![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In the End of the World, Wonderland’s locational foil, poetic prose replaces the dry and calculated tone of the odd chapters. The protagonist’s mind is predominately a machine, utilized for the scientific and pragmatic purpose of processing data. Instead of a testament to individualism and passion, consciousness is a means to an end. However, if we consider the mind’s portrayal in Hard-Boiled Wonderland as consciousness, this idealization of consciousness becomes completely uprooted. If we were to conceptualize consciousness as the way it is widely understood, we would describe it as identity, personality, awareness, even life-force…in essence, consciousness is what distinguishes us from other animals and what drives us to achieve. In the way that people in our society risk everything to attain money, members of this society see data as the new necessity. Life and existence itself are disposable entities in the midst of numbers, as the protagonist functions as a biologically-based processor who is in danger of losing his own sense of self. In fact, the protagonist’s sole purpose is to shuffle through tons of data and protect it with everything in his power. In Hard-Boiled Wonderland, the protagonist’s work environment, big data rules every aspect of life. In Murakami’s novel, two concepts of mind, the conscious mind and the unconscious mind, are juxtaposed as different worlds in the main character’s plane of existence. ![]()
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