Kafka on the Shore

[Sarah]

Travis, Rusalka and myself will be reading Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami in June. Anyone want to join us? Should be a good one.

[Sarah]

I thought I'd put the Murakami bingo card here for us.

[Sarah]

So, are we starting this after the toppler? I have to set a book aside (the group read) for the toppler so I'd quite like to finish that first before delving in to this one. How about you guys?

[Rusalka, Moderator]

After the toppler makes sense to me. I don't want to pick it up for one day, then put it down for the toppler and have to start again!

So 10 points for laziness!

[Sarah]

I think once I start a Murakami book, I won't want to put it down. Mainly because I might lose track of what the hell is going on.

[Travis]

Sounds like a plan man

[Madhav]

Hi everyone. I am kind of new here, and I have had Kafka on the Shore in my bookshelf for quite some time now. So, I would like to join too.
Also, what's a toppler ?

[Sarah]

Madhav wrote: "Hi everyone. I am kind of new here, and I have had Kafka on the Shore in my bookshelf for quite some time now. So, I would like to join too.
Also, what's a toppler ?"

Welcome Madhav. It would be great for you to join us in the buddy read. We will probably start around the 12th June. A toppler is like a readathon. For more information, check out this thread - https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... This month it is a week long one and we are put in to teams. More information on this months toppler can be found here https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... If you'd like to participate, you can sign up here https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Janice, Moderator]

Madhav wrote: "Hi everyone. I am kind of new here, and I have had Kafka on the Shore in my bookshelf for quite some time now. So, I would like to join too.
Also, what's a toppler ?"

Welcome Madhav. Glad to have you join us.

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Welcome Madhav. Would be lovely to have you join us for this read, the toppler, or both!

[Madhav]

Thanks Sarah, Janice and Rusalka . Looking forward to the buddy read.

[Sarah]

You guys ready to read this yet? I've just finished my current read and was wondering whether to start this or not. If you guys aren't ready yet I can squeeze in another book.

[Rusalka, Moderator]

I'm trying to finish my old read, but am very much expecting to put it down for this. So, Travis?

[Sarah]

I was in book limbo. Which was hell. So I started this on my train journey to work. I have lots on over the next few days and in to the weekend as our boat is coming out of the water so whilst I've got a head start, I'm likely to fall behind.

[Travis]

Sure thing. Kind of forgot about this but I never started a book after finishing my final one on Saturday so Kafka it is.

[Sarah]

I've read the first few chapters (up to the end of chapter 4). I am instantly drawn in to Murakami's writing. It feels good to be back there. I have lots of questions already and I am very curious how this is going to pan out. I like the short chapters. (view spoiler)[Like with Hard Boiled Wonderland,
this is split in to two timelines. Well at the moment anyway.
We have Kafka's story and then the chapters which are classified files. Not sure if it's the same time period or not and I am wondering how those chapters will relate to Kafka's story.

I want to know why Kafka left home. What happened to his mum and sister. Who Crow is. 15 is young to leave home. I was about to ask why he would want to live in a library but I guess we all know the reasons for that and secretly would love that.

The kids being gassed or whatever happened is intriguing. Just the one which didn't regain consciousness. I wonder why. What was the purpose of gassing them. Mistake or intentional?!
(hide spoiler)]

[Travis]

With the heat and humidity I didn't start this or any book at all last week. Just seemed to uncomfortable wearing a hot headphone. I should be able to get at it this week. It's much cooler

[Sarah]

No worries Travis. I don't blame you for not wanting to wear the headphones. It's hot here right now and I don't want to do anything. Currently laying on the floor as it's the coolest place in my boat.

[Rusalka, Moderator]

I just haven't gotten through my last book. But I have a 2 hour wait at the airport tomorrow and a 2 hour flight. So I will finish the old book and start on this one. Yay!

[Sarah]

OK cool. I'm not getting much read anyway. I can't think straight.

[Rusalka, Moderator]

I'm selfishly happy for the heatwave then. And rethinking my packing for a month's time.

[Sarah]

Lol. It is currently uncharacteristically consistently hot right now. But UK weather can shift about so much who knows what it will be doing by the time you're here.

[Travis]

I read probably up to around Sarah. Been through the library and quit when Nagata? Is introduced talking to a cat

[Sarah]

Yes that's where I am now Travis. I think the bingo card might get a workout with this book.

