SCHEHERAZADE

Translated, from the Japanese, by Ted Goossen

Presentor: Angelle Macanas

BSE English 3A

MEN WITHOUT
WOMEN

Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of

observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own
ways, find themselves alone. Here are vanishing cats and
smoky bars, lonely hearts and mysterious women,
baseball and the Beatles, woven together to tell stories
that speak to us all.
2023

HARUKI
MURAKAMI
Haruki Murakami was born on January 12, 1949 in Kyoto,
Japan. He is a well-known Japanese author and American
literary translator. His writings and stories are well-known
not just in Japan, but around the world. His style is heavily
influenced by American writers.

Haruki Murakami is a postmodern literary icon best known

for his odd, funny writing that focuses on the loneliness and
empty-mindedness of Japan's job-dominated youth.
2023
SOME OF HIS WORKS

Haruki Murakami was born on

A WILD SHEEP
HARD-BOILED January 12, 1949 in Kyoto, Japan. He
WONDERLAND AND THE NORWEGIAN
CHASE is a well-known Japanese author
END OF THE WORLD WOOD
and American literary translator.
His writings and stories are well-
known not just in Japan, but around
the world. His style is heavily
influenced by American writers.

Haruki Murakami is a postmodern

literary icon best known for his odd,
funny writing that focuses on the
loneliness and empty-mindedness
DANCE DANCE THE WIND-UP KAFKA ON THE
BIRD SHORE, 2002
of Japan's job-dominated youth.
DANCE
CHRONICLE
CHARACTERS
SCHEHERAZADE
Scheherazade was thirty-five, a full-time
housewife with two children. She is a registered
nurse, meanwhile, her husband is a typical
company man.
she had been assigned to him as his “support
liaison.”

NOBUTAKA HABARA
He is locked up in his house.
SETTING
Provincial city north of Tokyo
Each time they had sex, she told Habara a strange
and gripping story afterward.
A man named Habara is cooped up in his house as if
he were under house arrest. He considered himself as
a “Desert Isle”.

Being isolated, there is a woman whom Habara called

Scheherazade. She visits him twice a week, and brings
him groceries, books, and DVDs, inquires whether he
needs anything, and has sexual intercourse with him.
Scheherazade had a gift for telling stories that
touched the hearts of her listeners. She tantalized
him and drove him to ponder and speculate. However,
Habara didn’t know whether her stories were true or
invented. Although, with her stories, he was able to
forget the reality that surrounds him.
“I was a Lamprey Eel in a former life” Said
Scheherazade.

“The moment I read the description of how they lived,

I knew that I’d been one in a former life. I mean, I
could actually remember—being fastened to a rock,
swaying invisibly among the weeds, eying the fat trout
swimming by above me.”
“I was a teenager when I started breaking into empty
houses,” she said one day as they lay in bed.
Scheherazade was in Junior high school the first time
she broke into someone’s house. Her driving force is
that she had a serious crush on a boy in her class. On
the first day of breaking inside their house,
Scheherazade went to his room and saw that it was
tidy and everything was in its place. She checks all of
his things and gets something as a reminder of his
existence. She stole a pencil and left a tampon
behind that would remind that she went to his place.
On the second day of the visit, Scheherazade stole
another pencil and left with three strands of her hair.
On the third day of visits, she took his white t-shirt
that hadn’t been washed and left the house without
leaving any of her things. But on her fourth visit, the
door has changed its lock. Perhaps, they found out
that someone had been breaking into their house.
Scheherazade was, of course, disappointed by this
development, but at the same time she felt relieved. It
was as if someone had stepped behind her and
removed a great weight from her shoulders.
After telling her teenage story, Scheherazade said
“Life is strange, isn’t it? You can be totally entranced
by something one minute, and be willing to sacrifice
everything to make it yours, but then a little time
passes, or your perspective changes a bit, and all of a
sudden you’re shocked at how its glow has faded.
What was I looking at? you wonder. So that’s the story
of my ‘breaking-and-entering’ period.”
In the end, Habara wondered about Scheherazade.
They were just attached by a slender thread. No
certainties were placed between them, and so, he
thought that someday, he would never see her again.
Just like her story of Breaking-and-Entering, the
sparks have faded, and so, what if those things that
offer him intimacy and the ability to see the different
narrative of people disappear? What will happen to
him?
 Conflict
Man vs Self

CRITICISM

Formalist Criticism Reader’s response

Point of view Habara is not the only one
Flashback left wondered, but also the
Cliffhanger readers are confused and
Imagery pondering about the open
ended story written by
Murakami
Thank you!