Discussion of Book One of 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (to page 309 in hardcover edition.)
The PLAYERS:
We have met Aomame and Tengo, our two main protagonists. Aomame is a martial arts instructor and physical education trainer with aptitudes for massage, acupuncture and quietly killing wealthy men who beat their wives. Tengo is a writer.
Our secondary characters for the Aomame storyline are the dowager and her body guard, the cop and prowling buddy Ayumi, and her deceased friend who still occupies a lot of Aomame’s thoughts. For Tengo, we have Komatsu his editor, Fuka-Eri the original writer of the Air Chrysalis novel, her caretaker the Professor and Tengo’s lover lady who is extremely jealous.
WHAT’s HAPPENED SO FAR?
We meet Aomame as she gets stuck in traffic riding in a too-nice taxi that first sets her on the idea that something might not be right about the world but it was the cops carrying guns who really clue her in to oddities. When she starts finding out about events in the past she knows nothing about but should and sees two moons, she calls this new odd reality 1Q84. She is introduced to a 10 year old girl who appears to have been horribly abused, possibly by a religious secret farming cult.
Tengo gets involved with a re-write ‘enhancement’ of a fantastical story written by a 17 year old girl named Fuka-Eri who says the story is actually true. Tengo is uncomfortable with the ethics question of his involvement, especially when it wins a literary award and becomes a best-seller. He also feels strangely empowered by the writing challenge and finally begins writing his own work.
Fuka-Eri has history with that religious farming cult having ‘escaped’ — we assume, since she hasn’t really talked about it — 10 years prior. She knows of the Little People, in fact what little we know about Air Chrysalis, they are important. The little girl is unknowingly harboring a few of these Little People and it’s all getting quite strange. I was sad that the dog was killed.
I still haven’t figured out if only Aomame sees two moons or how many moons Tengo or anyone sees in the sky. The Air Chrysalis story features two moons.
And I suspect the Professor has motives we haven’t yet explored – who is he really? And Tengo’s lover’s jealousy bothers me. But then, if she feels arrogant enough to keep her husband AND take on a lover, I suppose she feels entitled to have it all her way.
Let’s DISCUSS:
Questions lifted and modified and inspired from LITLOVERS – an online book lovers community:
Q1 – The taxi driver in Chapter 1 warns Aomame that things are not what they seem, but he also tells her: “Don’t let appearances fool you. There’s always only one reality” (p. 9). Does this statement hold true throughout the novel? Is there only one reality, despite what appears to be a second reality that Aomame and Tengo enter?
I’m actually not sure if another reality is being woven into the TRUE reality or why only Aomame doesn’t know about the gun battle that happened a few years prior.
Q2 – Aomame tells Ayumi: “We think we’re choosing things for ourselves, but in fact we may not be choosing anything. It could be that everything’s decided in advance and we pretend we’re making choices. Free will may be an illusion” (p. 192). Do the events in the novel seem fated or do the characters have free will?
Great question. Hurts my brain to ponder free will versus destiny.
Q3 – The dowager insists, and Aomame agrees, that the killing they do is completely justified, that the men whom they kill deserve to die, that the legal system can’t touch them, and that more women will be victims if these men aren’t stopped. Is it true that Aomame and the dowager have done nothing wrong? Or are they simply rationalizing their anger and the desire for vengeance that arises from their own personal histories?
The bastards had it comin’.
Q4 – Tengo realizes that rewriting Air Chrysalis is highly unethical and that Komatsu is asking him to participate in a scam that will very likely cause them both a great deal of trouble. Why does he agree to do it?
I’m not a literature student and I do get perturbed by plagiarism but I don’t quite get this as being HIGHLY unethical; or is ethical black and white, yes or no. I have to ask how – and maybe it aint true? how people can have ghost writers or be a big name and have other people write stories for them which is what I’ve heard Patterson does.
Q5 – How does rewriting Air Chrysalis change Tengo as a writer? How does it affect the course of his life?
Duh, yea. Tengo wouldn’t have met Fuka-Eri and you know somehow he is going to rescue her – he is in deep bat shit trouble with her already, emotionally and likely physically. As long as he doesn’t crawl in to a deep dry well of total darkness to do some thinking, I’m ok with it.
and my top-of-the-head questions:
Does anyone else call Aomame ‘Green Peas’ when they read her name? (I do.)
Do you like the back and forth chapters between Aomame and Tengo? When do you think they will meet? Will Tengo remember her? Did you figure out earlier than the reveal that Aomame was the classmate of Tengo’s who held his hand when they were 10?
Does Tengo remind you of the guy in Wind-up Bird? (YES. Somewhat passive? keeps to himself.)
Did you have an uh-oh moment when you realized you don’t quite recall the plot of 1984 and might want to before reading on but then Tengo conveniently gives a quick little recap and you feel better about not remembering that book you probably read 30 years ago? Yea, me too.
Would you nominate HM for bad-sex-writing? Read all about that here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/nov/25/haruki-murakami-bad-sex-award
But don’t read too far! I have already had major plot points spoiled (not that I shouldn’t have seen ‘em coming.)
On a scale of SMOOTH & SEAMLESS to BUMPY & JARRING, where would you put this translation?
