Post-classical, Neoklassik, Indie Classical, Minimal Music, Ambient, Piano Solo, Piano Trio / Classical Music Recording: Charles Koechlin, Gabriel Pierné, Cécile Chaminade, Mel Bonis, Benjamin Godard, Georges Bachmann, Félix Le Couppey | Music Reviews of Nils Frahm, Akira Kosemura, Henning Schmiedt, Fabrizio Paterlini & Post-classical Artists, George Winston & Ryuichi Sakamoto | Paul Auster, Haruki Murakami & Jean-Philippe Toussaint Studies
1.Cookin’ by the Miles Davis Quintet, Prestige, 1957
One of the record of the famous Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions, are to fulfil the contact with Prestige Record and transfer Columbia Record, so Miles recorded 42 tracks in 2 days. You can listen the highly synched and lively performance by the First Great Quintet (John Coltrane (ts), Red Garland (p), Paul Chambers (bs), Philly Joe Jones (dr)) and fully developed play of Miles’s peak in the hard-bop era. Interestingly, the tracks selected in this record are recordings of the later part of sessions, but they released at first. A master-pieces is impressive the contrast between an excellent ballad of "My Funny Valentine" in which Miles' Herman mute tone is so sweet, and a high-tempo and hardly drove Sonny Rollins's jazz standard "Airegin".
2.Portrait in Jazz by the Bill Evans Trio, Riverside, 1959
One of the representative works of Bill Evans, and the ultimate jazz piano and mordal jazz record captured the incomparable trio organized with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian. Famillar standard numbers such as Autumn Leaves, Witchcraft, What Is This Thing Called Love? and Someday My Prince Will Come are played by highly-developed interplay and modal solo play by Evans and LaFaro, and interpretations, arranges, technique, improvisation and ensemble beyond original compositions.
3. Time Out by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Columbia Records, 1959
All of songs of this album are irregular time signatures and a masterpiece are famous by Take Five, also there’s the characteristic as highly arranged West Coast Jazz influenced by Classical Music. I like classical and gentle fine songs in this album, Blue Rondo à la Turk, Strange Meadow Lark and Three to Get Ready. And, the combination of Paul Desmond’s soft, mild and beautiful tone of alto saxophone and Brubeck’s elegant piano, is one of the greatest combinations in the Jazz history.
4. The Scene Changes by Bud Powell, Blue Note Records, 1958
The ultimate jazz piano album, Bud Powell recorded on Blue Note Records. In this album, Powell established the hard-bop jazz piano style that right hand plays melody and left hand concentrate on backing. The play by Powell was returned from the blank by drug, is powerful, energetic and simple.
5. Giant Steps by John Coltrane, Atlantic Records, 1960
Through Miles’s Kind of Blue (I’ll introduce below.), Coltrane established his own original modal jazz by complex cord progressions and changes of keys in this masterpiece. The quartet played ultra technically by the ultra complex chord theory, though the music itself is so cool and energetic. This album captures Coltrane who showed his great genius and his original style.
6. Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, Columbia, 1959
The best-selling jazz album in the world, the ultimate jazz recording and release in the jazz history in which Miles completed modal jazz style and it’s original and experimental but cool and simple. There is no equal to this recording. This is the greatest music, each ad-lib phrases by Miles, Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane and Bill Evans of the all songs are beautiful and precious, and the ensemble are relaxing also taut, has a profound comprehension.
7. Relaxin’ by the Miles Davis Quintet, 1958
The second release of the Prestige Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions. The recordings of this album are done before and after Cookin’. This masterpiece focus on middle tempo jazz standard numbers, and Miles’s characteristic Herman mute trumpet tone is tasteful.
8. Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section by Art Pepper, Contemporary, 1957
In this album, a representative west-coast jazz and cool jazz alto saxophonist Art Pepper played together with the rhythm section of Miles Davis’s the first greatest quartet. The music is relaxing also dynamic, and a fine and “usual” jazz masterpiece.
9. Ready for Freddie by Freddie Hubbard, Blue Note Records, 1961
Freddie Hubbard is a trumpeter has the greatest technique and tone in the jazz history. This album is a fine work of the early career of Hubbard, and the music highly completed and “usual” hard-bop.
10. A Night at the Village Vanguard by Sonny Rollins, Blue Note Records, 1958
A live album of a respective tenor saxophonist of hard-bop, Sonny Rollins. I like this album better than a great jazz masterpiece Saxophone Colossus, because the play of this recording is lively and dynamic.
Murakami’s 9th long novel, and third romance novel follows Norwegian Wood and South of the Border, West of the Sun, originally published in 1999. Also this novel is unusual romance novel describes today’s persons has no existence or reality who can’t love seriously and passionately.
When the time this book published, three of nine works of Murakami were romance. But he has not been wrote a romance long novel again for now.
Form, Style & Structure
This novel is story about Sumire, and substantially main character in this novel is Sumire. (5, p. 59) The main description of the first half of this novel is describing Sumire by the viewpoint of the narrator (like Nick Carraway in the Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald) and talks about Miu of which the narrator heard by Sumire.
Background of the Work & Author
Murakami lived in Greek in the late 80’s, he described the days in his first travel literature Far Drums (1990). And he arrived a Greek island and went around monasteries of the Greek Orthodox Church in Rainy Days, Sunny Days (1990).
Characters
Narrator – A teacher of an elementary school. He born in Suginami, Tokyo, and raised in Tsudanuma, Chiba. He enjoyed read novels but studied history, because reading novels is his pure personal enjoyment. (5, p. 62) He loved Sumire, but she had no romantic feelings. (5, p. 64)
Sumire (Violet in Japanese) – A friend of the narrator, 2 years younger than him, and the narrator was in love with Sumire. She was born in Chigasaki, Kanagawa. She was named by Morzart’s song the Violet. After she graduated from a public high school in Kanagawa, she entered a little private college in Tokyo the narrator was enrolled. She dropped out the University in the sophomore year to be a novelist. But she wrote every night by a word processor, but couldn’t complete a novel. She wasn’t a beautiful but had a certain charm. She wore an oversized herringbone coat, a pair of rough work boots and a black plastic-framed Dizzy Gillespie glasses to become wild and cool like a character in Jack Kerouac’s novel. She has no sexual desire for men. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Sumire worked at Miu’s office and she was taken Italian private lessons twice a week.
Miu – A Korean married, beautiful, extremely lovely and slim woman, 17 years older than Sumire, born and raised in Japan, graduated Catholic strict but progressive junior high and high school, then studied at a music academy in France. But her father fell ill and she suffered a mysterious occurrence in a small town in Switzerland, she retuned to Japan and never touch keyboard again. After she abandoned studying and playing piano, she had taken over her father’s trading company, but then her husband and brother did main business, and she became a merchant of wine or something and a coordinator of music as her own private business. When she was 25 years old she suffered from “the Tale of Miu and the Ferris Wheel” (12), and her hair became white and lost half of her, then she stopped playing piano. She married at 29 years old, the private life is without making love and they see each other only at weekends, their life basically went well.
A girl friend – A lady friend of the narrator and a mother of narrator’s pupil. They slept together about twice a month. (5) His son “Carrot” was caught in the act of shoplifting. (15)
Sumire’s cousin (1) – Miu assisted or advised for her to taking an examination of a Music University. At her wedding ceremony, Sumire came across Miu.
father of Sumire (1, 14) – He run a dental clinic in Yokohama, Kanagawa.
mother of Sumire (1, 12) – When Sumire was three years old, she passed away at 31 years old by a congenital heart defect.
stepmother of Sumire (1, 14) – Sumire’s father remarried when she was six. A kind and fair person loved Sumire. When Sumire decided to quiet the collage and become a novelist, the stepmother persuaded the father to provide Sumire with a small stipend until she became 28.
younger brother of Sumire (1) – Two years after the remarriage, Sumire’s younger brother was born.
father of Miu (1)
a woman eight years older than the narrator (4)
husband of Miu (4) – A Japanese man is five years older than Miu and fluent in Korean. Because he studied at the Seoul University for two years. So, in fact he substantially run Miu’s company.
father of the narrator (5)
mother of the narrator (5)
older sister of the narrator (5) – Only sister of the narrator is five years older than him. She is very smart and matters outside of her sphere is nor concern. She graduated from Tokyo University law school and passed the bar exam the following year.
