Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Even-numbered chapters are set in the “End of the World,” which is eventually revealed to be a section of the narrator’s unconscious mind. These chapters can be classified as magical realism. The unnamed narrator begins by describing the beasts that live in a Town (always capitalized, and never given another name). Their fur coats change color in reaction to the autumn weather, and the narrator thinks about their previous spring coloration. Regardless of the season, they have single white horns and are later revealed to be unicorns (that live within the mind of the narrator).

The narrator hears the Gatekeeper blow a horn to herd the beasts then describes the sound of the horn and the beasts’ reaction to it. They travel south, then west to the Gate, where the Gatekeeper opens the right door. At night, the animals stay outside the 30-foot-tall Wall that surrounds the Town. In the morning, the Gatekeeper calls them back into the Town. The Gatekeeper explains the Town’s tradition to herd the beasts in and out of the Town each day.

Then, the Gatekeeper sharpens his various bladed tools while explaining that he made them as a blacksmith. The narrator, at the Gatekeeper’s request, test-swings the hatchet and asks what the blades are used for. The Gatekeeper says they are used in winter—it is later revealed they are used on the corpses of the beasts that die in winter.

Outside of the Gate, the narrator can see an enclosure for beasts, a stream, and apple trees that stretch out to the distance. The Gatekeeper tells the narrator he will get bored with the beasts once the novelty wears off, except when they fight in spring. The beasts fall asleep in the autumn sunset.

The narrator enters a sparsely furnished white room and sits on a sofa. The young woman returns to the room, takes a raincoat and boots from one of the gray steel lockers in the office, and gives them to the narrator. He puts them on, and as the woman helps button the raincoat, her forehead brushes against his nose, and he compliments her perfume. Leading him to a closet, she opens a secret wall in the back of it. She gives him a flashlight and directions to follow the passage to a river and follow the river to a waterfall, which is where her grandfather’s lab is hidden.

Once in the secret passage, the narrator goes down a ladder. He is shocked that this underground river is in the middle of Tokyo as he walks upstream, avoiding the tunnels on either side of him. When he sees a light ahead, he turns off his flashlight and gets out his knife. A man with a light approaches and tries to talk to the narrator. The narrator turns his flashlight back on and tells the man—who turns out to be the grandfather of the young woman dressed all in pink—that he can’t hear him.

The grandfather, who is also referred to as the Professor, puts his hands in his pockets, and the sound of the river disappears. The narrator puts away his knife and asks what happened. The Professor explains that he used a device that causes the sound to be removed. The Professor also explains that there have been INKlings sneaking around, which is why he came to meet the narrator and escort him to the lab. They reach the waterfall and walk under it to find a cave with a door. The Professor unlocks the door and jokes about the rough passage.

As they take off their coats and boots in a room for rain gear, the Professor apologizes for the extreme security measures. In a room that is similar to the office behind door numbered 728, the Professor uses a paperclip to clean his cuticles and explains the INKlings are aligned with the Semiotechnicians, or Semiotecs. The Semiotecs are the enemies of the System the narrator works for as a Calcutec.

The Professor describes his work as a biologist, claiming his research has to do with decoding the sounds of bones. There are many skulls in the lab. The Professor says he wants the narrator’s help in keeping the Semiotecs from stealing his research (later it is revealed that the Professor is trying to change the technology that has been surgically implanted in the narrator’s mind). The narrator inspects the Official System clearance for the Professor’s job—all the paperwork seems to be in order. They discuss the narrator’s fee, and the Professor is willing to pay triple-scale.

After the Professor retrieves a folder from a secret compartment in the wall, the narrator inspects the seven pages of data. They discuss using a single or double conversion trap. The Professor wants the narrator to launder and shuffle the data. The narrator protests, arguing that shuffling is prohibited. However, the Professor has shuffling clearance in the paperwork and agrees to give the narrator copies of it. The narrator agrees to launder the data at the lab and shuffle at home afterward. The Professor says he’ll need the shuffled data in four days and warns the narrator that the world will fall apart if they do not meet in four days. The narrator assures the Professor that he’s never late and prepares to launder the data, asking for coffee, water, and a snack.

The Professor’s data-laundering work is described as difficult. The process of laundering is inputting information to the right side of the brain, converting it to a sign-pattern, transferring it to the left side of the brain, and then typing it up. Data-launderers are usually Calcutecs who work for the System, which is aligned with the government. Their opposition is the Semiotecs, who work for the Factory. Calcutecs are licensed, and the Semiotecs are referred to as the organized crime part of data-encoding and transferring.

While laundering, the narrator takes regular breaks and talks with the Professor about his work. One topic includes the research leading to artificial control of sound. The narrator mentions that the Professor’s granddaughter seemed to have her sound removed, and the Professor realizes he forgot to unmute her.

