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11/23/2003 Archived Entry: "^_^"
I've been reading Haruki Murakami's Dance Dance Dance. I read Norwegian Wood last year and really liked it so now I'm trying Dance Dance Dance.
I really like his characters, and then sometimes they annoy me. Especially the narrator for this one. He's very insightful, but he has alot of problems. I sort of have an opinion that how you see the world changes everything in your life. What sort of "glasses" one has. If someone sees the better of other people and sees where positive change is possible, then things will run in a more positive direction than a person put in the same situation but with a less functional look in the world. That's not to say that bad things don't happen to good people, but overall how a person sees the world and their place in the world can change alot in the long run.
The narrator of Dance Dance Dance has problems in my opinion. I don't know what those problems are, but just by noticing how he descibes his view of the world lets me know. He's been broken by life. Which is saddening.
Another thing about Dance Dance Dance that's making me think. Is the adult world really as dull, lifeless, and melancholy as Murakami-sensei writes it? Do people get up, brush their teeth, drink cheap coffee, go to work, sit through hours of meaningless paperwork, have polite unemotional conversation with coworkers, come home, watch a little meaningless television, take out the trash, feed the cat, pay a few bills, then fall asleep, repeating the whole process over again...for days...and months....and years...
I think I'll like being a teacher. Children are always interesting. I don't think I would let myself become so lifeless. Even if work is hard, I wouldn't let myself be broken like that. Maybe worldweary at points, but never broken. Never lost in white noise.
But then again, what can I do to stop it if it is inevitable? It's inevitable that people grow up, but does that mean people have to stop dreaming too? Stop feeling? It's too saddening.
You know, I think I may take your "glasses" thing a bit to literally. I always want to see how other see, so if they have glasses, I try them on. :-) Which, rarely, gives me a glance into them other than the fact that either they've got bad glasses, or that they're kind enough to indulge my thing. :-)
One day, while a woodcutter was cutting a branch of a tree above a river, his axe fell into the river.
When he cried out loud, the Lord appeared and asked, "Why are you crying?"
The woodcutter replied that his axe had fallen into water, and he needed the axe to make his living.
The Lord went down into the water and reappeared with a golden axe.
"Is this your axe?" the Lord asked.
The woodcutter replied, "No."
The Lord again went down and came up with a silver axe.
"Is this your axe?" the Lord asked.
Again, the woodcutter replied, "No."
The Lord went down again and came up with an iron axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked.
The woodcutter replied, "Yes."
The Lord was pleased with the man's honesty and gave him all three axes to keep, and the woodcutter went home happy.
Some time later the woodcutter was walking with his wife along the riverbank, and his wife fell into the river.
When he cried out loud, the Lord again appeared and asked him, "Why are you crying?" "Oh Lord, my wife has fallen into the water!"
The Lord went down into the water and came up with Jennifer Lopez. "Is this your wife?" the Lord asked. "Yes," cried the woodcutter.
The Lord was furious. "You lied! That is an untruth!" The woodcutter replied, "Oh, forgive me, my Lord.
It is a misunderstanding. You see, if I had said 'no' to Jennifer Lopez,
You would have come up with Catherine Zeta-Jones. Then if I also said 'no' to her, you would have come up with my wife.
Had I then said 'yes,' you would have given me all three.
Lord, I am a poor man, and am not able to take care of all three women, so THAT'S why I said yes to Jennifer Lopez."
The moral of this story is: Whenever a man lies, it is for a good and honorable reason, and for the benefit of others.
-- me, 562 B.C.
the philosophy upon which you so casually expound reeks of existentialist relativism. as if this drivel wasn't boring enough, you have to take it down to level where even the personal entity can be thought of as a social construct. i've heard it all before, from Rousseau's "Emile" and theories on tabula rosa.
you seem to romanticize your own youth through that same trite nostalgia that makes me sick to my stomach. truly it can be postulated that everyone has their own individual paradigm through which they define life and what is good and bad, but you need not become to self-righteous in your detraction from adulthood.
though i know you will inevitably take offense at my words or delete them from your journal, it is fairly inconsequential. just please, i beg of you, cease your naive rants. and when you do choose to go off about something, don't try to sugar-coat it in faux poetic slop.
- protagoras