English gentleman – He owned a villa in a Greek island, and he recommended Miu and Sumire to stay there. (6, p. ; 8 p. 109)
Wealthy old Spanish lady (8, p. 109)
The policeman who spoke English (9, p. 131)
Ferdinando (12) – He was born from Barcelona, and moved for the small village in Switzerland to work in furniture design. A handsome, thirty-six, Latin, tall man with a thoroughly nose and dark straight hair, had a sexual desire for Miu. And his presence made Miu anxious.
Carrot (15) – A son of the lady friend of narrator, and a pupil of narrator. His real name is Shinichi Nimura, so he called Ninjin (Carrot).
Nakamura (15) – A security guard of the supermarket in Tachikawa.
Locations
Kunitachi – The narrator lived Kunitachi.
Kichijoji (- 5) – Sumire was living in a one-room apartment in Kichijoji.
Kanda (1, p. 15) – The second-hand bookshop Mecca in Tokyo.
Omote Sando – Miu and Sumire had a dinner. (3)
Harajuku – A cultural center of Tokyo, near Shibuya. There’s the office of Miu.
Aoyama (4) – Miu’s apartment was in.
Jungumae (4) – A district of Harajuku. Miu’s office is in.
Suginami (4)
Tsudanuma (5) – A bedroom suburb of Tokyo in Chiba prefecture.
Yoyogi Uehara (5) – Sumire moved to a usual apartment of Yoyogi Uehara.
Roma (6, p. 75)
A Greek Island (7 – 14) – A English gentleman whom Miu and Sumire came across, have a villa on the Island, and he recommended them to stay there. So they decided to stay as a vacation. (6) A so small island near the Turkish border. (7, p. 89) A pretty typical Geek island. The population ranged from 3,000 to 6,000, depending on the season. In summer, people are in business for the tourists, and, in winter, go elsewhere in search of work. The island has pretty limited industries, such as agriculture of ovules and fruits, fishing and sponge-diving. So majority of residents moved to Florida, where they could make use of their skills. The flat space is little and mostly steep and unforgiving hills, and there’s only one town along the south shore. (7, pp. 98 – 100)
Athens (10, 14)
Tachikawa (15) – A big town of suburban Tokyo next to Kunitachi.
Places
A posh hotel in Akasaka (1)
Inogashira Park (1, p. 13) – Sumire took a walk around the park in the afternoon.
Miu’s office (4) – Her own small office at Jingumae, Harajuku.
Acropolis (pp. 193 – 194)
Key Elements, Key Words & Key Phrases
Sputnik – When they talked about Kerouac, Miu slipped a tongue to say Sputnik, instead she wanted to say Beatnik (the literary movement includes Kerouac). Since Sputnik Sweetheart is private name for Miu in Sumire. (1, pp. 7 – 8) And Sputnik in Russian means “travelling companion”. (8, p. 108) “Like a little lost Sputnik?” (5, p.69) It maybe the symbol of Sumire and Miu, beings were in the other side.
writing, novel – Sumire want to write a “massive nineteenth-century-style Total Novel”, but she can write only fragmetns of novels, her writing had a remarkable freshness. (1) Writing is equal to playing piano. (4)
piano – Miu studied playing piano at a music academy in France. But she (4, )
Chinese gates – An allegory or a metaphor signifies a living, breathing and real novel needs a king of baptism or sacrifice. (1, pp. 16 – 17) Miu sacrificed every ounce of flesh, every drop of blood and everything for piano, but she couldn’t become a pianist. (4, pp. 52 – 53)
time and experience (1, p. 18 ; 3, p. 41)
sign and symbol – Abruptly, Miu asked Sumire about the difference between a sign and symbol. (1, pp. 24 – 25) A symbol represents a thing, but the thing is not the symbol. But a sign represents a thing, also the two things are equivalent and interchangeable. (2, pp. 30 – 31)
Spanish, Italian (1, 3)
Dark Night of the Soul called Scott Fitzgerald (2, p. 28)
talent (3, p. 41 ; 4, p. 44) – The woman eight years older than the narrator said “Some people are nimble, others are all thumbs … Some people are quite attentive, and others are’t.” (p.44) Both of them agreed the later is a good driver.
narutal ability (3, p. 41)
being alert (4, p. 45) – The notion implies Sumire can’t feel and comprehend deeply things and persons.
cucumber (4, p. 46) – It maybe a sign or metaphor of love affairs. Sumire can’t understand the meaning.
impoverrished intellect (4, p. 47)
PowerBook – The model Apple Computer, Macintosh PowerBook equips a floppy disk drive.
Marlboro (4, p. 53) – Sumire’s favorite tobacco brand. Originally Marlboro was made as a brand for women by Phillip Morris, but it became a symbol of cigarettes and the American masculinity and culture. Tobacco is her energy for to write novel and tranquilizer.
metaphor (4, p. 55)
observer, narrator, narratee (5, p. 59)
objective reality of things outside myself (5, p. 60)
invisible boundary (5, p.60)
football (5, p. 62) – It maybe the first time, a narrator of Murakami novels do sports.
defection (5, p. 67) – To come across and to associate with Miu changed the mind and body of Sumire, and lost something of her.
commune, kolhoz (5, p. 68)
fictional framework (5, p. 68)
Fiction = Transmission theory (5, pp. 68 – 69 ; 11, p. 145) – All today’s people are in fictional frameworks. Fiction is the method adjusts and fills in the gap between self and the real world in each of their own levels. But Sumire hadn’t been suited the story or the world of Miu yet, because she couldn’t use her transmission well. Also Sumire is a person can’t suit and control well her real story. For Sumire, to write fiction, story or text is the method to fill the gap between her mind or existence and the real world, and is the meaning of life. But she can’t use the method well though she seriously want to write a novel.
gang of intellectual refugees (5, p. 71)
illusion (6, p. 77)
Greek Orthodox monasteries (7, p. 99) – In Murakami's travel literature Rainy Days, Sunny Days, he went around Greek Orthodox monasteries.
Cat (8) – On chapter 8, there are three episodes about cats. And Miu told the narrator that “they are just a lot of harmless memories, but now everything seems significant.” (8, p. 117) It should be a metaphor of Sumire (for Miu). Cat is companion animal of man, but sometimes, it harms man physically and mentally. Sumire’s episode of a pretty little six month old tortoiseshell cat resembles a episode in Murakami’s essay Abandoning a Cat.
moonlight (9, p. 124), brilliant moonlight (13, p. 185), pallid moonlight (13, p. 186) – On Murakami’s works, moonlight reflects and reveals a shape of the truth. And moon is a symbol and an indication of the other side, and opens a door or a path to the other side.
the edge of the world (10, p. 137)
wells, a deep well (10, p. 138 ; 13, p. 181) On Murakami’s works, well is the (symbol of) path to the other side.
two texts rested in a floppy disc written by Sumire (10, 11, 12, 13)
Document 1 (11) – The content is philophical and literal reflections and confessions about writing, thinking and understanding, dream in which she met her dead mother, and love for Miu.
feeling of alienation (11, p. 144) – Sumire was a being like Sputnik covered by iron shell, and she was in the other world, so she adjusted the gap or reduced the alienation by writing.
thinking (11, p. 145) – “Thinking” Sumire mentioned is a kind of literal and philosophical thinking from zero. It is the pragmatic strategy keeps what we know and what don’t know as they are, and it’s a method for living and to existing in this world for Sumire. But she stopped writing and thinking when she had met with Miu.
Did You Ever See Anyone Shot by a Gun withtout Bleeding? (10, p. 143) & Blood must be shed. (10, p. 154) – These phrases mean to confess sexual love for Miu causes a risk, and if it would be rejected Sumire must live in this real world or she must vanish from this world if her love is rejected by Miu. And true expression of art needs lively force, reality and sacrifice.
Document 2 (12) – Document 2 is the despriction of Miu’s mysterious experience in a small town of Swiss, that Sumire heard from Miu. imaginary death. Her heart or real existence was dead.
