Love & Pop

[Dunn Brian]

>delete button here) but I have to say that, reading your extended 
>quotation,
>I did not have the impression that it represented the author's voice, 
>merely
>the character's, and I hear that "I don't know of any rules, so there 
>aren't
>any" shallow rationalization from students all the time. I would hope that
>Murakami is smarter than this character.


Personally, I saw this as Murakami's voice, though not directly.  Hiromi 
knows it's wrong, and is searching for a reason, something that will show 
her why it's wrong.  But she can't find anything.  All she sees is how 
accepted it is in society.  So, indirectly, I think Murakami is saying 
"After all, if it's so bad, why don't we have any rules that say it's bad?  
Why will no one address this issue?  Who are we to blame them, when we 
ourselves perpetuate it, either by actually pushing it forward, or by being 
apathetic and closing our eyes to it?"  I think he was at least trying to 
show people that children are raised in Japan not knowing why it's bad (in 
fact, it's probably seen as good, or at least accepted), and that's why they 
naturally end up thinking "it must be ok."

Something to think about:  It's not like these girls walk the streets like 
prostitutes.  Men usually approach women, or use phone message services 
asking for young girls.  I think it was in his book, "In The Miso Soup," but 
the main character was thinking about these dengon-dial services, and doing 
the math and counting up how many men advertise on these services.  So if 
100 men call a day on one service, and there are 100 of these companies in 
Tokyo, that's 10,000 men a day.  That's 3,650,000 calls a year (maybe some 
call more than once, but that's still a huge number).  And then take into 
consideration the other big cities in Japan.  Probably at least 10,000,000 
calls a year.  And that's just the men who advertise on these services for 
dates / sex / relationships with middle/high school girls.  That doesn't 
include the men who solicit girls on the street or in clubs, or any other 
method.

Another thing to think about:  What's worse:  a 16 year old girl who goes on 
dates with older men for money, sometimes leading to sex?  or the man 2-3 
times her age who actually advertises for this, pays her to be with them, or 
even asks for or forces sex on her?



Brian Dunn



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