Earthquakes and Other Bad Things

Why do authors write about bad things happening? I believe the answer to that is simple: because bad things happen in the world and the fiction writer attempts to create the illusion of reality. In order to accurately create the artifice, therefore, the challenges and hardships of life must be part of a story in order for us to believe it and buy into the world it creates. A world where everything goes well is not one that we recognize. Bad things probably happen at a higher frequency in fiction than in reality because challenges and difficulties are what reveal the inner side of characters, they are what creates conflict and drives new things to happen and new decisions to be made, and they are what forces characters to change. That is why readers enjoy stories where bad things happen more than stories where everything is fine.

I often listen to sad music when I'm down, and people sometimes tell me I'm being stupid and just making it worse. But people came in droves to hear blues musicians perform when it was a new genre, and they said they liked the solidarity of knowing that so many people shared their same struggles and sadness and frustration. Most people know the feeling of reading that one book that spoke to them in a particular moment of difficulty in their lives.

In one sense, Murakami's story is driven entirely by mystery. All the events of the plot are set into motion by first, the mysterious and confusing disappearance of Komura's wife which opens Komura up to taking this week-long trip; and second, the mysterious box that Sasaki asks Komura to deliver to Kushiro which allows him to meet Shimao and have the significant experiences that make up the story.

These mysteries exist at Komura's level in the story – they are questions that he confronts and wrestles with, but never gets answered – and the withholding of information created from Komura's limited perspective draws readers in and aligns them more with the protagonist. The effect of this is incredibly powerful.

But reading this story for the second time, already knowing that these mysteries existed and would not be illuminated, I found that I focused more on a different mystery that Komura does not directly confront, but which I believe is actually the central mystery of the story. This is the enigma of Komura himself. Reading it again, I kept wondering what Komura was looking for after the earthquake hit and his wife left. What does he expect to discover or what needs does he think might be fulfilled by taking this trip? As readers, we never really get access to how his wife's letter affected Komura or what he wants out of life now that she has taken away that comfortable, content life that he knew before. I think this is the real mystery of the story, and the box is simply an external metaphor of that.