Talk:Norwegian Wood (novel)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Norwegian Wood (novel) is part of WikiProject Japan, a project to improve all Japan-related articles. If you would like to help improve this and other Japan-related articles, please join the project. All interested editors are welcome.

Japan To-do: edit purge Improve to Featured status Japan Improve ASIMO Burakumin and Buraku Liberation League Takako Doi Chikamatsu Monzaemon Education in Japan Japanese architecture Japanese art Japanese robotics Japanese strategic planning for the Pacific (1905-1940) List of Emperors of Japan (transl. from ja) Emperor Yozei of Japan List of Japanese artists Namioka, Aomori Nihonjinron Sadako Ogata Ōishi Yoshio Politics of Japan Yagyu Shinkage-ryu Center Shiken (大学入試センター試験) More... Review First Sino-Japanese War Hinduism in Japan Inland Sea Kigo Narihira Santosen Temple Sazae-san Stroke order Heizo Takenaka Giovanni Battista Sidotti Requests See Requested articles Listed for deletion See this page, this page, and this page for lists. Grammar corrections Gaijin Takefuji Need images Every prefecture, see Subdivisions of Japan Sendai - Add demographic images More... Translate from Japanese Wikipedia Iemoto (家元) Blue Ribbon Award (Film) (ブルーリボン賞 (映画)) Gesaku (ja:戯作) More... Transliterations missing for Military ranks and insignia of the Japan Self-Defense Forces Wikify Ibaraki University Ikawa, Shizuoka Ima, Ai ni Yukimasu Japanese sculpture Mori Goro Organization of the Imperial Japanese Central China Army Organization of the Imperial Japanese North China Army Sangaria Shaken Takefuji Vote: Talk:Dokdo#Rename vote Watch this list — Edit this list

	This article is part of WikiProject Novels, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to narrative novels, novellas, novelettes and short stories on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit one of the articles mentioned below, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and contribute to the General Project Discussion to talk over new ideas and suggestions.
B	This article has been rated as B-Class on the quality scale.
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the importance scale.
Article Grading: The article has been rated for quality and/or importance but has no comments yet. If appropriate, please review the article and then leave comments here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article.
Tasks you can do: Novels WikiProject • (Novels, Novellas, Novelettes & Short stories) Announcements and open tasks (watch • edit • discuss) → Please help with tagging articles! Critique (Featured Article): no candidates currently - "10 achieved" Wikipedia wide peer reviews: Original Stories from Real Life Novels WikiProject Peer reviews : Master and Commander Improve: The Body in the Library • Furies of Calderon • Wolf Brother • The Monk • The English Patient • Bones of the Moon • More... Create: Black Cocktail • Blackthorn Winter • London, 1850 • More... Novel without Infobox (auto list): many novel articles do not have an infobox - and need one (auto generated list) - may need expansion of article too Our Collaboration Department is continuing with one more title The_History_of_Tom_Jones,_a_Foundling for the current month. Get collaborating on the article and also look at nominating other titles to be considered. The new article Fictional locations now exists - as a companion article to Fictional characters - but it is still a stub and could do with plenty more imput to improve it. Another new article A Taste for Death (P.D. James novel)‎ now exists - but it is also still a stub and could do with plenty more imput to improve it. A new Infobox exists to support the growing number of "Short Story" articles that are tagged as part of the project - take a look at it and comment on it's talk page. I would suggest we use it for "Short Stories and "Novelettes" and leave the main "Book infobox" for "Novels" and "Novellas". New hitlists added to the main worklist. List of literary works with eponymous heroes List of literary works with eponymous heroines Pages that only exist as redirects: Men at Arms changes

Contents 1 "sexually liberated"? 2 proposed infobox changes 3 any thoughts on how to structure a story summary? 4 Major Improvement 5 possible themes? 6 Allusions section question 7 Accuracy of Story Summary

[edit] "sexually liberated"?

I've read this novel. How could the character of Naoko be described as "sexually liberated"?

I agree, this phrase should be revised in order to reflect Naoko's actual character. DLS 01:59, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

I've gone ahead and changed the sentence so that it says that Toru Watanabe "develops relationships with several young people", thus sidestepping the description of being "sexually liberated". Whatever else Naoko is, she's definitely not that. --Tachikoma 00:10, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

I support the new wording. It is better than the previous one. JanSuchy 19:20, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] proposed infobox changes

Hello, I'm in the process of rereading this novel in preparation for expanding this article. I have a few suggestions for the infobox, but I don't want to be too bold and change the box without first discussing these proposals:

1. Changing the book cover image to the North American cover, which makes the Beatles link more explicit and frankly, a cover that I prefer over the UK version.