Miu’s white hair (12)
the other side (13, p. 179, p. 181) – The common motif of Sumire’s documents must be the connection of “This side – the other side” (13, p. 180). The narrator thought Sumire went to see Miu on the other side.
dreams, dream (13, p. 181 ; 16, p. 226) – One of the important elements on this novel. The life in Tokyo of the narrator was ordinary and real. The vacation and experiences of Sumire, Miu and the narrator were dreamy. Miu and Sumire were beings lived in a kind of dream. And, our life can’t be divided reality from dream by stories or a personal story.
pasta (13, p. 183) – On Murakami’s works, spaghetti is the ominous sign of chaos and confusion.
loneliness (14, p. 193, p. 196)
subtle emotional imbalance (15, p. 206) – This notion compared and identified Carrot with Sumire.
empty shell (16, p. 224) – Miu is also a being has no reality, existence or heart like Sputnik equal to Sumire.
Cultural Things on This Novel
Jack Kerouac (1, p. 5, p. 7) – Sumire’s Literary Idol. She always carried On the Road or Lonesome Traveler in her coat pocket.
Morzart’s song "Das Veilchen" (The Violet, Sumire) (1, pp. 19 – 20) – Sumire was named by the song. Sumire was shocked when she first read the lyric written by Goethe, the content is a little violet is trampled by a callous shred’s daughter. And her name is the only tangible thing left by her mother.
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (1, p. 19)
Walter Gieseking (1, p.19)
Astrud Gilberto’s old bossa nova song (2, p. 34)
Dance of the Blessed Spirits (2, p. 35)
Sanchiro by Soseki Natsume (4, p. 43)
Pushkin (5, p. 62)
red Toyota Celica (5, p. 66 ; 15, p. 210) – The lady friend’s car.
old black-and-white Jean-Luv Godard movie (5, p. 70)
Toyota Hi-Ace (5, p. 80) – Toyota’s minivan, is contrast to the lady friend’s Celica.
The Greatest Hits of Bobby Dain minus Mack the Knife (5, p. 71)
Groucho Marx (5, p. 73)
Luc Besson (6, p. 75)
blue Alfa Romeo (6, p. 78)
Martha Argerich playing Listz’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (6, p. 81)
Giuseppe Sinopoli (6, p. 81)
Vivaldi festival in Venice (6, p. 81)
Huey Lewis and the News (6, p. 86)
two Joseph Conrad novels (7, p. 90) – In A Wild Sheep Chase, Joseph Conrad novel is in a desk of the Rat. It may signify an omnious sign of Sumire.
old Peugeot sedan (7, p. 95)
Julius Kathchen’s recordings of Brahms’s ballads (9, p. 120)
Sam Peckinpah film The Wild Bunch (11, p. 148)
The Blue Danube Waltz (12, p. 162)
Mozart songs ; Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Walter Gieseking (p) (13, p. 183 ; 16, p. 222)
Ben Webster on the tenor sax (15, p. 199)
Mysteries (Riddles) & Questions
Why Sumire suddenly disappeared ? – Sumire and Miu were beings beyond this world. She lost anything by her mother’s death in the childhood. Also Miu lost her existence by “the Tale of Miu and the Ferris Wheel” (12). And, for Sumire, Miu was the only person who share with her loneliness and could keep alive her. Sumire want to have sexual relation with Miu, but she rejected. So “Blood must be shed” (10, p. 154), because Sumire’s story was rejected, then Sumire extinguished herself.
Sumire’s last phone call in chapter 16 is a dream or an actual event ? – By the effect of Carrot’s shop lifting in chapter 15 as a silly and stupid but real event in Tokyo, readers can’t comprehend the last phone call of Sumire is a real event or a dream.
Thought & Philosophy
The narrator’s literary and philosophical reflection (5) – In chapter 5, the narrator reflected on the self, his relationship to Sumire, the meaning of writing and the impossibility of literature. I feel common sense, universality and reason of Murakami by this notion, but I felt his disgusting usualness too.
somehitng out of an existential play (10, p. 136) – I think this novel is something existentialist novel of persons have no existences and realities, describes the absurdity and the crossings of humane love.
Writing and thinking for (of) Sumire (11) – For Sumire, writing is the way for thinking. And thinking is the method like phenomenology, existentialism, Hegelianism or Nishida philosophy, for living in this world.
Synopsis
Sumire is a close friend of mine. She dropped the university at her sophomore year to become a novelist. And she visited my apartment on weekends, she showed me her manuscripts. I love her, but she didn’t have love feeling for me. At a time, she came across a merchant lady Miu, she became an assistant of Miu, then Sumire couldn’t write a novel.
Miu and Sumire went to France and Italy on business, on their way home, they dropped in a Greek island as a vacation. At the Greek island, Sumire suddenly disappeared. I went to the Greek island requested by Miu, but we can’t find Sumire. A day, I found two texts in a floppy written by Sumire…
Timeline
Sumire born and raised in Chigasaki, Kanagawa. (1) ↓ Sumire’s mother passed away at 31 years old when Sumire was 6 years old. (1) ↓ 2 years later, Sumire’s father remarried a woman. (1) ↓ After she graduated from a public high school in Kanagawa, she entered a little private college in Tokyo. (1) ↓ The narrator got to know Sumire at the collage. He was in love with Sumire but she wasn’t. (1) ↓ The narrator graduated the collage around the time sumire dropped out there to become a novelist. (1) ↓ On weekends, Sumire would visit narrator’s apartment to show her manuscripts the narrator. (1) ↓ Narrator told about the allegory of “Chinese gates”, then he and Sumire talked about “time and experience”. (1) ↓ After about a half a year later, in the spring of Sumire’s twenty-second year, Sumire and Miu first met at the wedding reception Sumire’s cousin, Sumire fell in love with Miu. And they talked about their circumstances, then Miu asked Sumire that she would work at her office. (1) ↓ Sumire and Miu had a dinner at Omote Sando, and they talked about Sumire’s backgound. (2) ↓ About two weeks after the wedding ceremony, at midnight (4:15 on Sunday) Sumire phoned the narrator and asked him about the difference between a sign and symbol. (2) ↓ The evening Sumire visited his apartment with an elegant outfit. (2) ↓ When Sumire visited Miu’s apartment, Miu showed Sumire gorgeous clothes of which Miu’s friend have more than enough. Because Miu got the clothes for Sumire to wear when she works, and Sumire shared shoes with Miu. (4) ↓ Sumire started working three days a week at Miu’s office. (4) ↓ At a midnight, Sumire phoned Narrator, and she talked about to stop smoking and writing. Then she said her novel-writing days are over and “I should shut the piano lid and come down the stage”. (4) ↓ Beginning of July, the narrator’s class went to mountain climbing in Okutama. (5) ↓ The next day, the narrator and Sumire at a café. They talked about Sumire’s defection by Miu, fictional framework and transmission. (5) ↓ Two weeks later, Sumire moved to an ordinary apartment of Yoyogi Uehara, and the narrator helped her. (5) ↓ Miu and Sumire tripped to Europe, and went around Italy and France on business. (6) ↓ The narrator suddenly got a letter from Roma, Italia by Sumire. (And Sumire wrote she will be back home around 15 August.) (6) ↓ They went to Venice to visit a Vivaldi festival in Venice. Then they returned to Milan and flew to Paris and Burgundy. (6) ↓ The second letter came from a obscure French village. And she wrote they changed their original plan to returning to Japan, and took a vacation in a Greek island. (6) ↓ In the village in Burgundy, Miu talked about her mysterious experience in a small town of Swiss , “The Tale of Miu and the Ferris Wheel”. (12) ↓ On the Greek island, Sumire wrote something on her PowerBook. (8) ↓ At the morning, four days after Sumire and Miu arrived the island, they spent the beach and talked about a report of a 70-years old lady in a small suburb of Athens and a Catholic old nun’s lecture and a pretty little six-month-old cat tortoiseshell cat leaped up a pine tree and vanished. (8) ↓ In the afternoon, at the cottage, Sumire so intently wrote Miu’s mysterious experience in a small town of Swiss on her laptop, and Miu listened to Brahms’s ballads. (9, 12) ↓ At the night, Miu’s bedroom, she found Sumire rolled up, head between legs, scrunched up and held a pink face facecloth in her mouth at the corner, she was stupefied. Miu cared Sumire on Miu’s bed and Sumire recovered. Then Sumire