I, for one, am sick of science fiction. This is a bold claim for someone who attends an institute of technology, I know. However, if you have been through the trenches of the literature classes like I have, then you would understand the sentiment. I am one of the very few literature majors here at Stevens, and in my second year I have consumed more science fiction than many fans of the genre do in their lifetime. And I am not a fan of it, although I have come to appreciate all the variety found within the genre. I enjoy the genre’s foundational texts, and I adore it when they venture more speculative and philosophical rather than space laser guns that go ‘pew pew’ and look cool. Science fiction is at its best when it is more speculative and veering away from specific genre classifications that would impede its ability to tell an interesting story.
So, in my own troubling era of enduring science fiction creeping into almost all of my classes, I can only recommend Murakami’s enduring classic 1Q84. Taking place in Japan in 1984, the story follows a man named Tengo, a mathematics instructor and aspiring writer, and Aomame, a massage therapist and hitman for hire, as they live through 1984, where there is a real world and a parallel world where there are two moons and everything is just slightly different. It is a love story and mystical, and the world is so lovingly crafted and reflective of life in Tokyo in 1984. When you read this book, you feel as if you could walk behind a suspicious wall and emerge in a world where there are magical spirits that must be appeased to avoid death and natural disasters, and where two moons shine over everyone. I loved this book when I read it a year ago. Mostly because it is just so weird! Everything about it is unusual and does not fit with what we expect a story to feel like.
In 1Q84, where you expect drama you receive silence. When you desire the plot to move forward, the character goes to a park and simply exists, for seemingly no purpose at all, for weeks. Details are as irrelevant as they are important, and anything that is important is mostly irrelevant. Just as the main story appears to occupy and detail the existence of parallel worlds with opposite rules, so does this story occupy opposite and often conflicting roles within itself. No one has seemingly figured out how to classify it as a genre at all, some call it magical realism, science fiction, realistic or urban fantasy, dystopian, or even simply speculative fiction.1Q84 is all of this wrapped up in a long-winded fantastic 1000 pages, and I highly recommend it for a challenging read. However, I do not recommend reading this book right now. Wait until winter recess, and let it dominate your entire life for a few weeks.Don’t do that to yourself right now.
