Over the summer, I read a nonfiction book called The Gift of Therapy by Irving D. Yalom. Yalom is a psychologist who uses stories from his years performing therapy to explain good practices to the new generation of therapists. He is from the psychoanalytic tradition, which is interested in symbolism — especially symbolism in childhood that stays with someone throughout their lifetime. Anyways, one interesting thing he wrote was, “Keep in mind that concerns about death often masquerade in sexual garb. Sex is the great death-neutralizer, the absolute vital antithesis of death” (131). He makes the connection that the word for orgasm in French, le petit mort, means “little death”.
Murakami writes about sex often. We’ve talked in class about how it’s uncomfortable, and some view it as sexist that Murakami writes women so sexually. But Norwegian Wood is largely a book about death. Suicide, fire, brain cancer, early deaths. Is the promiscuity not a cover-up operation for the dark themes of death? I had this thought while reading the scene where Midori talks about blowjobs at nine in the morning with Watanabe, and then brings him to her father’s hospital death bed. She is certainly working through her existential fear by way of sexual connection and exploration — maybe a way to feel less orphaned. Is Murakami doing the same thing? Writing sex, as a way to work through death? Procreation, having babies, something Midori brings up, is the opposite of losing someone. Maybe it’s even a way to connect with the dead, as Watanabe is sexual with Naoko, and as we discussed in class, she might be dead. Or, maybe sex with Watanabe, for Naoko, is a way she connects with Kizuki’s memory. Anyways, I think this could be a way to complicate how we view sex in Murakami. It might not just be about the act, but what it symbolizes.
-Ayjia
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