Terror and Terrorism in Haruki Murakami’s IQ84: A Critical Analysis-Juniper Publishers

 Annals of Social Sciences & Management Studies-Juniper Publishers

Theory

Terror and Terrorism1

Footnotes

11This part of the essay has been published in a journal in India in 2017.

This section will discuss terror and terrorism. Terror has been defined as,

This section will discuss terror and terrorism. Terror has been defined as,

a. a state of intense fear.

b. one that inspires fear: SCOURGE.

i. a frightening aspect .

ii. a cause of anxiety: WORRY.

iii. an appalling person or thing; especially: BRAT.

c. Reign of terror.

d. violent or destructive acts (as bombing) committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands [1].

The definition of terror that can be seen above aligns it to fear and violence. Many discourses be they academic or otherwise relate terror to terrorism. Thus, in order to understand terror, we must understand terrorism because they are intertwined.

According to Muhammad Kamal,

For some time now, many scholars have been engaged with understanding and defining terrorism. This engagement is reflected in the considerable amount of literature produced by them on this topic. Although this body of literature discloses important aspects of terrorism, none of it discusses directly the ‘essence’ of terrorism. The definitions provided are based on the writers’ political discourse rather than their philosophical apprehension of terrorism. They think of terrorism as an act of threatening to destroy an intended target for a political end ([2]: p. 1).

He goes on to describe and present the ideas of those scholars and also the Marxist definition of terrorism and in the end of his definition of terrorism he states that the term was first used to “describe the radical and violent political attitude of the Jacobins during the French revolution and its aftermath” ([2]: p. 2). Kamal argues that terrorism is not a post-modern political fact. However, since 9/11 the world has tried to understand and know what terrorism means. The stress has been on the cultural production of the act. The cultural production becomes the pivotal point of discourse on terrorism by some individuals ([2]: p. 3).

Sudha Setty [3] states that the United Nations has tried to define terrorism since the 1960’s. However not all nations in the world agree with the definition provided by the United Nations. This is due to the fact that there are freedom struggles, acts against colonialism carried out by natives that have been subjugated. These acts cannot be labeled as terrorist acts because they are a feat that are carried out in the name of freedom and equality.

Alan B Krueger [4] states that although many people blame terrorism on lack of education and poverty there is not enough concrete proof to determine this ([4]: p. 2). Krueger argues that, most terrorists are not motivated by their own material gain. How could one account for an excess of volunteers or suicide missions if that were the case? Instead terrorists are motivated by political goals that they believe are furthered by their actions. The West is often a target – not because it is rich, but because it is influential and because terrorism has a greater chance of succeeding when it is perpetrated against a democracy than autocracy ([4]: p. 4). Krueger states that the economy is disrupted because terrorists seek to spread fear ([4]: p. 8). Although Krueger argues that terrorism is difficult to define, he states that it is a premeditated, politically motivated violence. The goal of terrorism is to spread fear ([4]: pp. 14-15). There is a relevancy to the communities from which terrorists arise as well as their views. It does not occur in a vacuum ([4]: p. 23). Terrorists are motivated by a goal. They are willing to die for the cause that they believe in ([4]: p. 48). Krueger informs us that, “88 percent of the time, terrorist attacks occur in the perpetrators’ own country of origin” ([4]: p. 71).

Ashis Nandy [5] defines terrorism as such: Existing theoretical and empirical work stresses two differentiate of contemporary terrorism. First, terrorism is primarily a psychological weapon: ‘its purpose to instill fear in an attempt to reach specific objectives’. Second, terrorism is ‘essentially indiscriminate’ and its choice of victims as arbitrary or random. The lack of discrimination helps to spread fear, for if no one in particular is the target, no one can be safe ([5]: p. 24). Nandy comments on the subject of terrorism in South Asia. He argues that modern terrorism and counter terrorism have become consumer fodder for the middle class. It is possible to sell it, advertise it and purchase it as a “political spectacle and as a commodity through the TV, the newspapers, the radio and commercial films” ([5]: p. 23). He argues that it cannot survive without publicity and flourishes due to media exposure ([5]: p. 23). From the discussions above we can conclude that terror and terrorism are synonymous. Terror is a state that occurs after terrorism takes place most of the time. This idea of terror and terrorism can be detected in IQ84. The acts of terrorism in the novel will be discussed in a later section.

