Technically, this story is taking place Tokyo. A big bustling city, the capital of Japan. Yet as I was reading, i imagined... I'm not sure exactly what, but a calm place. A place that looked like a city, but that was practically void of other people. This may have to do with the character's solitary lifestyle. I guess I can picture the setting, but not accurately.
The time period of this story is the 1970s. Despite this being thirty-some years ago, the exact time doesn't seem to matter. I imagine the time period as "modern", it makes no difference if it is now or 30 years ago. Really, not much knowledge about the time period is necessary to understand what is going on, if any.
The location of Tokyo/ Japan isn't imperative to the story. While of course there are some aspects that would have to be changed, the general story line could take place somewhere else. But not the United States. I guess I don't know exactly where else the story could take place, but many places in Europe or Asia would probably fit the story line just fine.
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I would have to disagree that this story could take place anywhere. Mostly because of the sheep predicament. While the Strange Man/Boss's secretary talks to our protagonist, we discover that sheep are not native to Japan. They were imported and all the possible species of sheep are catalogued.
ReplyDeleteThis may seem like a trivial part of the story, but I like to consider every part of a book important since the author made the effort of putting it in there.
My point was that the general plot could take place anywhere. You could have the situation of imported sheep anywhere, that doesn't seem to be a 'Japan-specific' thing. I guess it could affect the accuracy, if that breed of sheep is actually not native to Japan, but the overall story would still stay the same.
ReplyDeleteWell, older characters also fit into the history of Japan, being part of armies and stuff like that. In fact, the history of Japan is brought up a fair amount of times around the middle of the book. I stand by my opinion that this book needs to take place in Japan.
ReplyDeleteYes, I see what Athena is saying, but I agree with Rebecca that if we cut-and-pasted the plot, replaced the references to Japan's heritage with some other country’s heritage, we could essentially have the same story.
ReplyDeleteHmmm. I think, that if you took SOLELY the plot and omit the characters it could happen in the Eurasia area. That's about the extent of its flexibility, though. Like Athena said, there really are a lot of references to Japans history, so a lot of things would have to be altered in order to exchange the setting.
ReplyDeleteI think that this story's plotline could definetly be transfered into a different setting. I guess some of the cultural aspects would have to be changed, but otherwise I think it could work. Anyone can relate to some element of the character's dilemmas, and I feel that that is the true core of the story.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Olivia and Rebecca and Reed and Hannah, about the plot being moved. Also I think that if a reader focused most of their attention on the characters, the leftover attention would not specifically find that the plot was in Japan. Modern, yes but Tokyo, Japan, maybe.
ReplyDeleteIrini
I agree with Olivia, Rebecca, Reed, Hannah and Irini. The plot could be be placed in any big city. The sheep could be replaced with a different animal that isn't native to that country or region.
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