Murakami Salutes Orwell: How "1Q84" Pays Homage to "1984" (Part 1)

Long before the 1000-page 1Q84 draws to a close with the saccharine reunion of its two main protagonists, Tengo and Aomame, Murakami broaches the subject of religious orthodoxy and its effects on Literature – respectively represented by Sakigake (a secretive religious organisation legally sanctioned by the Japanese government) and the ghost-written fantasy novella Air Chrysalis. Although the premise of this subject was never fully explored (perhaps it was never Murakami’s intention), due to the novel’s shift to Tengo and Aomame’s love story in Book 3, enough of it inhabits the unconventional world of 1Q84 to warrant an in-depth discussion.

Sakigake is an exclusive religious community (not at all unlike Aum, the sect that launched the Tokyo gas attacks in 1995, which Murakami had extensively dealt with in the probing Underground) that thrives on secrecy and the vague, mystical promise of salvation. We catch a glimpse of its interior through the descriptions of several characters, notably Professor Ebisuno, who has sole custody of Fuka-Eri, the original writer of Air Chrysalis, and the dowager who hires Aomame to assassinate Sakigake’s “Leader” for his penchant for raping young girls. We learn that Sakigake had in fact begun as a peaceful agricultural commune, and it is only over time that it has developed into a “closed-off religious organisation.”

At the core of Sakigake’s secrecy, we find Fuka-Eri, the daughter of the “Leader” who has managed to escape from the commune and found refuge at Professor Ebisuno’s. While there, she dictates Air Chrysalis – a fictionalised (?) account of her experiences in the commune – to the professor’s daughter, and its manuscript finds its way to Tengo’s literary agent Komatsu, who urges Tengo to re-write and refine it in order to secure a prestigious literary prize.

Trouble finds the men when Air Chrysalis becomes a national bestseller. The secrets of Sakigake are out, and its members are less than thrilled about having their secrets revealed. In no time, both Komatsu and Tengo are embroiled in a dark, twisted plot against them. Komatsu is even kidnapped and coerced to withdraw all copies of the book from the public sphere. His kidnapper says to him:

We would like you to quietly withdraw from all this … You must stop publishing Air Chrysalis. You won’t print any more copies, or reprint it in paperback. And all advertising for the book will cease. And you will sever all connections with Eriko Fukada [Fuka-Eri] (220, Book 3).

The members of Sakigake know exactly what they want.

Tengo’s life, too, is in danger when Sakigake discovers he has ghost-written Air Chrysalis (thereby making the world of 1Q84 a reality). Matters take a turn for the worse when the “Leader” is assassinated, and a nosy mercenary detective finds out that Tengo and Aomame attended the same school at one time and might have known each other. Tengo is therefore drawn into a perilous whirlpool of conspiracies without himself being cognizant of the fact. Even though Fuka-Eri is technically the author of Air Chrysalis and not Tengo (she claims she is the “perceiver,” one who perceives “voices” from the other side), Tengo is seen by Sakigake as an antagoniser and a potential threat to their faith.

All this occurs in the alternative world of 1Q84 – a world which comes into existence when Tengo ghost-writes Air Chrysalis and Aomame goes up the emergency escape stairs by the Metropolitan Expressway. There are many indications that 1Q84 is unlike the more recognisable 1984 (the year in which the novel takes place): the two moons, the Little People, air chrysalises that bear dohtas. What truly makes this alternative world fascinating, however, is the narrator’s insistence that 1Q84 and 1984, despite the oddities listed above, are one and the same world. In fact, 1Q84 has replaced 1984 because they are so much alike. In a key exchange between Aomame and the “Leader,” the latter says: “No, this is no parallel world … The year 1984 no longer exists anywhere. For you and for me, the only time that exists anymore is this year of 1Q84” (488, Book 2).  This tells the reader that both Aomame and Tengo have entered a world that is not very different from the world they knew. It is a clear sign that Murakami does not want his reader to make the mistake of seeing 1Q84 as a fantasy world where anything is possible. The opposite is true: 1Q84 is as tangible as the old 1984, and the perils faced by the two protagonists are real and life-threatening.

The book Air Chrysalis is presented as a catalyst of sorts. In Book 2, Chapter 4, we encounter the following passage:

In any case, though, it seemed clear that Air Chrysalis had been the catalyst for the changes going on inside him [Tengo]. The act of rewriting Fuka-Eri’s story in his own words had produced in Tengo a strong new desire to give literary form to the story inside himself (italics mine).  And part of that strong new desire was a need for Aomame (386).

The italicised part is interesting because it tells the reader that Air Chrysalis is a catalyst for literary inspiration, and along with this new-found inspiration comes a new desire: the desire to be re-united with his love interest Aomame. Tengo admits in Book 2, Chapter 4 that his life has no purpose, and yet he ultimately finds a purpose in the “town of cats,” where he visits his comatose father and chances upon Aomame’s dohta in an air chrysalis. To put all this in a simple equation:

Literary inspiration = Desire = Love = Lust for life

The problem, of course, is that Sakigake, a symbol of religious oppression, will do everything in its power to halt the distribution of Air Chrysalis. The notion of religious orthodoxy censoring novel ideas is nothing new. Ironically, it is the “Leader” of Sakigake, aware of his imminent death, who expresses this notion in a curious conversation with Aomame:

You are afraid, just as the people of the Vatican were afraid to accept the Copernican theory. Not even they believed in the infallibility of the Ptolemaic theory. They were afraid of the new situation that would prevail if they accepted the Copernican theory. They were afraid of having to reorder their minds to accept it. Strictly speaking, the Catholic Church has still not publicly accepted the Copernican theory (494, Book 2).

In a similar fashion, Tengo’s ghost-writing of Air Chrysalis is eliciting the same response from Sakigake. His “talent” has allowed him to put into words forbidden thoughts and made 1Q84 a reality. The “Leader” continues:

The one who did the actual writing of Air Chrysalis was Tengo. And now he is writing a new story of his own. In Air Chrysalis – which is to say, in its world with two moons – he discovered his own story. A superior Perceiver, Eriko inspired the story as an antibody inside him. Tengo seems to have possessed superior ability as a Receiver. That ability may be what brought you [Aomame] here… (496, Book 2)

The collaboration between Tengo and Fuka-Eri not only brings Sakigake’s secrets out into the light, it also enables Tengo to unearth the writer in him, and inspires him to compose another story in the same vein. This is unwelcomed news to the ones anxious to keep things in the shadows, the ones fearful of having to reorder their exclusive little world with its tyrannical rules.

Link to Part 2: http://ed-is-a-stranger-on-earth.blogspot.nl/2012/03/murakami-salutes-orwell-how-1q84-pays_16.html

All page numbers refer to the 2011 Harvill Secker edition (published in two volumes).