Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Books are an important motif throughout Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. The hard-boiled narrator identifies with the titular character of Rudin and Julien Sorel in The Red and the Black (163). He also falls for a librarian, and they discuss many authors, such as Jorge Luis Borges (94) and Somerset Maugham (358). Reading is a huge part of his personality; even his fantasies of retirement include reading. The narrator, while underground, continually longs for a “morning paper” (286).

Movies also play a large role in the hard-boiled narrator’s life. To convince the librarian to bring books to his apartment, he uses a reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey (81). After being unable to perform sexually with the librarian, he thinks about the movie The Enemy Below (93). When struggling to get through the underground, he thinks about Ben Johnson riding horses in “those great old John Ford movies” (213). The narrator’s “videodeck” (141) is one of his favorite possessions. Also, alongside reading, watching movies is part of the narrator’s ideal retirement.

Sound is another motif in Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. The Professor’s “sound-removal” (45) technology, demonstrated when he mutes his granddaughter and the sounds of water, is considered advanced science by the narrator.