Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki reminded me of how viscerally comforting fiction can be. In a conventional novel, loose ends such as “What about Haida?” would never happen. Is Tsukuru the only character who suffers in this way? How does he handle the deep depression he feels as a result of this rejection and how is he changed by this period of suffering? Both serve as vessels, of sin, to suffer in place of other people. Why does Haida share with Tsukuru the story about his father and the strange piano player who speaks of death? It focuses on Tsukuru Tazaki, a man dealing with isolation and his adulthood. Why did Midorikawa so carefully place that bag on top of the piano? Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. And Murakami seems to pull us along with this assumption; even to 10 pages just before the end, Tsukuru sits at the station and considers boarding the train to Matsumoto, at the cost of missing his meeting with Sara. Username/Email * Password * Haida: was the dream real? Review: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and What About Haida? They swim together at a local pool and discuss philosophy. Haida: was the dream real? I do not have insight on why Tsukuru considered, in those last few pages, traveling to Matsumoto, or Kofu, or Shiojiri, or Hachioji in particular. Tsukuru came violently, the semen copious. And Tsukuru didn’t dare ask. Is Tsukuru the only character who suffers in this way? 95% Upvoted. Haida is from Akita prefecture further north, his father visited Oita far south. Haida becomes the vessel for Tsukuru’s struggle by swallowing Tsukuru’s semen and then vanishing to his death. I’m not sure either why Haida left, but one of my ideas is that Haida might have had feelings for him (like Eri) which he ignored because he was simply not aware enough of those things. Change ), https://www.reddit.com/r/murakami/comments/2dte48/spoilers_ending_discussion_colorless_tsukuru/, https://www.reddit.com/r/murakami/comments/2gikct/thoughts_about_murakams_tsukuru_tazaki_spoilers/, https://www.reddit.com/r/murakami/comments/2fx0jp/haida_a_bad_elf/, https://mrgriff2.wordpress.com/2014/08/29/colorless-tsukuru-tazaki-and-his-years-of-pilgrimage-chapters-13-19/, http://www.tailwindspress.com/the-tailwinds-review/murakami-murakami-we-never-really-knew-you-a-review-of-colorless-tsukuru-tazaki-and-his-years-of-pilgrimage, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. How does he handle the deep depression he feels as a result of this rejection and how is he changed by this period of suffering? In fact, a substantial Abenaki community was located there. Also - did anyone else assume the whole time that Tsukuru did it? * From the good people of reddit and others who inspired this piece: In fact, a substantial Abenaki community was located there. tracked her all the way to her home in Finland. Yuzuki suffered even worse. Sort by. Both are attractive young men, engineers, but also opposites. Contents Synopsis. Haida’s father was himself on a sort of pilgrimage at the time; when Haida tells his father’s story to Tsukuru, Tsukuru feels a slipping in time, as if Haida is at once himself and his father, and then soon Haida himself is gone, and just as Haida’s father never learned what was inside the bag, nor what became of the jazz pianist — “All he left behind was a stack of mystery novels” — Tsukuru never learns … After being rejected by his friends, Tsukuru spends a year practically dying. There was thus no need to rejoin with the sixth finger as there was with the other four. https://mrgriff2.wordpress.com/2014/08/29/colorless-tsukuru-tazaki-and-his-years-of-pilgrimage-chapters-13-19/, Additionally, another interesting take on the book: Category: Colorless Tsukuru On maybes “… It’s a waste of time to think about things you can’t know, and things you can’t confirm even if you know them. What might this teach us about the purpose of storytelling? He wanted to hold a woman close, caress her body, inhale the scent of her skin. It is assumed that, as with the three friends he knew he would never meet again, Tsukuru will also never meet with Haida ever again. Hello Select your address Best Sellers Today's Deals New Releases Electronics Books Today's Deals New Releases Electronics Books Do you believe that their distress could have been avoided? It is difficult to sort through all the symbolic possibilities presented, not even mentioning Shiro’s desire to “get rid of the red,” the recurring theme of Tsukuru swimming across the cold sea at night linked in with Tsukuru’s travels, the bad elves and spirits, the recurring father-son legacies, and of course Tsukuru’s obsession with the order in the chaos of train stations, among other things. It was an odd sensation, as if the two distinct temporalities had blended into one. I realized a few decades ago that to really leave my mark here in Haida Gwaii, I’d have to start carving the totem poles. (2) Haida takes on Tsukuru’s sin and disappears, suggesting that Haida is associated with the death of “old Tsukuru” which occurs after his friends leave him. Ambiguously Gay: Haida, to the point of Tsukuru having a very explicit (and possibly real) Homo Erotic Dream about him. This is what he wanted to do in life so, while the others all decided to stay in Nagoya, their home town, for their higher education, Tsukuru went to university in Tokyo, as that was the only place where he could study the design and construction of railway stations. Just as Tsukuru came, Haida had quickly bent over, taken Tsukuru’s penis in his mouth, and—careful not to get the sheets dirty—taken all the gushing semen inside his mouth. A little past 11 p.m. their conversation petered out and silence descended on the room. