Talk:Kafka on the Shore

The main theme should be different?

I've just finished reading the book, so I may still some time to process it, but the way I see it, the major theme is the relation between time and memory.

There are some questions that appear throughout the novel that suggests it, e.g. What is the meaning of life without being able to create new memories? Can we be freezed in time and if so what are the consequences for us and those around us? What are life without a past? What are life without the ability to read and acquire new memories? Can one live a so-called normal life and still be more "empty" than someone who doesn't understand the meaning of memories? Do we need our memories? Can we escape from a memory (in a way there is a connection between escaping from a memory to escaping from our faith)?

For those reasons, I think that this theme should be mentioned in the major themes sections, probably even first.

Questions?

Can somebody provide a link to that website where Murakami posted answers to various questions about the book? Presumably it's in Japanese, but I haven't been able to turn anything up (the Japanese Wikipedia page was not of any help). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.131.41.213 (talk) 07:59, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Stub?

I was 20:36, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't think so. Removed the tag. --Dodo bird 10:40, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

Connections with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

This section is a bit too speculative, IMO. I'm not sure if it should even be included. If it is, it should be trimmed down to just the hard, cold basics - one of the characteristics of Murakami's writing is that there is never a simple, straightforward explanation for anything, and almost any view on anything can be considered subjective. For example, I agree that the town in this novel is a strong echo of the town in The End of the World, but I wouldn't go as far as to say that the shadow-cutting in The End of the World is an explanation for the half-shadow issue in Kafka on the Shore. TomorrowTime 18:01, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

Well, half a year later there are still no comments to this, so I removed this section altogether. It's not only highly speculative (i.e. OR), it's also in direct contrast to the author's own words quoted in the following section: Kafka on the Shore contains several riddles, but there aren't any solutions provided. TomorrowTime 20:08, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

I agree.I still don't get the connection between Nakata and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.Sorry for my bad English.I'm from Argentina and I still can't write in English very well..186.0.138.18 (talk) 06:06, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

A Letter to the Editor

I'm very dissapointed that you did not get the main point of the novel. The Plot Summary doesn't show the points that are important. Kafka Tamura, the 15 year old runaway flies in case of oedipal curse. And this oedipal curse plays a role in every page of this novel. He meets a girl called sakura, who is hypotheticly is sister. He rapes her in his dreams. He gets to know a women called Saeki who takes the role of Kafkas Mother and has sexual intercourse with him and there existing also facts that he has murdered is father. All these Points lead to the conclusion that he came up to oedipal course. And after he'd done all these things he goes away from his new circumcises and this makes clear why the novel is called Modern Greek Tragedy.

LG, Elinoi —Preceding unsigned comment added by Elinoi (talk • contribs) 15:19, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

circumstances, i mean —Preceding unsigned comment added by Elinoi (talk • contribs) 16:29, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

This comment was made a while ago, but I'll add my two cents to it. Sexuality is a common component in many of Murakami's works. But his works often have many themes that come together. The Oedipus component is not the central theme of the book. Murakami mentions that an the interview referenced in the article[1]:

• What made you want to retell the Oedipus myth? Did you have a plan to do this when you started Kafka On The Shore or did it come about during the writing?
  The Oedipus myth is just one of several motifs and isn't necessarily the central element in the novel. From the start I planned to write about about a fifteen-year-old boy who runs away from his sinister father and sets off on a journey in search of his mother. This naturally linked up with the Oedipus myth. But as I recall, I didn't have that myth in mind at the beginning. Myths are the prototype for all stories. When we write a story on our own it can't help but link up with all sorts of myths. Myths are like a reservoir containing every story there is.

Definitely the themes in the book can be expanded more, possibly under "Understanding the Novel". But it shouldn't be claimed that the Oedipal story is the central theme to the book. Agentchuck (talk) 18:20, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

Meaning of the name in Czech

I had to correct the following statement: "The boy named Crow" ("Kafka" means "crow" in Czech)..

In fact the Czech word for crow is vrána (cf. cs:vrána). The actual (and exact) meaning of kavka is jackdaw (a bird of Coloeus subgenus), specifically the Western Jackdaw (Coloeus monedula, cf. cs:kavka) In surnames the middle consonant occurs spelled v or f but pronunciation behind remains the same: [ˈkafka].

While jackdaws and crows (Corone subgenus) are similar closely related birds and visual misidentification sometimes occurs, the semantical border betwen jackdaw nad crow remains clearly drawn in the Czech language, at least when looking from the jackdaw side towards crows. Crows feature more prominently in common parlance (proverbs etc.) - therefore sometimes other crow-like birds (ravens etc.) are called simply crows, but on the other hand if one says kavka he/she certainly refers specifically to a jackdaw and doesn't mean vrána (either of two species native to the Czech lands - Carrion Crow Corvus corone or Hooded Crow Corvus cornix).

Being unfamiliar with Japanese naming of the various Corvidae I hope this will help to clarify the naming issue at least from Czech perspective. Presumably that inaccuracy/oversimplification arose in chain of translation across several languages. --Miaow Miaow (talk) 10:38, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

Hegelian dialectics???

Hegel is mentioned in one scene of the 600-page novel, and his dialectics aren't ruminated upon. This article's unsupported claim that dialectics "play a role" in the novel is just silly if the person who put it there couldn't be bothered to explain what they meant.58.250.175.74 (talk) 13:08, 9 January 2017 (UTC)

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Is the title an allusion?

Could it be an allusion to the opera "Einstein On The Beach"? IIIIsongIIII (talk) 07:00, 5 July 2021 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: JPN 351 The Japanese Experience of the Twentieth Century

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 10 January 2022 and 30 April 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Ashleystump (article contribs).

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