The second bakery attack by Murakami Haruki

 The story begins with the couple waking up in the middle of the night, both feeling immense hunger. They try to satisfy the hunger with the food they have (onions, beer), but it doesn’t go away. Then, the husband tells his wife about his first bakery attack, and the story of hearing to classic and getting the bread. He intended to ‘steal’ the bread, but instead he ‘exchanged’ it with hearing the music. Wife suggests that it has a curse on them now, and they should commit a bakery attack to resolve the issue. They get prepared; ski mask, gun…and finds a McDonald’s and attacks it. They rob 30 hamburgers and eats it, and as the sun rises, the story ends. 


 Although this story was based on magical realism, the ‘magic’ in this story was slightly more realistic compared to other stories we learned. Yes, a couple attacking McDonald’s at night with a shotgun is magical, but it is not that extensive compared with old man with wings, dragon in the house, or a handsome drowned man. 


 The purpose of the couple’s McDonald attack was first, to resolve the extensive hunger and second, to get away from the curse. But I thought that there is no reason for them to justify their attack, and I thought that the story flow was irrational. If I was hungry in the middle of the night, I would drink water a lot or go out to 24hour-convenience store and buy stuff, not robbing the food shop. I also do not fully understand the ‘curse’ of the first bakery attack. Yes, it is true that the husband felt somewhat eerie after listening to classics and got the bread, but I don’t know why the wife so eagerly tries to resolve the supposed ‘curse’ that is on them. 


 It was interesting to see some elements in the story helps the story flow and provide meaning. During their McDonald’s attack, there is a couple sleeping on the table, not noticing their attack at all. This gives more magical aspect to the attack, as something happens (to the McDonald’s employee and the attackers) and not happens (to the sleeping couple) at the same time. The husband alludes the couple to ‘deep sea fish’, and I think it is a good example because deep-sea fish usually have poor eyesight and ignorant of nearby changes. The rising sun, gives a proper ending to the story, since the story starts in the night and continues, and as the couple devours the hamburger and resolves the hunger, the sun rises, marking the end of the curse and the story. Well….not much as James Joyce but still quite good.

St. George by Gail Godwin

 The story is about a lonely PhD student named Gwen, when she unexpectedly starts to keep a dragon in her house. The dragon eats jewelry, and makes the house into a mess. But in the other hand, the dragon makes Gwen happy since he gives some happiness and makes her busy in a good way. But, the dragon becomes too big, and Gwen decides to kill him, but she fails. Her boyfriend(?) comes by and takes the dragon for fresh air, but the St. George escapes to the river and swims away.

I think it’s a bit ironic about the dragon’s name, St. George, because originally St. George is the man who killed the dragon. Maybe Gwen was a bit tired of her English PhD thing and named the dragon like it. 


 This story is magical realism, which Gwen’s ordinary life and the magical dragon co-exists and makes a story. The city’s status is magical too, since Gwen says that she don’t know nothing about the people in the city (which can’t be possible). This magical aspect emphasizes Gwen’s loneliness and makes her to pay more attention to St. George. 


 As I searched the internet, I found an interesting information that the author, Gail Godwin, was actually a graduate student who was divorced. Gwen in ‘St. George’ is a lonely graduate student, and things do not go very well to her. I think Gail Godwin reconciled her actual life with her fictional story to write St. George. Maybe she hoped something interesting (and something which will entertain her) to happen in her life, since she was supposedly lonely when she wrote St. George. 


 St. George is certainly very expensive to keep, and craves even more when Gwen feeds him jewelries. I think this is somehow similar with the ‘pleasure’ in Buddhism. Buddhism tells people that when they crave for pleasure, the instant the individual succeeds one pleasure, new desire for new pleasure emerges, which makes one individual crave for more and more. This somewhat reminds me of ‘fame’; if I gain popularity, I’ll be wanting for more popularity therefore there is no down-grade on this.


 So, I think St. George depicts the author’s sense of duty for the fame. Artists and Authors have to make their creations popular to gain money. But for them, if they make their new creation less perfect then their last creation, they usually get criticized for getting immature. They are expected to make their new creations better than their latest one, and this can cause stress to them. This is similar to the dragon which have to be fed with more and more jewelries, and causes more trouble as it grows.

The handsomest drowned man in the world by Gabriel Marquez

This story takes place in a remote fishing village, which was very peaceful and complacent. The story begins when some children at the beach finds a dead man covered with sea debris. Later the villagers found the dead man and took him back to the village, and they try to deal with this issue.  Man of the village tries to find the men’s identity by asking nearby villages, and woman at the village cleans up the man and prepares for his funeral. Then something funny happens. Woman of the village, while preparing for the dead man’s funeral, all starts to realize that the dead man in front of them, was in fact the handsomest man in the world. They imagine fake fantasy stories about him, gives him the name ‘Estevan’, and compares him with their husband and their village. The man comes back and makes a water burial to ‘Estevan’. After ‘Estevan’ left the village, the villagers change, such as making their door big and planting flowers, to remember ‘Estevan.’ 

 I enjoyed the overall story, since the story was written in a kind of humorous tone, and there was a happy ending. If I see the story as a children’s bedtime story, I think this is so-so story. But I think that this story has some kind of meaning, and the characters in the story actually depict something. The overall storyline of a not-so-unique village changing to a beautiful village after some magical people’s arrival (and departure), makes me think that ‘Estevan’ is sort of ideology or religion which people got affected. Well, the story was written by Marquez, who is Colombian, and South America was heavily influenced by westerners (like it or not) starting from colonial period. So, ‘Estevan’ can be some foreign thing which gave benefit to the ‘remote fishing village’, which is Colombia. 


 I think this story follows a hero’s journey, as the entering to the magic world begins by the arrival of ‘Estevan’, and ends by the departure of him. The story begins because of him, continues because of him, and ends because of him. 


 Also, the story is a good example of magical realism, which is a term meaning a story which happens in the ordinary world but have certain magical elements which helps the flow of the story. Presence of ‘Estevan’, who can be handsomest man in the world, the fact that he is so well-preserved after drowning, and the size of him is magical, but because of him the story can flow. 


 After reading this, I thought for a while that whether there was ‘Estevan’ in my life, a element which came up to me and changed myself. Although it is not that magical, the element which changed my life in a good way is fish, birds, and insects. One day I realized that they are so amazing (don’t know the date…) and it changed ‘ordinary me’ to ‘nature guy’. I think everyone has these experiences…what’s yours?