomsday threats: ICBM‘s, fate of the Earth, hot and Cold War, now Doomsday 2012). In Murakami’s latest 1Q84, our principal female character, who once was a Personal Trainer, learned that when male offenders got kicked in the balls, it felt like “end of the world”. Parents in Newtown felt like End of the World a week before Christmas. Doomsday came early for them.

I am afraid the Omega point doesn’t come as swiftly and decisively, but more evolutionarily until “mankind for the second time will have discovered fire”. We will face our own “Dec 21st”, with or without regret, individually. But in my end, my beginning.

More empathy. More humane.

That said. I have come across disturbing news here in Vietnam Yahoo page lately: college student got stabbed right on campus, 4 young-female gang stabbed strangers in Binh Duong etc…  I notice a lot of machetes and ice cubes. One was for chopping coconuts and sugar cane, the other for cooling the drinks.

Rage and rampage are everywhere, North and South,  East and West.

Don’t think worldwide Recession have nothing to do with “Back to Blood“.

I hope judges in New York think of global consequences, the ripple effect. Instead of just “securing” Madoff in a comfortable A/C North Carolina prison with visitation rights.

White-collar crime got white-collar sentences.

Blue-collar folks with or without committing a crime, have already been condemned to a low- brow life.

But then, Omega comes. The end point. The equalizer of all sentences. Justice is served. Poetically. One stanza and one standard for all.

For now,we still have to finish our given “sentence”. Just do time.

An act of kindness here, a condolence there. (A colleague from MCI is among the Newtown parents whose kids were shot down, point-blank).

Doomsday for him? No, he refused to let the tragedy define them. People are posting and wearing Purple, the color his late daughter used to love.

Go Purple! Bleed Orange (MCI classic color).

Til the day we all bleed red. Individualized Omega point “when mankind will have discovered fire”.

In my end, my beginning. Go ahead, make my day (Dec 21st, 2012). Either way, just don’t kick me in the balls.