UM Book Club: After Dark by Haruki Murakami - Part III
July 3, 2007 by Greg
Next Assignment
Pages: 149-end
Due: Wednesday July 11th, noon
Part III
pages 101-148
Characters
- Mari Asai
- Eri Asai
- Tetsuya Takahashi
- Kaoru
- Shirakawa
Songs Listed
- Page 125 - Cantata, Allesandro Scarlatti, Sung by Brian Asawa
- Page 132 - A new song by The Southern All Stars
In the third section of the book, we are seeing a moving Eri. She’s waking up and we’re seeing her move around, finally hearing a few of her thoughts. The author emphasizes a rocking in the room she’s trapped in. This may be a direct narration showing that she is aboard some sort of ship, or perhaps it is meant to communicate motion distortion from drugs. Her pill addiction is later mentioned by Mari, so we’re uncertain if drugs were administered, a result of sleep, or her own doing.
There is a connection being made between Eri Asai and Shirawaka and his company. On page 106 she finds a silver pen on the floor with Veritech imprinted on it. Later, on page 127, Shirakawa plays with an identical pen in his office. There’s also mention of Shirakawa’s office and Eri Asai’s confinement room being identical sans furniture.
Amidst the physical connections between Eri and Shirawaka, there is a conversation happening between Takahashi and Mari hinting at a different interpretation. Mari mentions and then retracts a direct comment saying that Eri is asleep and doesn’t want to wake up (page 124, continued on 134). This hints that the room she is trapped in may represent a psychological state rather than a physical location.
I’m excited to see what this turns out to be.
Lastly, I love Takahashi’s motto, “Walk slowly; drink lots of water.” and Mari’s counter, “Walk a lot; drink your water slowly.”
I’ve been thinking about the Eri situation. The isolation could be symbolic of her emotional detachment as a “result” of her beauty.
When she was first introduced, Murakami paints a bleak picture of her identity-less room (the only hint to her personality would be the CDs, which arn’t named). Couple this with the fact that she probably feels she’s always on display (aka the televison) and people only know her for/care about her physical looks and it would make a lot of sense.
What’s sad is alot of the models I’ve known have had a similar mindset, and have shared the lack of identity Murakami describes.
Many girls think their looks alone can substitute for a distinctive personality and passion for things other than the runway/fashion magazines.
Note to girls: they can’t.
Is that crickets I hear?
All the UM readers done did knock off early for the holiday methinks.
ugh, been a crazy busy couple of days at work. month end reporting, and with the holiday half the people out etc.
a lot of my thoughts have been somewhat along the same lines as yours, cash.
Is the room arockin due to sea, drugs, machinery, magic?
who is our magical mystery co-observer who takes our hand so to speak and leads us to various things?
Does the room that eri wakes up in look like the other office due to being the same office, or just because it’s a corporate structure where most offices look alike, or some dream thing?
I think one of the most frustrating parts for me is i’m 2/3rds of the way through this book and i’m not sure what type of book it is i’m reading. i’ll let you know by the end if that’s a good thing or not.
nice call on the mindset thing. hadn’t thought as much on that part of things. was more focused on other things to fully explore the dream/mentality viewpoint.