Post 5

I recently read Murakami's memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. It was strange to read Murakami without the lens of fiction between the two of us; I found myself giving small jolts while reading it just because I'd remember that it wasn't Boku telling me these things. I think Murakami is a fun author to try and interpret through his books, namely because of their strangeness and the reappearing motifs and themes throughout his career. Murakami descriptions of running routines and diet regimens do sound remarkably like something that would come out of Boku's mouth. One element I found especially interesting was in a passage where Murakami recounts the experience of running an ultramarathon (a measly 64 mile race). Things get properly weird around the halfway point of the race. He says: "I felt like I'd passed through something...like my body had passed clean through a stone wall...After that, I didn't have to think anymore". He continues to discuss the total absence of thought and self he experience during that time, and I was just struck by the remarkable similarity to one of his numerous "other worlds," where our main character crosses over from one reality--state of being, what have you-- into another more surreal world. Murakami doesn't define what the specifics of his turning point/ specifics here, but it does clearly seem to be happening. It's interesting to read the sort of fantastical, surreal language associated with Murakami's fictional worlds used to describe his actual life.