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Tsukuru is colorless, while Haida is a neutral color, gray. Is he persuaded by Haida’s tale? Haida loved him and decided to leave. TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Why does Tsukuru wait so many years before attempting to find out why he was banished from the group? Do you believe that their distress could have been avoided? She has a miscarriage, then develops anorexia. Haida’s mystery seemed, initially, to demand an answer. The most pressing loose ends were: Who raped Shiro and who killed her? New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. How does Tsukuru react to this story? 7. Yuzuki got. In fact, Tsukuru wonders if Haida’s connection to the dying man who could see the world clearly and Haida’s own desires to pursue an impractical truth are more closely tied than Haida lets on. However with his maturation throughout the story he'll be fine and move forward much like the trains he so much adores and leave the past behind. He offers the chance to color Tsukuru’s world, and indeed expands it, but does not try to kill Tsukuru. Instead, he leaves to a certain death, taking with him the burden of possibility. "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage" is a novel by Haruki Murakami, released in 2013 in Japan and in an English translation in 2014.. So as always, Haida did most of the talking, while Tsukuru sat back and listened. ( Log Out / It is generally accepted that Haida is the sixth finger of Tsukuru’s friends. After meeting at a swimming pool, Haida and Tsukuru are for a time inseparable, eating together, talking about jazz, but things peter out soon after the ejaculation. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage Haruki Murakami, 2014 Knopf Doubleday 400 pp. Also, why did Haida just pack up and leave? Tsukuru begins to have erotic dreams about his old friends and this new one. Tsukuru admits that “Something in Haida’s brain surged forward, outpacing Tsukuru, but what sort of thing that something was, he couldn’t say” (122). Haida tells Tsukuru the story of his father (or was it Haida himself? With this knowledge, Tsukuru ceased trying to keep up with Haida. More specifically its the story about Haida’s father and a jazz pianist Midorikawa “Green” as told by Haida to Tsukuru on a night. The identity of the rapist is never revealed, and Yuzuki is left a broken, neurotic shell of her former self. Haida left because he realized that despite all of the signs, Tsukuru was never going to realize his feelings. Do you believe that their distress could have been avoided? Did he have sex with his friend Haida, or merely dream it? Shiro’s mysteries, however, were not as immediately related to Tsukuru’s own life as Haida’s. How does he handle the deep depression he feels as a result of this rejection and how is he changed by this period of suffering? Upon closing it, my primary thought was, “What about Haida?” And I couldn’t sleep. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/ColorlessTsukuruTazakiAndHisYearsOfPilgrimage. Elsewhere in the story, the piano player asks Haida’s father whether he believes in a devil. He felt lost, drifting through life alone, contemplating suicide and his value as a person. Rather…he felt a strangely neutral quiet descending over his life” (140). save. A little past 11 p.m. their conversation petered out and silence descended on the room. Murakami solves loose plot threads not with action, but with symbolism. Aka, meanwhile, struggles with his homosexuality, a part of his character that he feels alienated from, a part that is lost to him because he is now married and in a business where his reputation is paramount. This had to be the missing key to the story. In high school, Tsukuru Tazaki belonged to an extremely tight-knit group of friends who pledged to stay together forever. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is the long-awaited new novel—a book that sold more than a million copies the first week it went on sale in Japan—from the award-winning, internationally best-selling author Haruki Murakami. It was an entirely natural desire for a healthy young man. Tsukuru is a vessel of his four friends’ problems, but he survives their problems more easily. The only way he could save himself is, if he is to find someone to pass it on to. