isthisthewormuniverse?

     I've always appreciated how Murakami is able to write characters that, even when you don't particularly like them, are deeply relatable. I also feel like I had no idea where the novel was going next the entire time reading it. Reading Murakami is like being stuck in a dream, and then by the end of it trying to piece things together that can feel nonsensical. Only to realize that as Murakami suggests, the line between dreams and reality is not distinct:

"There are symbolic dreams, dreams that symbolize some reality. Then there are symbolic realities, realities that symbolize a dream. Symbols are what you might call the honorary town councillors of the worm universe. In the worm universe, there is nothing unusual about a dairy cow seeking a pair of pliers. A cow is bound to get her pliers sometime. It has nothing to do with me."

    This novel prompted me to think a lot about free will, about loneliness, about one's control or lack there of their own excellence or mediocrity, about the extent to which we have any control over our own lives, about how easily identity is lost.

    Boku's as a character begins the novel with no ambition or direction. He doesn't have anything driving forces in his life or aspirations for the future. But his moments of insight suggest he may be 'unmotivated' for good reason. He doesn't succumb to the capitalist ambition he sees as destructive, "the kind of money in the world. It aggravates you to have it, makes you miserable to spend it, and you hate yourself when its gone. And when you hate yourself, you feel like spending money". He has trouble being present, and can't bring himself to enjoy things like he once did, yet has no trouble falling asleep every night. 

    By the end of the novel, Boku has been propelled into a seemingly purposeless chase. But here he is confronted with his isolation, in the abandoned home in Hokkaido that houses the Rat's buried body, where an alternate of Boku is revealed, where a time pendulum can be suspending and restarted at will, where time stops and reality seems suspended, where Boku's ex-wife stands with a white slip in hand. "Cells replace themselves", she says. The end of the novel, with its magical realist elements and confusing plot twists, subverts the readers understanding of the line between dream and reality, and leaves one with a feeling of confusion and loss. Boku's departure into the 'worm universe' may signify a new beginning for him, leaving the relics of his past in this abandoned space, and possibly being given the chance to start anew. 

- Gia