Hey all! I know it's been a while (oops) but now that the musical is done with I hope to get back into the swing of things. I have misplaced the copy of Les Mis with all of my annotations, so I'm taking a break from that one until I find it again. For now, I've switched to Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. I know, it's a mouthful. Anyways, enjoy!
 | |
| This book right here. Check it out. No, seriously, read this book. |
I am pretty quickly beginning to think that Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is going to be my favorite book of the year. Already things are lining up in its favor: it has my two favorite types of narrators, an intriguing plot, and a really excellent cast of characters. Right now I'm going to be looking at one of the two narrators, this one from the hard-boiled wonderland that is the future (there's a second narrator at the end of the world, but that's an entirely different matter).
In a futuristic world where data is everything, the unnamed narrator is an unassuming Calcutec thrust into an adventure that he doesn't necessarily want. He is my first type of narrator - a quiet guy who lives his own life, has his own goals, and finds himself in the middle of everything even though all he wants to do is go home and sleep. He's quite the character. His disbelief and somewhat snarky tone endear him to me all the more. For example, he says things like "for convenience sake, I agreed to entertain to entertain the remote hypothesis that the owner of said skull might be, conceivably, a unicorn. [...] Great, I thought. Just great. Why were all these things happening to me? (Murakami 80)" This quote actually sums up his role in the story pretty well. He's willing to entertain the idea that all of these crazy things are actually happening, even though he has absolutely no desire to get involved. For some reason, that makes me like his character a lot.
I would say that the narrators defining characteristic is his reluctance. Because he doesn't want to be there, he's sassy and a little bit rude. He's pretty disgruntled for much of the story, and I think that's his way of disguising the fact that he's scared. And of course he is! This is a crazy adventure. He's risking his life for something he isn't sure he even believes in, and that's frightening. This makes him human, and relatable, and that's why I love the narrator living in the hard-boiled wonderland.
I am curious about your comment, "where data is everything." How do they use it and to what ends? Sometimes I really want people to base their actions on the scientific data we have instead of their own opinions. But sometimes people twist the facts to suit their goals anyway. Just wondering about the environment the narrator is living in.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I probably could have been a bit more clear on that. In the hard-boiled wonderland, there are two opposing organizations: the System and the Factory. The narrator works as a Calcutec for the System, where he uses his subconscious to shuffle and process data (weird, I know). Semiotecs work for the criminal Factory, where they do much the same thing. Basically, the Factory tries to steal data from the System, and vice versa, which means that the two sides are constantly in an information war of sorts. To be honest, I don't completely understand it, but data is pretty much the most important thing in the lives of those working for both the System and the Factory.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLove this exchange!
ReplyDelete