touched Miu’s body kissed her. But Miu refused Sumire’s act because she had lost anything of her heart 14 years ago, and Sumire sobbed into her pillow for a long time, then she went out the room. (9) ↓ Then Sumire disappeared. (7, 9) ↓ Next morning, Miu explained policeman who could speak English, but he paid no attention to the disappearance. (9) ↓ At 2 A.M., the day (before the new term at school began in ten days), the narrator coached a football practice and slept with his lady friend, he got Miu’s phone call from Greece. (6) And Miu asked him to come the Greek island as soon as possible. (7) ↓ The narrator prepared to trip to Greece and reflect the happening of Sumire. At first light he went to Narita. He went to Amsterdam by KLM, changed a plane and arrived Athens, then got on the 727 bound for Rhodes. Then he reached the island by a big ferry. (The eight days after Miu and Sumire had arrived the island.) (7) ↓ He looked and waited for Miu at a small café on harbour for a while. Then Miu appeared and she led him to taverna, and she didn’t talk about the “incident” of Sumire in detail while they eat dinner at a taverna. (7) ↓ Miu led the narrator to the cottage she and Sumire stayed. And he took a shower and shaved. (7) ↓ Miu explained the disappearance of Sumire to the narrator. Why they went to and stayed in the Greek island and how they spent their vacation in the island. (8) ↓ Miu left for Athens to explain about Sumire’s disappearance to the Japanese embassy and lead them to the island. (10) ↓ The narrator went to the beach Sumire and Miu had visited frequently, through the mountain of the island. (10) ↓ In the cottage, the narrator turned on Sumire’s Macintosh PowerBook and checked files in the hard drive, but there are documents related business only. Then he unlocked padlock of her suitcase by the telephone area code Kunitachi in which he lived, opened her suitcase, and found her diary and a floppy disk. (10) ↓ The narrator read two documents written by Sumire saved in the floppy disk. (11, 12) ↓ The narrator reflected that the two texts by Sumire and her disappearance at the café on the beach and in the cottage. (13) ↓ In the night, the narrator was awakened by loud live Greek music from the top of a mountain. He walked for the direction of the sound. On the top of the mountain, his body was bathed in the pallid moonlight, suffered awful chill, the unity of his body was collapsed and his cells rearranged. And he felt the shocking vision of the order of time and world was reversed, collapsed and stretched out endlessly. He became conscious, the music was over. He walked for the top and saw the coarse moon awfully near. (13) ↓ (…) (14) ↓ (…) (14) ↓ (…) (14) ↓ (…) (15) ↓ (…) (15) ↓ (…) (15) ↓ (…) (16) ↓ (…) (16) ↓ (…) (16)
Plots & Episodes (Plot & Episodes)
A. Sumire & Narrator
The narrator got to know Sumire at the collage. He was in love with Sumire but she wasn’t. (1) ↓ The narrator graduated the collage around the time Sumire dropped out there to become a novelist. (1) ↓ On weekends, Sumire would visit narrator’s to show her manuscripts for the narrator. (1) ↓ After two weeks after the wedding ceremony, at 4:15 AM, Sumire phoned the narrator and asked him about the difference between a symbol and sign. The evening Sumire visited his apartment with an elegant outfit. (2) ↓ At a midnight, Sumire phoned Narrator, and she talked about to stop smoking and writing. Then she said her novel-writing days are over and “I should shut the piano lid and come down the stage”. (4) ↓ Two weeks later, Sumire moved to an ordinary apartment of Yoyogi Uehara, and the narrator helped her. She said to him “I love you, next to Miu”, she leaned against his shoulder and held his hand. (5) ↓ The narrator suddenly got a letter from Roma, Italia by Sumire. (6) ↓ The second letter came from a obscure French village. (6) ↓ At 2 A.M. the (next) day, the narrator coached a football practice and slept with his lady friend, he got Miu’s phone call from Greece. (6)
(…) (16)
B. Sumire & Miu
In the spring of her twenty-second year, Sumire came across Miu at a wedding ceremony of Sumire’s cousin, and they talked about their circumstances, then Miu asked Sumire that she would work at her office. And Sumire fell in love with Miu. (1) ↓ Sumire and Miu had a sophisticated dinner at a restaurant on Omote Sando, and Miu officially requested to Sumire for work with her. (3) ↓ When Sumire visited Miu’s apartment, Miu showed Sumire gorgeous clothes of which Miu’s friend have more than enough. Because Miu got the clothes for Sumire to wear when she works, and Sumire shared shoes with Miu. (4) ↓ Sumire started working three days a week at Miu’s office. (4) ↓ A night, Sumire had a dinner with Miu. Miu said that she here now isn’t a real person and lost half of her fourteen years ago. (4) ↓ Miu and Sumire tripped to Europe, and went around Italy and France on business. (6) ↓ They went to Venice to visit a Vivaldi festival in Venice. Then they returned to Milan and flew to Paris and Burgundy. (6) ↓ They changed their original plan to returning to Japan, and took a vacation in a Greek island. (6) ↓ In the village in Burgundy, Miu talked about her mysterious experience in a small town of Swiss, “The Tale of Miu and the Ferris Wheel”. (12) ↓ On the Greek island, Sumire wrote something by her PowerBook. (8) ↓ At the morning, four days after Sumire and Miu arrived the island, they spent the beach and talked about a report of a 70-years old lady in a small suburb of Athens, a Catholic old nun’s lecture and a pretty little six-month-old cat tortoiseshell cat leaped up a pine tree and vanished. (8) ↓ In the afternoon, at the cottage, Sumire so intently wrote Miu’s mysterious experience in a small town of Swiss on her laptop, and Miu listened to Brahms’s ballads. (9, 12) ↓ At the night, Miu’s bedroom, she found Sumire rolled up, head between legs, scrunched up and held a pink face facecloth in her mouth at the corner, she was stupefied. Miu cared Sumire on Miu’s bed and Sumire recovered. Then Sumire touched Miu’s body kissed her. But Miu refused Sumire’s act because she had lost anything of her heart 14 years ago, and Sumire sobbed into her pillow for a long time, then she went out the room. (9) ↓ Sumire disappeared. (7, 9)
C. Narrator and Miu in a Greek Island
At 2 A.M. of a day, the narrator suddenly got Miu’s phone call from Greece. (6) And Miu asked him to come the Greek island as soon as possible. (7) ↓ The narrator prepared to trip to Greece and reflect the happening of Sumire. At first light he went to Narita. He went to Amsterdam by KLM, changed a plane and arrived Athens, then got on the 727 bound for Rhodes. Then he reached the island by a big ferry. (The eight days after Miu and Sumire had arrived the island.) (7) ↓ He looked and waited for Miu at a small café on harbour for a while. Then Miu appeared and she led him to taverna, and she didn’t talk about the “incident” of Sumire in detail while they eat dinner at a taverna. (7) ↓ Miu led the narrator to the cottage she and Sumire stayed. And he took a shower and shaved. (7) ↓ Miu explained the disappearance of Sumire to the narrator. Why they went to and stayed in the Greek island and how they spent their vacation in the island. (8) ↓ Then Miu talked about the occurrence of the night Sumire had vanished. (9) ↓ Miu took the narrator to the room Sumire had stayed. And the narrator stayed at the room. (9) ↓ Miu left for Athens to explain about Sumire’s disappearance to the Japanese embassy and lead them to the island. (10) ↓ (…) (14)
(…) (16)
a. Narrator’s love affair with eight years older woman in Kanazawa in his freshman year (4)
b. Narrator & his lady friend
The narrator and his lady friend met and slept with twice a month. (5) ↓ (…) (15, 16)
c. Miu’s strange experience at a small town in Switzerland near the French border (12) – “The Tale of Miu and the Ferris Wheel”
d. Narrator & Carrot
At a noon of the second Sunday after the new school term began in September, the lady friend phoned the narrator and requested to go to a supermarket in Tachikawa and to wear a suit. (15) ↓ (…) (15) ↓ (…) (15)
Important or Impressive Scenes & Descriptions
The narrator’s reflection on himself on the chapter 5 – I think it is Murakami literary and philosophical reflection and consideration to himself and writing novel.
