1Q84

Author:: Haruki Murakami Tags:#media/book

• themes:: *
• Summary::
  • two people in diff story lines, Aomame and Tengo who are inexplicably linked in a world with Little People, mythical short people who weave air chrysalises, with a book within the book about these people and religious societies that seek to harness their power. This alternate world is known as “1Q84” because it is different from their world of 1984
• notes:: * Author:: Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin, and Philip Gabriel Full Title:: 1Q84 Tags:#media/book
• themes::
  • theme 1
• Summary::
  • summary 1

* highlights from 2021-02-08

* This may be the most important proposition revealed by history: “At the time, no one knew what was coming.” ([Location 129](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=129))
* And each time he finished a sentence, there was a tiny but meaningful lump of silence left behind. This lump floated there, enclosed in the car’s restricted space like an imaginary miniature cloud, giving Aomame a strangely unsettled feeling. ([Location 169](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=169))
    * **Tags**: [[blue]]
* “Right. And after you do something like that, the everyday look of things might seem to change a little. Things may look different to you than they did before. I’ve had that experience myself. But don’t let appearances fool you. There’s always only one reality.” ([Location 255](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=255))
* Komatsu believed that mental acuity was never born from comfortable circumstances. ([Location 469](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=469))
* The staff toss around ideas and make up the story, the artist does simple line drawings, his assistants fill in the details and add color. It’s not much different from the way a factory makes alarm clocks. The same sort of thing goes on in the fiction world. Romance novels, for example. With most of those, the publisher hires writers to make up stories following the guidelines they’ve established. Division of labor: that’s the system. Mass production would be impossible any other way. ([Location 591](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=591))
* “Math is like water. It has a lot of difficult theories, of course, but its basic logic is very simple. Just as water flows from high to low over the shortest possible distance, figures can only flow in one direction. ([Location 1013](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=1013))
* Real life is different from math. Things in life don’t necessarily flow over the shortest possible route. For me, math is—how should I put it?—math is all too natural. It’s like beautiful scenery. It’s just there. There’s no need to exchange it with anything else. That’s why, when I’m doing math, I sometimes feel I’m turning transparent. And that can be scary.” ([Location 1019](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=1019))
* “When I’m writing a story, I use words to transform the surrounding scene into something more natural for me. ([Location 1023](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=1023))
* It’s not me but the world that’s deranged. ([Location 2233](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=2233))
* The air was startlingly fresh, and a stillness filled the surrounding space. It was a stillness so profound one had to adjust one’s hearing to it. The perfectly clear sky seemed to soar upward, and the warmth of the sunlight gently touched any skin directly exposed to it. ([Location 2396](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=2396))
    * **Tags**: [[blue]]
* Establishment, antiestablishment: I didn’t care. Ultimately, it was just a clash of organizations, and I simply didn’t trust any kind of organization, big or small. ([Location 2535](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=2535))
* Beyond the window, some kind of small, black thing shot across the sky. A bird, possibly. Or it might have been someone’s soul being blown to the far side of the world. ([Location 2952](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=2952))
    * **Tags**: [[blue]]
* Where mathematics was a magnificent imaginary building, the world of story as represented by Dickens was like a deep, magical forest for Tengo. When mathematics stretched infinitely upward toward the heavens, the forest spread out beneath his gaze in silence, its dark, sturdy roots stretching deep into the earth. In the forest there were no maps, no numbered doorways. ([Location 3660](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=3660))
    * **Tags**: [[blue]]
* Tengo noticed that returning to reality from the world of a novel was not as devastating a blow as returning from the world of mathematics. Why should that have been? After much deep thought, he reached a conclusion. No matter how clear the relationships of things might become in the forest of story, there was never a clear-cut solution. That was how it differed from math. The role of a story was, in the broadest terms, to transpose a single problem into another form. Depending on the nature and direction of the problem, a solution could be suggested in the narrative. Tengo would return to the real world with that suggestion in hand. It was like a piece of paper bearing the indecipherable text of a magic spell. ([Location 3670](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=3670))
* Her family’s home was free of all extras, and “waste” was their most commonly used word. They had no television and did not subscribe to a newspaper. Even news was looked upon in her home as a nonessential. ([Location 3775](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=3775))
* What did it mean for a person to be free? she would often ask herself. Even if you managed to escape from one cage, weren’t you just in another, larger one? ([Location 3800](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=3800))
