The Big Sleep

Rereading "Barn Burning," I've realized how much my first impressions of Murakami have changed. My freshman year writing class professor described the story as a "keyhole," once you interpret the barn=girl and burning=murder, and you get the "ah ha" moment, the story makes sense. A couple of years later I found a paper copy of The Elephant Vanishes at a used book store, only 12 bucks. I reread "Barn Burning," and thought about the keyhole theory. I chose one of the short stories at random and started reading with the goal of finding "the key." I couldn't figure anything out. No keys found but I really enjoyed them anyway. Finally, after joining this class I'm beginning to realize, there is no single "key." Or lock. Or door for that matter. The mundane aspects of reality, making spaghetti, cleaning ears, putting on a record, might mean magnitudes of reality more in a Murakami novel. And I stress the might. Just as easily, a mysterious sheep with a red star on its back could be a key to the Boss or colonialism or whatever else people can argue, or maybe it's just a sheep in the mountains. Some mysteries are not meant to be solved so easily (or at all). After taking this class, it's clear that there are a multitude of influences, framing, characters, and themes that Murakami has referenced or just came up with himself.  

I was looking through the Hard-Boiled Glossary and saw "Big sleep, The: Death (coined by Chandler)." I wonder if Murakami knew this and became inspired, consciously or unconsciously, and wrote "Sleep." The protag, similar to Chopin's Mrs. Pontellier, has grown sick of her mundane family life and longs for independence. They teeter on the edge of sleep and wakefulness as the tension grows until by the end they're...dead? Well, not explicitly but this is how I interpret the endings. Technically, after a long wakeful night, Mrs. Pontellier goes for a swim until the brink of exhaustion, far from shore, as she longs for her lover whom she cannot be with. The End. Her story is over and she's not dead but how can she not be? In "Sleep" the protag even contemplates what happens after death and admits there is no way to know. She suspects that because she no longer sleeps she's using up her life force in a way. Perhaps the ending represents her early death, or, her big sleep. 

--Viv Johnson