Im Rahmen ihrer phantastischen Facharbeit (PDF) über den Roman Afterdark des japanischen Autors Haruki Murakami (Amazon) hat meine LK-Schülerin Elisabeth Weber eine eigene Geschichte im Stil Murakamis geschrieben.
Einleitend schreibt sie:
After my analysis of Afterdark, I decided to write a story myself, that embraces Murakami’s cinematic approach. I also tried to take up common “Murakami themes” such as alienation, search for identity and growing up. It goes without saying that unrealistic elements are included, as well as Murakami’s affinity to cats, music and references to Western culture. Before I started writing, I read his “instructions”:
Whether in music or in fiction, the most basic thing is rhythm. Your style needs to have good, natural, steady rhythm, or people won’t keep reading your work. I learned the importance of rhythm from music — and mainly from jazz. Next comes melody — which, in literature, means the appropriate arrangement of the words to match the rhythm. If the way the words fit the rhythm is smooth and beautiful, you can’t ask for anything more. Next is harmony — the internal mental sounds that support the words. Then comes the part I like best: free improvisation. Through some special channel, the story comes welling out freely from inside.
Enter Cat
Red. Cars are slowing down, squealing tires, honking. The noise abates. A wall of machines and metal. Hip-hop at high volume. Green. The noise is rising and the wall begins to disperse, slowly, then faster, until we can see the other side of the street, interrupted by traffic. A girl of 15, maybe 16, is sitting at a bus stop. She’s wearing Jeans, a green shirt and a black coat. We can’t make out details, so we zoom in closer and concentrate our vision on her face only. To our surprise, there’s a scar on her left cheek, but we find that she still looks pretty. Then the bus approaches and she stands up. The doors slide open and people, young and old, rich and poor, are oozing out of the bus, going about their businesses. A woman kisses her husband on the cheek before they part. New people of all kinds surge into the bus. Someone is trying to dodge the ticket, but the bus driver, under constant yelling, makes him pay. Finally, the bus drives on. Surprisingly, the girl is still standing at the same spot, looking somewhat irresolute. As she walks on hesitantly, we decide to follow her.
After a while we realize that she is walking to the beach. Slowly, she descends the stairs that lead to the water. The rows of folded parasols cast an army of shades that grows darker by the minute. Few people strolling around. A life guard is on duty; next to the Rental & Shop sits its owner.
“Hi Tami!” The man waves at her.
“Hi Jacob. Can I have your equipment for an hour, or maybe one and a half? Please.”
“What’s up with you? You know the beach is closing in 45 minutes. And everybody is already off to the festival downtown anyways. You should enjoy the party.”
“You’re not there, either.”
“That’s not the point. What I actually mean to say is, I can’t give it to you. In case something happens, there won’t be any qualified person to help you.”
He glances at the college life guard who is immersed into a fashion magazine.
“I know you’ve done that a zillion times and I know I can trust you, but still…it’s my responsibility.”
“Jake…I thought we were friends. Remember when we went to the Mac Donald’s and your ex-girlf–”
“I know, I owe you a favor. A big favor. But still…Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Yes. Absolutely 100 % sure. Trust me.”
“I guess I have to then. Here’s the keys”
“Thanks Jake, you’re the best.”
“Oh shut up!”
After Tami has disappeared into the store, we turn to look at the red sea. Seagulls call out into the wide. Concentrating our spirits, we free our minds, leave gravity behind and take to the skies. Our point of view is that of a wide angle camera traveling through the air. Soft winds wave around, above, and through us. We draw in circles with the seagulls and gradually move away from the coast. The flashing spotlight of a lighthouse in the distance. The ocean below us. The land behind us.
After a while, we hurtle back in one giant circular movement towards the beach, where we can see a slender silhouette against the light, gently gliding into the water. Whoever it is, wears a giant backpack of some sort, and eager to find out more, we zoom in further, but the person has already disappeared into the water. In a terrifying run, we aim for the sea until we land on the surface with a smack, and, instead of dwelling on there, sink deeper and deeper. Fish, yellow, white and red. Seaweed and garbage. Darkness.