The narrator describes the Town’s North Plaza—which contains a clocktower with a stopped clock, buildings with sealed doors, and the Library—and the South Plaza.

As the Gatekeeper whittles, he tells the narrator the Library is where one can read old dreams. This dreamreading will be the narrator’s job, and his name will be Dreamreader, says the Gatekeeper. Then, the Gatekeeper painlessly puts a knife in both of the Dreamreader’s eyes, leaving scars that cannot endure being out in the sun. He gives the Dreamreader dark sunglasses.

The Dreamreader goes to the Library a few evenings later. There, he finds a large waiting room that is sparsely decorated, and eventually a Librarian appears with a binder. The Librarian seems familiar to the narrator. She explains that only the Dreamreader should be in the Library, and the narrator explains that he is the Dreamreader. He takes off his glasses so she can see his scarred eyes. She says they can begin dreamreading tomorrow—she needs to prepare. He mentions she looks familiar, but she does not remember him. He leaves the Library, goes to Old Bridge, and listens to the River.

The Professor unmutes his granddaughter as the narrator continues working with the data and taking naps on the sofa during breaks. He thinks about sofas and thinks about applications for the Professor’s sound-alteration technology. The Professor returns with coffee and sandwiches made by his granddaughter. During the narrator’s next break, he eats as they talk about the granddaughter who dresses all in pink. The narrator compliments her sandwiches. The old Professor mentions the future will be sound-free due to evolution as he clips his nails. They talk about evolution, and the narrator’s break ends, so he goes back to his tabulations. The Professor hits skulls with metal tongs, and the narrator thinks about his skull being rapped in the same way.

The narrator finishes the data laundering and stretches. He thinks about how his occupation was created with new technology and that Calcutecs like him do not know their life expectancy. As he sits on the sofa, he puts the left and right sides of his brain back together and tells the Professor that he is finished. The narrator needs to sleep and promises to have the shuffled data back to the Professor soon. The Professor again warns him that missing the deadline or losing the data would have terrible consequences. The narrator locks the tabulated data in a pocket behind his left knee and eats the rest of the sandwiches.

After getting back into the rain gear, the narrator heads out, going under the waterfall. The Professor explains that ultrasonic waves keep the INKlings away. His granddaughter meets the narrator and accompanies him as he walks along the river. They go up the ladder and back into the office building. They chat, comparing their ages: He is 35, and she is 17. He believes Calcutecs are ordinary people (although this is later revealed to be false), and he compliments her sandwiches. She gives him a boxed gift from the Professor, instructing him to open it when he gets home, and pays him a large sum of money.

As they walk through the office building to the elevator, he tells the young woman he’s divorced. She asks if tabulating data increases his sex drive as is rumored and if he would sleep with her. He rejects her advances, explaining he does not date people he works with, and he does not feel comfortable with their age difference. She starts to ask personal details about his anatomy as they reach the elevator, which arrives in time for him to leave without answering. 

The Librarian gives the narrator a dream to read, which is contained in a light animal skull. She confirms it is the skull of a Town beast, or unicorn. The narrator asks her to show him how to dream-read. The Librarian tells him to gaze at the skull’s forehead, which will glow and give off heat, and then to trace the light with his fingertips. The narrator feels a sense of deja vu about the skull. The Librarian brings some stew, bread, and hot tea for him.

He works at dreamreading, that is, grasping the threads of light that come from the skull. After he extracts two dreams, his eyes hurt. When he returns the skull, she recommends working slowly to protect his mind and asks if he remembers his old world. He knows what a mind is but has few memories while she does not know what a mind is. She remembers her mother, who kept her mind and disappeared from the Town. Concentrating, he remembers living without the giant wall and having a shadow.

There is a flashback to when the narrator arrived at the Town and the Gatekeeper took away his shadow with a knife. The narrator’s shadow said it is wrong to split up shadows and people. The narrator claims the split will only be temporary, and they will be back together. His shadow asks him to meet regularly because he is planning an escape. When the Gatekeeper leads the narrator away from his shadow, the Gatekeeper says they provide shadows with food and exercise. The narrator asks if he can visit his shadow, but the Gatekeeper replies he may not let the narrator see his shadow, and no one in Town has a shadow.

Out of the flashback, the narrator leaves the library and walks the Librarian home. As they walk over the Old Bridge, he compliments her long hair. She is confused by compliments. They eventually arrive at the Worker’s Quarters in the Industrial Sector, where she lives. They say goodnight, and he starts walking to his place. 