* “Because you are neither an angel nor a god. I am quite aware that your actions have been prompted by your pure feelings, and I understand perfectly well that, for that very reason, you do not wish to receive money for what you have done. But pure, unadulterated feelings are dangerous in their own way. It is no easy feat for a flesh-and-blood human being to go on living with such feelings. That is why it is necessary for you to fasten your feelings to the earth—firmly, like attaching an anchor to a balloon. The money is for that. To prevent you from feeling that you can do anything you want as long as it’s the right thing and your feelings are pure. Do you see now?” ([Location 3816](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=3816))
* “If you can love someone with your whole heart, even one person, then there’s salvation in life. Even if you can’t get together with that person.” ([Location 3954](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=3954))
* “It’s the same with menus and men and just about anything else: we think we’re choosing things for ourselves, but in fact we may not be choosing anything. It could be that everything’s decided in advance and we pretend we’re making choices. Free will may be an illusion. ([Location 3969](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=3969))
* Human beings are ultimately nothing but carriers—passageways—for genes. They ride us into the ground like racehorses from generation to generation. Genes don’t think about what constitutes good or evil. They don’t care whether we are happy or unhappy. We’re just a means to an end for them. The only thing they think about is what is most efficient for them.” “In spite of that, we can’t help but think about what is good and what is evil. Is that what you’re saying?” The dowager nodded. “Exactly. People have to think about those things. But genes are what control the basis for how we live. Naturally, a contradiction arises,” she said with a smile. ([Location 4407](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=4407))
* But she herself is not mad or psychologically ill. No, her mind is rock steady, unshakably cool. That fact is backed up by positive proof. Rather than madness, it’s something that resembles madness. A correct prejudice, perhaps. What she wants now is for me to share her madness or prejudice or whatever it is. ([Location 4512](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=4512))
* “Yes, it may sound irresponsible of me, but ‘I have no idea’ is the gist of this story. You throw a stone into a deep pond. Splash. The sound is big, and it reverberates throughout the surrounding area. What comes out of the pond after that? All we can do is stare at the pond, holding our breath.” ([Location 4755](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=4755))
* Time itself was uniform in composition, but once consumed, it took on a deformed shape. One period of time might be terribly heavy and long, while another could be light and short. Occasionally the order of things could be reversed, and in the worst cases order itself could vanish entirely. ([Location 5614](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=5614))
* “The ones who did it can always rationalize their actions and even forget what they did. They can turn away from things they don’t want to see. But the surviving victims can never forget. They can’t turn away. Their memories are passed on from parent to child. That’s what the world is, after all: an endless battle of contrasting memories.” ([Location 6000](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=6000))
* “According to Chekhov,” Tamaru said, rising from his chair, “once a gun appears in a story, it has to be fired.” ([Location 6604](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=6604))
* Both issued brief, neutral statements like weather balloons to see what would happen. ([Location 6660](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=6660))
* The man’s gray suit had countless tiny wrinkles, which made it look like an expanse of earth that had been ground down by a glacier. ([Location 6695](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=6695))
    * **Tags**: [[blue]]
* The pattern on his tie might have been an inept art student’s impressionistic rendering of a bowl of tangled, soggy noodles. ([Location 6698](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=6698))
    * **Tags**: [[blue]]
* She was simultaneously the torturer and the tortured, the forcer and the forced. This sense of inner-directed self-sufficiency was what she wanted most of all. ([Location 6937](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=6937))
* He pictured a bunch of dismayed-looking people clutching at colorful flotation rings as they drifted aimlessly in a large pool full of question marks. ([Location 7669](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=7669))
* Her opinion, unvoiced, sank back into the place it had originated from—a deep, dark, unknown place. ([Location 9259](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=9259))
* Karl Jung said this about ‘the Shadow’ in one of his books: ‘It is as evil as we are positive … the more desperately we try to be good and wonderful and perfect, the more the Shadow develops a definite will to be black and evil and destructive.… The fact is that if one tries beyond one’s capacity to be perfect, the Shadow descends to hell and becomes the devil. For it is just as sinful from the standpoint of nature and of truth to be above oneself as to be below oneself.’ ([Location 9357](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=9357))
* This is, of course, a one-sided analogy. From the Little People’s point of view, Tengo and Eriko are, conversely, the carriers of a virus. All things are arranged as mirrors set face-to-face.” ([Location 9397](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=9397))
* “It is not that the meaning cannot be explained. But there are certain meanings that are lost forever the moment they are explained in words.” ([Location 9405](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=9405))
* And come to think of it, isn’t this world we live in itself like a gigantic model room? We come in, sit down, have a cup of tea, gaze out the window at the scenery, and when the time comes we say thank you and leave. All the furniture is fake. Even the moon hanging in the window may be made of paper. ([Location 10053](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=10053))
