#219 The Ice Man- Haruki Murakami
Murakami has such a unique style, it’s hard
to get a finger on sometimes, but seeking its meaning is the adventure his
writing offers. His work is mysterious, symbolic, metaphorical, and above all
beautiful. In a lot of his work this mystery comes in the form of singular
characters, particular, odd, leaning towards the preternatural. Thus is the
existence of the Ice Man.
The narrator marries this Ice Man. She is marrying the past,
her past. “Ice contains to future, just the past, sealed away.”
Although she enjoys her marriage—they are comfortable,
successful, and happy—she becomes unfulfilled and wishes to travel and see more
of the world. She feels trapped by the coldness of the past. It is unchanging, dead.
“I’m frozen inside the ice…It’s such a weird feeling. With
each passing moment I’m becoming part of the past. There is no future for me,
just the past steadily accumulating. Everybody is watching this happening to
me. They’re watching the past, watching as I slip further and further away.”
They travel to a place she believes her husband would feel
comfortable, the south pole. This concession is her end, she has relied to far
on the past, and can no longer hope for a future.
“The outrageous weight of the eternal past had grabbed us
and wasn’t about to let go. We’d never be able to shake free.”
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