The view of narrator and its reflection on the business lounge on Narita Air Port (7, pp. 92 – 93)
Sumire and Miu’s vacance on Greek island (8, pp. 109 – 111) – The description is beautiful. Miu said “There we were, sitting quietly on the edge of the world, and no one could see us. That’s the way it felt – like Sumire and I were only ones here.” (8, p. 111)
A report of a 70-years old lady in a small suburb of Athens, on an English newspaper (8, pp. 111 -112)
A Catholic old nun’s lecture (8, pp. 113 – 114)
Sumire’s reflection to self on “Document 1” (11) – The content is philosophical and literal reflections and confessions about herself, writing, thinking and understanding, dream in which she met her dead mother, and love for Miu.
“The Tale of Miu and the Ferris Wheel” (12) – Miu’s mysterious experience in a small town in Switzerland near the French border. When 25 years old, at a summer vacation, Miu stayed a small town in Switzerland, for doing business with a wine maker, though the business was simple and easy. She got acquaintance with a handsome Spanish man, Ferdinando at a café, bumped into him many times, and his presence caused her anxiety. One evening, after a dinner, she decided to enjoy the night air for a change, and went to a park with a Ferris wheel. She ride the Ferris wheel as a last ride of the day, but the attendant disappeared, she was shut in a car and the car stopped near the top. She watched her room of apartment by her binoculars and saw her doppelgänger lewdly made love with Ferdinando, then she lost consciousness and following memory. The next day Miu waked up at a hospital, and her hair became white. And she lost half of her, or real, living and sexual side of her. Then after the summer vacation, she didn’t returned the musical academy in France, she stopped playing and studying piano.
The narrator’s strange experience at the Greek mountain (13, pp. 184 – 188) – In a night, the narrator was awakened by loud live Greek music from the top of a mountain. He walked for the direction of the sound. On the top of the mountain, his body was bathed in the pallid moonlight, suffered awful chill, the unity of his body was collapsed and his cells rearranged. And he felt the shocking vision of the order of time and world was reversed, collapsed and stretched out endlessly. He became conscious, the music was over. He walked for the top and saw the coarse moon awfully near.
Comments & Remarks
This novel is the story of Sumire. And the story of the relation and distance between the narrator and Sumire, Sumire and Miu, and the narrator and Miu. The story is description about Sumire by the narrator like Nick Carraway in The Great Gatzby, and Sumire narrated or told the story to the narrator. Sumire was an interface of the narrator, to see the world and to understand himself. And the narrator narrate the story is not a neutral and fair act. There’s choices, selections and interpretations by the narrator. (5, pp. 59 – 60, 63 – 64 ; 14, p. 193 – 194) I think the narrator is a reader interprets the story in the concept of death of the author by Roland Barthes.
I think this novel resembles Murakami’s first romance Norwegian Wood very much. The relationship, the narrator-Sumire-Miu and Toru Watanabe-Naoko-Reiko is resemble. Also, positioning of characters, structure of story, last phone call, Reiko and Miu abandoned playing piano, Naoko and Sumire are the beings lost existences and emotionally unstable, they are resemble. I think Sputnik Sweetheart is the 90’s variation of Norwegian Wood that story is around 1969-1970. And the structure of many elements made the story and its content and meaning, then we have resemble feeling.
But, the difference between Norwegian Wood and Sputnik Sweetheart is the former is tragic, humid and melancholic. Instead, the latter is light, dry and refreshing.
The chapter 9 resembles the part of chapter 6 of Norwegian Wood, Toru Watanabe saw Naoko was beautifully lighten by moonlight.
The sub theme of this novel is writing, writing novel and story, and what is the story and writing.
Sumire wanted to write a novel and to be novelist, but she had no reality and existence, so by her fate she can’t complete a novel and must disappear in her youth. Also Naoko had no existence and suffered mental illnesses, so she can’t play music and must die in her youth.
Sumire is a person has a fate that she can’t write and complete a novel like the Rat in the Adolescence Triology, because she has no genuine genius or talent.
The ”Sputnik Sweetheart” is the secret nickname of Miu named by Sumire. So Sputnik Sweetheart is Miu, and Sputnik is Sumire.
Sumire and Miu are beings like a satellite or Sputnik, lost existence, reality and lively feeling. Their hearts were shunted by shell and went away from others by centrifugal force.
So, Sumire and Miu can’t express or perform true moving or emotion art expressions.
In this novel, few times it mentioned the word “lesbian (love)”. But rather than it, I think this novel expresses women’s platonic love and intimate friendship, and people in today can’t fall in love seriously and passionately.
The episode Sumire got and wears Miu’s friend’s clothes of which she have more than enough, resembles the episode of the wife of Tony Takitani.
I think chapter 5 is Murakami’s literary and philosophical reflection on self and his thought of writing novels. And this novel is a reflection on himself through Sumire by the narrator or Murakami.
Physicality and embodiment were a key of this novel, the narrator by Murakami plays a sport first time. Sumire and Miu are persons lost their physicality, so they can’t do and feel sexual love.
The narrator’s experiences in the Greek island is a kind of dream. “I couldn’t separate the bounty between what was real and what only seemed real.” (10, p. 135)
Carrot’s shoplifting is a real, foolish and tiny incident in Japan, contrast with dreamy and mysterious occurrences and the scene of the Greek island. And the occurrence of Carrot is contrasted and identified with one of Sumire. (15)
By a real, ordinary and boring occurrence in Tokyo in chapter 15, we can’t comprehend the phone call by Sumire is real or dream. (15, 16)
Details of the Book
Sputnik Sweatheart
Haruki Murakami (Author), Philip Gabriel (Translator)
Vintage Publishing, London, United Kingdom, 3 October 2002
240 pages, £8.99
ISBN: 978-0099448471
Haruki Murakami’s 12th long novel, but this content is a novelette in fact.
Form, Style & Structure
An experimental 18 chapters long novel describes occurrences during midnight by the objective third-person viewpoint. And each part is attached to pictures of a clock, and it shows the passage of time. Each chapter is basically divided by the episodes of Mari Asai, Eri Asai, Kaoru and Shirakawa.
The original Japanese hardcover edition is 294 paged book. But substantial content or plot of this novel is a novelette, and it isn’t the grand narrative. This novel only describes very long midnight occurrences during 7 hours.
Each plot progresses simultaneously and each plot and episode connect directly or indirectly in real or metaphorical meanings. It may signify fragmental connections and information in the internet space.
Characters
Mari Asai (1, 3, 5, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 18) – A boyish, quiet, plain and innocent girl with grey parka, blue jeans, yellow sneaker, varsity jacket, black-rimmed glasses, brown leather shoulder bag, Boston Red Sox cap and short black hair. A freshman of the University of Foreign Studies can speak Chinese and would study abroad in China. She couldn’t adapt to primary schools, so she went to a school for Chinese kids in Yokohama, so she can speak Chinese. She was going to study abroad in Beijing as an exchange student next Monday from the time of this story, until next June.
Eri Asai (2, 4, 8, 10, 11, 14, 16, 18) – The older sister of Mari. A beautiful, dainty, nervous and long black-haired girl and a university student of a private university studied sociology, and she was already modeling for magazines in middle school. She had a contrastive personality to Mari. Somehow she slept all the time in her bed for 2 months. It wasn’t a medical disorder, she sometimes used a toilet, ate meals and took a shower.
Tetsuya Takahashi (1, 7, 9, 11, 13, 16, 17) – An ex-classmate of Eri Asai, a university student and a lanky young man with short black leather coat, wrinkled olive-green chinos, brown work boots and long tangled hair. He played jazz trombone but quitted performing music, and determined to study law seriously.
Kaoru (3, 5, 6) – The manager of a love hotel, Alphaville. A large, solidly constructed and strong-looking woman. She had been a professional wrestler who played bad girl, but she hurt her back so she retired at twenty-nine years old.
Komugi (3, 6) – An employee of Alphaville. A young woman with red hair, an oversized pink T-shirt and jeans with holes. Komugi means wheat in Japanese, but it’s her real name.
Korogi (3, 6, 15) – Another employee of Alphaville, speaks in the Kansai or the Osakan dialect. Korogi means cricket in Japanese, but it’s not her real name. She used to be a usual office worker in Osaka, but the Great Hanshin Earthquake changed her surroundings and mind.
Guo Dongli (3) – A 19 years old Chinese girl, a prostitute and probably an illegal alien with black long hair and a beautiful body was probably the same age as Mari. She was resorted to violence and robbed everything by her “customer”. Probably, she was brought by a Chinese gang from Old Manchuria.
