Francesca answers “What in the world does this even...”

Anirban Mohanty asked this question about A Wild Sheep Chase:

What in the world does this even mean? "It is rather our role to take what unrealistic factors that exist and to work them into a more sophisticated form that might be grounded in the grand scheme of reality. The doings of men run to unrealities. Why is that? Because it appears simpler. Added to which, there are circumstances whereby unreality contrives to create an impression that overwhelms reality."

Francesca "it is rather our role..." = To me this part means that it is part of the human experience to take what life throws at us that's unexpected("unrealist…more"it is rather our role..." = To me this part means that it is part of the human experience to take what life throws at us that's unexpected("unrealistic factors") and work it into our lives and make the best out of it("grounded into the grand scheme of reality")

"the doings of men.." = This part means that when people do things, like create advanced societies and have sophisticated conversations about philosophy, we are going to run into problems like paradoxes in philosophy or really difficult problems that come from societal constructs(like now that we made society, we have to deal with taxes, which aren't technically real but are imposed upon us in society therefore we must obey) "appears simpler" speaks to how society makes things sound really easy because we have made an advanced society where healthcare, if it's accessible, is somewhat easy compared to 'caveman' times.

"added to which..." = this part is the most confusing but I see it as all of our societal constructs coming together to make life harder than it is or should be because we advanced so far that when we are faced with, say, a really odd occurrence or coincidence or some kind of 'spiritual experience' that is outside our "reality"(known science, or current social structures, for example) we can become confused and lost because of all these "unrealistic" things we have already broken up into very small pieces and made part of our society(for example-- for many people religion can be a ritual and it's a comforting, integral part of their lives but if they were to have an extremely intense survival experience that culminated in a near-death escape from an animal and religion got them through it... it's going to be harder for that person to go back into society with that massive 'unreality' experience behind them... but they might keep it to themselves in order to be part of 'normal society' even though religion once was a comfort and courage for people who regularly did things like fight animals in the wilderness)

to me, Murakami is making a point about civilization and its dangers/our reactions to strange experiences and how people make them part of their reality. doesn't mean I'm "right", though, as this is 100% open to interpretation :)(less)

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A Wild Sheep Chase

by Haruki Murakami

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