Parallel universe or double vision?

Anniversary…

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Tengo: You know, a year ago it was, I had an operation.

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Komatsu: I know.

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Tengo: Even now, I’m not sure whether I died on the operating table, and that I’m now just imagining I’m alive in this Murakami-like parallel universe.

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Komatsu: 1Q84?

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Tengo: Precisely. I mean, I even LIVE in Murakami’s suburb, Koenji.

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Two moons, or one?

Komatsu: But there’s a simple test. Are there two moons in your sky? There were in Murakami’s.

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Tengo: Yes. There ARE two moons in my sky. Have been ever since I woke up from the operation a year ago.

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Komatsu: So who are the REAL inhabitants of your parallel universe? Am I alive or dead?

____________

Voice-over

Komatsu should worry indeed that he might not be alive. But it could be merely that Tengo has double vision that he sees two moons and therefore thinks he lives in a parallel universe. However, novels are rarely THAT simple, and you can be sure that Murakami never intended such a plain explanation.

...

A teleoperated android?

Consultation room…

Teleoperated android

Dr Max: The operation will be carried out using a laparoscopic robot.

Patient: A machine?

Dr Max: It’s more like a robot with our doctors operating it.

Patient: So who will do the operation? The robot or the doctor?

Dr Max: Think of it as a teleoperated android.

__________

Voice-over

A doctor using more precise arms and seeing images magnified ten times. Will it work? We will know if the operation was successful if the white rabbit greets July.

...

Can I go home?

Patient asks doctor if he can be discharged.

…
Patient: Can I go home today?
Doctor: Dr Peckett, he’s the senior doc, he’ll decide. I’m just a house surgeon, I can’t sign the discharge.
Patient: Is he coming today?
Doctor: Maybe this afternoon.
Patient: Only a maybe?
Doctor: Or tomorrow morning.
Patient: So if he comes today, I could go home?
Doctor: Well, it’s his day off. ..
Patient: So it’s not likely to be today?
Doctor: Hmm. Make that a tomorrow.

Voiceover
Some doctors like to look on the bright side.

It’s a trifle optimistic to expect a doctor to come in his off-day. Very much an off-chance.…

Post-op

Ephraim visits the Armenian patient.
...
Ephraim: They what?
Patient: Strapped a strip of metal over my mandible.
Ephraim: Inside?
Patient: Can you see it hanging off my cheek?
Ephraim: Sorry. Silly question. Anesthetic?
Patient: Out from eight this morning til the afternoon.
Ephraim: You did go under? Didn’t hear every word like the one in two hundred that anesthetics don’t work on?
Patient: I was out like a light. But when I woke up apparently I caused a bit of fuss. Tried to escape. Threw things.
Ephraim: You’re not the only one. My great aunt…

Voiceover
No wonder there are no letups in any episode of E.R. or House, or any sitcom set in a hospital. Crises and near death experiences are piled on top of each other. The language tones all this down by turning droll, deprecatory and deadpan.

At the microlevel, people recounting personal experiences follow the same kind of plot and style।
...