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Thread: with no story to tell.

  1. #1
    suprunp's Avatar
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    Default with no story to tell.

    When that ended, they would sew her back together, probably give her a simple funeral, send her to the crematorium, and burn her. She would turn into smoke, rise up into the sky, and mix with the clouds. Then she would come down to the earth again as rain, and nurture some nameless patch of grass with no story to tell.
    (H. Murakami; 1Q84)

    Would you be so kind to explain to me what the part in bold is supposed to mean?

    Thanks.
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    Default Re: with no story to tell.

    Quote Originally Posted by suprunp View Post
    When that ended, they would sew her back together, probably give her a simple funeral, send her to the crematorium, and burn her. She would turn into smoke, rise up into the sky, and mix with the clouds. Then she would come down to the earth again as rain, and nurture some nameless patch of grass with no story to tell.
    Not having read the book, I don't know exactly what is happening in that part of the book or what has happened leading up to that point but as for your questioning of the meaning of the phrase (and I don't think you are asking about the semantical interpretation of the phrase), I'd like to respectfully suggest, more than anything else, that you try to stick with or, more advisably, "flow with" the emotional undercurrents pervading those lines and try to see how that phrase feeds into or contributes to them.

    It seems to me the speaker is lamenting the girl's rather unfair death and believes she would return to this world in the form of rain to (once again) do good to society (on the contrary to the injustice done to her) but she wouldn't have much to say not because she doesn't have stories to tell per se but rather because, more accurately, there would be nobody who would listen to her except for some nameless patch of grass on the corner of a street.

    That's how I read it.
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    Default Re: with no story to tell.

    Quote Originally Posted by suprunp View Post
    When that ended, they would sew her back together, probably give her a simple funeral, send her to the crematorium, and burn her. She would turn into smoke, rise up into the sky, and mix with the clouds. Then she would come down to the earth again as rain, and nurture some nameless patch of grass with no story to tell.
    (H. Murakami; 1Q84)

    Would you be so kind to explain to me what the part in bold is supposed to mean?

    Thanks.
    I think it's just a poetic way of saying she's dead. Dead men (and women) don't tell tales, especially when they've reached the level of decomposition attained by the woman above.
    suprunp likes this.

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