The Strange Library

 Hello Class, 

After Wednesday's class, I was thinking about The Strange Library and its interpretations. When I read the first page I had immediately thought that our protagonist was entering the "Otherworld" as he said the sound of his footsteps didn't sound right. This made me think that he was at some sort of midway point between life and death. This seemed almost right. However, during class it was brought up that the library's labyrinth was actually him entering his own mind, or his subconscious. When I thought about this, it seemed to put all the previous puzzle pieces together. 

This made me think of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. The Library where our protagonist confronts his fears/grief about his mother reminded me of the part where Toru enters a deep well to get over his fears and find his wife. In that scene, the stillness and darkness of the well kind of forces Toru to just sit with his thoughts, which feels both uncomfortable and necessary. It’s almost like he has no choice but to confront what he’s been avoiding. These two examples appear to be almost opposite, Toru enters the well to find someone, whereas Boku gets lost in his mind and is rescued by aspects of his own subconscious (the sheepman and starling/girl). 

It also seems like Murakami uses these strange spaces as a way to show how isolating these experiences can be. The characters are physically alone, but they’re often confronting many things/people in their own mind.

Raul Valles