A o m a m e.

Just a young woman living in Tokyo, wandering in and out of reality and a place called 1Q84.

(But no really, this is my English 102 project. Hi. )

1Q84 vs. 1984

Although 1Q84 is Murakami’s very vague rendition of George Orwell’s 1984, there really is very few similarities.  Orwell focuses on the factor of “Big Brother is watching you,” and Murakami’s version of “Big Brother” is his “little people” who watch what happens in the world of 1Q84.  However, readers are aware that Big Brother is controlling and an enemy, while Murakami leaves little explanation as to what the purpose of the little people are, or if they are even good or bad.  Not only that, but Orwell’s 1984 is filled with metaphors, symbolic meanings, and purpose, while Murakami’s 1Q84 is totally opposite and allows the reader freedom to interpret the book however they want.  It may even be better to not look into 1Q84 because Murakami himself does not give meaning to many of his products of imagination.  

How to read Haruki Murakami

“While Murakami spoke eloquently about history and the Japanese education system, the author seemed peculiarly detached from the products of his own imagination. It was as if his novels emerged from some sub-conscious passageway whose door slammed shut once he put down his pen. ‘When I’m not writing, they are gone,’ Murakami said of the mysterious creatures that populate his novels. ‘I don’t even dream.’”

Reading this made me feel very disheartened, I always felt that there was such importance whenever a reoccurring scene or object appeared or was described with such detail.  No wonder why whenever I tried to find meaning in something that felt important, I couldn’t exactly pinpoint what it was or try to find enough evidence to say why it was important.  Nevertheless, I still believe Murakami has a great imagination and is a very skilled story teller even if there is no moral, lesson, or purpose behind it. 

José Teodoro's review of 1Q84

“1Q84 is the only of Murakami’s translated works that’s ever struck me as overwritten. There’s a lot of internal monologue that simply revisits events and dialogue that have already transpired, that attempts to explain subtext or analyze weird happenings that we’re better off left to engage with on our own. Yet it would be wrong to assume that this ambitious novel’s flaws emerge from what might be deemed as padding or a lack of focus on the narrative core; the more 1Q84 strays from its ostensible plot the better it gets.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself. 

This scene of 1Q84 was often repeated throughout the story.  Tengo and Aomame were classmates 20 years ago and never talked.  However, towards the end of the school year Aomame tightly holds hands with Tengo in an empty classroom.  Ever since then, neither has stopped thinking about the other and as cliche as this sounds, their bond was able to bring them back together in the future. This is foreshadowing because at the end of the novel, Tengo and Aomame finally reach each other once again and hold hands like in their child hood memories.  This is also symbolic of where their love story begins because it is a reoccurring scene that constantly haunts Tengo’s and Aomame’s mind into their adult years, holding them back from finding different significant others.  This childhood memory also makes them, in a sense, naive towards the prospect of love.  This innocence reflects in both Tengo and Aomame because despite the odds of never seeing each other again and risking one life for the other, mere love keeps them motivated.  

This scene of 1Q84 was often repeated throughout the story.  Tengo and Aomame were classmates 20 years ago and never talked.  However, towards the end of the school year Aomame tightly holds hands with Tengo in an empty classroom.  Ever since then, neither has stopped thinking about the other and as cliche as this sounds, their bond was able to bring them back together in the future.

This is foreshadowing because at the end of the novel, Tengo and Aomame finally reach each other once again and hold hands like in their child hood memories.  This is also symbolic of where their love story begins because it is a reoccurring scene that constantly haunts Tengo’s and Aomame’s mind into their adult years, holding them back from finding different significant others.  This childhood memory also makes them, in a sense, naive towards the prospect of love.  This innocence reflects in both Tengo and Aomame because despite the odds of never seeing each other again and risking one life for the other, mere love keeps them motivated.  

Fuka-Eri, a seventeen year old girl, tells a story called “Air Chrysalis,” based on real events which becomes an instant best seller.  Here’s a scene from the book when the “little people” are weaving an air chrysalis, basically a cocoon with a person inside.  It turns out that “Air Chrysalis” is actually real and that Aomame and Tengo are trapped inside of Fuka-Eri’s world.   The meaning of the air chrysalis is unknown, but my personal view of it is that it represents the past life of Aomame during her time in the cult.  At one point of the book, Tengo encounters an air chrysalis embodying a 12 year-old sleeping Aomame- the time when she escaped the radical cult.  

