Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Characters/People edit see section history

• Unnamed Narrator: Add a description of this character.
• Grandfather: Represents the unpredictable effects when intellect, curiosity, and science are allowed to run amok. The results can be promising and full of positive potential or dangerous and destructive. And if they result in a form of power, they are likely to be desired and pursued by those who already yield power.
• Grandaughter: Chubby, young and beautiful with a polished face
• The Librarian

Quotes edit see section history

• “Genius doesn't specialize; genius is reason in itself.”

  The young chubby girl

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• Only where there is disillusionment and depression and sorrow does happiness arise; without the despair of loss, there is no hope.

  Highlighted by 48 Kindle customers

• Fairness is a concept that holds only in limited situations. Yet we want the concept to extend to everything, in and out of phase. From snails to hardware stores to married life. Maybe no one finds it, or even misses it, but fairness is like love. What is given has nothing to do with what we seek.

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• Most human activities are predicated on the assumption that life goes on. If you take that premise away, what is there left?

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• “No. Kindness and a caring mind are two separate qualities. Kindness is manners. It is superficial custom, an acquired practice. Not so the mind. The mind is deeper, stronger, and, I believe, it is far more inconstant.”

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• “Everyone may be ordinary, but they’re not normal.”

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• All of us dig at our own pure holes. We have nothing to achieve by our activities, nowhere to get to. Is there not something marvelous about this? We hurt no one and no one gets hurt. No victory, no defeat.”

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• Let your body work until it is spent, but keep your mind for yourself.”

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• “That’s the way it is with the mind. Nothing is ever equal. Like a river, as it flows, the course changes with the terrain.”

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• All imperfections are forced upon the imperfect, so the ‘perfect’ can live content and oblivious.

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• “The mind is nothing you use,” I say. “The mind is just there. It is like the wind. You simply feel its movements.”

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Tokyo

Organizations edit see section history

• The System: Information agency, which employs Calcutecs, like the Protagonist. "Originally a private conglomerate , but as it grew in importance it took on quasi-governmental status"
• The Factory: Enemy of "The System", employs Semiotecs, and is after the information of the System. "Started off as a small-scale venture and grew by leaps and bounds. Some refer to it as the Data Mafia."

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Pechka: "Fire" (Russian)
• Semiotecs: Employees of "The Factory" who "traffic illegally obtained data and other information on the black market, making megaprofits."
• Calcutecs: Employees of "The System" who process data. The protagonist of the narrative is a Calcutec.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Haruki Murakami (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Alfred Birnbaum (Translator)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Geffen Award (Finalist, 2009: Best Translated Science Fiction Book)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PL856.U673
• Dewey: 895.635

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › Japanese
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Haruki Murakami: Website of the author

More Books Like This edit see section history