Haruki Murakami
Paperback | Pages: 80 pages Rating: 3.52 | 10831 Users | 1587 Reviews
Mention Based On Books Sleep
| Title | : | Sleep |
| Author | : | Haruki Murakami |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 80 pages |
| Published | : | (first published 1987) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Short Stories. Cultural. Japan. Asian Literature. Japanese Literature |
Commentary During Books Sleep
Sleep can be a blessing.
Or,… otherwise.
By the time I was reading this Murakami’s it just happened I watched a tape by famous Sleep researcher, psychiatrist W. Dement. His research on REM (rapid eye movements) and dreams had been long and very enlightening. He started in the 1950’s at the Chicago University.
One of the key concepts is that of REM sleep: though muscles are turned off, the brain activity continues. If people are awakened in the REM phase, 80% of them will have a vivid recall of the dreams experienced.
Dement read Freud’s Interpretation of dreams and acknowledged dreams can be psychologically significant. In that tape Dement pointed out experiments made in animals: cats deprived of REM sleep would become more aggressive towards rats.
What about humans? What would happen if a person had been for 17 days with no sleep at all? “Insanity” is the likely word that comes up to any lay or non-lay mind,…likely.
That’s what this book is about. An unidentified 30 year-old female goes through that experience and registers her own inner and outer life. The record is meant for the reader solely, since she tells nobody about. Neither to her dentist-husband, nor to her school-kid son. This is a kind of pre-scientific paper.
She reported having had a “kind of insomnia” prior to those 17 days. Some of her observations follow: “it’s hard to tell distance from objects or the weight of things”; she had lost 15 kg; she felt as she was “inside her own shadow”. But that episode was gone.
Later came the 17-days phase. Initially, she got worried and pondered a medical consultation. Then she resigned and came to the resolution: “I don’t care about sleep”. She knew all-too-well about the sleep positive side: “the excess of energy produced by thoughts is then eliminated via dreams”. She knew sleep could be therapeutic, refreshing. Yet it didn't happen.
Murakami surely had to read scientific papers about sleep; that’s obvious in some instances of the text. For example when experiments made by the Nazis are evoked. They used, in WWII, sleep deprivation as torture… coupled with “lights-on always”; insanity ensued; death next.
How about "she"?
She had a degree in English literature and a thesis on Catherine Mansfield. She’s been a housewife though. Now that sleep does not happen, she reads compulsively, over the nights; she sips cognac…and bites chocolates. She reads Ana Karenina…reflects on her image at the mirror, her perfect body well worked out.
At night she watches her husband sleeping un-interrupt as always (he looks like "an idiot"; she’s irritated by the fact that her son has got that type of face: like dad’s).
During daytime, she prepares meals for her family; does the shopping; and works out,… swimming.
No insanity reported. Only an “enlarged consciousness”; a sense of “über” woman; a sort of 1/3 life-amplification…”time was all mine”.
Nevertheless, the paper got interrupted. We don’t know the rest. In my view that's the negative side of the Murakami's paper. We got to know only that she went out, while family sleeps, for a car ride…she’s parked, she cannot start the car, she’s locked inside and two shadows are about to flip her car over.
No conclusions drawn, as they are in scientific papers. So, it’s just pre-scientific.
Just fiction.
UPDATE: "The Spooky Effects of Sleep Deprivation"
in: http://www.livescience.com/52592-spoo...Present Books In Pursuance Of Sleep
| Original Title: | ねむり |
| Edition Language: | English |
Rating Based On Books Sleep
Ratings: 3.52 From 10831 Users | 1587 ReviewsCriticism Based On Books Sleep
This early short-story (1989) offers a welcome dip into Murakamis surreal universe. It foregrounds the voice of an ostensibly submissive but privately self-assured Japanese housewife, who, by want of sleep, discovers a whole new interior world. The familiar becomes repulsively alien and the realm of fiction offers a more truthful slice of life than humdrum middle-class family life. An attractive Murakami fingerprint is the weird, slightly menacing stillness that envelops the story. The citySleep was an interesting read in that the prose was so crisp and clean that I couldn't turn away from the book for a second, but the story itself was boring and monotonous. Murakami has this interesting parallel between his tale and Anna Karenina that he manages to pull off without seeming pretentious. Beside that and the prose, though, I didn't find much else to enjoy.
The pictures saved it. I couldn't imagine getting through this if I didn't know there'd be a new one every page I turned.Haruki Murakami's Sleep is a short story from one of his other novels which was published separately. I haven't read The Elephant Vanishes yet (even though I will. I will read all of Murakami's eventually) so I can't quite frame the story in the original novel but, to me personally, Sleep felt pointless.It comes about a woman in her 30s - it is narrated by her, actually -
Ok this was so quick read I find myself finishing this book and flipping the pages to find more , it's so short but so good absolutely I'm gonna read more to Haruki murakami
I feel rather at home with this book. No, I havent been wide awake for the past 17 days, but Ive always had trouble sleeping. Ironically enough, the fact that I couldnt sleep was the reason why I decided to start reading this book. Lets just say that I didnt stop until I reached the very last page. Just like the main character, I find myself thinking too much too much about the strange ending the author decided to give to this book. It could mean so many different things. There are currently a
I really dont know what is the purpose of the story or if there are any hidden meanings, but I quite liked it and enjoyed self-contemplating and relating while listening.Sort of reminded me of some of Stephen Kings booksMaybe it is a warning for avid readers that if they slack on reading, the reading monsters or whatever will deprive them of sleep so they catch up on the wonders of reading...I just didnt like the parts where they talk about Anna karenina; feels like spoilers....
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