Friday, April 2, 2021

Thoughts on the Historical Context of Soseki and Murakami

I would assume that Murasaki has read Kokoro and other Soseki works. After all, Soseki was one of the most prominent modern Japanese authors, who makes it to be featured on a Japanese yen note. Therefore, I think it is reasonable to think of Norwegian Wood as a response to Kokoro, whether Murakami had the thought in mind when writing his book or not. For one, Murakami writes "spontaneously", and his recollection of Kokoro could very well affect his writing subconsciously. In addition, there are just too many shared elements in both works for us to ignore the resemblance. The suicide of a friend. The weakness of the protagonist(s). Students going to college in Tokyo (and the rent, too). The list goes on. I am most interested in how Murakami responded to Soseki with his take. Sensei's Testament ends with hints that Sensei is going to commit suicide as well, which is very different from Watanabe moving on by calling Midori at the end of Norwegian Wood

I think the respective historical period the two authors were in had a stake in the trends of the stories. Kokoro was published in 1914, about the same time when WWI began. Japan was in its 大正 years, a rather peaceful and also prosperous time in between two turbulent eras. I personally find it a lot like the roaring 20s in the US, and in that sense, perhaps Soseki had a similar doubt towards his society just as Fitzgerald questioned the American dream in The Great Gatsby. Why did everyone in Kokoro (that we have learned about) end up in misery? Well, because the uncle took over Sensei's property and attempted to force Sensei into marrying his niece, and that traumatized Sensei, which caused him to not be able to express his affection to Ojosan. Sensei's uncle seems to represent a societal issue, i.e. he represents the flaws in heritage laws, minor protection laws, marriage laws, and the political system, etc. However, the uncle's fault aside, the rest of the problems were caused by Sensei alone, as he was unable to recover from the traumas, and subsequently allowed the effects to become a part of his personability. Therefore, Soseki may also have criticized the flaws of his people, their inwardness, their paradoxical complex of cultural norms and personal pursuit, etc. In a way, this criticism does resemble the criticism of Fitzgerald. 

On the other hand, Murakami finished Norwegian Wood in 1987. Japan had recovered from the war and had become a major economy, although before long the economy would enter a major recession. On the contrary to the whereabouts of his contemporary Japan, Murakami set the time of the story as 1968-1970. Considering that he wrote the whole novel while traveling in Europe, I guess we could say he was both physically and spiritually detached from his contemporary Japan. However, Murakami's detachment did not stop his work from becoming a hit in Japan. Perhaps the remote condition helped him in seeing clearly the essence of the Japanese society? In addition, the Communist movement appeared to me as the most major societal element in the story, and both in history and in plot it was a failed movement. I suppose this movement (that he would be recalling from his memory when writing it) would be the "historical context" for Murakami the college guy (or, Watanabe). Under this overarching context, we have Kizuki and Naoko's sister who found life meaningless, Naoko who was desperate, Nagasawa who was morally corrupt and did not "feel sorry" for himself, and Reiko who escaped the society for eight years. As Naoko once pointed out, Watanabe tended to hang out with problematic people, and I think each of their problems is also part of the movement's collective problem. Nevertheless, while some became the past along with the movement, others chose to/had to move on. In that way, I think this book contained some of Murakami's (subconscious) reflection, which later encouraged his readers to beat on against their own current. 

--Marshal

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