War Chronicles
War Chronicles
Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Review
If you like quirky, vulgar, enigmatic, and yet lyrical and philosophical flashes-you'll like this novel. Listen to the sounds, for the sounds and mundane imagery of the very beginning of the novel will be give the reader a sample of the strange and surreal:
"When the phone rang I was in the kitchen, boiling a potful of spaghetti and whistling along with an FM broadcast of the overture to Rossini's The Thieving Magpie, which has to be the perfect music for cooking pasta"?
The voice is that of the narrator Toru Okada, an unemployed law graduate, who by resisting the call of the corporate structure becomes an outsider-a misfit to his wife, relatives, and society. Toru Okada has quit his job as a paralegal and spends his days reading and fixing dinner for his magazine editor wife.
A constellation of quirky characters
In no time we are introduced to odd-ball characters and odd events: an obscene phone call; Malta Kano, a weird psychic who's searching (or so we are led to believe) for his lost cat; her sister, Creta, who dresses like Jackie Kennedy and tells a painful story; next, attempted suicide, and prostitution (both of the mind and body).
A formidable postmodern cyber-villain
And then we meet the villain: Toru's sinister brother-in-law, Noboru Wataya. For readers unschooled in the postmodern world of simulacra (as expounded by Jean Baudrillard) will have a hard time suspending the disbelief: that a cyber-villain can cross over and interact in the real world. Then again, the real world in the novel is a world of disorder, mutation, transformations where unity, foundations and continuities are barely existent. While Toru is a post-modern antihero, he latches on to figures, themes, and personalities of a by-gone era: in procession we see a sad caravan of Western cultural icons-Rossini, Claudio Abbado, De Chirico, Bach, and Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms.
Despite the cultural icons mentioned, Toru's world is an alien world where darkness gets encrusted in his soul, tormenting him to no end, driving him to descend to the depths of absolute darkness. When the goes into the well -that symbolizes death with consciousness- he sees that life is better lived in light. This poignant passage is reminiscent of Martin Luther King Jr.'s words: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
A recount of painful Japanese history
And as if current memories were not enough to haunt Toru's mind, he finds himself immersed in history. Lieutenant Mamiya (a WWII veteran) graphically tells Toru of the cruelties and atrocities he witnessed on the Mongolian front and Soviet prison camps. Of all the constellation of events that happen in the novel, the graphic depiction of Japanese cruelty in the Second World War is moving and honest. Moving, because one would have to be pathologically callous not to feel the inhumanity and savagery of war; honest, for otherwise events of that nature tend to be left out the history books.
If the author set off to teach a moral lesson, we must agree that he did accomplish it: war makes humans inhuman, and that the inhuman make war.
Towards the end as readers have their fill of the strange, we are quickly introduced to a well-dressed mother-son duo, characters that provide comic relief in a strange way.
Resonant themes: Darkness as death, physical pain, loneliness, identity
Not only is The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle a sprawling novel, but a deliberately chaotic one. Faced with a society -high tech and postmodern- that is devoid of happiness, the narrator goes on searching for something he doesn't quite know what- his identity perhaps?
"This person, this self, this me, finally, was made somewhere else. Everything had come from somewhere else, and it would all go somewhere else. I was nothing but a pathway for the person known as me."
Or maybe Toru -being wifeless and friendless- simply enjoys the terrorizing feeling that is loneliness:
"But even so, every now and then I would feel a violent stab of loneliness. The very water I drink, the very air I breathe, would feel like long, sharp needles. The pages of a book in my hands would take on the threatening metallic gleam of razor blades. I could hear the roots of loneliness creeping through me when the world was hushed at four o'clock in the morning."
For most of the novel, Toru is passive, as he lets things happen to him. But eventually he will begin to act. Yet one has the feeling that Toru doesn't have a chance, that chaos, or maybe even destiny will claim him.
