Memory and the Mind-Dependent World of Murakami

 Murakami regularly employs the motif of memory in his work to explore the malleable nature of reality, where the individual is the center of the universe. In A Wild Sheep Chase, we follow a detailed narrative of Boku who reveals his thoughts and feelings to the reader almost momentarily. However, the extent to which the reader gets acquainted with the other characters is solely through the eyes of Boku and how he perceives them. In his research of the Hokkaido mountain landscape, Boku reads that “it is essential to recognize that we can never know more than one side, one small aspect of a mountain” (A Wild Sheep Chase 200). The mountain represents the conscious of an individual which consists of a public side which is known to the external world, a private side which is the identity (or, the ID), and the unknown subconscious which Murakami portrays to be the most turbulent, dark, and unexplored part of a person. Memory seems to fall under the latter category: a compartment in our subconscious which lays dormant until triggered by particular events, senses, and experiences. However, as we see in Murakami, memory often skews the original occurrences. However, Murakami seems to suggest that reality is mind-dependent, therefore, ‘reality’ is a construct which exists only through our perception, meaning that a memory can be understood as an accurate recollection of any given event. In Sputnik Sweetheart, Miu tells the narrator about her surreal experience in the ferris wheel. The narrator suggests that Miu’s story is fragmented, non-linear, and quite unrealistic. This could be understood as a literal malfunction in Miu’s recollection because of the trauma she has experienced. However, at the same time, what evidence do we have that what Miu remembers happened otherwise? We often rely on the presupposition that the external world is objective, real, and linear in time. However, Murakami explores this premise through the means of memory as the shaping tool of reality. In that sense, every individual has their own reality which cannot be disputed. This raises the interesting question of what happens when our realities overlap. Murakami addresses this by including the element of fantasy in his writing which elevates the narrative to reveal subsequent parallels of time and space. 

Ruska