Suddenly, a diver is approaching. We move backwards, constantly watching her. Again, we decide to keep track on Tami, who is diving deeper, fast. The ground grows slimier, but she seems to be very used to the sinister surroundings. After a while, we make out a green glow in the distance. Tami begins to swim hastily towards it, as if pulled by a strong magnetic force. Our high-resolving camera eye makes out two distinct points of light now and after some further advance, we can tell that they belong to a giant cat’s face. Horrified, we witness as Tami takes off her oxygen mask and kisses the black beast on the snout. Without warning, it opens up its tremendous mouth and, together with Tami, we are being sucked inside.
Our vision is blurred and the jerky picture transmitted to our eyes does nothing but continue being jerky. After a seemingly endless time – like watching a film in slow motion – it gets steady again. From a fixed – and hopefully safer – camera angle, we see Tami kneeling before an old man. Her head is resting on his lap. A close-up of his face reveals that he is indeed very old, 85 at least. We can’t see Tami’s face, but our little microphone is recording quiet sobs. We move closer until we are able to circle around her face so that we can take in every detail of her skin, every single tiny pore. Tears on her face.
“When are you coming back?” She is weeping heavily, her body rocking back and forth.
“I want you to come back now!” We note anger in her voice. She suddenly stops crying and looks at the old man
“Grandpa, you promised to come back! You can’t just disappear and leave me!”
The old man shows no indication that he has either understood or even heard what his grandchild was saying.
“This is so unfair. I’ve been waiting for you every day since the day you left six weeks ago.”
No reaction. Sobbing. She stares at him with a weird glance. He looks like a scene in a movie that has been accidentally paused. 24 pictures per second that look exactly the same. There is not even the slightest twitch of his eyes. Ten minutes pass like this. Then Tami gets up and the giant mouth opens.
“I miss you. I’ll be back. Good-Bye.”
She swims away without looking back, until we can’t distinguish her from the water anymore. Slowly, the mouth is closing. It becomes darker until our camera records nothing but pitch-black.
At the bus stop. Tami is sitting on the same seat as the day before. Jeans, red shirt, black coat, blue umbrella. Raindrops gently tapping on windows, cars, footsteps. The bus arrives. Doors slide open and even more people than yesterday pour out. Tami watches carefully, but does not move. After a while, the bus leaves and Tami is staring into nothingness. She walks on slowly, but then turns around and goes back to the bus stop on the other side of the street. Ten minutes later she is on the bus, leaving the city behind. Through the windows we observe our surroundings. Cars, people, trees, dogs, streets, birds, trees, more trees, a horse, a few houses, the entrance to the forest. The bus comes to a halt. This is the last stop. Tami, a woman and we are the only ones left. Tami’s shoes touch the ground. They rest for a split second, are being lifted up and set down again. She is walking towards the forest.
Our viewpoint rises until Tami is just a tiny black dot on a field of green. We hang in the air above the forest. A shot. A barking dog. Silence. Our camera notices a second black dot which is coming from the forest, hurrying towards Tami. Worried, we zoom in hastily and recognize the black cat from last night. Should we be relieved? Should we be scared? We don’t know, and whatever the case may be, we can’t help Tami anyways. We are just a tool collecting data. We can’t intervene.
Nevertheless, we still follow her as she walks into the forest. We get deeper and deeper, and the sunlight that shines through the trees covertly becomes less. After a while it is hard to make out the blue of the sky until it’s impossible. To avoid stumbling, Tami rides on the cat and we follow soundlessly, ditching branches that cross our aerial paths.
“Ouch!” At first we don’t realize that it is Tami who hit her forehead with a branch. We have to look up to her. We gain on her and stare into two giant green eyes from below. Tami is already on her feet again. She kisses the gigantic creature and is sucked inside in a swirl. This time we decide not to follow her. Instead we use the time to observe in the nature around us. Birds singing, wild flowers in all variations, knotty roots, soft moss. Slowly, we move upwards, fly over the forest to the way that leads into it and wait.
A girl is hopping out, carrying something in her arms. We know it is Tami with the cat, before we even recognize them. We move backwards, but she comes closer fast, until the upper half of her body fills in the screen. The black cat, which has to our relief shrunken to a normal size, is purring intriguingly. They pass us and walk back to the bus stop. The next bus takes them to the city. We remain where we are and watch them disappear.
As the the sun goes down, all is red again.
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