Sputnik Sweetheart is a novel by Haruki Murakami. I found myself reading it on the train to San Diego, and I was very glad I brought it. It’s a charming book, really, and being a Murakami novel the surreal elements are most certainly present. This is definitely a tough one to frame as I’ve still been thinking, even after a few weeks, about the novel and its purpose. In Sputnik Sweetheart Murakami explores the nature of intimacy as it applies to our relationships, both romantic and not. The surreal elements certainly highlight the fact that we may never be as close as we hope or think, but I still see Sputnik Sweetheart as a largely positive piece of literature — and one that certainly warrants multiple readings.
Murakami has this excellent way of capturing our contemporary lifestyles, and Sputnik Sweetheart is no exception. It’s fun to read and to suspend our preconceptions concerning the nature of reality. Murakami has surprisingly few.
First, this song goes out to SuperForester Heather, and all other romantics. Second, this song, and story below, is a follow up to my post “Finding Love on a Street.” The song captures all the emotions I was feeling that day, and then some. Please read up on that last post if you haven’t. It will make why I chose this song abundantly clear, and give it so much more meaning.
To accompany this wonderful tune, I would love to share this piece of writing SuperForester Iman shared with me after my last post. It is a wonderful story and I can’t thank her enough for sharing it. It is a story called “On seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful April morning” by Haruki Murakami.
If you read my last post, and this story you will have a wonderful feeling of love, possibility, and romance. I love all three of those things! So, when they get put together in one, I am super excited!
{Spoiler ahead, so go read the story first!} My only worry about the story is the sad undertone of it. I like to think it is beautiful that the two lovers found each other again, even if they don’t end up together. I think it is wonderful that he could have felt that way about someone, and that he created such a fantastic story just for her. So beautiful, and so inspiring.
I hesitate to ask all of you this, but I am way too excited by what answers I will get not to. So, I shall ask. What is love to you? Love is one of the most elusive things to define. Just like SuperForest it is everything and anything we can say about it, and yet so much more. I really want to hear what you all have to say, so hit me up here! How do SuperForesters define love?
As Woody Allen says,
To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer. To suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy then is to suffer. But suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be unhappy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you’re getting this down.
To define love myself, I personally I must say that love is like oxygen. Love is a many splendored thing. It lifts you up where you belong. All you need is love! (Cheesy I know, but I had to.) And I do believe it, and always will. Love has a power nothing else has. I have more to share about it soon. Stories from South Africa are upcoming, and some are very related to this topic. Stay tuned!
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