Comments on The Strange Library

 When I first purchased my copy of The Strange Library, I thought we would read a comic book that somehow had to do with Murakami. Well, in class, we learned that Murakami first wrote a short novel in 1983, and it was more than two decades later when an illustrated edition came out in Japan. I am not sure if Murakami himself commissioned the illustrations. I am leaning towards a "no," and even if he did commission the Japanese graphics, the British and German versions probably were done by other people since the illustrations were drastically different. Hence I consider the (different) graphic adaptations to be in the realm of excellent "fan fiction". I particularly adore the British version, not just because that is the copy I own but also for two other reasons. One, the German graphics were too dark, yet the Japanese graphics were too light. In my mind, neither depicted our subconsciousness (if we were to accept that reading) as well as the exaggerated, perplexing, and memorable British illustrations did. Also, I guess I just really like the art. The collections of pictures and paintings were visually pleasing to view and created a stream of consciousness that shadowed the plot. For example, when the girl appeared, the book supplemented pictures of birds and feathers. When the dog emerged in conversation, there was a page of bulldogs. When the sheep man spoke of donuts, there was a nice assortment of donuts that I can see myself getting in a box from Dunks. The echo resembled how our mind functions when we think of an object (or a concept?), and I think the British edition was ingeniously done. 

-- Marshal