Although The Wind Up Bird Chronicle is a flawed novel, it is quite entertaining and it contains passages of moral value and redemption. It also offers -in translation- fluidity of language, rhythm, rhetorical techniques, as well as lyrical flashes. But for the serious reader, the novel is replete with cogitations about existence:
"Here's what I think, Mr. Wind-Up Bird," said May Kasahara. "Everybody's born with some different thing at the core of their existence. And that thing, whatever it is, becomes like a heat source that runs each person from the inside. I have one too, of course. Like everybody else. But sometimes it gets out of hand. It swells or shrinks inside me, and it shakes me up. What I'd really like to do is find a way to communicate that feeling to another person. But I can't seem to do it. They just don't get it. Of course, the problem could be that I'm not explaining it very well, but I think it's because they're not listening very well. They pretend to be listening, but they're not, really. So I get worked up sometimes, and I do some crazy things."
Without a doubt Haruki Murakami's lengthy novel is a great accomplishment for Japanese letters. Whether it can compete with the great Western classics such as Cervantes' Don Quixote, Tolstoy's War and Peace, the Brontes' Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, or even Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children is a different matter.
All in all a great dreamy read.
About the Author
Retired. Former investment banker, Columbia University-educated, Vietnam Vet (67-68).
For the writing techniques I use, see Mary Duffy's e-book: Sentence Openers.
To read my book reviews of the Classics visit my blog: Writing To Live
How can i get my hands on a copy of chronicles like the one by John of Fordun about the wars of Independance?
Hmm i should i said;
I live in scotland and im only needing the book for some research so yes borrowing is preferable. I have checked my local library and no luck there
Added: Thank you for the added information. Ask one of the librarians at your local public library if the book (probably a reprint) can be found at another library and be borrowed for you through the library. Using that WorldCat.org link, I see copies of the book are held in libraries in Scotland. I trust the library staff will do their best to get the book for you to read.
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You do not indicate if you wish to purchase a copy to own or if you just wish to borrow a copy from a library, to read and return.
To clarify: You are looking for the publication Chronicle of the Scottish Nation by John of Fordun published in 1872, am I correct?
To purchase a copy, whether an original or a reprint copy, you can find a list on Amazon.com,
http://www.amazon.com
From the home page, choose the Books category
After that, the web page for Books, should have some links for choices, including Advanced Search
Choose Advanced Search
Type this into the search box for Title: Chronicle of the Scottish Nation
Click on the Search button
Or, you can use BookFinder.com to find a copy: http://www.bookfinder.com/
I think the way to search will be easy to figure out.
If you wish to just borrow a copy (probably a reprint) from a library (your local public library or your campus library, if you are a college student), if the library does not hole a copy, and if you are in the USA, then I recommend you look at the information I found on WorldCat.org (used mainly by librarian-types.)
Here's the link:
http://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=worldcat_org_bks&q=chronicle+of+the+scottish+nation&fq=dt%3Abks
You will see several pages of links to different editions held in libraries all over the USA. Some links are for separate volumes of a multi-volume set.
Once you decide which edition interests you the most, click on the link to more info. That will bring you to a web page (probably with successive web pages) showing which libraries in the USA hold that particular edition in their collections.
Print off the list of libraries for the edition that interests you and take the list to your library. Ask a reference librarian if the library can request to borrow the book from a library holding it so you may borrow, read it and return it. (InterLibrary Loan) Having the printed list of holding libraries will be a "plus" for the librarian.
