Helpakami

October 30, 2007 5:46 PM

Can anyone help me piece together the riddle of "Kafka on the Shore"?

I finished Murakami's "Kafka on the Shore" a few days ago and really loved it--it was magical and mysterious and strange and moving all at once. I was disconcerted, however, because I couldn't quite piece together the plot in any meaningful way. I know you might say, "That's the point" but from all the interviews I've read with Mr. Murakami, he says that the story comes together if you read the book a few more times. I'm a really slow reader and while that prospect intrigues me a bit, it's not going to happen. That's why I'm turning to you, AskMeFi.

Here are my specific questions:
- What is the relationship between Kafka, Nakata and Ms. Saeki? How does the incident at the start of the book that puts Nakata in a coma correlate to the other characters--is it connected to the "entrance stone"?
- Why do Ms. Saeki and Nakata have half-shadows? What is their connection?
- Who is The Boy Named Crow? What is that scene at the end where he pecks Johnny Walker's eyes out?

Any help would be great, even if it just leads to a discussion. Thanks!

posted by adrober to media & arts (8 comments total)

Spoilers here, obviously...

What is the relationship between Kafka, Nakata and Ms. Saeki?

I thought they were son, father, mother.

Why do Ms. Saeki and Nakata have half-shadows?

Because they were symbolic/ghosts/dreams/not-quite-real.

The Boy Named Crow?

Kafka's own inner voice; intuition; etc.

But I'm ready to be called wrong.
posted by DarkForest at 6:17 PM on October 30, 2007

Oh, scratch that about Nakata being the father. Not sure now. It's been a while since I read it. Maybe just a figure of good against Johnny Walker's figure of evil?
posted by DarkForest at 6:34 PM on October 30, 2007

The Boy Named Crow is definitely Kafka's inner tough-guy persona. Saeki is at least supposed to represent Kafka's mother, although I don't think this was ever actually explicitly stated.

I thought that the half-shadow thing meant that Saeki and Nakata had some part of them living in the dreamworld/forest thing that Kafka enters at the end.

Not entirely sure about the coma incident. It's been a while since I've read the book.
posted by number9dream at 7:10 PM on October 30, 2007

I always took it that The Boy Named Crow was Kafka's self-image. Johnny Walker was his dad, and apparently a mass murderer. I think he was killed by Nakata. Ms Saeki is definitely Kafka's mother.

The entrance stone is the entrance to the subconscious. It is the part of us that may be stirred by songs like "Kafka on the Shore," which itself makes a reference to the entrance stone.

One of the main themes of the book is the relationship between memory and personality. Nakata has no memory, and lives completely in the present. This is why he can talk to cats, because he sees the world the way that they do. He is like a pane of glass - no personality to speak of. Ms. Saeki, on the other hand, has a rich memory life. In fact, for all intents and purposes, she lives in the past. She has the most personality of all, and is full of intrigue, mystery, and a million subtle movements. Miss Saeki and Nakata have half-shadows because they each represent half of the full picture.

I also think that there's a heavy dose of magical realism involved. Where does Kafka really go when he goes into the woods? Is Johnny Walker's flute real? Is he some sort of magical creature or something? I don't think we're supposed to have answers to these questions. Perhaps I'd understand more of this if I had a better familiarity with Japanese literature and religion.

But, beneath it all, I think what you really have is a rather straightforward coming-of-age tale, complete with epic mother-fucking and father-killing. Murakami's gift is in writing prose that is at once abstract and breezy, complex yet poetic.
posted by Afroblanco at 7:19 PM on October 30, 2007 [2 favorites]

Anyone want to speculate about the meaning of the part at the beginning where the school kids go into the forest and are struck unconscious? IIRC, the kid who stayed in a coma for a while was Nakata. Did that scene have any meaning other than marking Nakata as unique?
posted by DarkForest at 7:31 PM on October 30, 2007

Maybe we are being had?

"Kafka on the Shore contains several riddles, but there aren't any solutions provided. Instead, several of these riddles combine, and through their interaction the possibility of a solution takes shape. And the form this solution takes will be different for each reader. To put it another way, the riddles function as part of the solution. It's hard to explain, but that's the kind of novel I set out to write."
posted by Dr. Curare at 3:06 AM on October 31, 2007

This was actually my least favorite of the Murakami I've read so far. When I finished it, the only real thought I had was that I wanted to listen to the piece of classical music that they talk about somewhere in the middle of the book. Has anyone tried to locate that recording?
posted by DarkForest at 5:21 AM on October 31, 2007 [1 favorite]

Based on what I know of Murakami from reading his other books, he is very interested in the murky realm that lies between the conscious and subconscious mind. I think Afroblanco is right on here.

The only thing I would add/elaborate on is that the entrance stone/forest is about an internal journey through the depths of our mind. I would say there is a definite link to the well/function of the well in Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

I remember reading in some analysis of WUBC that when Murakami was very young he fell into some kind of drainage ditch/well type thing and it was traumatic for him. He swears that it has no effect on his writing, but I just don't see how thats possible. So many of his books have analogues of that experience as physical representations of passing between the real world and the internal mental world. One can't help but think that for a young child to pass into a dark, scary place where they are completely alone has to be similar to the internal journeys his characters take.
posted by zennoshinjou at 6:11 AM on October 31, 2007