First, before I do anything, may I say that "A Wild Sheep Chase" has to be one of the weirdest books I've ever read. The jury's still out as to whether this is a good or a bad thing...I find myself really intrigued by the book. I do have to admit, though, that logic and reason do rule my life. Stepping out of the box of realism is a difficult thing for me to do, but it is almost essential to understand Murikami's text.
The discussion in class has been leaning toward the dichonomy of Reason and Logic vs. Surrealism. We should know better than to set up dichonomies now; the whole first day was spent tearing apart the West vs. Nonwest dichonomy, which one could then generalize to all dichonomies in general. But whatever. That is neither here nor there.
What is normal? Such a typical philosophical question that I almost cringe to ask it. But, it really is pertinent in this discussion. Murakami works to blur the normal/abnormal, conscious/dream line immensely. This brings up a weird connection of the philosopher and math man Decartes and, of course, the Matrix with Mr. Keanu Reeves. Both this thinker and this film attempt to look at conscious/dream dichonomy and make it more confusing for everybody involved.
The Matrix operates under the assumption that machines have taken over the world and are controling human brain power, using the energy produced by dreams to power themselves and their bleak world. Decartes maintains in the first of his six "Meditations of First Philosophy" that the senses can be deceptive. He uses the example of dreaming, saying that in his dreams, he goes to the most fantastic of places and does the most fabulous things. He wakes up, sure that the dream was real; it was so vivid! How does he know that the dream isn't real life, and that the mundane things we do during the day are the dreams? "As I consider these matters more carefully, I see so plainly that there are no definitive signs by which to distinguish being awake from being asleep." (Decartes 28). The truth is, how can we know? No claims can be made about the validity and "realness" of dreams vs. reality.
Murakami pushes those boundaries in his own way as well. Rather than assume this fantastical search for a sheep to be real, I would rather consider it to be a dream. He tests the boundaries of his readers' imaginations by getting them to consider the oddest combination of objects. Who's to say that Murakami's the weird one though? Who's to say that my blogging here is the real thing? Perhaps I'm just getting real life started as I pull on my pjs and jump into bed for 8 hours of conquests and talking animal sidekicks. Imagination - Murikami would approve.
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The Descartes connection is great and informative. Who would have thought that the founder of rationalism would make us ponder and even deconstruct the awake-asleep binary. You're seeing how hard it is for the class to get beyond binary thinking. Good work.
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