It does seem a bit quirky-not-good in a few parts but overall, I haven’t really noticed anything too odd. Maybe I’m not paying enough attention or because I’ve read an HM translated by this guy already, I’m used to it?
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The Very Cool Life Code
Published January 16, 2012 Uncategorized 11 CommentsTags: actually she was a prosperity coach, actually the coach I hired still IS a prosperity coach, all the quotes are ones I dug up on the internet not from the book, course in miracles, cultural expectations, expectation theory, first world problems, had someone ask me how to pronounce my name today, I had a friend tell me that I needed to find somebody who would pay for all the cool thoughtful things I do that she never notices unless I tell her but she always thinks they are cool, I had more tags thought up as I wrote this, I had no idea my name was so hard to pronounce, I have taken classes on how to be a life coach, I hired a life coach once, I like to emphasize the p in rasPberries, I love my boat, I still know a few cool cats - ok I know Dawn - who are from concord ma, I think I would be a good life coach but ..., life coach, my next review will be a book on s-e-x, positive thinking, Raspberries, self-help, she also (and don't get me wrong - she is awesome) told me I should work weekends - now THAT is being unrealistic!!, some cool cats lived in concord ma, that's right s-e-x, the same friend told me I wasn't being realistic when I was brainstorming things I want to do when I grow up, too many tags that start with the letter "I", what do I want to be when I grow up?, wish the tags were at the bottom of the post and the go-to-comments were at the end of the post
Thoughts
The Very Cool Life Code: The Seven Keys for Unlocking a Life of Freedom, Ease, and Connection by Drew Rozell, 2011, eBook 155 pages
Oh heck, I’ll just say it. I love self-help books. So there. Raspberries to you if you roll your eyes. I love raspberries, don’t you?
I very much enjoyed this and the first days of a new year is always a great time to read about how to be more positive and think “great expectations” for achieving goals and happier attitudes.
Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be.
-George Sheehan
This book is written by a guy who is a life coach — or, rather — a “how to live a cool life” coach. Thus the book. It espouses the same themes as The Secret (not really a secret bytheway if you publish a book, right?! But still totally misunderstood by most people, imho) and other “You gotta think it to be it” philosophies. [One of my favorite books that helps mold better thought processes is Shad Helmstetter's What to Say When You Talk to Yourself.] I ‘met’ Drew online blog-hopping and enjoy his practical yet radical thoughts.
I truly do believe that if you whine and complain about how your life sucks then you will only get more of the same. And the reverse is true, too. If you think joyful grateful generous thoughts, you tend to see your life in more generous terms and not only treat others more kindly but yourself as well. Thus my 2012 pledge to be “of generous spirit”. AND I must add, that my goal to write a letter each day is helping tremendously! I think of friends and family and send them best wishes, sharing news and fun quotes and good cheer – it only helps me to appreciate the wonderful friends and my family that I love and reminds me that life is very good. I am telling the people who are important to me that they are important to me. This in turn, helps me realize how I can be important to them.
Now, this COOL-LIFE thinking does take practice. And those that already ‘know’ it and maybe not even realize they know it have always fascinated me. Self-confident people – how do they do it?! It’s eluded me. It’s tough work. Or if I want to practice this right now, I would say, “I once thought it was tough work but I’m finding it easier and easier to think positive about the results I want to see. In fact, I’m seeing positive results already.” (see what I did there?)
Basically, you must live in accordance with your core beliefs. Change your core beliefs to be in-line with what makes you feel ‘best’ according to your values and wa la! You are no longer fighting upstream but going with the flow.
The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking. ~Albert Einstein
For me, I like having ideas and even words to think upon when I need to ‘re-align’ with what I think (and feel and know) I want out of life. And I don’t mean fancy cars and jewels and crap. [But yea, I do kinda mean my fancy boat...] When I feel ‘NOT at EASE’ [aka 'dis-eased'] and/or stressed, I now have my “Be generous in spirit” mantra and the words ‘freedom’, ‘ease’, ‘connection’ to get me on a better track. Call me New-Age-y. Call me deluded. Call me non-realistic. Whatever.
Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good.
-Vaclav Havel
Works for me. I’m practicing. I have a great life and I’m very well aware of it. Andbutandthensome, I do think I need to give more and create more GOOD in the world. Put myself out there; create, generate positive waves of goodness to counteract all the negativity that swirls the globe. It’s something I can do. I should do. I want to light that candle so other candles see by my example. Call it prayer to a higher being of your choice, call it bullshit, call it good-energy-vibes, call it a twist on some-of-that-old-time-religion, whatever. It is my reality and I want the best reality my mind can conjure, thankyouverymuch.
I have learned that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
- Henry David Thoreau
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
There’s only one me and it’s up to me to be the best me I can be and to imagine it so. It’s the imagining part I want to make easy and fruitful and productive for good.
All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind.
-Abraham Lincoln
RATING: Four slices of pie. Lemon Meringue Pie!
Electricity is of two kinds, positive and negative. The difference is, I presume, that one comes a little more expensive, but is more durable; the other is a cheaper thing, but the moths get into it.
-Stephen Leacock
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