A man of Chinese Agent (3, 6, 9, 12) – A man around thirty with reddish dyed hair ponytail and sharp eyes, rides a big Honda sports bike, wears a full-face helmet and a tight-fitting black leather jacket. He appeared Alphaville to pick up Dongli. His passing Mari and Takahashi, and Shirakawa, implies accidental connections and encounters in the internet.
Man with No Face (2, 4, 8, 10) – A mysterious man wore a dark brown business suit with a perfectly fitted transplant mask. He shut into Mari the room in a TV screen.
Shirakawa (6, 7, 12, 14, 16) – A typical office worker who worked at an office of a high-tech company near Alphaville. Also, the man ruined Dongli, robbed her belongings and he ran away completely. He may be around forty years old and has certain intelligence and good humour.
Bartender (5) – A middle-aged or old man, a bartender of a bar near Alphaville and an acquaintance of Kaoru, who loves LP records of Jazz.
Uncle of Mari (5)
Taxi Driver (12)
Locations
Shibuya
Hiyoshi
Koenji – A suburban town in Tokyo, Tetsuya Takahashi lived. (1)
Tetsugakudo, Ekoda – The place Shirakawa’s home is in. (12)
Places
Denny’s – Family Restaurant (1, 3)
Hotel swimming pool in Shinagawa – Eri, Mari, Tetsuya and his buddy (boyfriend of Mari) met there two years ago. (2)
Eri’s Room (2, 4, 18) – A Room in which Eri Asai slept.
Alphaville (3, 6, 15, 16) – A love hotel is in Shibuya named by Jean-Luc Godard’s movie Alphaville, and Alphaville is a kind of dystopia, so it’s a kind of irony.
A room in the TV screen (4, 8 , 10, 14) – The room in the TV of Eri’s room. It resembles the office where Shirakawa was working, there’s no furniture and equipment and only the bed of Eri existed. It seems to be the world of Eri’s unconsciousness rejected people and the real world.
A small bar (5)
Skylark (5, 9)
Office of Shirakawa (VERITECH) (7, 12)
7-Eleven convenience store (7, 12, 18) – The convenience store in which Takahashi bought a pack of milk, an apple and a fishcake, Shirakawa bought a carton Takanashi low-fat milk and a large plastic container of yogurt, and placed the cell phone of Dongli next to packs of cheese. It is a typical third place and a point of network.
Tokyo District Court in Kasumigaseki (9)
A small narrow park (11, 13, 16)
Tower Records (11)
the drab storage basement (16) – The band of Takahashi was allowed to practice at night.
Music
Percy Faith and his Orchestra – Go Away Little Girl (1)
Curtis Fuller – Five Spot After Dark (1)
Burt Bacharach – The April Fools (1)
Martin Denny – More (3)
Ben Webster – My Ideal (5)
Duke Ellington – Sophisticated Lady (5)
Pet Shop Boys – Jealousy (5)
Hall and Oates – I Can’t Go for That (5)
Bach piano piece, Ivo Pogorelich performs the English Suites (7)
Francis Ray (9)
Scarlatti cantata sung by Brian Asawa (12)
A new song by the Southern All Stars (12)
Sonny Rollins’s – Sonnymoon for Two (16)
Sagao Shika – Bomb Juice (16)
Japanese hip-hop (18)
Cultural Things on This Novel
Mutsuo Aida (3)
Alphaville (5)
Blade Runner (6)
Edward Hopper Loneliness (7)
Love Story starred Ryan O’Neil (9)
Key Elements
Music – Music in this novel implies and produces flowing of the time. Pop music and easy listening music imply the ordinary and vulgar mood of contemporary Japanese city sceneries and the American management system of third places. Jazz music implies a warm atmosphere and a slow flowing of the time in midnight and the bar. Classical music produces a businesslike and solemn scene of an office.
Five Spot After Dark by Curtis Fuller (1) – Tetsuya first heard the recording and Curtis Fuller’s performance, it hit his heart, he felt trombone is the instrument for him, so he started to play it. And, the title identifies the story and the state of this story.
intellectual curiosity (1) – The keyword of entire this novel. This novel is described by the view of a collective intellectual curiosity.
Television (2, 4, 8, 10, 14, 15, 16) – A entrance to the world of unconsciousness. And a thing synchronizes spaces in the world, the same as clocks.
Boston Red Sox navy blue baseball cap (1)
Trombone – A instrument for a low-key guy. (1)
Adidas faded-green jersey (3) – A product of a German brand. And green is the colour of West Germany.
security-camera (6)
To truly create something (9)
A pencil with an eraser was stamped the name VERITECH (10)
A metaphorical sense (11)
Aspects of the interrelationship of thought and action (14)
Thought & Philosophy
In chapter 8, Tetsuya bought a carton of milk and an apple. To take milk and apple is an essential, fundamental and healthy act for human. It may be a privately resistance to the efficient and mechanical convenience store system and americanism. And he wears an orange Swatch made in Swiss.
Synopsis
At autumn midnight, in Shibuya, a 19 years old boyish and innocent girl, a student of the University of Foreign Studies, Mari Asai was reading a thick book at Denny’s. Her sister’s ex-classmate Tetsuya Takahashi found her and shared the table with her. Then Kaoru, the manager of a love hotel, Alphaville, got her to speak and help a Chines prostitute girl, Dongli who was ruined and robbed of her belongings.
Simultaneously, Mari’s older sister Eri Asai who had been slept for two months was shut into the room in a TV screen by the Man with No Face, and suffered meaningless violence…
Mari had grown by to come across night people, Takahashi, Kaoru, Korogi and a bartender. In the morning she got back home, got into Eri’s bed…
Plots & Episodes
A. ari Asai spent a midnight in a city
B. Eri Asai in her room with a Man with No Face
C. Kaoru
D. Shirakawa
Impressive Scenes
Summaries, Keywords & Comments of Each Chapters
1
11:56 P. M.
The view like a high-flying bird looked over a city from above, then approached the ground and described the appearances of an amusement district and people.
eyes of a high-flying night bird ; single gigantic creature ; single collective entity
In Denny’s, Mari Asai, a boyish and quiet girl, sat alone at a four-person table, read a thick hardback book and smoked cigarettes. She seemed to hope for the time passing faster.
anonymous and interchangeable
A lanky young man with a big trombone case approached Mari and he ratrher forced to shared with table with her. And he ordered chicken salad and crispy toast. So Mari explained the cruelty of breeding chickens. They talked the meeting at a hotel pool at Shinagawa, Tetsuya’s deep scar on his right cheek and a not-enough crispy toast made by Japanese industriousness and high-tech culture.
chicken salad ; George Orwell ; peach melba ; Japanese industriousness and high-tech culture and the market principles ; of what value is a civilisation ; intellectual curiosity ; low-key guy ; side dish ; Chinese (language) ; name
Tetsuya’s critique to the crispy toast implies the Japanese economic and business system and technology are influenced by it of the United States, and Japanese uniquely and highly developed it. But they should use it and live in it.
Tetsuya’s words “low-key guy” and “side dish” impliy main characters of this novel, Mari, Tetsuya and Kaoru are not the heroine or hero type.
Then Tetsuya said Mari and Eri have wildly different personalities, despite they are born to the same parents and grew up in the same household. Then Tetsuya talked about a story about three brothers in Hawaii. Moreover Tetsuya explained why he plays trombone. When he left the Denny’s to go to a practice of his band, he left a memo of the number of his cellphone.
some kind of moral ; curiosity ; Hiyoshi ; Koenji ; trombone ; Five Spot After Dark ; Tower of Power
2
11:57 P. M.
The camera or our viewpoint watched Eri Asai was sleeping in her room. She slept deeply and unusually. The camera captured Eri’s highly decorated room.
threshold that separates the organic from the inorganic ; enveloped in warm wax ; digital clock
At 0:00 TV screen of Eri’s room begun to flicker and unstably shaped something. The screen shows a room like a classroom, in which only an old wooden chair existed. And a rather thin man with dark clothing sat on the chair, and something was about to happen in the room.
something of great significance
3
12:25 A. M.
