BTStudy Guide #7: Haruki Murakami

In Kafka on the Shore, a 15-year-old runs away from home and meets a cast of quirky characters, including Colonel Sanders, a man who talks to cats, and a woman who at one point reverts back into her younger self. In 1Q84, an assassin's life is forever linked to a ghostwriter's life, as they both run and hide from a common enemy. These stories might sound starkly different, but they have more themes in common than one would expect: a distortion of the concept of time and fears surrounding the breakdown of social norms, just to name a few. After comparing and contrasting the plots of and characters in these two stories, Hope compares and contrasts their themes with those present in BTS's music video universe. Part book review and part philosophy lesson, this conclusion of the "BTStudy Guides" series of episodes explains what the works of both BTS and Haruki Murakami are ultimately trying to say.