The character and concept chart as revised for volume II is posted below. In addition to the concepts outlined therein, I have two major points to discuss about this middle section.
The first involves something of a trope I’ve observed in a number of works of fiction, namely the idea that people choose to die as they grow old. In 1Q84, the doctor caring for Tengo’s father speaks of growing old, past the age of 7o specifically, as a process of deciding when to stop living, and Tengo takes this assumption as granted. I’ve seen this idea elsewhere, including in a rambling lecture for a completely useless Anthropology class. (Don’t take that as a shot at Anthropology; this class was useless because the lecturer had evidently given up on being a professor and abruptly retired after two or three lectures, giving everyone unearned A’s.) Continue reading
Figurative Ink 