Reading the Chunksters discussion

Posting this thread early since I will be on vacation next week. Thoughts and discussion??

LOVE this photo! Great colors and perfect tufts on the ears!

Now, about the book...

Wow! Tengo and Eri! So interesting though, because it definitely isn't romantic for either of them. And although Tengo was aroused by Eri, I don't think she is really even capable of "lusting" for Tengo. It certainly meant something much different to her, and seems to have something to do with keeping the Little People away, somehow. She said "the two of us are one" - I'm wondering what exactly she means by this...

She also says "weather is a question of how you look at it." which is a very strange statement to make. Interested to see how this plays out as well.

And in Aomame's chapters, things are definitely coming together. We've got confirmation that the Leader is Eri's father, something that I had suspected for a while. And he confirms there is something special between Eri and Tengo, though not love, and that Tengo is waiting for Aomame... though how he can know all this is still a mystery, but it has something to do with the Little People.

He also gives Aomame a horrible choice between her life and Tengo's. Of course, she chooses Tengo because without him, what's the point. I hope she manages to find a way to live despite this! I've come to like her spunk.

Deana, I agree that Tengo is just sexually aroused by Eri, by her otherworldliness, but he is not exactly in love with her. On the other hand, his best recollections of Aomame are from the past when she was quite young, so I think Fuka-Eri is a certain sublimation of Aomame.

I also liked the idea that him editing the Fuka-Eri's novella and its eventual publication created a certain amount of anti-bodies that are able to cure or oppose the spread of little people. I find this idea to be a powerful statement about writing specifically and literature in general. The best works of literature are able to move people, enlighten people, educate people, and warn them about the possible metaphorical plague.

I also the explanation what 1Q84 is fascinating. It is not just the parallel universe - it is the world within the world perceivable only by some people who were re-routed into this universe.

The concept of Fuka-Eri being a perceiver, and her father a receiver, partially explains why he is knowledgeable about many secret things. If the small people are only silent observers, they might use Fuka-Eri as a transponder (I apologize for a technical term, but I could not find a better word for her function).

All in all, as I have already said in my previous post, the novel is becoming more and more Kafkaesque where a lot of inexplicable and bizarre things taking place, bizarre but quite enjoyable.