Haruki Murakmi is an Interesting Writer.

I found A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami to be a very unique story. It’s probably my favorite story I’ve read so far for my speculative literature class.  This was the first novel that I’ve read by Haruki Murakami and it won’t be the last. To quickly summarize the premise; a man in his late twenties uses an image of a sheep with a star on its hind in an ad. This pulls him on an adventure that means life or death.  For my blog post tonight I’ll be discussing how interesting Haruki Murakami’s writing style is.

            Put simply, this book is one hell of a ride. I didn’t understand it until the last 50 pages. That’s when the whole story clicked in my mind. I still have no idea what kind of story it is. It transcends horror and spills into a whole range of other genres. Even though I struggled a bit, I pursued the story along with our protagonist and Ears. (Ears, is the protagonist’s rebound girlfriend which he acquired right after he got a divorce.)

            It’s my belief that Murakami spilled a lot of himself into the story. I don’t know anything about him and I’m sure a quick Google search would confirm my suspicions but here’s what I think I learned about Haruki Murakami:  He likes France a lot. He likes language and is a very metaphysical man.  Also, he enjoys talking about philosophical topics and he’s hilarious. Again, I’m completely ignorant to what he actually is like but after reading this novel and digesting his writing style I make these assumptions confidently.

            The interesting thing about this story is that it’s so hard to explain but makes perfect sense. I tried telling a friend of mine to read it. She asked me what the story is about and I tried in vain to help her understand. You really have to read it for the story to make sense. I attribute this to Murakami’s writing style. He leaves a lot up to interpretation and places the reader in the story with little or to explanation. If you haven’t read it already, I recommend reading A Wild Sheep Chase, it’s one wild ride.

- Jack

The life of Robert Neville.

Robert Neville’s life was, as he put it, “monotonous horror.”  The interesting part is that he had gotten used to the horror, it’s the repetition of life that was such a droll to him.  He lived in a sort of limbo of emotions, not having a high point or a low point in the day. His life was one of perversion and twisted fantasies that were forged from a life of solitude. The interesting thing is that acceptance of this life, and odd dependence of it led to his death.

            At the beginning of the story we are introduced to a naïve Robert Neville, he spent his day making wooden stakes to stab vampires with. At night he would drink himself into a stupor. Listening to Cortman, egging him on to come outside. This is when you first notice the morality of Robert, you notice how he thinks to himself, as if he were talking to himself. Then there are the women, the ones who flaunt their goods at Robert Neville when he is looking through the peephole. His instinctual needs had the most destructive affect on him in the early days. He overcame these issues when he almost died one night by arriving late after visiting his wife’s grave.

            After almost a year of being alone, he spots a dog in the daylight. This dog becomes a symbol for hope to Robert and more than anything, a companion. Weeks go by and Robert tries to coerce the dog with food.  This obsession with befriending the dog really hits the reader with just how lonely Robert is.  When the dog dies, Robert isn’t sad. As he buried the dog, he just felt void of emotion. At this point you can see the mental toll that solitude has on Robert. He is slowly becoming less and less human.

            When he found Ruth, another human, he could never trust her. He even contemplated killing her a few times to go back to his old life. When he beings to show her compassion and regains a bit of his human essence, he is bashed unconscious and Ruth turned out to be a vampire spy. She warns him to leave. He doesn’t. This is because of his dependence on his life of solitude, it drove him insane, like it would to any man.

            The part that stood out as his true departure from humanity is when the living vampires roll up in a car and started slaughtering the dead.  Robert, felt bad for the dead vampires. He understood their agony and was furious about the butchery. Just before he died, he realized something. That in this new world. He was the monster.

           

-Jack 

Zombie Apocalypse, Then and Now.

The other week I read Monster Island, a chilling narrative written in blog format, which you can read here, http://www.davidwellington.net/books/monster-island/. I loved every thrilling moment of it; except for a few parts that I felt were a tad untrue to zombie mythos. (I’m a zombie realist kind of guy.)  Tonight I watched Night of the Living Dead. As I sat there with a Stella and popcorn so buttery my fingers felt like Land O’Lakes I realized something, I kept repeating one word over and over in my mind…BRAIIINNSSS! (I jest, the word was different.)

            Currently, zombies are back in Vogue and it’s astounding how they have aged. From radioactive miscreants to plague bearing savages. 40 years is a short amount of time for things to have changed so much. The zombies in Night of the Living Dead had a mission; they were less instinctual and a bit more methodical about their approach to killing. They only wanted the flesh of the living. The zombies in Monster Island were more visceral, doing what an animal would do to survive. Even going as far as eating the bark off of trees to get what little supplements they provided.

            Another thing different about the two is the lapse in time in which the events occur. NotLD happens in the heat of the attacks while Monster Island happens about a month after the zombie apocalypse. I tend to favor Monster Island because I find most aspects of the story are more realistic and more conceptually interesting than Romero’s vision.

I’m sure it’s personal opinion, but I grew up in a time when zombies moved fast. Left 4 Dead, DayZ, 28 Days Later. These are the zombies I am familiar with. I even have a copy of How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse under the seat of my motorcycle!  This isn’t a bash on NotLD, just a stimulated young adult’s point of view. I enjoyed NotLD and found it to be a very sad film. It was also great to see one of the very first film adaptions of zombies. The mythos of the undead has changed drastically, from voodoo to a mysterious virus; I’m excited to see where it will be going next.

-Jack

Here’s a link to Night of the Living Dead. A movie worth watching if you haven’t seen it yet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRkrQZ0A1SU