Category Archives: Reflection

Reflection

Thoughts on Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

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First, I REALLY enjoyed this work. For a while now, I’ve been meaning to read Murakami’s works, so I’m glad I was able to read this one. It was definitely unlike anything I’d ever read before, and it caused me to reflect on how the mind works and what the subconscious is capable of accomplishing.

After reading the first few chapters, I initially thought that the Narrator in the End of the World was a reincarnation of the Narrator in Hard-Boiled Wonderland, and I guess I was kind of right. There were obvious parallels between the two, especially in regard to their attraction to the Librarians. It would’ve been interesting if the Chubby Girl also had a counterpart in the End of the World, but I don’t think she had a significant enough role in the Narrator’s mind.

At the end, I kind of wish that the Narrator would’ve followed his Shadow into the whirlpool. I think that if he had jumped, he would’ve woken up in Hard-Boiled Wonderland and been able to live out the rest of his life. However, I think the author makes the ending purposely obscure to elicit reflection by the audience and make us question what we would have done in the Narrator’s position.

Furthermore, Murakami uses techniques of other authors, and my favorite references were of those to Tolkien. When I first saw the map, I got really excited because the maps in the Lord of the Rings are iconic, and if this novel was anything like LOTR, I’d probably really enjoy it. However, the plots of each work didn’t share any apparent similarities, but the structure of the novels did. LOTR had dual stories that were separate but connected (Frodo and Sam’s journey vs. everyone else’s), and Murakami uses this technique, but his chapters alternate while Tolkien’s do not. Overall, I really liked Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and I’m looking forward to reading more Murakami novels in the future.

Anna Truong

Reflection

The Relationship of the Mind and Body in Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

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In Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Haruki Murakami explores the concept of the mind and its relationship with the body, arguing that they are ultimately disconnected, and one can never know their own mind. Murakami presents two parallel universes, one in Tokyo, which often uses past tense, where the narrator is a Calcutech scrambling data using his own mind and the other in the End of the World, which is set in present tense,  where the narrator  is a dreamreader that reads the minds of the Town’s inhabitants.

These two parallel universes are placed side by side throughout the novel rather than having one and then the other to show that they are parallel universes that both exist at once. The Town represents the narrator’s subconscious, and hardboiled wonderland is his reality, but after being experimented upon, he slips into his own subconscious. Murakami demonstrates the skewed temporality of the two worlds when the chubby girl says to the narrator, “your memory is running backward,” which symbolizes that although the End of the World is the world to which the narrator is heading in twenty four hours, he has in a way already experienced the End of the World and remembers the future. This concept of parallel memory tracks highlights Murakami’s argument that the mind and body are disconnected because the narrator’s mind has traveled to places his body has not; it has a reality of its own.

The same idea of the mind and body being disconnected is present when the professor tells the narrator that the world itself will not end, but that the world as the narrator knows it will end; the narrator will enter his subconscious which has always been running in the background unbeknownst to him. It is clear that the End of the World has existed as a parallel reality or as the narrator’s subconscious since the beginning of the novel since the narrator experiences small memories of the other world, and the link between the worlds is the unicorn skull, which symbolizes the minds of the people in the Town.

Just like the people in the Town are mindless because they have been separated from their shadows, the narrator experiences the mind-body disconnect when his shadow jumps through the whirlpool and leaves him in his subconscious. The narrator has left reality and entered his subconscious, never to return. Instead, he exists in the Town, where he will have recollections of the past and the hardboiled wonderland world but will not feel their full force since his mind has left him.

Murakami’s cyperpunk novel uses the fragmentation of the narrator’s mind to comment on the unbridgeable gap between our reality and our subconscious, our body and our mind, and what we have know that we are on Earth and what might lie in wait for us after we have passed on.

– Lauren Hodgson

Reflection

Thoughts on the unicorns

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*insert timely snapchat filter that makes you a rainbow-vomiting unicorn*

So other than unicorns being majestic and whimsical AF…. why did Murakami pick unicorns to represent memories of the people that reside in the subconscious of the main character? Unicorns are mythical (I think) creatures that show up in many different cultures across time…. Scottish coat of arms, Renaissance art, the Indus Valley, Harry Potter, and some even argue that a unicorn-like creature was mentioned in the bible.

