So, these past few days I have been in my home creating a watercolor painting. Thus I have been entertaining myself with some cool music. Ever since I returned from Las Vegas, I was there about 4 days driving around selling books, I've been listening to Miles Davis, Betty Davis and the Beatles. Anyhow....the point I am trying to get to is this.
The Beatle's Rubber Soul album is good. I mean really good. It inspired Haruki Murakami's novel, Norwegian Wood. I think Murakami captures a bit of what Rubber Soul is all about, but also adds more meaning and flavor to the perception of both his novel and the Beatles' album. Mono no aware iis a literary term that is was used in the edo period (300 years ago) by many writerns in Japan. Mono no aware means "an empathy toward things," or "a pity toward things," it is a term used to describe the awareness of the transience of things and a gentle sadness at their passing. It also is referred to as the "ahness" of things/life/love. So, Murakami uses this literary approach in Norwegian Wood. Obviously an artist creates something (the beatles' Rubber Soul) and the audience interprets what has been created. However in this case, a writer reinterpreted a Beatles' song that was written about a break up between a couple, and spined it off into a beautiful novel. Now, when I hear the album, Murakami's words seem to wisper throughout the album. It is a very touching, moving and sentimental novel that anyone who likes to read SHOULD read. Another book that fits well with this line of thought isYasunari Kawabata's Snow Country. Life is great, life is beautiful, life is tragic. A greater tragedy would be if we didn't do anything with ourlives and passed away.
Some of the lyrics in the album, according to my interpretation, fall into this term especially "norwegian wood," "nowhere man," "the word," "girl," "i'm looking through you," and "in my life."

"In my life"

There are places i'll remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends i still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life i've loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When i think of love as something new
Though i know i'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know i'll often stop and think about them
In my life i love you more

Though i know i'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know i'll often stop and think about them
In my life i love you more
In my life i love you more

-the beatles