Kafka on the Shore

What is it with me and odd, dreamlike, surreal books lately? I'm about to finish Murakami's Kafka on the Shore (after being entranced by his The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle), and I'm sorry it's over. One of the main characters is a man who can make it rain leeches. Enough said.

Say what you will, no one does "surreal" quite like the Japanese. If you've seen Spirited Away or The Ring, you know what I'm talking about. The Ring scared the crap out of me, and movies just don't scare me. Ever. It was one of those movies that I kept thinking about and turning over and over in my mind until I dreamed about it a couple of times. Shudder.

The movie Lost in Translation got a lot of flack for "silent racism," but that isn't what was going on at all. If I were staying in Tokyo, not speaking a word of Japanese, and just walking around looking at things, I'd probably think things seemed a little...off-kilter, too - at least for a little while. On the other side of the coin, though, I'd love to see a movie about a Japanese (or any nationality, really) person coming to New York, and just walking around, soaking up the strangeness. Mystery Train was kind of like that, but the Japanese couple - at least the guy - already knew a lot about Memphis culture already; that's why they went in the first place.

Speaking of good books by Japanese authors, I also loved Amrita by Banana Yoshimoto. I read it years ago, and I'm still thinking about it. I gave my copy away a long time ago, and now I'm regretting it - maybe I can find a cheap edition somewhere online. I love that modern Japanese culture sees fit to find an important niche for both the spirit world and the most modern of technology. I mean, think about it: in The Ring, the villain leaves messages on answering machines, and seems to be intimately familiar with the videotaping process. American society sees those 2 entities as completely separate and distinct - almost opposing, really. When you go to church, you often hear about how "we need to get back to the essentials of life" and how "technology equals materialism."

Not to imply that there's anything particularly spiritual about my new CD Player/Alarm Clock/Radio/mp3 Player, but I know for a fact that it makes my life better. It's multi-functional, space-saving, and wasn't too expensive. Did I absolutely need it? No. Could I have lived without it? Absolutely. I guess I just find it interesting that, in other parts of the world, modern life and religion compliment each other.

I could continue this ramble for a long time, but I won't. I have reading to do...