[Travis]

Oh the bingo card will fill right up. This one gets strange

[Sarah]

Here are a few more thoughts up to where I'm at end of chapter 6 (view spoiler)[I found it interesting when the guy talks about gender.
How in ancient times, people weren't simply male or female, but one of three types: male/male, male/female or female/female. Made out of the components of two people. Then God changed things and cut everyone down the middle and everyone just a single gender but then everyone continues to search for their other half. I like it's implication that this could be why some males are feminite, some females are masculine and why some people have gender identity issues.

So we meet Nakata and the talking cat. This conversation is so weird. Firstly we have a talking cat. And secondly a guy who can talk to cats. I liked the cat's perspective on Nakata's intelligence. I had to laugh when the cat was talking about sex and accidents being the two reasons why cats disappear. When he mentions sex and asks Nakata if he knows what it is, he says it's to do with your willy. The cat talks about Nakata's shadow which is intriguing considering in hardboiled wonderland the guy had his shadow removed. Is it the same world? The cat also goes on to say that he met someone before with a faint shadow but cannot remember where, who or when. Did the cat meet the guy from Hardboiled Wonderland?
(hide spoiler)]

[Travis]

Murakami is the best to reread. It feels more like the first time actually. I just finished chapter 14. First time I've known where I was. I do like your idea, Sarah, on the the similarities between this and hard boiled and am keeping that story in my head.

Basically we have the three main story lines and how do they all fit together. We know by this point how two of them are connected but certainly there is more details to come

[Sarah]

I guess you are listenung to the audio Travis. I have a kindle version. Some bits of text are in bold. It was like it in chapter 1 and now again in the current chapter i'm in (chapter 9). I'm not sure what it's all about. It must be significant. Curious how that works on audio.

[Sarah]

I'll come back and comment later. Still have my commute home to read a few more chapters. Really liking the book.

[Travis]

It may straight my brain too much but like you say the bold implies something important or some significance. If you could maybe share part that's in bold. I don't expect you to write the whole book but I would be curious to see if I can figure how the bold is being put into audio

[Travis]

On a similar note the narrator gives Nakata a slow very enunciated speech. I'm curious as to the dialogue in printed form. Is there an indication of the way he speaks the way it is typed or is this the narrator adding to a character

[Sarah]

Just edited my spoiler in msg 26 about gender as i missed a bit off.

I will sort out some quotes that are in bold for you tomorrow Travis. I'm wondering if(view spoiler)[he hears voices and this is one of those voices. I'm starting to wonder if Crow might be a figment of his imagination too. (hide spoiler)]

Yes some of Nakata's words are broken down in to the individual syllables. So subsidy is written as sub city and is in italics. I'm guessing it's the words he finds more difficult.

I'll come back and post some more comments tomorrow.

[Travis]

About the boy named Crow. (view spoiler)[ still trying to connect something to Nakata so is the boy named Crow the link. Is it a part of conscounseness . Or is the boy named Crow like the shadow. Maybe the other half of nakatas shadow. I don't even know if that makes sense. I know what I wanted to say but putting it into words got all confusing to me. (hide spoiler)]

[Travis]

Murakami has a power I get sucked in ao deep yet always finish his novels feeling much went over my head or had a deeper meaning than I could extract. Even on this second reading I'm as puzzles as the first time. Now about to start chapter 18. But chapter 16 (view spoiler)[ Nakata goes to Johnny walkers . We know what has been happening to the cats and Nakata must murder. Speculation. Nakata is no doubt covered in blood. Kafka awakes blank of thought covered in blood. Is there a connection. Is there some parallel universe thing going on. I can't help but feel there must be a connection somehow. Same way I feel Crow and the shadow are somehow connected. (hide spoiler)]

[Travis]

Chapter 17 (view spoiler)[ I feel Oshima is gay. I don't know what this has to do , if anything, with the story yet I feel it is implied subtly for some reason. Is he attracted to Kafka. Idk. Like I say it seems like it eventually comes up for some reason. (hide spoiler)]

[Travis]

Chapter 18. WTF. Hmm no let me find a more cohesive thought. WTF. Nope all I got

[Janice, Moderator]

Travis sivarT wrote: "Chapter 18. WTF. Hmm no let me find a more cohesive thought. WTF. Nope all I got"

That comment alone makes me want to read this book. LOL!

[Sarah]

Coming back to the bold writing Travis. Here is a quote from the prologue(view spoiler)["Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing direction," Crow says. Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing direction. You change direction, but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out,like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn't something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn't get in, and walk through it, step by step. There's no sun there, no moon, no direction,
No sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverised bones. That's the mind of sandstorm you need to imagine.

I wonder if it's Crow talking. (hide spoiler)]

[Sarah]

I think I'm in chapter 14. Just got to do a few chores and I'll be back.

