I listened to Janacek’s sinfonietta on the radio. The anchor commented that two different recordings of the same music provide the soundtrack to Murakami’s novel, 1Q84. I downloaded the music, and the book. Janacek’s sinfonietta marks the boundary between the real and unreal, the profane and sacred.
Around the same time, I listened to a learned discussion on the writing of Anton Chekhov. In 1890, the ill young man made a three month journey from Moscow across Siberia to the penal colony of Sakhalin Island. After listening, I have begun to work my way through his stories. As it turned out, Chekhov’s narrative power is another thread running through the tapestry of 1Q84
According to Chekhov, says a character in 1Q84, once a gun appears in a story, it has to be fired.
kestrelart 
Impressed by the way you take things you’ve heard or read and turn them into something visual. I remember your earlier posts on this – was it treasure island? I’m an avid reader, but have never even thought of using what I’ve read as a starting point for a picture. Is it something conscious?
I guess it just happens like that in my brain. Treasure island I was reading out loud. It means reading it more slowly and there is more time for images to develop. That scene in which John Silver murders an honest seaman is very powerful. In 1Q84, a character lays the pistol on the table, looks out of the window and says “landscape with gun”. That triggered (no pun intended) the image. I love the sense of a whole narrative captured in a single still image, even if there was no story but the picture makes you invent one.