Week 11: 海辺のカフカ - Kafka on the Shore 🏖

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海辺のカフカ - Kafka on the Shore :beach_umbrella: Home Thread

Week 11

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Start Date: Aug 6th
Previous Part: Week 10
Next Part: Week 12

Reading:

Week Start Date Chapters Page Count
Week 11 Aug 6th 21, 22 46

Discussion Rules

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
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I’m only a few pages in, but I had to reply here:

Wow, you called this so perfectly! I’m really impressed :+1:
Now I’m super curious how this weird connection unfolds further…

4 Likes

I had that feeling too… Strange things are definitely happening. Just when you think things are can’t get any stranger, we get…

The Prophecy

お前はいつかその手で父親を殺し、いつか母親(と姉)と交わることになる

I do believe we’ve gone past traditional Murakami levels of weirdness now.

4 Likes

The Prophecy already came up earlier in the book if I remember correctly, but I thought that was something the カラスと呼ばれる少年 had said? I think I commented on something similar in Week 7… そういえば it‘s been a while since we heard from him. Is he somehow related to Kafka‘s father? Is the カラスと呼ばれる少年 the unconscious that his father instilled in him?

Chapter 22

It‘s pretty likely that Nakata is aiming for the library/Kafka (?). He must be closely intertwined with Kafka somehow, supported by the blood on Kafka‘s shirt / no blood on Nakata‘s clothes thing.

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I… am not so sure about that :sweat_smile:

Looking forward to your comments on 1Q84 :grin:

I think you said that before, and it’s getting ever more likely.

Yes, we got a reminder of that this week. And also the shadow thing. We haven’t heard about Kafka’s shadow yet, but maybe the two belong together according to Oshima’s soulmate-theory?

Chapter 22: Also, is it just me or does it feel like Nakata slowly regained some of his lost memories? He mentioned a lot of place names and incidents, and I thought that he would not have known about them before. E.g. at the start of his journey he said that he had never been out of Nakano, and now he remembers where he lived before and where he went as a child.

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I guess I still have a long way to go in my Murakami education. :sweat_smile:

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Anyone else amused by the fact Johnnie Walker was Kouichi? :laughing:

I’m kind of dreading and interested how the rest of the prophecy is going to happen. Nakata meeting Kafka’s Mom and Sister and then Kafka somehow waking up in the aftermath? :sweat_smile: And instead of blood something else is left behind? :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

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Whew I made it, I’m here now! :joy: And it was certainly a time; you know, we’ve talked about how weird it was that Kafka kept thinking about his sister and his mom whenever sex-type stuff came up, and like… I guess it makes sense now, huh. Very much channeling the energy of the “I guess” guy from that meme :joy: Like yeah, if your dad was Oedipus-cursing you on a daily basis, the thought might cross your mind, huh. I do wonder if Kafka’s long-lost sister is going to turn out to be Oshima; I don’t remember all of the details from his childhood and the stuff with his mom, but I don’t remember there being anyone else in their household so? It seems like a direction this would go :man_shrugging:

I’ve also been wondering about カラスと呼ばれる少年, I think he said like one thing in the last Kafka chapter but other than that he’s been very absent, not sure what to make of all that. I also agree that Nakata is gaining more awareness, he definitely knows stuff that he didn’t before. I did like how anytime the stuff Nakata was talking about got really off the rails, Hoshino was just like “…I’m not good at long conversations so anyway” :joy:

3 Likes