George Orwell’s & Gorman Beuchamp [6] in his essay Of Man’s Last Disobedience: Zamiatin’s We and Orwel’s in Comparative Literature Studies [6] states that, the twentieth century has seen the emergence of a distinctive literary subgenre, the dystopian novel. In two of these in particular-Eugene Zamiatin’s We and George Orwell’s 1984-the central conflict of the individual’s rebellion against the State reenacts the Christian myth of man ‘s first disobedience, Adam’s against God. An Adam-like Protagonist for the love of an Eve defies the godlike State by asserting his instinctual freedom and falls from the new Eden, in a fictional manifestation of the psychic conflict that Freud posited between the individual and society [6].

Orwell’s 1984 can be seen as a novel that renacts the past. It is a rereading of the Bible and the fact of creation. It speaks against religion. It advocates atheist ideas and the idea of a Utopia for men only. The way of thought that 1984 postulates is that this world is better off without women because it was a woman - Eve - that made man fall from heaven. Beauchamp proves Orwell’s idea in his essay. According to him, The dystopian novel, to warn against such a totalitarian tomorrow, posits the existence of utopia: a world where Eros is reserved for the State alone, where Adam will have no Eve, where Eden will be inescapable, where the Fall will be as unimaginable as freedom. Utopia’s dawning will signal an end to man’s disobedience, and paradise, alas, will be regained [6] might be a dystopian novel. However, it does not prophesize the end of the world, the ultimate prophecy that can be seen in this novel is the annihilation of women and mankind living in a world that is recreated in the memory of “pre-fall”, before man fell due to Eve’s mistake. Without death 1984 postulates, man will regain his paradise in this world by killing womankind. The dystopia in this futuristic novel is the death of woman.

Harold Bloom [7] in the Introduction to his book, Bloom’s Modern Critical Appreciation’s: 1984 Updated Edition states this about Orwell’s 1984, There is an equivocal irony to reading, and writing, about George Orwell in 1986. I have just reread 1984, Animal Farm, and many of the essays for the first time in some years, and I find myself lost in an interplay of many contending reactions, moral and aesthetic. Orwell, aesthetically considered, is a far better essayist than a novelist...The book remains momentous; perhaps it always will be so. But there is nothing intrinsic to the book that will determine its future importance. It’s very genre will be established by political, social, economic events. Is it satire or science fiction or dystopia or counter manifesto? Last week I read newspaper accounts of two recent speeches, perorations delivered by President Reagan and by Norman Podhoretz, each favorably citing Orwell. The President, awarding medals to Senator Barry Goldwater and Helen Hayes, among others, saw them as exemplars of Orwell’s belief in freedom and individual dignity, while the sage Podhoretz allowed himself to observe that Orwell would have become a neoconservative had he but survived until this moment. Perhaps irony, however equivocal, is inadequate to represent so curious a posthumous fate as has come to the author of Homage to Catalonia, a man who went to Barcelona to fight for the Party of Marxist Unity and the Anarcho-Syndicalists ([7]: p.1).

In his essay Bloom advocates the idea that 1984 is not an important text. It is merely a manifesto against a democratic government by a man who postulated Marxit ideas. Orwell’s idea of freedom that resonates in the novel is total freedom from law and order. Orwell’s 1984 states, “War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength” (Orwell, 1949: p. 2). Thus, he advocates war rather than peace, slavery and lack of knowledge. This novel goes against humanity and religiosity. This is the future that Orwell invisons in 1949, and this future is placed in 1984. This is Orwell’s prophecy for the future generation since he has lived through two world wars, thus his novel shows that he is disillusioned by politics and mankind as well as humanity.

Haruki Murakami’s IQ84-BOOK I

Murakami’s IQ84 resonates Orwell’s 1984. Orwell’s novel as discussed above shows the vision of a man who is dejected and has lost all hope in humanity. Murakami extends the idea that Orwell postulated in 1949 in the new millennium, after the 9/11 attacks, and he publishes his book in 2010, 9 years after 9/11. This novel shows how humanity has changed across the world, not only in America but also in Japan. In the new millenium the world has ceased to have borders and so has anarchy. Whatever inhumane acts that are performed in any part of the world, there is another part that performs similar acts sometimes in the name of justice and peace [8].

The cold war might have ended, the USSR dismantled and Russia is no longer a superpower, but a poor struggling new democratic state which is no longer on the American conscience. Murakami proves through his novel that the world has become more chaotic than it ever was. Via his novel Murakami uses powerful metaphors and his books that are surreal sell across the globe and are read worldwide. This proves that metaphors are a very powerful tool, more powerful than the reality that we live in as has been discussed by Homi K. Bhabha in Nation and Narration (1990).