My first thoughts if someone mentions unicorns are the My Little Pony figurines, but I’m sure that was not was Murakami was thinking. I think he was more leaning towards the idea that unicorns are a thing of dreams and that dreams arise from the subconscious. Secondly, the narrator of the End of the World is “The Dreamreader,” so it seems fitting that the medium for his job is unicorn skulls. He’s reading dreams through a thing of dreams.

Upon asking my family the first word that comes to their mind when I say unicorn, this was their response:

Younger Sister: Magic

Stepdad: Bull shit

Mom: Horn

Older sister: Horse

My mom wasn’t exactly helpful, but she’s busy knitting. However, my sistesr and stepdad were pretty on point. Unicorns are magical and remind me that the  End of the World chapters resemble magical realism while the other chapters are more technology, information, and industrial related. Secondly, from class discussions we have determined that the act of shuffling is totally pointless because it is essentially destroying information. The professor should have taken a note from the scientist in Gojira  and simply burned all of his work and data. That being said, shuffling is bull shit just like how my dad thinks unicorns are bull shit. Lastly, my first impressions of the setting of the End of the World  was that it was incredibly pastoral. It focused on the trees and the beauty and the nature found in the walled city. I didn’t realize at first that the beasts were unicorns so I at first pictured them as cows and horses. Interesting that my older sister’s first thought of unicorns was horses. Unicorns represent a range of things from the narrator’s line of work to dreams to  magic to even pastoral images.

Dani dms10

 

Reflection

The Faults of Speciesism in “District 9”

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District 9 was disturbing in a lot of ways because there were so many parallels between what happened in the movie and the apartheid, or any time when a certain group was oppressed in some way. The prawns are treated as subhuman, even though they are far more technologically advanced than the humans are in the film. But, even though black people are higher in social status compared to the prawns, they’re still portrayed negatively. Black people sell meat to the prawns and they believe that eating the prawns’ body parts will give them some alien power. More interestingly though, is the irony in which Wikus, the character who transforms into a prawn himself, becomes more humane the less human he is. In the beginning he used extreme profanity when addressing the prawns and treated them like pests. When he begins the transformation, he even demands that Christopher help him even though he stole Christopher’s canister in the first place. As the film goes on, however, Wikus uses the mechanized suit not only to save himself and Christopher, but volunteers to stay behind and fight Venter so Christopher and his son can escape. A good portion of the film is spent trying to retrieve the canister back to activate the mothership which has a cure for Wikus – only for Wikus to sacrifice himself at the end. It is almost as if the film is making a commentary on the idea of humanism and the irony that those considered subhuman (whether it be blacks, Asians, Jews, etc and the aliens themselves) may be more humane than those who fight so hard to keep non-humans out (whites in this film). The concept of speciesism is critiqued here as it is the humans, who have no moral character. They’re the ones who put the prawns into District 9 and they’re most likely the ones who caused the unrest that came with the prawns arrival. The “other” species, the prawns, are actually the ones who are the most human.

–Julia

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Gender Relativity in “The Cure”

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We talked a lot about oppression – especially of Baby – in “The Cure” during class. However, I want to discuss the gender dynamic Kamani explores in the work. It seems pretty obvious that Baby lives in a highly patriarchal society, and that Dr. Doctor is a prime example of the power men have. First and foremost, Dr. Doctor sexually abuses Baby under the guise of medicine. Medicine gives Dr. Doctor an uninhibited authority that allows him to do such things – even  Baby’s mother, who is supposed to be her guardian, turns a blind eye to what Dr. Doctor does as he “extracts Baby’s bodily fluids” to cure her tallness. However, the gender dynamic becomes more interesting because Kamani seems to intentionally draw parallels between Dr. Doctor’s and Baby’s appearances. They are both tall and thin. However, Dr. Doctor’s tallness is an asset as it gives him authority as a doctor as he towers over all the other characters in the short story. Baby, on the other hand, is seen as “demonic” and deformed because of her tallness. Men and women in society are clearly held up to different standards and Baby’s tallness becomes the very thing that alienates her from society. There’s nothing physically unsound with Baby, but society treats her as if there is because she towers over others where she should be shorter than them. Not only are women expected to be socially inferior, but they are also expected to be physically shorter as well. I thought it was really interesting how Kamani weaved this into the story because it gives us a visualization of just how differently men and women are viewed.

