Reading the Chunksters discussion

OK, thoughts on this section?

Four chapters go by in this section, but somehow I feel like not much has happened. With the exception of chapter 6, it's just sort of leading up to the next action. Chapter 4 is just Tengo thinking about Aomame. Chapter 5 is Aomame preparing to leave her apartment. And chapter 7 she is waiting to complete her final job. Chapter 7 is somewhat intersting, as we meet the bodyguards for "the leader", who don't seem to be professionals since they don't find her gun and ice pick in the bag with her feminine products and underwear. And they give her lots of warnings not to say anything about what she sees when she meets the leader. But of course the chapter ends before she gets to meet the leader and find out why.

Chapter 6 is quite interesting though. Tengo gets two phone calls, both of which are probably life changing. In the first, he learns that something awful has happened to his girlfriend and that she will no longer be able to visit him "in any form". Wow, that's ominous. I want to know what happened to her! I hope we'll find out. In the second call, he learns that Ushikawa (or the people he works for) are much more in touch with Tengo's life than we realized before. They seem to know everything he is doing, the fact that he wasn't sleeping, etc. CREEPY. The call is threatening and it sounds like bad things are coming for Tengo. And the letter that Komatsu wrote? Suspicious, especially since he hasn't called for quite some time. Someone is definitely interfering with Tengo's life and the people who matter to him. I can't wait to find out what he's gotten himself into by teaming up with Fuka-Eri!

Deana, I think that your feeling of nothing major happening in the novel so far is justified by the fact that the chapters are quite short. I too had the feeling that the section was somewhat short.

I also think that the novel starts resembling its famous progenitor '1984', namely the Big Brother. This was the concept of the government that knew everything and controlled everything even if you were not aware it. Tengo seems to be controlled and manipulated by some unknown force that might predetermine his future life.

I find these chapters significant because for the first time we can claim with confidence that Tengo and Aomame knew each other when they were children, and they acquaintance, although short, left a memorable impression in their hearts. I am aware that there were a number of hints and clues about their prior common past experience in earlier chapters, but in these chapters they both recollect their past experience using their names.
It is also interesting to observe how Aomame moves from the state of apostasy (the state of religious non-affiliation) to spiritual prayers at the moment of danger. As a humanist, this transition has always fascinated me both among the humans and the characters. It is as if some people have an affinity gene that can be switched on or off or is it inability of a human mind to embrace the fact that you can not control your life and death? Aomame's reversal to spirituality is accentuated by the 'lecture/guidelines' she received from one of the body guards who tries to explain her not to be confused and bedazzled by something that is extremely sacred for the followers of this cult.

A short section, but on a personal level, too many questions ...

Overall, these chapters contribute to an ominous sense of ominous inevitability for both Aomame and Tengo, as if they are swirling around a black hole and being sucked deeper in. I like Zulfiya's point about the 1984 parallels. And I agree about the significance in the confirmation of the importance of Aomame's and Tengo's memories of each other.

Yes, lots of questions, or, as a review of Air Chrysalis puts it, "we are left in a pool of mysterious question marks." Here are a few of mine...Why didn't Tengo tell Komatsu of his recorded message from Fuka-Eri? Is Tengo's married lover, now "irretrievably lost," a new victim of an abusive husband who might come to the Dowager's attention? What does the husband mean about her no longer visiting Tengo's home "in any form?" She is obviously present in the form of memory, with ongoing reminders in the music recordings she had left there. Our suspicion that Ushikawa was connected to Sakigake has now been confirmed in his most recent conversation with Tengo, but I still wonder what they really want from Tengo; what would they expect from him if he took the mone from Ushikawa's "foundation?"

I read a little bit further in the novel, and it is getting even more confusing and sinister.