Murakami vis-a-vis his fiction dismantles Orwell’s ideas. While Orwell writes about the future Murakami writes about the recent past. In an interview Murakami states “First, there was George Orwell’s 1984, a novel about the near future... I wanted to write something that was the opposite of that, a novel on the recent past that shows how things could have been,” [9]. He postulates the idea of how events could have been in the past. IQ84 suggests to us another Utopia, a haven that is imagined and yearned for by a Japanese author. A haven far different from that prophesied by a white man who is disillusioned by humanity and the world because of the two world wars that he has lived through. This is due to the fact that the Japanese too, were actively involved in the war and suffered a Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings that destroyed their country and people. They had to recreate themselves under the scrutiny of the West and the world and become one of the largest and most successful economic power in the world within 40 years after World War II ended.

IQ84 – Book I begin with the present where the main character Aomame is in a taxi and there is classical music on the radio. This reminds her of the past, the years after World War I in 1926. She mules on the death of Japan’s Taisho Emperor in 1926 and the deterioration of democracy and modernism. The connection between music and history as introduced by Murakami is significant. Music is well known to be a cure for the soul. Thus, Japan cured its soul via music after the World War I years, as did the rest of the world. The novel alternates the chapters between two characters, a woman named Aomame and a man named Tengo. The major themes that can be seen in the novel are cults and abuse, loss, sex, love and murder. This novel is a post 9/11 novel that tries to make sense of the post 9/11 world as is evident through its themes.

According to Murakami,

“To me, 9/11 does not feel like an incident that took place in the real world. Somewhere, there must be a world in which this didn’t happen,” he said. “I am always doubtful about whether this world that I am in now is the real one. Somewhere in me, I feel there is a world that may not have been this way” [9].

Murakami via his text takes advantage of the post 9/11 situation. Referring to Ashis Nandy who argues that modern terrorism has become consumer fodder for the middle class. If we look at contemporary fiction readers, most of them are middle class. Thus, writers like Murakami feed the hunger of middle-class readers across the world that want to read about terrorism since 9/11 was an original act which was novel. Never in the history of man had this happened, and it took a mastermind to plan it. Looking back at the news footages, 9/11 as seen through the television screen was real life Hollywood in action. As Nandy says, the subject of terrorism can be sold via media ([5]: p.23). Now, it can be sold faster than before through social media, i.e. Facebook, Tweeter and most Internet search engines. The world has turned into a simulacrum due to the advancements in technology. After 9/11 especially it seems that the world is no longer real or believable. Book 1 ends with a reminiscence of the past. Tengo is thinking of Aomame during her student years in Britain listening to a literature lecture on Charles Dicken’s novel. The text mentioned is Charles Dicken’s Martin Chuzzlewit, a British classic. Murakami reflects on the decadence of London, in the 19 century, where the Industrial Revolution has taken over the lives of the Londoners. It can be deduced that the novel is about revolution. In this text the revolution that can be seen is the revolution of the mind and a revolution that began after 9/11. Mankind began to make sense of life after 9/11 and what terrorism and war meant, especially in Japan where the country had suffered a disaster as bad as the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. There can be no better race than the Japanese to make sense of the disaster of 9/11 since they had a suffered a worse fate in 1945. However, 9/11 did not happen due to a war that was being fought. It was a statement against economic imperialism and military colonialism. The American symbol of freedom the Statue of Liberty was left intact, while the twin towers, pentagon was destroyed by the plane crashes and another plane tried to attack America’s political symbol, the White House. The perpetrators were not against freedom although their act triggered other wars like the ‘War Against Terrorism’ that President Bush declared in 2001 as a crusade which eventually lead to the Arab Spring, that triggered the many terrorist attacks that have occurred in Europe and across the world today since then [10].

Conclusion

This has been a reading of Haruki Murakami’s IQ84 (2009). It has looked at George Orwell’s classic novel 1984 and compared it to Murakami’s IQ84. It has discussed the influence of Orwell on Murakani’s fiction. Murakami has tried to make sense of war and terrorism in his fiction. He has also taken advantage of the post 9/11 cult fiction readers and produced a masterpiece. The idea of terrorism might have evolved, but the ending takes us back to Dicken’s London, most probably where it all started with the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the technological boom of that time which has influenced the world ever since. Without technology a tragedy like 9/11 could never have happened the way it did, and the event could never have been used as consumer fodder to feed the hunger of middle class consumers who crave for action while reading in their armchairs at home or in their offices. 9/11 has taught us that terrorism and war still sell and are marketable, via the fiction that has been produced on the two subjects..

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