* While making the coffee, he tried to put his head in order, like arranging the contents of a desk drawer. He couldn’t get things straight, though. All he succeeded in doing was rearranging the items in the drawer, putting the paper clips where the eraser had been, the pencil sharpener where the paper clips had been, and the eraser where the pencil sharpener had been, exchanging one form of confusion for another. ([Location 10082](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=10082))
* It was an act that had been performed in hiding at a dark hour in a dark place in the midst of a raging thunderstorm. Brought out into everyday circumstances, the nature of its meaning might change. ([Location 10246](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=10246))
* “Yes, but not because I wanted to be. I just ended up in that position. And once you were given a position, you had to live up to it, no matter what. That was the rule. ([Location 10417](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=10417))
* People need things like that to go on living—mental landscapes that have meaning for them, even if they can’t explain them in words. Part of why we live is to come up with explanations for these things. That’s what I think.” ([Location 10429](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=10429))
* But this bright moon, hanging in the early-autumn night sky, had sharp, clear outlines and the introspective warmth characteristic of this season. The impression it gave was very different from that of the moon at three thirty in the December afternoon sky. Its calm, natural glow had the power to soothe and heal the heart like the flow of clear water or the gentle stirring of tree leaves. Standing on the very top of the slide, Tengo looked up at that moon for a very long time. From the direction of Ring Road 7 came the blended sound of different-sized tires, like the roar of the sea. All at once the sound reminded Tengo of the sanatorium where his father was staying on the Chiba shore. ([Location 10668](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=10668))
    * **Tags**: [[blue]]
* Their faces devoid of expression, people were moving back and forth between “insane” and “lunatic.” ([Location 11064](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=11064))
    * **Tags**: [[blue]]
* An inscrutable new world silently surrounded him like lapping dark water. Perhaps a new trouble had chased out the old one. Perhaps the old, familiar riddle had been replaced by a fresh, new one. ([Location 11069](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=11069))
    * **Tags**: [[blue]]
* The rough waves of the Pacific. It was a thick, darkish sound, as if many souls were gathered, each whispering his story. They seemed to be seeking more souls to join them, seeking even more stories to be told. ([Location 12403](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=12403))
* Could Tengo be a part of her life there? She closed her eyes and pictured the two of them sunbathing on a Caribbean beach. She wore a small, black bikini and sunglasses and was holding Tengo’s hand. But a sense of reality, the kind that would move her, was missing from the picture. It was nothing more than an ordinary tourist brochure photo. ([Location 13466](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=13466))
* For an instant, he could push the door of time inward. Old light mixed with the new light, the two becoming one. The old air mixed in with the new to become one. It is this light, and this air, Tengo thought. He understood everything now. Almost everything. Why couldn’t I remember this smell until now? It’s so simple. It’s such a straightforward world, yet I didn’t get it. ([Location 13823](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=13823))
* most people in the world don’t really use their brains to think. And people who don’t think are the ones who don’t listen to others. ([Location 13922](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=13922))
* Subject and object are not as distinct as most people think. If the boundary separating the two isn’t clear-cut to begin with, it is not such a difficult task to intentionally shift back and forth from one to the other. ([Location 14639](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=14639))
* Despite some differences in age and circumstances, every one of them looked worn out, tired of life. They appeared hopeless, abandoned by ambition, their emotions worn away, with only resignation and numbness filling the void left behind. As if they had just had a tooth pulled, their faces were dark, their steps heavy. ([Location 14803](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=14803))
* The clouds continued to scud off toward the south. No matter how many were blown away, others appeared to take their place. There was an inexhaustible source of clouds in some land far to the north. Decisive people, minds fixed on the task, clothed in thick, gray uniforms, working silently from morning to night to make clouds, like bees make honey, spiders make webs, and war makes widows. ([Location 15022](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=15022))
    * **Tags**: [[blue]]
* Clouds of assorted sizes and shapes scudded swiftly across the sky. The clouds were white and dense, their outlines sharply etched, and they looked to her like hard blocks of ice floating down a snowmelt river to the sea. As she watched the clouds, appearing from somewhere only to disappear again, Aomame felt she had been transported to a spot near the edge of the world. This was the northern frontier of reason. There was nothing north of here—only the chaos of nothingness. ([Location 15511](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=15511))
    * **Tags**: [[blue]]
* thought came to her, but what it was exactly, she couldn’t say. It had a thick, furtive form, like far-off rain clouds. She could make out its shape but not its outline. There was a disconnect of some kind between shape and outline. ([Location 17109](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004LROUW2&location=17109))