• In total there are 5 users online :: 0 registered, 0 hidden and 5 guests (based on users active over the past 60 minutes)
    Most users ever online was 789 on Tue Mar 19, 2024 5:08 am

Ch. 11 - What Came from the Warm Mud

#84: June - Aug. 2010 (Fiction)
User avatar
Theomanic

1F - BRONZE CONTRIBUTOR
Agrees that Reading is Fundamental
Posts: 298
Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2008 2:34 pm
16
Location: Toronto, ON
Has thanked: 4 times
Been thanked: 24 times

Ch. 11 - What Came from the Warm Mud

Unread post

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Haruki Murakami

Chapter 11,
Enter Lieutenant Mamiya / What Came from the Warm Mud / Eau de Cologne
"Beware those who are always reading books" - The Genius of the Crowd, by Charles Bukowski
User avatar
Theomanic

1F - BRONZE CONTRIBUTOR
Agrees that Reading is Fundamental
Posts: 298
Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2008 2:34 pm
16
Location: Toronto, ON
Has thanked: 4 times
Been thanked: 24 times

Re: Ch. 11 - What Came from the Warm Mud

Unread post

I find it interesting that Kumiko discarded the box of perfume at home. Clearly she knows Toru will be doing the chores, and will find it. So it stands to reason she wanted him to find it. Toru doesn't seem to think of that though. Sometimes I think he's a little thick-headed in emotional matters.
"Beware those who are always reading books" - The Genius of the Crowd, by Charles Bukowski
User avatar
GaryG48
Sophomore
Posts: 260
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2010 9:29 pm
14
Location: Wheaton, Illinois, USA
Has thanked: 26 times
Been thanked: 34 times

Re: Ch. 11 - What Came from the Warm Mud

Unread post

Toru is thick-headed in emotional matters all right. He is also not the brightest bulb in the box when it comes to judging human behavior. As we will see later, some of the many women in his life could have done him much more harm than they did while he was more or less just letting life happen.

Which begs the question: why is every significant character in Toru’s life a woman except the one truly evil guy and the guys who provide the back-stories?
--Gary

"Freedom is feeling easy in your harness" --Robert Frost
User avatar
Theomanic

1F - BRONZE CONTRIBUTOR
Agrees that Reading is Fundamental
Posts: 298
Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2008 2:34 pm
16
Location: Toronto, ON
Has thanked: 4 times
Been thanked: 24 times

Re: Ch. 11 - What Came from the Warm Mud

Unread post

Some thoughts:

The lack of men around emphasizes the alienation Toru is feeling - he has no one who can relate to him as a man. It is difficult for Toru to find anyone who he can connect with and this difficulty is surely due to the fact that he has no close male friends, at least in part. Even his father is not there for him, so he is someone who has been without a male role model for some time.

The issues that Toru is facing are issues of identity and emotional needs. These are things we would more typically associate with women, especially the latter.

The perception of women by the reader is different. What would we think of a male Malta, or a male May? The change in how we perceive those characters may be at odds to how Murakami wishes to present them.
"Beware those who are always reading books" - The Genius of the Crowd, by Charles Bukowski
WildCityWoman
Genius
Posts: 759
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2008 6:09 am
16
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 13 times

Re: Ch. 11 - What Came from the Warm Mud

Unread post

The perfume thing . . . in real life, if a man's wife deliberately left a bottle of perfume out - something she couldn't really afford to buy herself - we'd think, gee - she really wants him to think about this.

Does the writer mean for us to think Kumiko is desperate for attention from her husband, and is trying to get it through suspicion and jealousy?

The writer doesn't give me the impression that Toru really gives a damn here in this part.
Post Reply

Return to “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel - by Haruki Murakami”