Being original (Norwegian Wood)

When Nagasawa and Watanabe are talking about the books they like to read or the ones they have read. Watanabe tells Nagasawa that what he reads is not fashionable, so he tells him: “If you only read what everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking”(p.31).

 When I read this quote I was paralyzed for a few seconds, I had never thought it this way but it is kind of trued. When something is popular at a time like books, TV series, music, sports, etc. we kind of channel into that fashion, and become kind of brained clones. All watching the same, reading the same, doing the same, THINKING the same (as Nagasawa says).

 I agree with what Nagasawa tells to Watanabe, though I think it’s okay to do some things others do, we should also do things not many are doing, even if this is listening to different music, or reading old fashioned or unknown books.

Vocabulary

Barrette

-A clasp for holding a woman's or girl's hair in place.

-"She wore a big, brown barrette"

Leisure

-Freedom from the demands of work or duty.

- Time you take off to do your hobbies.

-"All the leisure spots were crowded"

Hose

-Flexible tube for conveying a liquid, as water, to a desired point.

- Plastic tube used to conduct water to a specific point.

-"He led a rubble hose from the exhaust pipe of his N-360 to a window"

Revved

-To increase the revolutions per minute of (an engine, motor, etc

- To accelerate or intensify something.

-"taped over the gap in the window and revved the engine".

Note: all the first definitions of these vocabulary words were retrieved from thefreedictionary.com or dictionary.reference.com.

Attitude (Norwegian Wood)

Everyone has their bad days, those on which you think everything is against you, even the city’s traffic. Maybe you had an argument with your boss, or fought with your couple. And later on, everything seems to be wrong.

We have all had this kind of day, but we are the ones who make it even worse with our aggressive and negative reactions towards everything in those days. When I read this quote on Norwegian wood, it made me have a reflection about this, “I guess it´s all a matter of attitude. You could let a lot of things bother you if you wanted to” (p. 19).

This is one of my favourite’s quotes of the book. It couldn’t be more right. We enjoy life more if we at least try to have a positive attitude towards stuff; it is not that easy, I know. But it is word trying.

I think that if I remember this quote, and apply it to my life, things will be easier for me. I might not have straight A´s in all the exams, but my grades pretty good though. Or when I am stuck in traffic, instead of suffering I will just enjoy that moment I am spending with the person by my side. Or if I am on my own listen to the music I like and just relax. We can spend a terrible half an hour (or more in this city) complaining about stuff instead of trying to enjoy it the best we can.

This is one of the things I have learnt from Norwegian Wood, and it is one of the best advices I have been given in my life. And one of the best you can give.

Vocabulary:

Moat

-A deep, wide ditch surrounding a castle, fort, or town, typically filled with water and intended as a defense against attack. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/)

- A fosse.

-“Where the green embankment makes for a nice place to walk by the old castle moat”

Embankment

- A bank of earth or stone built to prevent a river flooding an area.( The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved)

- A wall put up to avoid water from a river to go out.

-“Where the green embankment makes for a nice place to walk by the old castle moat”

Ramen

- A bowl of clear soup containing noodles, vegetables, and often bits of meat. (http://dictionary.reference.com/)

-“And the floors were littered with ramen wrappers and empty beer cans”

Littered

- Make (a place) untidy with rubbish or a large number of objects left lying about. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/)

- An amount of garbage or things on a space.

-“And the floors were littered with ramen wrappers and empty beer cans”

Moldy

- Covered with a fungal growth that causes decay, due to age or damp conditions. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/)

- Musty

-“Moldy mandarin orange skins clung to the bottoms of wastebaskets”

Remember me… (Norwegian Wood)

Most human beings are in need of giving and receiving love, consciously or unconsciously, and we all want to be remembered for something, to leave a mark in this world or in somebody’s heart.  

Naoko, even though she is a quiet girl shows this need too, when she tells Watanabe while they were taking a walk, that one of the things she wishes is to never be forgotten by him “I want you always to remember me. Will you remember that I existed, and that I stood next to you like this?”(p.9)

Norwegian wood is a very nostalgic book, it reflects many important human feelings, and this quote shows very clear how even someone like Naoko, who seems to be lost in this world, doesn’t show her feelings very often and walks ahead of you instead of walking by your side, is afraid of being forgotten, just like any other human being, I´ve felt like that too.

Watanabe´s answer to Naoko´s wish shows the love he feels for her “I’ll never forget you, I said. I could never forget you”(p.9). I felt moved when I read his reply, because one of the most beautiful feelings in the world is to be loved in return.

Vocabulary:

Sprinklers

- A device used for watering lawns.

-An object that sprays water.

-“Circulating sprinklers caught the sunlight as they turns” p.12

Banner

- A long strip of cloth bearing a slogan or design, hung in a public place or carried in a demonstration or procession.

-flag

-“Down the banner would come and find its place in the box”

Solemn

-Formal and dignified.

-“Each day at the comlex began with the solemn raising of the flag. p 13”

Pudgy

-Slightly fat

-Chubby

-Uniform was short, pudgy, and pasty faced.

Bristly

- Having a stiff and prickly texture.

- Something that doesn’t have a smooth and soft feeling.

-“His bristly hair was flecked with gray”

Nostalgia ( Norwegian Wood)

When it suddenly hits you that time has passed, that you are getting older without realizing it. The things you had yesterday but you no longer have… this is a very profound feeling that gets inside of me more than in normal people. In the first page of Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami the main character, Toru Watanabe, experiments this feeling very deeply “(…) thinking of what I had lost in the course of my life: times gone forever , friends who had died or disappeared, feelings I would never know again.”(p.3)

When I read this part of the book I felt like those words were written just for me, telling me that I am not the most nostalgic human being in the world, but Toru Watanabe. It might sound a little bit like a cliché (or maybe a lot),but the truth is, life happens very fast, one day you are thirteen  and the next day you have grand children who are thirteen.

We hear about this every day, but suddenly it really hits us, and when it does you realize the way you have lived your life until that moment, and the best feeling is the one of having lived a life full of blessings and love, knowing that it has not been lost time, but un regrettable experiences. But if this is not the case, then hopefully we will still have time to enjoy the time we have left.   

 Vocabulary:

 Ambled:

-An unhurried or leisurely walk.( www.thefreedictionary.com)

-To walk slowly.

-“As we ambled along, Naoko spoke to me of wells” (p.4)

  Meadow

-A tract of grassland, either in its natural state or used as pasture or for growing hay.( www.thefreedictionary.com)

-Land full of grass for different uses.

-“Now, though, that meadow scene is the first thing that comes back to me” (p.4)

   Limpid

-Characterized by transparent clearness; pellucid.( www.thefreedictionary.com)

-Something clear.

-“(…) the pool of a limpid spring”

Crammed

-To force, press, or squeeze into an insufficient space. ( www.thefreedictionary.com)

-To fill something until you can´t put anything else.

-“It was deep beyond measuring, and crammed full of darkness”