Ganna Hurley Zachary Hyde English 1101 9 October 2011 WORLDS OF JOHN FOWLES AND HARUKI MURAKAMI There

are books where everything is explained and everything fits neatly into place by the end page, and there are also books where meaning always seems to be out of reach, giving the reader more questions than answers and leaving them the room for imagination. The latter are for people who are not afraid of challenging books and enjoy reading experience itself and agree with the adage: its not the destination, its the journey. And, if the readers are looking to push boundaries of literal reality and ready to submerge themselves in the whirlpool of lifes mysteries, rather than be offered a superficial solution, I would suggest them to read two masterpieces of contemporary literature: The Magus and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Written by completely opposite writers: John Fowles and Haruki Murakami, these two novels have a lot similarities in plot, characters, and themes. John Fowles and Haruki Murakami belong to different generations. They are essentially different in national, historical, spiritual, cultural traditions. Fowles is English and Murakami is Japanese. Haruki Murakami starts with Dostoyevsky when talking about his list of teachers in all his interviews: My goal is The Brothers Karamazov. In my opinion, it is a perfect piece. Id love to write my best work on the same level of depth( Fesyun interview). He also mentions Kobo Abe, Frantz Kafka, Fitzgerald, but never John Fowles. In 2002 in the interview with him, Murakami defines his writing as some kind of mix influenced by Russian literature of the

Hurley 2 19th century and American prose of the 20th century and admits that he didnt generally read Japanese literature( Kovalenin interview). On the contrary, Fowles literary taste was shaped by ancient literature, Shakespeare, Dickens, Flaubert, Moliere, W. Golding and many other representatives of English and French literature. Nevertheless, both of them were able to give the world of literature highly sensual and thought-provoking novels. The Magus and The Wind - Up Bird Chronicle are symbolic novels with a twisting and bizarre story that melds fact with fiction, past with present, reality with imagination. It's nearly impossible to tell where one ends and another begins. Their plot is both simple and complex, filled with strange and interesting happenings, which could be either psychological mind games or supernatural events. One of John Fowles characters states, we too are waiting, in our solitary rooms where the phone never rings (Fowles 331). A story of Haruki Murakamis character begins with a strange phone call and pulls Toru Okada out of his ordinary life of making spaghetti and listening to jazz. Hes led into an alternate world that may be a dream, a parallel universe, or a true reality. Nicholas Urfe, Fowles main character, after taking up a teaching position on a Greek island, finds himself caught up in the darkest of psychological games, interweaved with both reality and illusion. Both of them are trying to find the exit through the long surreal self-searching labyrinth, striving to put the pieces back together, especially in reconnecting with their loved ones: Torus wife Kumiko and Nicholass girlfriend Allison. While following the sequence of events set in the 1980s, Murakami takes his readers back to Japan's military occupation of Manchuria before and during World War II, and Soviet Labor camps in Siberia; so does Fowles, describing the horrifying killings that occurred during Nazis occupation of a remote island in Greece, Phraxos, though Nicholas lives in the 1950s.

Hurley 3 Its also very exciting to draw the parallels between characters in these books. Nicholas Urfe and Toru Okada are protagonists, compelled by events to take responsibility for their actions and struggle with their essentially passive and selfish nature . Both of them have split personalities, which dwell in the labyrinth under a mask of a master trickster Maurice Conchis and a devil-like politician Noboru Wataya. At first, both of them are not recognized as alter ego of main characters and seem to be independent characters almost till the end of the novels. In turn, Conchis life experience can be compared to Lieutenant Mamiyas one. Both of them go through the transformation, witnessing the raw evil of wars: Conchis is made to watch tortures of captured Greek partisans and Lt. Mamiya - his brother-in-arms skinning alive. Fowles S.S. Colonel Dietrich Wimmel is the same cynical murderer in white gloves as Murakamis Soviet agent Boris the Manskinner. Both writers manage to stay oddly distant from their characters yet also incredibly intimate. The theme of exploration of human complexities allows us to compare The Magus and The Wind - Up Bird Chronicle as well. In both instances, the only way for a person to take a step closer to real self is to grasp the deepest motives of his or her desires and the origin of unconscious movements of ones soul, and have the courage to get rid of all conventionalities. Defining oneself gives a chance to gain his or her freedom, the right to love and ability to understand each other. Toru asks himself, is it possible, finally, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another?( Murakami 24). Islands in the ocean, wells in the desert or dark locked doors are Fowles and Murakamis symbolic identification of a human being, his or her existence and the sense of isolation. They imply the tragedy of human loneliness, which appears to be the only possible way to distinguish ones identity. Conchis states, any of us is an island, and later he gives advice to Nicholas, learn to be what you really are (Fawles 203).

Hurley 4 Honda-san also teaches Toru, abandon the self, there you are (Murakami 51). Both Fowles and Murakami mean the same thing: a quest for self-discovery only reaches its goal when a person is sincere in rejecting oneself, leaving no creep holes and facing his or her phantoms in the personal darkness. In the dark locked room on the bottom of the dried-up well Toru Okada meets his beast of the labyrinth Noboru Wataya, a man who keeps Torus wife as a hostage. He is a symbol of dark and hated thing of the human nature, which makes any person a coward and nullity without imagination and any kind of principles, following the crowd. Noboru Wataya is a dark side of Toru Okada, whose presence the main character discovers in his well, after his wife Kumiko leaves him. Phantoms of Nicholas Urfes subconscious are his pride and emotional indifference, feeding his fears and flourishing from his insincerity and inability to love. He experiences no emotions even in the minutes of the most challenging situations. He has time to notice a grey Palmeresque light over the landscape (Fowles 234) or a face as gloomy as an El Greco (Fowles 81). In The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle a well is a metaphoric symbol of subconscious, and in The Magus it is a villa of Maurice Conchis. The villa reminds Nicholas Urfe of a skull: The house was as quiet as death, as the inside of a skull (Fowles 50) . Hence, Maurice Conchis, an owner of this villa-skull is alter ego of Nicholas Urfe, a mysterious and elusive genius, living in his personal darkness. Conchiss lessons and experiments are Urfes own voice. The Wind Up Bird Chronicle and The Magus are everything a good novel should be. It should require an active participation from readers, leaving a long-lasting impression, and forever changing readers view and outlook on things. Some characters' dilemma becomes theirs, and there are aspects and images that cannot be removed. These books deserve to be read, and then re-read. Both of them are a feast for minds.