Murakami does the exact same thing, using the 'paper moon' to draw the reader's attention to the fact that no world in the novel's universe stands on its own. In Drums in the Night, the 'paper moon' is literal: it's referring to the literal stage prop moon, drawing the audience's attention to the fact that it isn't the real moon, but a paper circle on a wire. He even describes the same traffic on the highway. They have the same characters, the same locations. All of the worlds, from the 'regular' one in the beginning to 1Q84 itself to the 'new' one at the end, play out on the same stage. Hell, he spends a lot of time waxing poetic about what it means to be real. In this novel, every world is fake, insofar as none of them are really 'real' on their own. Murakami never fails to mention that in every world, there is a 'paper moon'. I know the better reference is probably Streetcar, but I think having that Brecht in my brain really changed the way I looked at the novel. He was big on promoting critical thinking about every aspect of the story and performance, rather than getting sucked into the story and suspending all disbelief.Īs soon as Murakami mentioned the lyrics to 'It's Only a Paper Moon' early on, I immediately thought about Brecht's Drums in the Night. In a nutshell, he developed 'epic theater' as a means of separating the audience from the play they were watching.

For those unfamiliar, Brecht was an influential playwright in the Weimer Republic. I loved 1Q84 because to me, it was Brecht's epic theater in novel form. I've never posted here, so also sorry if this turns into a rambling mess. I'm sorry if this comes off as pretentious or annoying, but I just finished it and I'm really excited.

1q84 review