Murakami & Pynchon

[Bekah]

I neglected to mention how I appreciate this observation -  I'll have to think more about geography as metaphor in the works of Murakami.   I'm thinking of a short story about ice and cold and so on - "The Ice Man" in  Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman - but that's almost too deliberate for what I'm trying to think of.  And yes,  wells have become rather overused.  The freeway example is great.   Also thinking about escapes.  

Bekah


On Nov 14, 2011, at 5:26 PM, John Bailey wrote:

> Started reading 1Q84 last night and was immediately struck by the freeway imagery as pure Murakami. I've never read a discussion of the psychogeography of his work - how the physical spaces he represents are always reflective of both personal and cultural terrain. Half of Hardboiled Wonderland...  was literally set inside a head, and even Murakami has said he won't write any more wells because the metaphor is so tired now. 1Q84's blockage on the freeway seems to me to set up exactly where the novel will be going, in terms of a psychological obstruction and the problematic Japanese consciousness of history.
> 
> (Also the talismanic use of brand names as cultural fetish; the subconscious studded with the false milestones of late capitalism)
> 
> On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 12:02 PM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> When I replied to a twitterer--Doug Amato--- reading 1Q84 linking "karmic adjustment"
> to a quote implying a kind of karmic balance in 1Q84---he responded by saying he had
> spoken to a reader who found lots in 1Q84 influenced he thought by 'later Pynchon".
>  
> All reading 1Q84: write your essay post now.......................
>