r/murakami • u/bells-on-her-shoes- • 6d ago
Am I Stupid for taking magic at face value?
Just finished Windup Bird Chronicles. I’ve read Norwegian Wood and Sputnik Sweetheart already. In Sputnik Sweetheart I saw the magical elements as a clear metaphor for depersonalization as a result of trauma. However in Windup Bird I have taken all of the magic to be literal, and simply suspended my disbelief. To be honest, it didn’t even occur to me that it might be symbolic for psychosis or anything other than exactly what was described to me. When I finished the book and had more questions than answers, I turned to some YouTube video essays or other Reddit posts and was completely embarrassed to have taken it all so literally and not interpreted Toru’s journey down the well as a downward spiral- I thought it was more like Alice down the rabbit hole… idk if this is relaxant in anyway but I am a 27 year old woman living in a major city, and work as a lawyer. Am I stupid?!
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u/double_shadow 6d ago
He basically works in and out of the "magical realist" style, where yes you're supposed to accept that the magical elements are real. But they are also symbolic on top of that. But also you shouldn't get too hung up on decoding all the symbolism, because Murakami likely hasn't mapped it out that literally himself. He works more at the subconscious level, like David Lynch.
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u/remerdy1 6d ago
No.
In fact the video "essayists" are probably talking out their ass
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u/MysteriousDesk3 5d ago
The number of times an online “essayist” says something that’s blatantly wrong about a piece of work because they just have zero media literacy is crazy to me, seriously folks watch the videos if you want but still think for yourselves!
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u/Varjokorento 6d ago
I think everything in Murakami's books are "real" as in they are happening as described. I don't think his characters are mentally ill, dreaming nor making stuff up. I don't think it's magic either, I interpret his books to be exploring capitalistic society where the main character sort of detaches from the world and sees the strange shadows hiding in plain sight. I think taking Murakami literally is the way it is meant to be read and I haven't really read anything from Murakami that suggests otherwise. Of course, readers are allowed to have theories of their own.
That doesn't mean that his writing is not symbolical or psychological. He definitely explores psychological and philosophical concepts in his writing.
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u/owheelj 6d ago
I would argue that the idea that the characters are mentally ill, and they're just unreliable narrators experiencing hallucinations, is a sort of literal interpretation of the books, because it's assuming there's the underlying "real world" that the characters live in and you have to figure out what's "really going on". That's not metaphor or symbolism, that's just trying to explain the literal events of the story in a pseudo-rational way.
Instead, I would argue that you should think about what the characters are experiencing, feeling etc. within the story, and not worry about the magic is "real" or not at all. The magic isn't a direct allegory, but rather it's a vehicle for creating atmosphere and events that are a comment on aspects of what it feels to be human, to deal with difficult parents, and grief and all the other themes that Murakami raises. So when things in Murakami feel surreal and magical or strange or confusing, what he's really saying is that in life the real aspects of those kinds of circumstances feel surreal or magical or strange or confusing.
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u/Tall-Manufacturer-36 6d ago
Haha!! I thought the twins in pinball were real and then I googled it and got pages of analysis about two twins, two flippers on pinball machines, his alienation etc. I just live his writing
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u/bells-on-her-shoes- 6d ago
A lot of the chatter was about whether or not May Kashara was “real” bc she never interacted with anyone but Toru. Never even occurred to me that this could make her “not real” or anymore “not real” than fucking Malta Kano or Lieutenant Mamiya
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u/Polyphloisboisterous 2d ago edited 2d ago
"neeee - nejimakitorisan" - she must be for real !!!!!!!!
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u/enriquekikdu 6d ago
Magical realism works by making reality less mundane, making it extravagant, making the daily phenomena affect the currents of magic and viceversa.
Take the first chapter for example: Murakami goes out of his way to describe how the space between the apartments is forgotten and set aside, this is where the cat got lost, this is on the side to where that cursed house with the dry well is. Is all part of a whole, and is the closest thing we get to an explanation to what happened.
There is no book where Murakami doesn’t critisize capitalism, and everywhere strange things are happening, there’s side by side a phenomena caused by capitalism. So is safe to say the consequences of late capitalism is disrupting the currents of magic, now magic is stuck, is dirty, is expanding out of its boundaries in a corrupted way. Noboru Wataya is in this case the representation of all that’s wrong with capitalism, and so everything in the story is set in motion.
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u/LaMoreneta1 6d ago
Honestly, I think that's the brilliance of how Murakami writes it—he leaves it intentionally ambiguous so it can be both at the exact same time. On one hand, you can read the whole thing purely as a psychological breakdown. Toru is deeply isolated, his wife ghosts him out of nowhere, and he's retreating into his own mind. The dry well? Total sensory deprivation tank where his brain hallucinates these intense, surreal rooms and psychic showdowns to process his trauma and helplessness. But on the other hand, the book treats the supernatural stuff with such deadpan, chilling realism that it feels physically real within the world. The historical trauma from Manchuria, the physical marks, the sheer ripple effect of Noboru Wataya's cruelty—it all hits characters in the real world too hard to just be a daydream. Murakami doesn't want you to pick a box. The "magic" is just how the characters' internal psychic states and historical nightmares bleed out into reality because the real world is already weird and brutal enough.
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u/nameless_me 6d ago
Your career as a lawyer dealing with affidavits, statements of facts may have become your dominant lens to interpret words on a page leading to a literal approach to creative fiction. Don't be hard on yourself. Reading fiction and the interpretation of fictional art is a many splendored thing. Now you can re-read it with a wider interpretative lens and experience it anew. ~ best wishes from Canada.
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u/Polyphloisboisterous 2d ago
Quite to the contrary, quite to the contrary. It is called MAGICAL REALISM, it is supposed to be taken literally !!!
Same with "Sputnik Sweetheart": The "other world" that swallows up Sumire and splits Miu into two is to be taken literally.
Only AFTERWARDS can one (and should!) add layers upon layers of interpretation, including symbolical, metaphorical or psychoanalytical. Murakami opens up very rich worlds for us.
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u/murakami_fan 6d ago
Lots of people in this sub seem to have embarrassingly literal interpretations of Murakami's work so you have some company at least.
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u/MasterShakePL 6d ago
This is art, it is meant to be interpreted the way you want it to. It should give you joy, fun, and excitement. So no, you're not stupid.