After Dark

“The young man hums the first eight bars of ‘Five Spot After Dark.’

“‘I know that,’ says Mari.

“He looks baffled. ‘You do?’

Mari hums the next eight bars.”

In the first of many instances of Synchronicity in After Dark, Mari happens to know Takahashi’s favorite (relatively obscure) jazz song. This exchange exemplifies Murakami’s passion for Western music, especially jazz, which permeates his works. This song is the origin of the novel’s title.

“Our point of view, as an imaginary camera, picks up and lingers over things like this in the room. We are invisible, anonymous intruders. We look. We listen. We note odors. But we are not physically present in the place, and we leave behind no traces. We follow the same rules, so to speak, as orthodox time travelers.”

In Eri Asai’s room for the first time, the narrator lays the “ground rules” for these observation scenes, introducing the theme of Voyeurism and the Narrative Camera. The narrative takes on the perspective of an imaginary camera, voyeuristically examining everything, while remaining unseen and unable to intervene, no matter what happens. The narrator includes the reader in this act of voyeurism, referring constantly to what “we” observe and experience.

“Mari bites her lip and tries to gather her thoughts. ‘And she only speaks Chinese?’

‘Yeah, she knows like two words of Japanese. I can’t call the cops, though. She’s probably an illegal alien, and I don’t have time to go testify every time something like this comes up.’”

Mari’s introduction to Kaoru and the Alphaville is her first foray into the seedy underbelly of Tokyo at night, setting up the motif of light and dark. Kaoru lives in an almost alternate world where sex work and human trafficking are not uncommon. The aftermath of violence that Mari witnesses in the hotel room is inherent to this world.