Thoughts on Recent Readings

 First, about City and Its Uncertain Walls, the symbolism of the shadowless city can be interpreted in many ways. As we discussed in class, I believe the shadow represents the ego and repressed emotions of a human. In Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland, the shadow symbolizes a similar meaning. When the characters in both story are separated from their shadows, they loses their emotions and become almost robotic. There is the saying that a root cause of depression is being stuck in the past, unable to live in the moment, whether it was a mistake or just painful memories. Thus, emotions and memories are intertwined. This could be an explanation as to why people in inside the walls don't have their memories. For them to be relieved of their pain and negative emotions, it also means giving up their memories. This raises the philosophical question of "can we experiencing happinese without knowing sadness? and vice-versa. 

Regarding Solaris, this story struck me as disturbing. It is already terrifying to be in space with almost no other humans around. Then, the protagonist hears about a friend who just committed suicide and his late wife shows up. This is surreal. In many of Murakami's writing, his characters are stuck in the past and are lost because of some sort of trauma or lost. As a result of this, many commits suicide. The protagonist in Solaris falls into a similar temptation with his late wife showing up, and so there is a similar theme of one's past controlling the person. In particular, this is true for Murakami's character like Toro.