[Sarah]

Spoilers up to end of chapter 13(view spoiler)[ok so not an awkward sex scene as such just a case of TMI when Kafka explains how thoroughly he washes his cock and balls in the shower. Couldn't he just say he had a shower? Also he says that he does so because he it's "not too many years out of its foreskin. So does he mean he has been circumcised or is it a weird way of saying he's gone through puberty?! I wonder about the sex scenes Murakami writes.
They are cringeworthy. Do you think he does it on purpose, is just crap at writing sex scenes or is it a lost in translation thing?

Interesting, Kafka thinks about a hundred years everybody will have disappeared from the face of the earth and turned into ashes or dust. Does this relate to the "end of the world" in hard boiled? I can't remember now.

Kafka mentions a few of Franz Kafka's books. I'm curious to read some now especially as i get the feeling that he was an influence on Murakami.

When kafka says that franz kafka's complex, mysterious execution device wasn't some metaphor that it's actually here, all around him. I'm wondering if this is foreshadowing. I noticed a few more comments which felt like foreshadowing but it's so subtle that it could easily missed. Sometimes I might just be reading too much in to it. The obvious bit was when a chapter ended with kafka saying that his life was blown to bits on the 8th day.

Ok. So we have supposed scientists and psychologists stating that it was a case of mass hypnosis that affected the kids. Some of what he described is not strictly true with regards to hypnosis. But this book was written a while back and a lot of research has happened since then. I'll come back and comment about this in a separate post. Not letting it get to me though. Not necessarily Murakami's fault though - he could have written it in like this to make the psychologist look bad. I already think he does as he only hypothesized this as a result of current research he was doing. I think he was just seeing what he wanted to see or making it fit his research in some way. He didn't come across as professional to me because of this.

So Nakata is key to unlocking the truth of what happened back then. I couldn't believe the teacher beat him like that. No wonder he didn't regain consciousness. I couldn't believe the frank and explic letter she wrote to the professor. Who would include such details about an erotic dream to someone you don't know? Very odd.

So we have Nakata linked to the fainting children. And now Kafka has woken up after losing consciousness for a few hours. But he has experienced it before. Is it the same thing? Whose blood was it? Had he injured/killed someone? The fact he'd done it before. Hmm. There is more to him than meets the eye. He seems to think he's a bad person.

Back to the sex. The hand job scene was soo bad. I couldn't believe her rationale - no sex because of a boyfriend but a hand job is ok. Crazy.
(hide spoiler)]

[Travis]

How far into the prologue was that Sarah? I'm going to relisten to that part

[Travis]

To your spoiler (view spoiler)[ I was also not sure what out of the foreskin meant. I might have to google that. But yeah constantly with the details of usually the penis and the balls. Why not penis and tested or penis and scrotum. Like we use technical terms then it's always just his balls. Lol (hide spoiler)]

[Travis]

And also at 13 (view spoiler)[ if you just got a hand job who wants to imagine this could be your sister. And yet it's not the first time of sexual arousal followed by maybe it's my sister. What is up with this (hide spoiler)]

[Sarah]

Travis sivarT wrote: "How far into the prologue was that Sarah? I'm going to relisten to that part"

Page 3 in my book so not far.

[Sarah]

Travis sivarT wrote: "To your spoiler [spoilers removed]"

Good luck with THAT google search. Lol. ;-)

[Sarah]

Travis sivarT wrote: "And also at 13 [spoilers removed]"

I totally forgot to mention that aspect of it. I know! (view spoiler)[She said she'd like to be his sister too. Err. Hello. You just wanked him off! Sisters don't do that to their brothers! And yes he also thought the same thing when she was on the bus earlier when he a hard on the first time. I get that any female of a certain age could be his sister but there's no need to think it when you're sexually aroused. Ugh. (hide spoiler)]

[Sarah]

This book i find difficult to put down. I have no idea where the story is going. I feel like anything could happen.

[Sarah]

Janice wrote: "Travis sivarT wrote: "Chapter 18. WTF. Hmm no let me find a more cohesive thought. WTF. Nope all I got"

That comment alone makes me want to read this book. LOL!"

It's very readable. Have you read any Murakami yet? I think you'd like it.

[Travis]

Janice wrote: "Travis sivarT wrote: "Chapter 18. WTF. Hmm no let me find a more cohesive thought. WTF. Nope all I got"

That comment alone makes me want to read this book. LOL!"

Sometimes one just can't find the words or thoughts to discuss events

[Janice, Moderator]

I haven't read any of his books, yet. One of these days....