Best wishes
War Chronicles
Record of Lodoss War: TV Series - Kiseki No Umi (Sea of Miracles)
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Chronicles $10.99 The Chronicles of Froissart (1337-1410) are one of the greatest contemporary records of fourteenth-century England and France. Depicting the great age of Anglo-French rivalry from the deposition of Edward II to the downfall of Richard II, Froissart powerfully portrays the deeds of knights in battle at Sluys, Crecy, Calais and Poitiers during the Hundred Years War. Yet they are only part of this vigorous portrait of medieval life, which also vividly describes the Peasants' Revolt, trading activities and diplomacy against a backdrop of degenerate nobility. Written with the same sense of curiosity about character and customs that underlies the works of Froissart's contemporary, Chaucer, the Chronicles are a magnificent evocation of the age of chivalry. |
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Hurry Home (War Chronicles) $22.36 Hurry Home reads like a short story, though it is really a collection of poems that captures the imbalance that occurs when people who love each other are suddenly separated. The author is one, though the voices are many. Both male and female, they speak from the heart about war, about missing their soldier lovers who have gone off to war, and about what war means to them. Hurry home is a must read because each and every poem lives a life of its own. Author: Sharpe, Jesse Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 88 Publication Date: 2005/01/01 Language: English Dimensions: 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.21 inches |
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Chronicles Of The Damned $7.68 Bruno Maximus Casta struggles to distance himself from the horrors of the life he was cast into and the war that has raged for thousands of years. One night a mysterious woman enters his gallery stirring up memories that threaten to bring the war between the Legion, the Canis and the humans to his door step. Harrowing events unfold on the road to discovering the Chronicles of the Damned. |
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The Caxley Chronicles $9.89 Set in Caxley the quiet country town neighboring the village of Fairacre The Caxley Chronicles follow two intertwined families the Howards and the Norths through the tumultuous first half of the twentieth century. The first Caxley tale The Market Square introduces the deep-rooted camaraderie of Septimus Howard and Bender North whose friendship survives misunderstandings the tragedy of war and the bitterness of loss. The story of their families continues through the generations. The second tale The Howards of Caxley tells of Edward Howard grandson to them both. Edward flies for the Royal Air Force Reserve as England prepares for another war -- and Caxley braces itself for overwhelming changes. |
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Chronicles of the Crusades $9.59 Composed by soldiers who fought in the Holy Wars, these two famous French chronicles are among the most important portrayals of both the dark and light side of the two hundred year struggle for possession of Jerusalem. The first trustworthy and fully informed history of the Crusades, Villehardouin's Conquest of Constantinople describes the era of the Fourth Crusade - the period between 1199 and 1207, during which a planned battle with Moslem forces ironically culminated in war against Eastern Christians that led to the sacking of Constantinople. The Life of Saint Louis, by Joinville, was inspired by the author's close attachment to the pious King Louis, and focuses on the years between 1226 and 1270. It provides a powerful, personal insight into the brutal battles and the fascinating travels of one nobleman, fighting in the Sixth and Seventh Crusades. |
Watch The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader on Megavideo
The Chronicles of Narnia Megavideo series finishes with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, a all right picture that's additionally a unsettling end to a franchise that has on no account attained great successfulness. With Michael Apted becoming the director and the eldest two Pevensie children nonexistent, Dawn Treader views like a overreaching sequel, even though it's supported quite faithfully on C.S. Lewis's 3rd chronicle. And while they invent a narrative stronger than the what's in the story, a lot of it feels perfunctory and conceived by committee. Dawn Treader isgoodenough, but indisputably the vending movie.
The movie kicksoff in the same settingduring war time england as the earlier two silver screen showing, but with Susan and Peter directed to safekeeping in America the little Pevensies Lucy and Edmund are stuck residing with their aunt and dreadful younger cousin Eustace. Once all 3 are magically brought back to Narnia they end up on the Dawn Treader, a large old ship led by Prince Caspian on a hunt to search the faraway reaches of the Narnia. Lucy and Edmund quickly enjoy life on the ship. While Eustace remains annoying, after the quest kicks off leading them through duels, shadowy marooned islands, venomous green mist and an irritable dragon. Well, that dragon actually is surprisingly Eustace, changed by enchanted gold things, and he's far more functional with his scales and fiery fire.
The Narnia pictures have been old-fashioned and solemn, parallel the stories that inspired them, but besides few times and some , the movieflavors itself so serious that it not at all empowers the people in it. This Picture doesn't damage the Narnia series, as it was not at all produced for picture adaptation, but its long-winded tempo and seriousness bare why the series never had become big even in the previous movies. Watch here on Megavideo now
About the Author
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The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe (OST) $8.47 ... |
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Varèse Sarabande - A 25th Anniversary Celebration $19.98 ... |
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The Chronicles of Narnia: The Television Music of Geoffrey Burgon $6.19 All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.... |
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The Rebels: Part 2 of the Kent Family Chronicles [VHS] $29.99 ... |
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The Seekers - Part 3 of The Kent Family Chronicles [VHS] $29.98 ... |
War Chronicles