It is dark and raining as the narrator tries to hail a cab. When he gets one, the driver has a baseball game playing on the radio. The narrator struggles to stay awake during the ride. He gets home, and there is no mail and no messages on his answering machine. After making a whiskey and soda, he gets into bed. He hears his phone ringing, but he doesn’t want to get out of bed, so he lets it ring. Also, he considers opening the box with the Professor’s gift, but he is too tired and falls asleep.

In the morning, he showers, shaves, does calisthenics, makes breakfast, and writes a shopping list. Then, he remembers the box from the Professor. It is oddly light, which temporarily causes him to suspect sound-removal, but he coughs, and the sound is normal. The noises outside are also normal when he opens a window. The narrator takes out the packaging from the box and discovers an object wrapped in newspaper. He is suspicious, so he drinks a can of soda and trims a fingernail. Then, he opens the newspaper to find a skull and puts it on top of the TV. The box also contains a pair of tongs like the ones at the Professor’s lab. The narrator taps the skull with the tongs, and the skull makes a whiny moan.

The narrator calls his System rep and discovers he has a job scheduled in four days. He starts to watch a video of Key Largo, but the skull on top of the TV distracts him, so he drinks a beer and puts a t-shirt over the skull so he can finish watching the movie. Afterward, he goes to the supermarket, liquor store, dry cleaners, stationary shop, hardware store, bookshop, electrical goods store, photo store, and record shop. He has a car that he only uses for shopping, and he thinks about when he bought it from a used car salesman.

When he takes a break from his errands at a fast-food place, the narrator thinks about the Professor and his granddaughter, especially the granddaughter’s body. Then, he thinks about the last chubby woman he slept with—a bank teller. The narrator decides to go to the library to look up skulls. An attractive librarian helps him find books using the computer catalog. He chooses a few titles from the list she compiles. When she tells him one of the ones he has selected cannot be checked out, he convinces her to loan it to him for one day in exchange for some ice cream. When he returns with ice cream, the librarian is gathering his books. He looks at the book she was reading—a biography of H. G. Wells—and notes her collection of paperclips. He remembers the Professor’s paperclips and thinks about the skulls. When the librarian gives him his books, he asks about her paperclips, and she says everyone has them. On his way home from the library, he stops at a stationary shop to buy some paperclips.

Once back at his apartment, he puts away his groceries and artistically scatters paperclips next to the skull on top of the TV. For an hour and 20 minutes, he looks through books on skulls to find a match for the one he has, but he fails to find one. As he puts on a video of Quiet Man, a man in a Tokyo Gas uniform shows up claiming to be doing a routine safety check. The narrator is suspicious and sees the man in the uniform attempt to steal his skull. After the narrator gets him in an armlock and puts his knife under the uniformed man’s nose, he admits he got paid to steal the skull by two guys on the street. He begs the narrator to not kill him because he has daughters. The narrator lets him go, and he is sure the Semiotecs are behind this attempted robbery. The narrator advises the uniformed man to leave through the parking garage.

When he is alone again, the narrator considers contacting the System about the skull but decides against it. He does not know how to reach the Professor and his granddaughter, so he decides to not contact them either. The narrator taps the skull with the tongs again and finds an indent in the skull where sound is coming from—it looks like a broken-off horn in the center of its forehead. The narrator looks through the books about skulls for horned creatures. A rhinoceros skull is not a match. As the narrator makes himself a whiskey drink and some food, he considers that the skull could be from a unicorn.

He wonders why strange things are happening to him and decides to call the librarian. When he requests books about unicorns, she tells him to come by in the morning. He tells her it is urgent, and she suggests they meet at a cafe near the library when she gets off work at 6:30. When he counters by asking her to come to his place, she is stunned but eventually agrees and asks for directions.

The Colonel tells the narrator he can’t get his shadow back—it will wait for him and die. The Colonel is the narrator’s neighbor. The narrator did not know the separation was permanent. The Colonel says no one can leave the Town. The Gatekeeper has not let the narrator visit his shadow, and the Colonel explains that the Gatekeeper fears the narrator and his shadow will reunite. As they discuss these matters, they play a chess game that has pieces the narrator does not recognize. The Colonel says the lives of separated shadows are short, and the pain of losing one’s shadow will fade. The narrator guesses the pain will fade when his mind vanishes. While the Colonel does not know all of the Town’s rules, he believes it is a fair and perfect place.

The narrator and the Colonel live in the Bureaucratic Quarter—white Official Residences on Western Hill—which is contrasted with the Workers’ Quarter where the Librarian lives. Other retired military folks do repairs and chores. The narrator describes his room—dirty and sparse. He stays inside playing chess with the Colonel because he cannot go outside in the sunlight with his scarred eyes. The Colonel says he has no regrets about giving up his shadow.