2. Removing the "preceded by...followed by" entries, because this novel isn't part of a series, and has no plot connection with either Harboiled Wonderland... or Dance Dance Dance.

Please tell me what you think. --Tachikoma 22:35, 26 August 2006 (UTC) Bold text

I agree with point 2, but see no reason to change the cover, if you really think that the North American is better, be bold and change it, probably nobody will complain :-) // Duccio (write me) 13:57, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] any thoughts on how to structure a story summary?

OK, I've begun to think about how to write a story summary, but the very fact that this novel moves back and forth in time (recollections, etc.) complicates things. Does anybody think that the story summary should be expressed in chronological order? I've written only the first paragraph as a frame for the rest of the summary:

A 37 year old Toru Watanabe has just arrived in Hamburg, Germany. When he hears an orchestral cover of the Beatles' song "Norwegian Wood", he is suddenly overwhelmed by feelings of loss and nostalgia. He thinks back to 1969, when so much happened that touched his life...

I was looking over my personal chapter summaries and thinking that a chronological restructuring might be easier to understand for readers, though it does mean more effort to write. Any thoughts or suggestions on this? Thanks. --Tachikoma 01:37, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

--

My story summary is now on the article page! I've tried to keep to the essential parts of the story, which necessarily involves cutting out parts of the plot and telescoping details. I do hope that this will be sufficient. I've worked very hard on this, and I hope that comes through. -- (formerly under the nick "Tachikoma") Kyoko 15:50, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Major Improvement

This page has grown to such a good article in a short space of time. A little over a month ago it contained only a few sentances, and now it's a nice indepth article. Maybe somebody should reassess the class, as it can no longer be listed as a stub. --Nick San 11:01, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

The article has been reassessed, and it has jumped from stub-class to B-class. Great job, everybody! --Kyoko 19:40, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] possible themes?

I've been puzzling over what the themes of this novel are. Some of my ideas include:

• the nature of memory
• the idea of being true to your ideals
• not letting yourself be weighed down by the past
• the nature of love

But I only have some vague ideas, and I'm not sure if they're correct. Any thoughts on this? The Novels Wikiproject encourages people to add themes to novel articles, so I figured that such a section should be included in this article as well. Thanks. --Kyoko 03:33, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

You could say that music - in particular The Beatles - is a huge part of the novel. I'll have to reread it once I've finished The Wind Up Bird Chronicle and jot down some notes on the themes, so we can make this page even better. --Nick San 13:11, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

I guess something could be said about the power of music to evoke a mood or reawaken a memory. The entire novel can be thought of as a flashback, triggered by hearing Norwegian Wood. There's also the time after Naoko's death, when Reiko plays several melodies on her guitar, songs that she had played for Naoko, then some classical music. Reiko makes some comment about how Naoko's taste for music never rose above sentimental tunes, or something to that effect. Could that have been a comment about the link between music, memory, and emotion? --Kyoko 23:29, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Allusions section question

Hello, I've just added an Allusions section, in which the Japanese national anthem is mentioned. I was also wondering if the scene where Naoko undresses in the moonlight could be an allusion to The Tale of Genji, where a woman slips off her clothing in a similar manner. I could be reading too much into this, though. Thanks. --Kyoko 15:41, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Accuracy of Story Summary

I've just finished reading this novel and, having read through this article, the story summary strikes me as a little misleading or inaccurate toward the end. For example: A later letter informs Toru that Naoko has taken her own life. Toru, grieving and in a daze, wanders aimlessly around Japan, while Midori — who hasn't kept in touch with him — wonders what has happened to him. misleads the Midori character here by implying that she hasn't kept in touch with him of her own will (rather she couldn't as he was travelling around); Toru calls Midori out of the blue to declare his love for her. Really? Didn't he just call as he has to explain "a million things" to her? He already declared his love for her in the previous chapter. Midori's response is characteristically (by this point) cold, yet the fact that she does not explicitly cut Toru off at that point (like she did before) leaves things open. Again this is misrepresenting the character. At this point it's the first she's heard from him since he returned. Again in the previous chapter they both declared their love for each other. Parjay 00:46, 7 April 2007 (UTC)