I was away from internet for quite a while and so as I was reading the novel I was not able to immediately publish posts as soon as I stumbled upon interesting passages. I did however make note of a particular quote in the first book which I found to be extremely intriguing. In this part of the novel, Toru Okada has recently found Kumiko's new Christian Dior eau de cologne and finds himself extremely puzzled. He does not understand who could have possibly given her such a gift. What is interesting in all of this is that a simple bottle of perfume detains a vast range of possible stories. Since he does not know the truth, this small bottle begins to haunt him. Instead of being a mere beauty product, his mind transforms it into a barrier between Kumiko and him. With all of this in mind, Toru says, "Now, however, it had taken on the thin veil of secrecy." (Page 128) The most interesting part of this quote is the fact that he compares secrecy to a thin veil. When I think of the concept of secrecy, the first image that comes to mind is a large wall or a barrier because to me, it represents the unknown and the unattainable. Toru Okada however, compares it to a subtle and discrete object that is extremely mobile and simple to touch. He introduces another facet of secrecy; by referring to it as a thin veil, he makes it all the more dangerous. By alluding to a thin veil, Toru Okada emphasizes the fact that it is very easy to fall into a world of secrecy (one suspicious object can create barriers between two people). At this point, he begins to suspect Kumiko and starts to scrutinize every one of her actions. The discovery of the bottle of perfume has caused him to "touch" the veil of secrecy and to overanalyze any situation concerning his wife.
This idea of a thin veil between one world and another - the other being a secret world that takes you somewhere else, or somewhere deeper than 'normality' is a common thread in Murakami. Sometimes I have the feeling that Toru continues to exist in the everyday world - following boring routines - but his mind is on another plane entirely. At some point May Kasahara comments on how she might be having a perfectly normal conversation, and all the while she is thinking such strange thoughts. In her letter to him (Book 3) she confesses that while the two of them were sitting chatting at the kitchen table, she was thinking what she would do if Toru suddenly decided to rape her. Another of her remarks concerns the people around her who look like a row of dolls seen through glass. While she talks to people her mind "floats free like a balloon cut from its string" (Not the exact quote). I'm digressing from your point, Majdouline, but I think it is connected. If we construe lived experience as having layers, and some of those layers are not visible on the surface, we might never go behind the veil to discover their secrets. The perfume bottle is a sign - almost a key - to the secret world of Kumiko's adultery. Later Toru is bothered by images in his mind of his wife sleeping with her lover, and though these images are in his head he says they are also scenes that "probably occured in reality". Thus, once more, the thin veil between reality and fantasy is seen to be quite flimsy and insubstantial.
ReplyDeleteOn a slightly different note, there are Kumiko's abandoned clothes hanging in the wardrobe, "like husks/shells of her former life" (Again, not the precise quote). She now moves almost in another dimension - as though she shed the skin of her life with Toru. He doesn't know where she is and it is as though she had died, or like Persephone in the Greek myth, went underground into some dark other world where she is being held prisoner.