Haruki Murakami: In pursuit of new realism
村上：追尋新現實主義


The following is the first of two installments of excerpts from an interview with author Haruki Murakami. The interview was conducted by Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer Mariko Ozaki.

以下是有關村上春樹的訪問稿內容，原以節錄形式分期刊載於日本讀賣新聞。##############################


1.沙林毒氣事件仍是結

The Yomiuri Shimbun: "1Q84" (ichi-kew-hachi-yon), your full-length novel that crowns your 30-year career as a novelist, depicts another world that is slightly detached from reality as we know it. How did you think up this plot? What kinds of themes are in this novel?

《1Q84》是你踏入小說家生涯30年後所創作的長篇小說，書中描述一個稍微跟讀者所置的現實有所差異的世界。請問你是如何構思書中情節？小說的命題是什麼呢？


Haruki Murakami: I had long wanted to write a near-past novel similar to George Orwell’s futuristic novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four." Another motive for this book was incidents involving Aum Supreme Truth cult members. I wrote "Underground" [published in 1997] after interviewing more than 60 victims of Aum’s sarin gas attack [in 1995] on the Tokyo subway system and "The Place That Was Promised" [published in 2001] after interviewing eight Aum followers. Even after that, I attended as many hearings at the Tokyo district and high courts as I could.


我一直想寫一本類似George Orwell的《1984》的長篇小說。另一啟發我創作《1Q84》的是1995年發生的沙林毒氣事件。1995年，東京地下鐵內發生沙林毒氣事件，我分別就採訪事件中超過60名的受害者及8名亞姆真理教教徒而寫了《地下鐵事件》(1997年出版)及《約束的場所》(2001年出版)。後來，就我能力及時間所及，我出席了許多在東京都及高等法院所進行的聆聽會。

My indignation against the incident remains undiminished. But my interest was piqued by Yasuo Hayashi, who is on death row. He fled after killing eight people, the biggest number, in the Tokyo subway attack. Hayashi joined Aum without knowing exactly what he was getting into and committed murder after being brainwashed.

我對於沙林毒氣事件的發生感到憤怒，而這憤怒亦從未消退。但我的目光很快就被一名列為死囚的Yasuo Hayashi所吸引。他在事件裡殺害8人後逃走。他在未清楚自己要加入什麼團體前便成了亞姆真理教的一員並受到洗腦而參與殺人。

I think capital punishment is the reasonable decision when we consider Japan’s penalty system and bereaved families’ anger and sorrow. But I fundamentally oppose capital punishment, and I felt a heavy sense of gloom when the death sentence was given.

當我們考慮過日本的刑罰制度及受害者家庭的憤怒與悲傷後，死刑看似是合理決定。但我原則上反對使用死刑。當事件中的施害者被判處死刑時，我體會到一種切膚的悲哀。

At that time I imagined the terror of being left alone on the other side of the moon where a Joe Blow unwittingly commits a felonious crime and ends up becoming a death row convict. I considered for years the meaning of this. This served as a starting point for my story.

那時我想像到一種恐怖，彷佛被獨自留在月球的另一邊。Joe Blow#########無意識地參與了嚴重的罪行，最終成為死囚。我花幾年時光細想當中意義，而這恐怖亦成為我創作《1Q84》的起點。


2.現實存在假設 假設存在現實

Q: The novel makes the reader contemplate the loftiness and awfulness of mankind. With the lay judge system having just started, people are considering once again the significance of trying other people in a court.

問：《1Q84》此小說讓讀者沉思人類的高尚及醜陋。隨著陪審團制度的開始，人類再次思考於法院審訊別人的意義。

A: The series of incidents involving Aum followers made us seriously question just what the definition of "ethical" should be in contemporary society. I started following Aum matters so I could reassess the current situation from the viewpoints of both good and evil.


We live in an era in which it is extremely difficult to have a one-sided socioethical judgment on what is an absolutely right opinion or action. The wall separating people who would commit crime from those who wouldn’t is flimsier than you might think. Reality exists in the hypothetical and vice versa. There is antiestablishment within establishment and vice versa.

I wanted to write a novel encompassing this contemporary social system in its entirety. That’s why I gave names to almost every person in the novel and fleshed out their characters in detail, so that it couldn’t be unnatural for any of us to be one of them.