Wednesday, August 17, 2005

retrospective justifications - muse

Today I completed devouring the no.2 of my Borders 'Buy 3 for 2' Haruki Murakami novels. If you do not already know, he is my favourite author at the moment. I love him.


So obviously, this is not the first time I am reading him. Oh I love Haruki...


I already have Norwegian Wood (makes me cry a lot, three times every time), The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Wild Sheep Chase. I just bought South of the Border West of the Sun, Sputnik Sweetheart, and I am going to read Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World soon.


I love Haruki Murakami. Oh yes I have already mentioned him before in March.


Anyway, I ended re-reading Sputnik Sweetheart because I finished it while I was out and about, and we all know how we avid readers need to have something to devour while travelling and eating by our lonesome. So I had to flip the book back to the front and re-read it.


Suddenly I see parallels being drawn in the beginning to the end and other parts of the book.


Which makes me wonder:


How we sometimes justify certain things that cannot be undone anymore. Just so that we no longer carry that regret.


Everyday, that's how I ensure a regret never surfaces, or re-surfaces -


Retrospective justifications.


Aren't we full of it. Even your silence bids it.

4 comments:

  1. Yes, we do justify the things that cannot be undone anymore. And a term you used caught my eye "Retrospective justifications." There is an academic concept coined by this person, Karl Weick, that sound pretty much like yours. He termed it "retrospective sensemaking," and it was very hot for decades. It is still pretty hot in use in the academic circles now, more in the social-psychology arena. A term that I so loved and used it for my blog's theme. "Retrospective justifications" or "Retrospective sensemaking," it is a human way to cope. To feel better. We like to rationalize!

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  2. My coping skills are zilch for my age, but I guess I am learning after all, if I can understand retrospective sensemaking. :o)

    Thanks for sharing that!

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  3. Hi, Would you like to engage in commerce and barter Murakami books? I've got The Elephant Vanishes and I know where to get Dance Dance Dance...

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  4. Perhaps you missed my initial point. I meant to pool our resources for the entire collection. We do have alot of overlaps though...

    1. Norwegian Wood
    2. Wild Sheep Chase
    3. Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
    4. Sputnik Sweetheart
    5. South of the Border, West of the Sun
    6. Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
    7. The Elephant Vanishes
    8. Dance Dance Dance

    I've not read all but that's what I've got. You get those I don't have, then we can share the collection. How's that?

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