Mari still sat down at the seat of Denny’s and read the thick book. A large and solidly constructed woman, an acquaintance of Tetsuya, Kaoru approached Mari, she asked Mari that she can speak Chinese and come with her to help a Chinese girl in a mess. And Mari and Kaoru left Denny’s and Kaoru paid the bill.
deeper stage of night ; vegetable sandwich ; laptop ; text-messaging ; cellphone ; don’t want to sleep ; Chinese
Mari and Kaoru reached a love hotel, Alphaville. Kaoru introduced her employee Komugi and Korogi to Mari. Mari met a Chinese girl was resorted to violence, Guo Dongli, and talked with her at a guest room. They left the room for another customer, Mari helped Dongli put a thin bathrobe.
love hotel ; Alphaville ; lots of different business in the world
They went to the hotel office. Kaoru treated Dongli by a first-aid kit and clothed her a panty of vending machine and an Adidas faded-green jersey top and bottom. Dongli called the agent used by the telephone of the office, and she said a man of the agent would come to pick her up.
The men of the agent came to pick up Dongli. When he left, Kaoru claimed to pay the bill of the room. He gave seven thousand-yen bills to Kaoru, then he and Dongli left for somewhere.
big, tough-looking Hand sports bike ; pretty gutsy ; give-and-take
4
12:37 A.M.
In Eri’s room, she was still sleeping. In the room, on the TV screen, a man wore a dark brown business suit with a translucent mask perfectly fits him sat down a chair. The Man with No Face stared sleeping Eri from the screen. The TV screen flickered and the noise sounds like someone’s brain waves.
5
1:18 A.M.
Mari and Kaoru walked down a deserted backstreet and went to a small bar. Kaoru drank draught beer and Mari drank Perrier with lime juice. Mari talked about the complex to her older sister Eri and her personal history from childhood. She adapted to schools and went a school for Chinese kids in Yokohama. And Mari said he never had a boyfriend. Then Mari asked the reason of the love hotel named Alphaville, but Kaoru didn’t know the reason, so Mari answered the hotel probably named by the movie Alphaville by Jean-Luc Godard and explained its irony. Mari and the bartender talked about why he likes LPs.
stainless-steel nerves ; Chinese ; University of Foreign Studies ; freelance translator or interpreter ; ugly ; cute ; individuality ; Yokohama ; Snow White ; LPs ; CDs ; time moves in its own special way in the middle of the night
Ugly or not beautiful girl is a frequently appeared motif on Murakami’s works.
LP record implies slowly time flowing and warm atmosphere and space of the bar.
1:56 A.M.
In a washing room of Skylark family restaurant, Mari carefully washed her hands, watched a mirror and bit her lip and nodded several times to reflect and check something.
Pop music came floating up from speakers implies a miscellaneous and vulgar atmosphere of family restaurants and city sceneries.
6
2:19 A.M.
In the office of Alphaville, Kaoru checked the suspect by a computer and a security-camera DVD.
security-camera DVD ; ten fifty-two ; digital gizmos ; psycho ; 10:48
Kaoru, Korogi and Komugi specified the customer ruined Dongli on the movie. He looks a typical company man with a light grey trench coat, dress shoes and small wire-frame glasses. They discussed and concluded he must be an office worker treats computer-sofware in a company near here, works during midnights. Kaoru printed the image 5 copies. She called back to the Chinese agent and asked them to want a print of the man.
light grey trench coat ; small wire-frame glasses ; Blade Runner ; van Gogh
In the front of Alphaville, Kaoru hand 3 copies of the photo to the man of Chinese agent. Kaoru told the man if you find the man then let her know.
ghosts
7
2:43 A.M.
Mr Shirakawa, a man was photographed by the security camera at Alphaville, worked with a compute at an office, was listening to Bach’s the English Suites with name brand outfits. The wife of Shirakawa phoned Shirakawa
VERITECH ; Bach piano piece ; Edward Hopper Loneliness ; watch ; Armani ; Starbucks ; macchiato ; Chinese (midnight snack) ; Microsoft ; imagination ; Takanashi low-fat
In a convenience store, Tetsuya Takahashi took a carton of Takanashi low-fat milk but he returned it, then he picked up regular one, an apple and a plastic-wrapped fishcake and bought them. He left the store, sat on a guard rail, gulped the milk down and ate the apple.
fundameltal moral problem ; milk ; apple ; fishcake ; orange Swatch
Milk and apple are sources of life and symbols of health. And to take milk and apple is a fundamental act of human, implies a resistance to the convenience store system.
8
3:03 A.M.
In Eri’s room, Eri was vanished from her bed. On the TV screen, Eri Asai lay asleep on a single bed of andorned wood identical to her bed. The Man with No Face was watched over Eri through his mask. The image looked paused, but it was live image sent in real time, and Eri and the Man kept breathing, maintained total silence and guarded their their entrances of awareness.
passage of time ; silence ; light of full moon ; the real bed ; live image ; same temporality ; the same speed down the same river of time
The light of full moon or moon signifies the world of loss of life.
9
3:07 A.M.
Mari was sitting on a seat by the window in Skylark. Takahashi came in Skylark and headed straight for Mari’s table by the information by Kaoru, and he shared with the table and talked with Mari. He said he was enjoying performing music, but he can’t play music really creatively, so he decided to start to study law seriously and to take the National Bar Exam. Takahashi told why he decided to study law and talked about a cinema Love Story starred Ryan O’Neil.
little square sandwiches ; herbal tea ; coffee ; darkest part of the night ; the hardest part ; between playing well and playing really creatively ; kind of shared state; study law ; Tokyo District Court in Kasumigaseki ; a different kind of human being ; different world ; thick, high wall ; weird creature ; giant octopus ; signs ; numbers
In Murakami's novels, performing music is a practical mental treatment and an act of tracing stories. And, by Murakami’s notion, on performing Music and to create something, it needs a special genius or gift to concentrate and enjoy, not a skill or technique.
District court is a place of story, trial is a symbol and a turning point of person’s story and life. But the trial system is a self-acting huge system throws into confusion and spoils people and changes them into a sign or a number.
When Mari and Takahashi walked down a street, a man of Chinese agent passed close to them.
This scene implies the network type communication.
Takahashi answered to Mari, why he got to know Kaoru, and why he lived by himself. Then Mari smiled the first time to Takahashi.
10
3:25 A.M.
Eri was still sleeping on the bed in the TV screen, she floated an ocean of pure thought. And the Man with No Face watched her. We looked a tiny movement at the corner of Eri’s mouth.
lifeboat floating in a calm sea ; ocean of pure thought devoid of waves or current
The viewpoint entered the room in the TV screen. Eri was still sleeping. Her consciousness was gradually and slowly awaken. Her eyelids opened but the eyes snapped shut again. Because her consciousness seemed to resist awakening.
consciousness ; bodily functions
She was raised herself in bed, tried to trace her memory back but she can’t do it. Then she got out from the bed, lowered to the floor and approached to the window. She strained to see outside from the window, but there’s no scenery. She inspected the room, but the switches of ceiling lights were not reacted and the two doors were shut.
Who are you ? What are you doing here ? ; no scenery ; uncoloured space like a pure abstract idea ; unbroken sound of silence ; signals of rejection ; independent creature
Our viewpoint noticed the room resembles the office of Shirakawa. And the room was forgotten by the world, and was plunged to the sea. She squatted down and a pencil with an eraser stamped with the name Shirakawa’s office VERITECH. She reflected the her situation but she couldn’t comprehend why she was in the room all alone and the situation is a reality or dream. So she decided to sleep on the bed to return to the real world.
the bottom of the sea ; silence ; mouldy smell ; place like this all alone ; afterlife ; dream ; reality
Our viewpoint drew back, the smaller grows the shape of the room, the it was gone. When we became conscious, we were back in Eri’s room. The TV only displays sandstorm and sounded harsh static. Then the room grew darker and the total darkness arrived.
vacuum of nothingness ; sandstorm ; harsh static ; total darkness
This description implies the connections of macro to micro, maximum to minimum, the entire to a part and consciousness to unconsciousness.
This scene is a variation of throning a wall in Dance Dance Dance and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
11
3:42 A.M.
