Midori's Gravity

Thank you Marley and Anna for commenting to my post about Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood.

I always see both Naoko and Midori (the wild girl) equally as persons but of extremely different roles. As I was in a situation extremely similar to this novel's more than a decade ago, I cannot reduce a real person to just an experience.

I see Naoko (that means a honest or straightforward girl) as a symbol of a closed and self-completed world. It is beautiful but when boys and girls become men and women, this world is almost destined to collapse, at least in the modern society.

But Kizuki, Naoko's first boyfriend could not bear this transition and killed himself at 17. And Naoko followed his suit a few years later. Both failed in the modern initiation that is much, much subtler than that of traditional society. Maybe they would not have had to leave this world prematurely if they had been born in a pre-modern society as preservation of how the way things are have a greater significance than the establishment of self there.

As Kizuki was his only friend, Watanabe had a longing (perhaps unconsciously) of this beautiful closed world. So he tried to take care of Naoko. But he was a much more modern, independent person than his two friends. As a result, Naoko left this world but he stayed.

Midori (that means green and represents life) is also a very independent person. Her parents died before she graduated from university and she had to take responsibility in discharging her dead father's bookstore business. She found her ideal boyfriend in Watanabe (quite unconsciously) and tried to pull him out from the closed world of the past (again, unconsciously).

I guess her strong sexual drive is a symbol of life. She is a representation of Eros that is life-energy, while Naoko is of Thanatos, the death-energy. (Talks about the contrast between these two energies were so popular among Japanese intellectuals in the 1980s when Japan experienced the last economic boom after 1945.)

So Midori dragged Watanabe out to the world. Because he had to face the open and unfamiliar world in order to go on living...

I love Midori better than Naoko because I want to see my world going unfolded. But Naoko seems to be more popular among the Japanese readers. (Is it due to Japanese glorification of death? Or is it because of nostalgia about the pre-modern society, which enabled Japan's economic growth into the 1980s?) It seems to be the same in Taiwan. (Maybe it's the same in the westen world as the girls on the English versions' covers should definitely meant to be Naoko.)

However, in the mainland China, readers love Midori much more. She represents hope and future. In a country whose economy grows more than 10% a year, Midori is definitely more real than the ghastly Naoko...

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P.S.
I am still working after Friday midnight... It's almost the fate of a freelance writer/translator. I feel a bit nostalgic about my employed past when I had to do thing but enjoy in the Friday/Saturday nights...