Haruki Murakami & Haley Williams Have Something in Common ✮

South of the Boarder West of the Sun is a novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. It was a book assigned for me to read during my freshman year of college. It's not a very long book, I was able to finish it in one sitting, but it is fascinating and well written. There are points in the book that were extremely sexual, to me it felt unnecessary at times, but I'm also willing to accept the argument that it is for the sake of the story. It is a book about the progression of life and sex is a part of life. Sex being included wasn't what was unnecessary to me, it was the nature in which it was brought up and presented that made it a bit...eh. Again, I understand the argument that the nature in which the sexual acts are presented is due to the character. The character is in no way likable in his actions or behavior and him behaving in the way he did sexually is to further that characterization I suppose. The book is about him falling in love with a girl at a young age during a lonely point in his life. He was the only person who was an only child where he was, so it left him isolated. The woman shows up again later in life after our main character has already started a family and new life. He cheats on his wife with her and is willing to throw his life away to be with her. As the story progresses things began to not line up and it is implied that the woman did not exist. It isn't explicitly said, and it isn't clear whether she never existed or if she just never came back and he imagined her later in his life. I believe that she was always a figment of his imagination as a way to cope with the loneliness he experienced as a child. Once his life became mundane and unsatisfactory to him later on, I think he conjured her again as to deal with his life. The book is followed under an unreliable narrator situation, and it allows the reader to piece together what is actually happening versus what is being given to us at face value. There is a scene specifically at the end where the main character sleeps with the woman for the first time. Up until now the cheating hadn't been physical. The morning after all traces of her are gone, it is as though she was never there. This is where the possibility that she didn't exist is brought to light. I mention this book because I was listening to The Only Exception by Paramore and felt there were strong connections. It is pure coincidence I am certain that one of these did not influence the other, I just find it interesting when two forms of media I've consumed separately relate to each other so heavily. I don't know anybody else who has read this book so that's why I've brought it here. The parallel I've found is here:

I've got a tight grip on reality, but I can't let go of what's in front of me here

I know you're leaving in the morning when I wake up 

Leave me with some kind of proof it's not a dream

The Only Exception is about allowing yourself to believe love exists after previously rejecting its existence. It's about living in the reality in which love can be true. In the context of the novel, it seems as though it is telling the story of the protagonist. Up until the end, he feels as though he has a grip on reality, on his reality. He has no reason to believe that this woman is not real and feels justified in his actions toward her. He cannot let go of her and this world between them that he has created. I've mentioned the scene in which she leaves in the morning, this is a fear the protagonist had the night before. Due to him not knowing anything about her or her life since she had moved away in elementary school, she came and go as she pleased. There could be weeks or months between when she'd show up to see him, and he knew in the back of his mind that she would not be there in the morning. Her not existing outside of his presence, no past or origin that he knows of, further supports the fact that she is not real. The fact that she shows up during points in his life that have no particular point besides him needing her, also support the theory that she is a form of coping for him. The "leave me with some kind of proof it's not a dream" line is another direct connection. When he wakes up and she isn't there anymore he is frantically looking for clues that she was ever there. The present she bought him, something else that she had given him earlier on in the story, he aimlessly is looking for proof that she was real. She was here and what they had was something that existed, not a dream, not a figment, but real. He doesn't find his proof and is refusing to accept the fact that all of their interactions were made up. I had no real goal with this post; I've just been thinking about this a lot and needed somewhere to put this connection!

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