Mari and Takahashi were sitting on a bench of a small narrow park near Alphaville, they talked. Takahashi told he had met Eri at the front of Tower Records, and they had a deep personal talk. Mari told she was lived a different world to Eri’s, then Takahashi said Eri might have a kind of complex to Mari, and there was no answer because Mari was still in a preparatory stage. Mari answered him that the Chinese girl was 19 years old too, she lived in a different world but she wanted to be a friend of her, and she became a part of Mari. Takahashi told Eri maybe was in am other place like Alphaville, and she suffered meaning violence by somebody in a metaphorical senses, as an expression of her feeling of agony.
late-autum white moon ; allergies ; Snow White ; hardy shepherd girl ; every kind of pill ; pills, fortune-telling and dieting ; therapist or psychiatrist ; million miles away ; hypothetically talking ; different worlds ; history ; complex ; preparatory stage ; metaphorical sense
Moon emerges the world of passing away and the truth.
The talk between Mari and Takahashi signifies there were (accidental) connections and syncs among three girls, Eri, Mari and Dongli in a metaphorical sense.
12
3:58 A.M.
In the office, Shirakawa did exercise such as sit ups and knee bends. He went to a lavatory, wipe the sweat from his body and wore his shirt and tie. He stared at himself long and hard in the mirror. After Shirakawa had left, Shirakawa’s reflection or image still was there, it stared straight ahead, then its hands rubbed cheek like checking for the touch of flesh.
Scarlatti cantata ; part of daily routine ; temporary freeze ; to bring the advance of time to a halt
Shirakawa returned to the office and examined the items and clothes he robbed from Dongli. He put the items into a plastic garbage bag except a prepaid type small flip cell phone, and put it in a pocket of his trousers. Then he called a cab and went out into the front of building.
the same pencil as the one on the floor of the room in which Eri Asai woke up, stamped with the name VERITECH ; six identical pencils ; all worthless grabage ; shabby traces of the recent past ; three ten-thousand-yen bills
Shirakawa got into the cab, asked the driver to go to Tetsugakudo, Ekoda. On the way to home, he dropped in a 7-Eleven convenience store, threw away the garbage bag in a garbage can of the sotre, placed the cell phone of Dongli next to the boxes of cheese, and bought a carton of Takanashi low-fat milk and a container of yogurt. He got into the cab again and fell asleep. While waiting for the green light, next to the taxi, also the bike of the man of Chinese agent was waiting for the light.
13
4:09 A.M.
Mari and Takahashi was still talking in the park, then got out and took a walk. Mari asked Takahashi that she wanted to go to Alphaville.
On the way to Alpaville, Mari said she didn’t want to talk about why Eri didn’t awake. So Takahashi told his circumstance and history. At the front of Alphaville they promised have breakfast together at a restaurant makes a good omelette Takahashi knew.
Red Sox cap ; somebody give it to me ; I don’t know a thing about baseball
Mari’s Red Sox cap implies the randomness of things and knowledge of the internet era, and usualness of the American culture.
14
4:25 A.M.
In Eri’s room, from inside the TV screen, Eri was looking out, pressed her hands against the glass and shouted something, but it did reach outside. Then Eri reflected her situation, told precisely it and she tired of to tell. And she could see her room from the screen, and watched attentively her own items of her room. The image of TV screen trembled, Eri was upset, the meaning of her physical self begun to eroding then the image was extinguished.
contact point ; circuit hilltop ; meaning of her physical self is eroding ; nothingness ; silence
The same time, in the kitchen of Shirakawa’s house, he ate yogurt and watched a TV programme, Creatures of the Deep.
aspects of the interrelationship of thought and action ; Thought and action continue to operate in concert.
15
4:33 A.M.
In a guest room of Alphaville, Mari and Korogi watched Creatures of the Deep by a larger TV set. Korogi lost interest and turned off the TV. Korogi talked about her personal circumstance. She had been an usual office worker, but by the time around the Kobe earthquake any incidents occurred, so she escaped from somebodies.
personal question ; real name ; the Kobe earthquake ; dream ; mark of some kind ; three diagonal lines like a bird’s footprint
Earthquake is not only a disaster breaks physical bodies and things, but also shakes, breaks and changes human minds.
Then Mari spoke to Korogi about her sister Eri. Just two month before, Eri had only to slept except doing minimum needed to keep herself alive such as to go to toilet, to take a shower and change her pyjamas. Korogi told her sister might have some big problem and want to got away from the flesh-and-blood world.
some big problem she’s trying to deal with ; beautiful ; transparent ; Sleeping Beauty
Mari and Korogi talked about reincarnation. Mari said after the passed away, there’s only a nothingness. But Korogi said she believe the reincarnation and there’s kind of salvation. And Korogi said people stay alive while they burning memories as fuel, include bad memories. Then Korogi got out of the room to work.
reincarnation ; nothingness ; memories ; racing with my own shadow ; memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive
16
4:52 A.M.
At the storage basement, the band of Takahashi practices Sonny Rollins’s “Sonnymoon for Two”. Takahashi played a long solo by trombone, then the four horns joined for the final theme. And they took a ten-minute break, only Takahashi hung a instrumental case and left the basement.
technique ; almost conventional phrasing
5:00 A.M.
In the Kitchen of Shikawa’s house, on the TV, the NHK 5 o’clock news begun. The pain when he had attacked Dongli still remained. He took a green Perrier bottle and cool the back of his hand. He want to sleep but he can’t fall asleep.
pain with memories ; the night is nearly over
5:07
A room in Alphaville, Mari was napping
5:09
Eri was back on the real world then. She was sleeping in her own bed. The strange events occurred in the room had ended.
heavy silence ; waveless, mirrorlikek surface of the water of thought ; cause and effect ; synthesis and division maintain their equibrium
5:10
Inside the 7-Eleven store, Takahashi choose food and picked up a tuna sandwich pack and a carton of milk. The cell phone was put by Shirakawa, begun to ring. Takahashi took it and answer. A man said “You’ll never get away.” “We’re going to tap you on the shoulder some day.” a few times, then the connection is cut.
5:24 A.M.
At the park near Alphaville, Takahashi called Mari by his cell phone. Mari answered she didn’t want to eat breakfast, so Takahashi suggested he take Mari to the station.
cresent moon ; the new day ; the old one
17
5:38 A.M.
(…)
18
6:40 A.M.
(…)
6:43 A.M.
(…)
6:50 A.M.
(…)
6:52 A.M.
(…)
Remarks
In this novel, Murakami splendidly described the situation, state, atmosphere and communication in the network and global age and the 00’s internet and cellphone era. The era in which people connect through the internet and cellphones, and meet at third places such as family restaurants, convenience stores, fast-food shops and Starbucks café as points of networks. Third places connect things and people from global to local.
This story is the story of to connect, to sync and to exchange symbols, metaphorical meanings or something among three girls (Mari, Eri and Dongli), and between Mari and night people, Eri and Man with No Face, and Dongli and Shirakawa.
Concerning C. S. Lewis’s The Four Loves, three girls exchanged agape, Mari and adults exchanged philia, then Mari got eros and Eri recovered it.
Also this story is a story of occurrences of very long midnight of Mari Asai between 7 hours. Mari was concerned and talked with adult night people, exchanged kindness and tenderness, then she grew up. I think this novel is short as a long novel, very long as a story of 6 or 7 hours occurrences. Because there are lots of short chattings and objective descriptions.
The third-person point of view looks like the view of Google Earth and Google Street View.
Clocks and television in this novel sync places in the world. Also television is the entrance to the world of subconsciousness.
Mari knew Curtis Fuller's Five Spot After Dark, her most favourite movie is Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville, and wore a Boston Red Sox cap (She was given the cap by a friend only, and was not interested in baseball.). These descriptions mean randomness of knowledge in the global culture and the internet.
Takahashi’s saying “Say your sister is in some other Alphaville kind of space—I don’t know where—and somebody is subjecting her to meaningless violence”, and Mari’s reply “In a metaphorical sense?”. (p.130) ”Aspects of the interrelationship of thought and action” (p. 153) of which Shirakawa considered. They imply the most important theme of this novel. There are proper and accidental connections in physical and metaphorical senses in the world, for better or worse, like a network or the internet. So the world is moving and changing.
Another theme of this book is Murakami’s question of China or answer to China in the 00’s. Dongli was assaulted by Shirakawa and left her as she was. Mari was going to study abroad in China.
Details of the Book
After Dark Haruki Murakami (Author), Jay Rubin (Translator) Vintage Books, London, 5 June 2008 208 pages, £6.99 ISBN: 978-0099506249