Post from Alex G

 A few years back, I read A Wild Sheep Chase for the first time. In high school, I would often read a Murakami book or two during the summer. For whatever reason, I have only read Murakami outside of the summer for this class, and once more for another class, although it was only one reading. In the fashion of a Murakami protagonist, I am compelled by forces greater than I understand to continue this particular habit. Moving on to A Wild Sheep Chase, my first reading was taken at face value. I did not think too much about the implications of an individual having a sheep in their brain. Ok, perhaps I thought about it a little bit in relation to the subconscious mind and how power can corrupt people's minds. However, for about 90 percent of the novel, I was more focused on Boku’s journey. This time around, I focused on the implications of the sheep in a nationalistic sense, as we discussed in class. After having some time to digest all of this, I think I prefer to take Murakami at face value, or rather a little bit of analysis, but not enough to stifle the cathartic oddity that only Murakami can create.
-Alex G