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage marks a new direction in Murakami's fiction: a return to the lyrical realism not seen since his 1987 novel Norwegian Wood, but set against the social realities of contemporary Japan. “he didn’t feel bitter about Haida abandoning him. However, ultimately, the meaning that can be derived from the symbols Murakami infuses into this narrative absolutely placate the urgency of the loose plot threads, by allowing us a glimpse of the complex reasoning behind his decision, and thus giving us a degree of closure. It's very possible, however, that Haida's reasons for leaving had to do either with his love for Tsukuru (we learn later that Aka went through similar shame at confronting his homosexuality) or even possibly with his shame at having assaulted Tsukuru (although I'm not entirely convinced the assault actually happened). Yet Tsukuru couldn’t understand why Haida was drawn to him, or was even interested in him. Specifically: To fully understand Haida, one must understand his role in the otherwise perfect balance of Tsukuru and his four other friends. This thread is archived. Why does Haida share with Tsukuru the story about his father and the strange piano player who speaks of death? So as always, Haida did most of the talking, while Tsukuru sat back and listened. confront Sara over her heavily implied infidelity. Topsham was inhabited by the Abenaki prior to European contact. Haida’s mind was just too quick, his sphere of mental activity too broad, on a different level entirely. Tsukuru never knows for sure) meeting a pianist named Midorikawa (It means “green river”, another colorful name) in a hot … Comprising of two girls and three boys, each member of the group has an inherent colour in their surname. As promised, I am posting the questions Random House gave us for the purpose of discussing Haruki Murakami’s latest book, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. Elsewhere in the story, the piano player asks Haida’s father whether he believes in a devil. But they enjoyed each other’s company so much that time spent bantering just flew by. A little past 11 p.m. their conversation petered out and silence descended on the room. Haida stopped and glanced at the clock on the wall. Even though he doesn’t know why his friends left him, he chooses not to seek the answer. https://www.reddit.com/r/murakami/comments/2gikct/thoughts_about_murakams_tsukuru_tazaki_spoilers/ Colorless Tsukuru is no different, except here the division exists within a single character: on one side, Tsukuru’s investigation into his past; on the other, his dream life and his haunted feeling that those very dreams may have more dire consequences than he imagined. He is forced to think about his own sexuality. 27 comments. Murakami has a habit of making these interesting characters that are insignificant to the plot suddenly disappear. Having a sixth finger, like having the death token, gives both magical awareness and early death. So many questions seem rather a lot, so I’m going to choose to address only a few.Feel free to choose any you like, and respond here in the comment section or on your own blog. and Why did Haida leave? (1) Redditors have commented on Haida’s mirror relation to Tsukuru. Also anyone who would like a middle-aged version of Catcher in the Rye. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (色彩を持たない多崎つくると、彼の巡礼の年 Shikisai o motanai Tazaki Tsukuru to, kare no junrei no toshi) is a 2014 novel by Haruki Murakami. If not, who else suffers at what is the cause? When he was alone, though, sometimes Tsukuru longed for a girlfriend. Yuzuki being raped by someone, then privately accusing Tsukuru as the culprit. I would like to quote this couple of meaningful messages by Fumiaki Haida: He limited his journeys home, in order to avoid seeing them. Kuro says that she believes an evil spirit had inhabited Shiro, and as Tsukuru is leaving her home, Kuro tells him not to let the bad elves get him. in the end, wasn’t it the two of them–Shiro and Haida–who had, in a real sense of the term, been wounded or injured?” (258). Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage Haruki Murakami, 2014 Knopf Doubleday 400 pp. Remember the dream sequence. Haida is shy—it’s not a surprise he doesn’t say anything directly. In the final analysis, that’s no different from the slippery slope of hypotheses you were talking about.” Haida drew a deep breath. ( Log Out / Haida loved him and decided to leave. (4) Haida is more directly connected with Shiro. Why does Tsukuru wait so many years before attempting to find out why he was banished from the group? Many reviewers found Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki lacking in imagination and clarity compared to Murakami’s previous works. Haida’s mystery seemed, initially, to demand an answer. An instant #1 New York Times Bestseller, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is the remarkable story of a young man haunted by a great loss; of dreams and nightmares that have unintended consequences for the world around us; and of a journey into the past that is necessary to mend the present. In this Bildungsroman of the realist kind (hints of the author's magical realism are left to dreams and tales), the third-person narrative follows the past and present of Tsukuru Tazaki (pronounced [taꜜzaki tsɯ̥kɯɾɯ]), a man who wants to understand why his life was derailed sixteen years ago.. Nevertheless, as Tsukuru considered traveling, there was a sense that he needed to go somewhere, that there were still threads left loose, still people to reconcile with. One of these involves Haida, a young university student to whom Tsukuru … I think that is why Haida left. 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