Reflection

The Cut-up Technique

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Popularized in art by the Dada movement and in literature by Anthony Burroughs, the Cut-up Technique involves physically splicing content from two or more sources to create a product. A variation of this technique is the Fold-in method, for which you take two sheets of text, cut them in half, and match the opposing halves of the different sheets together.

I thought it would be interesting to create a cut-up of some of the major works we have covered so far during our Postmodernism unit. To that end, here is a line from my cut-up containing elements from Nova Express, Breakfast of Champions, The Cure, and Biography of a Dress:

Nova Police. Yes I think we can quash this cocktail waitress here, this vertical band of light, I placed the wrapped and ribboned box of sweets (giving to me a false air of delicacy).

-Cara Baxter

Reflection

A Pre-Med’s Reflection on “The Cure”

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Ginu Kamani’s short story “The Cure” is anything but an easy read. It forces the reader to delve into gravely serious topics that are just soul-wrenching to any human with a conscience. In the story, a young girl is afflicted by a rapid growth disorder. Her mother, worrying that she will fail as a parent if her daughter is not married, becomes obsessed with finding some sort of treatment for her. In desperation, she hires a man who claims to be a doctor; a “sexologist.” This man’s treatment is to essentially rape the girl.

This story is infuriating on so many levels because it includes some of the worst aspects of humanity within it: pedophilia, rape, forced marriages, child marriages, health fraud, lack of freedom, ignorance, and a skewed mentality of what it means to be a mother. I doubt a single person can read this story and not feel some sort of rage or disgust towards the antagonists.

As a pre-med student, I aspire to be a doctor one day and help people who need it the most. Just the thought of people abusing the medical profession (which I know does happen) and disgracing the mere word “doctor” enrages me beyond belief. However, an important thing to realize is that frauds like that only exist because people believe in them.

Throughout this poem, Kamani makes it very evident that the main theme is about control and what each person can or can’t control in their lives. We can see this through the uncontrollable growth and general lack of ability to make decisions of the main protagonist. However, we can also read between the lines and see this main theme with the “doctor” itself. That man is only able to exert control over his patients because his patients believe that what he is doing is actually medicine, and his patients believe him probably because of a lack of basic education (or common knowledge for that matter since Ramdass, who is uneducated, knew what was actually happening). In other words, the patients’ ignorance presents itself as a form of lack of control. Being ignorant allowed them to be manipulated and abused, essentially giving over their ability to control what is done to them to “Dr. Doctor.”

The main point that Kamani wanted to drive through with her novel is to never let other people gain complete control over you. If you read between the lines like I did, you will know that a way to do that is to end one’s own ignorance; to find empowerment and more control over life through education.

Reflection

The Theme of Oppression in “The Cure” by Ginu Kamani

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In “The Cure,” Ginu Kamani uses Baby’s height and persistent growth to mirror instances in which Baby loses control over her life and other people restrict her ability to choose her own path. Baby’s growth is out of her control and something that her body chooses for her in the same way that her mother, Dr. Doctor,  and Ramdass make choices for her and try to control her fate. Modern medicine also comes into the discussion about Baby’s height as the common view is that “these days doctors have a cure for everything.” Baby’s mother entrusts Baby’s fate in the hands of Dr. Doctor, a sexologist, and allows him to sexually abuse her under the guise of knowing how to cure her as a doctor. Baby’s mother begs him to “find a cure, that’s all I ask,” showing her blind faith in a stranger just because of his title. Baby’s height serves as a representation of how modern medicine can be used to oppress women and young girls and to implement traditional conservative views of what a lady should be like. Baby’s mother herself is given tranquilizers to control her mood swings, and she can be seen also as a victim of social pressures in how she is lead to trust blindly in medicine and titles. Baby begins to take control over her life when she extracts her female fluids on her own out of rebellion against the doctor. At the end of the story, she recognizes that her growth as her becoming greater and more powerful than her mother, the doctor, and Ramdass who all have made choices on her behalf and she declares that she is “bigger than all of [them].” Baby states that her body will no longer grow. Although Kamani does not indicate whether or not Baby gains greater control over her life or if she is not forced into marriage and it is unclear whether Baby really stops growing, Baby’s outburst represents a pivotal part of the story in which baby takes control over her fate and rebels against their control over her life. Whereas before she could not control her own life nor her growth, here she declares that she will stop her growth, representing that she will control her life.

