May 2022
Men Without Women - Drive My Car
Discussion: May 29th, 5:30-7pm
This month we are reading Haruki Murakami's collection of short stories Men Without Women and watching Ryûsuke Hamaguchi's movie Drive My Car, which is based on the first story in the collection but also incorporates elements from another two. If you watch it dubbed into Spanish, then please put it back into the original version for the scenes where they are rehearsing Uncle Vanya. Otherwise, you will miss a very important aspect of the movie, namely, that each of the actors in the play is speaking ih their native language and unable to understand the words that their fellow actors are saying.
Here are some questions for you to think about as you read the stories and watch the movie:
Murakami was quoted as saying: “What I wish to convey in this collection is, in a word, isolation, and what it means emotionally.” The men in these stories find themselves alone, not just without women but, in many cases, without friends as well. What similarities are there between their situations? What does it mean to be a man without women, both in the title story and throughout the collection?
The characters in many of these stories are trying to reinvent themselves. In "Yesterday" Kitaru changes his accent "because he wanted to become a totally different person." Is it possible to completely change who we are? What do the examples in these stories suggest?
Acting allows Kafuku to temporarily become "something other than himself" but he soon realizes that "when you go back to being yourself you are never exactly the same." What do the stories suggest about the line between being oneself and acting a part?
Music is a constant presence in these stories, as it is in all of Haruki Murakami’s books. ("Drive My Car" and "Yesterday" are both Beatles songs.) In fact, before writing his first novel Murakami owned and ran a jazz club. In “Yesterday,” the narrator remarks, “Music has that power to revive memories, sometimes so intensely that they hurt.” Do you agree? What role does music play in this collection?
Consider the roles of fate, luck, and predestination in these stories. Do the characters believe in these things?
Murakami’s stories are famous for their fantastical elements—talking cats and parallel universes. Do any of these elements appear in the stories in this collection? What purpose do you think they serve?
“Samsa in Love” is a reversal of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, in which a man finds himself transformed into an insect. How does Gregor Samsa view the world—and people—differently after having been a bug? Why do you think Murakami chose to retell the story in this way?
What does the narrator of the title story mean when he says he’s “trying to write about essence, rather than the truth”? How is this similar to the narrator of “An Independent Organ” telling us: “I’m sure you’ll understand that the veracity of each tiny detail really isn’t critical.” All that matters, surely, is that “a clear portrait should emerge”?
How does Murakami use metaphors and similes to add a layer of meaning to his stories? To what extent can the "essence" he is trying to convey in the title story best be expressed through the use of figurative language? What do you make of the story about lampreys in “Scheherazade”? Does it remind you of Julio Cortázar’s story "Axolotl"? What other images did you find especially impactful?
Have you read any other books by Murakami? How were they similar or different to the stories in Men Without Women? Are there any common themes that tie them together?
Men Without Women is also the title of a 1927 collection of short stories by Ernest Hemingway. In one of these stories, a bereaved Italian soldier speaks out against marriage explaining that a man should never place himself in a position where he could lose someone. To what extent is the fear of losing someone that really matters responsible for the loneliness of the men in Murakami's stories?
The story "Drive My Car" includes a lot of flashbacks, but in the movie Hamaguchi decided to tell the story chronologically. Why do you think he chose to do this? Which do you find most effective?
In the movie, Hamaguchi brings Japanese actors together with those from many other Asian countries, all of whom perform Uncle Vanya in their first language, one actress even performing in Korean sign language. What does this suggest about communication? What do you make of the technique they use at their rehearsals?
In the movie, Kafuko says “Chekhov is terrifying, When you say his lines, it drags out the real you.” What does he mean by this? How does the text of Chekhov’s play form a kind of running commentary and internal monologue in the movie?
How does the film incorporate elements from “Scheherazade” and “Kino”? Why do you think Hamaguchi chose to include them? What other differences have you found between the story and the movie? Which did you like best and why?