murakami, haruki - Norwegian wood

"After I do my laundry tomorrow morning and hang it out to dry, I'll
go to my ten o'clock class. It's the one I'm in with Midori: History of
Drama. I'm working on Euripides. Are you familiar with Euripides?
He was an ancient Greek - one of the "Big Three' of Greek tragedy
along with Aeschylus and Sophocles. He supposedly died when a dog
bit him in Macedonia, but not everybody believes this. Anyway, that's
Euripides. I like Sophocles better, but I suppose it's a matter of taste. I
really can't say which is better.
"What marks his plays is the way things get so mixed up the
characters are trapped. Do you see what I mean? Lots of different
people appear, and they all have their own situations and reasons and
excuses, and each one is pursuing his or her own idea of justice or
happiness. As a result, nobody can do anything. Obviously. I mean,
it's basically impossible for everybody's justice to prevail or
everybody's happiness to triumph, so chaos takes over. And then what
do you think happens? Simple - a god appears at the end and starts
directing the traffic. "You go over there, and you come here, and you
get together with her, and you just sit still for while.' Like that. He's a
kind of fixer, and in the end everything works out perfectly. They call
this 'deus ex machina'. There's almost always a deus ex machina in
Euripides, and that's where critical opinion divides over him.
"But think about it - what if there were a deus ex machina in real life?
Everything would be so easy! If you felt stuck or trapped, some god
would swing down from up there and solve all your problems. What
could be easier than that? Anyway, that's History of Drama. This is
more or less the kind of stuff we study at university."
Midori's father said nothing, but he kept his vacant eyes on me the
whole time I was talking. Of course, I couldn't tell from those eyes
whether he understood anything I was saying.
"Peace," I said.
After all that talk, I felt starved. I had had next to nothing for breakfast
and had eaten only half my lunch. Now I was sorry I hadn't eaten
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