– Lauren Hodgson

Reflection

A Schizophrenic Society

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While madness, unpredictability, and chaos pervade the entirety of Breakfast of Champions, schizophrenia plays a unique role in explaining both the psyche of the narrator and the meaning of the novel as it relates to society as a whole. Schizophrenia is a spectrum mental disorder whose many symptoms include delusions, hallucinations, and fragmentation of thought; the nature of schizophrenia is so little understood that some define it as an umbrella term under which many different diseases exist.

In Vonnegut’s novel, the narrator fears that he may have inherited his mother’s schizophrenia. He demonstrates tremendous anxiety and arguably delusive behavior by inserting himself directly into the narrative, exploring the boundaries of authorial control by interacting directly with his own creations. He functions as an omnipotent creator in a fictional universe, finding salvation from pessimism when one of his characters declares that human beings are defined by their awareness, the quality which gives meaning to life and separates man from machine. This breakthrough allows the narrator to experience spiritual growth, but the act of confronting reality through a series of distorting lenses such as fantasy, irony, and satire is inherently schizophrenic. Our pursuit of truth in art is endlessly fragmented, a reflection of the endless mental fragmentation of society in an increasingly interconnected and vocal world.

If the human world were a single brain, what would control the pattern and flow of thought? An ideal world, like an ideal mind, might have a single dominant personality and one cohesive pattern of thought, but reality is far more complex. As seen in Breakfast of Champions, real society is an endless array of individuals whose lives carry equal weight, with no clear distinctions between major and minor characters. In this way, the most honest definition of reality is a culmination of billions of competing, equally important personal narratives. This chaotic, fractured, endlessly splitting notion of reality can be seen as an extension of the ‘split mind’ concept for which schizophrenia was named, as it applies not only to the condition of a single mind but also to the condition of humanity as a whole.

-Cara

Reflection

About the animals…

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In class, we thoroughly discussed the title of “Come into Animal Presence” and took apart the words. “Come” can be seen as an invitation, command, or request. “Animal” is specifically talking about alive things in nature and not just nature itself (ie. rocks, trees, water, grass). And “presence” is something spiritual, religious, and not physical, but a way of being in the world.

What I want to focus on is the animals that Levertov chose to use in the poem. There are four animals: serpent, rabbit, llama, and armadillo. There is a lot to say about serpents and rabbits because they are seen a lot in cultures. Serpents are associated biblically, mythologically, and Disney-movie-ly with a bad/evil connotation. There are little to no fables or stories that have the snake being a “good guy” or anything short of evil. However, Levertov focuses on the cunning and beauty of the snake. The snake is “guileless” and has “no blemish”. Being smart and not having acne seems like a pretty good deal to me, but people still think of snakes as bad.

Secondly, we have the rabbit. We see the rabbit as lucky (it’s foot on a key chain), with spring time (Easter Bunny… but who knows why),  and in a lot of disney movies (Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, Bambi, Winnie the Pooh, and countless Disney Junior shows). The rabbit is popular in our culture. However, Levertov again focuses on a different aspect, its loneliness. Rabbits are actually well known for being social creatures.

But then we come to the llama and the armadillo and I am stumped. Why a llama and an armadillo? First thing that comes to mind with llama is wool and Peru. Llamas are notoriously beasts of burden in South America (kind of like horses are in other places, carrying humans stuff around). I doubt there are many wild llamas roaming the mountains of Peru, but there are many under human control.

First thing that comes to mind for armadillos is road kill. That again, is under human control. Armadillos are pretty cool. They have their own armor, they can roll up into balls, they apparently have leprosy (not cool but interesting). But all I can think of is road kill. Llamas and armadillos encounter humans way more than rabbits and snakes and yet they are included in part of this natural imagery of coming into an animal state of mind.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that the choice of animals seems very random to me and the animals aren’t exactly mysterious to us.  She’s telling us to “come into animal presence”, but we kind of already have by including them in our lives. However, I guess the poem could be telling us to think about it from their point of view and not the points of views that I have previously stated. To think about how there is more to animals than how they are associated with and by humans. They are their own thing and we cannot limit them to what we have predetermined they are/can be.