Fuka-Eri, a seventeen year old girl, tells a story called “Air Chrysalis,” based on real events which becomes an instant best seller.  Here’s a scene from the book when the “little people” are weaving an air chrysalis, basically a cocoon with a person inside.  It turns out that “Air Chrysalis” is actually real and that Aomame and Tengo are trapped inside of Fuka-Eri’s world.  

The meaning of the air chrysalis is unknown, but my personal view of it is that it represents the past life of Aomame during her time in the cult.  At one point of the book, Tengo encounters an air chrysalis embodying a 12 year-old sleeping Aomame- the time when she escaped the radical cult.  

My book review of 1Q84

To begin with, 1Q84 is not a book for the impatient considering it’s nearly 1,000 pages long.  It is stuffed with sometimes unnecessary descriptions of people and places, confusing the reader that maybe this certain object, or person, or place would be relevant for future chapters.  It is difficult to find symbolic meaning because Murakami describes everything that it is impossible to keep track of what could be important and what is not. Even details have details.  

However, despite that, overall the book had a realistic, yet fantasy aspect of it and I believe Murakami balanced it perfectly.  Some find 1Q84 to be boring and tedious to read, but personally I liked the book and its many twists and turns that Aomame, Tengo, and Fuka-Eri went through.  Murakami’s story telling never fails to amaze me, even if, at times his ongoing descriptions made it hard to stay awake.  

The NY Times Review of 1Q84

“But “1Q84” has even his most ardent fans doing back flips as they try to justify this book’s glaring troubles. Is it consistently interesting? No, but Mr. Murakami is too skillful a trickster to rely on conventional notions of storytelling. Is it a play on Orwell’s “1984?” Vaguely, but don’t make close comparisons. Is it science fiction? Well, there are those two moons, plus several references to Sonny and Cher. And is it actually about anything? Don’t be silly. Mr. Murakami is far too playful and allusive an artist to be restricted by a banal criterion like that one.

It used to be customary, in a book of this magnitude, to explain unanswered questions and tie up loose ends. Mr. Murakami clearly rejects such petty obligations, and he leaves many of the parallels in “1Q84” cryptic and dead-ended. He perceives, and we receive, and the reception isn’t all that clear. But 925 pages go by. And somehow, to quote Mr. Murakami as he quotes Sonny and Cher, for reasons that perhaps only he understands, the beat goes on.”

introvert |ˈintrəˌvərt|nouna shy, reticent, and typically self-centered person.

• Psychology a person predominantly concerned with their own thoughts and feelings rather than with external things. A character from Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 named Aomame. Compare with extrovert.

for introverted .DERIVATIVESintroversion |-ˌvər zh ən| nounintroversive |-ˌvərsiv| 

adjectiveORIGIN mid 17th cent. (as a verb in the general sense [turn one’s thoughts inward [in spiritual contemplation]] ): from modern Latinintrovertere, from intro- ‘to the inside’ +vertere ‘to turn.’ Its use as a term in psychology dates from the early 20th cent.

Like the Disney character, Alice, Aomame unwillingly falls into another realm.  Alice, following a white rabbit, falls into a rabbit hole.  There, she is met with surprises of people, and things that just do not exist nor happen in the human world.   While Aomame, at the suggestion of a mysterious taxi cab driver, climbs into an emergency stairwell in Hokkaido to get to her destination faster.  However, she does not meet her destination at all.  She falls into a world of two moons, air chrysalis’, cults, and “little people.”  Like Alice’s situation, Aomame encounters the strange, the scary, and the fantastic all because of curiosity and one risk.  

Like the Disney character, Alice, Aomame unwillingly falls into another realm.  Alice, following a white rabbit, falls into a rabbit hole.  There, she is met with surprises of people, and things that just do not exist nor happen in the human world.  

While Aomame, at the suggestion of a mysterious taxi cab driver, climbs into an emergency stairwell in Hokkaido to get to her destination faster.  However, she does not meet her destination at all.  She falls into a world of two moons, air chrysalis’, cults, and “little people.” 

Like Alice’s situation, Aomame encounters the strange, the scary, and the fantastic all because of curiosity and one risk.