FABLE DISCUSSION PROMPTS
Discussion Prompts
Blind BLIND WILLOW, SLEEPING WOMAN
How does the image of the old room develop the theme Willow, of displacement?
What is the connection between the story of the blind willow and the cousins' deafness? Sleeping What is at stake in the girlfriend's use of the phrase ‘In a sense?’
Woman Why does the cousin ask the narrator to look at his ear?
BIRTHDAY GIRL
What is the effect of the introduction to the first-person narrator after the opening scene?
What do you imagine she might have wished for?
What do you think the birthday girl means by her statement that the narrator has already made his wish?
NEW YORK MINING DISASTER
How would you interpret the real problem?
How would you explain that ‘something’ the friend describes?
What is the connection between this statement and the one the narrator's friend makes about the different ways
AUTHOR: one can die?
Haruki Murakami Which themes does this exchange bring together?
AIRPLANE: OR, HOW HE TALKED TO HIMSELF AS IF GENRE: RECITING POETRY
Story Collection What emotions does this comparison between the characters' lovemaking and a small room express?
ORIGINAL PUB DATE: What appears to bring these two characters together?
2006 How do you interpret this sentence? (Like life itself...)
FABLE CUSTOMER USE ONLY FABLE DISCUSSION PROMPTS | Blind WIllow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami
THE MIRROR What are the similarities between this scene and the one in ‘The Mirror?’ What is Murakami trying to communicate
Who or what might this 'other' person be? in both?
How does the story gradually move from the real to the In light of the various references to cats in this story, what surreal? is the significance of Izumi's statement that the real narrator has ‘been eaten by cats?’ A FOLKLORE FOR MY GENERATION A ‘POOR AUNT’ STORY Why might Murakami have decided to put this story after ‘The Mirror?’ Why might having a poor aunt stuck to his back constitute a ‘tiny punishment’ for the narrator? How does their loneliness serve as the foundation of their connection? Why would the desire to tell the story of a poor aunt lead to being permanently attached to one? What surprises you the most about this statement? What is Murakami trying to communicate through this Why are both characters able to have this knowledge? dialogue about words and signs?
HUNTING KNIFE Why would the poor aunt disappear after this scene?
NAUSEA 1979 What is the effect of this exchange with the blonde woman on the overall mood of the story? What do you think is the connection between the phone
calls and the nausea? Why is the narrator so preoccupied with the mother and son? Who or what do you think the voice at the other end of
the phone call might have been? How do the various elements of the story work together to undermine the narrator's sense of reality? THE SEVENTH MAN
A PERFECT DAY FOR KANGAROOS How do you interpret the intention behind K's smile?
What fascinations do zoos seem to hold for Murakami? What does this story teach us about the ways the dead continue to stay alive? What is the effect of the comparison of the two kangaroo parents to human beings? What do these closing paragraphs reveal about the illusion of time and its relationship to healing? DABCHICK
THE YEAR OF SPAGHETTI What statement does this story make about authority? What does this statement suggest about the boundary What is absurd about this final section? between reality and imagination?
MAN-EATING CATS How do you interpret this closing statement?
How does Murakami play with this border earlier on in TONY TAKITANI the story? What statement about love might Murakami be trying to Why does the prospect of having no possessions make through his repeated depictions of instant precipitate such a crisis? connection?
FABLE CUSTOMER USE ONLY FABLE DISCUSSION PROMPTS | Blind WIllow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami
Why does the woman react so strongly to the clothing? How does this statement conform to your own beliefs How do you interpret the recurrent 'piling up' of things in about coincidence? Tony's life? HANALEI BAY THE RISE AND FALL OF SHARPIE CAKES What is the relationship between the impartiality of What do you imagine the Sharpie Crows are? Nature and the surreality of Sachi's experience?
What is Murakami poking fun at through the figure of Why does Sachi establish this tradition? these Sharpie Crows?
Why are the boys able to see her son's ghost but not THE ICE MAN Sachi?
What brings these two characters together? WHERE I’M LIKELY TO FIND IT
What kinds of changes do you imagine the trip to the How does this piece of information about the mirror help South Pole will precipitate? explain the husband's disappearance?
Why does the change in setting allow the narrator to What might the mirror be a door to? finally conceive? What do you think the narrator is looking for? CRABS THE KIDNEY-SHAPED STONE THAT MOVES EVERY What does this comment suggest about the effect that DAY small choices can have on the trajectories of our lives? How does Junpei's father's advice function as a curse?
Why is this event so disorienting for the male What exactly is Junpei scared of when he considers the protagonist? possibility that this woman might be his ‘second strike?’
FIREFLY Why does Kirie vanish after Junpei finishes his story? What is the effect of realizing that the narrator is telling the story to someone else? What is the relationship between Junpei's father's curse and the kidney-shaped stone? In what ways do the narrator and the dead friend's girlfriend fail to connect with one another? A SHINAGAWA MONKEY
What drove the girlfriend to go to the sanatorium? How do names tether us to reality?
What does the flight of the firefly symbolize? Why did Yuko give her nametag to Mizuki before
committing suicide? CHANCE TRAVELER What do the monkey and Yuko have in common? Why do several of these stories insist that these ‘so-called strange events’ actually happened? What is the symbolism of the talking monkey hiding underground? How does this reconciliation compare to the one that we see in ‘The Seventh Man?’ How does this revelation explain Mizuki's inability to feel deeply?
FABLE CUSTOMER USE ONLY FABLE DISCUSSION PROMPTS | Blind WIllow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami
9. Which short story did you like the most? Which did you like the least? Overall Book 10. To what extent do you consider Haruki Murakami an existentialist? Discussion Prompts
1. Several of these pieces involve characters recounting stories from their own lives. What is the larger effect of this story-within-a-story narrative structure and how does it align with Murakami's postmodernist orientation?
2. In many of these stories, Murakami uses the first-person narrator and leaves the relationship between the author and the narrator unclear. What is the effect of this ambiguity?
3. How does ‘Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman’ represent the relationship between reality and illusion? What techniques does Murakami use to move into the surreal?
4. Disconnection is a thread that runs throughout many of the stories in ‘Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.’ How would you describe the disconnection that this collection depicts and how does it relate to the forms of instant connection that we also see?
5. In ‘The Seventh Man,’ ‘Firefly’ and other stories, Haruki Murakami depicts the grief and long-term displacement that accompanies the loss of a loved one. What different statements do these different stories make about loss?
6. What role do animals play in Murakami's collection? What is the relationship between the presentation of animals and the absurdist dimensions of Murakami's work?
7. How are women characterized in this short story collection? How evident is the fact that these stories were written from a male perspective?
8. In ‘A Shinagawa Monkey’ and several others, words uttered by the characters become real. What is Haruki Murakami trying to say about the power of language?
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