In another course, we compared the views on brain death in the West and Japan. In Japan, people are often reluctant to accept that brain death is the end of a person's life because they think the soul might still be there. In the discussion, I regarded this as a cultural habit. But after reading Haruki Murakami's City and Its Uncertain Walls, it gave me another way of understanding it.
In Murakami's novel, there is a small town where many shadows live. You can walk into that small town, but once you do, you might leave a part of yourself behind. The main body in reality is still living, and the tranquility of the small town gives the protagonist a sense of detachment from reality. This seems like another place where the soul can go while the body continues to live. I think this can correspond to the concept of personhood I discussed when I was studying brain death. Japanese culture holds that personhood is located throughout the body rather than solely in the brain. The issue is not whether the brain is still working, but whether that person is still "there" in another way. Western medicine says that without brain activity, there are no human beings. But Haruki Murakami shows that you can live in one world and remain a soul in another. The soul doesn't need a heartbeat but it just needs a wall through which it can pass.
Vivian
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