Murakami’s 1Q84 is Not a Dystopian Novel

“Everyone, deep in their hearts, is waiting for the end of the world to come.”

This is a quote from Murakami’s 1Q84 that was used in The Big Short, a film about the ’08 financial crisis. The quote, above all else, is statement about the inconvenient misgivings that hide within us that seek to manipulate, dominate, and violate others — the Little People of 1Q84 or Big Brother of Orwell’s 1984.

Orwellian dystopias are about universes in which these feelings are let loose and put into power. Nobody needs to be conscious of their existence, for these forces exist within systems and institutions themselves. The joys of everyday, domestic life like family, food, and sex are reframed by ideology, untruth, and paranoia.

From the outset of 1Q84, this is Tengo’s world too. A book publishing company undergoes illegal schemes to win awards, a sex cult reduces the bodies of young girls to that of cows, a sanatorium is characterized by the sexually repressed nurses that work there, the NHK fee collector spirals into madness from loneliness.

As is common in Murakami’s writing, everyone is dissatisfied. No one illustrates this better than Ushikawa, the “grotesquely ugly” spy who also appears in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. He is introduced as the 2-D bad guy, much like Buzzcut and Ponytail, who is suspicious of Tengo’s operations. Later on in the novel, Ushikawa’s perspective is given its own set of chapters. To the chagrin of readers, these sections do very little but repeat actions and thoughts of Tengo and Aomame.

What we do get is a distilled, personified, and less extreme representation of the Little People’s work— the intense hunger for something better than what we have. Ushikawa, estranged from his wife and two daughters, is the Shadow of Tengo and Aomame’s union.

1Q84 functions like a medieval fairytale. Aomame literally delves into the dark world of 1Q84, slays Leader the dragon, evades Ushikawa the reaper, saves princess Tengo and escapes.

What I find interesting is that, unlike Orwell’s 1984, 1Q84 is a novel about the past not the future. Dystopia novels are warning signs meant to depict the risks of technological and cultural progress. Murakami’s approach is to realize the modern mind, the ways in which everyday life colonizes our memories, and how direct engagement with the magic and meaning of our subconscious can heal our alienated relationships with the past.

In this way, 1Q84 really is a fairytale; one of Aomame’s childhood memories, wishes, and desires — of what could’ve been.

Whereas dystopias are novels of fear and trembling, 1Q84 is a novel of regret and haunting. The story’s Sakigake reflects the domineering, religious influence of Aomame’s parents. Fuka-Eri, Ayumi, and the Dowager are fragments of Aomame’s personal identity, which is profoundly scarred by the death of her childhood friend Tamaki.

Her reunion with Tengo is a wish-fulfillment, and the only sign of hope in the novel. It’s only through confronting her forgotten memories, and dodging the force that regulate them, can Aomame acquire the bravery and wisdom to overcome 1Q84.

I think there’s something to be said about Murakami’s love of art. In many of his novels, it seems that the only salve to a world of incredible abuse and emptiness is either material (alcohol, food) or art (jazz and classical music, novels). It’s clear that Murakami favours art. Like Sinfionetta or Air Chrysalis in the book, art bridges the gap between this world and “the other side.” Art is a literal air chrysalis reconnects the masa of our bodies to the dohta of our memories.

In the end, 1Q84 is a book concerned about freedom. How do we excavate meaning from memory while overcoming the ugly effects of past traumas? What does it mean to be “present” and how much control do we actually have over our attention spans? What is unconditional love?

If you enjoy my writing, please consider leaving a tip on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/xichen