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I read this in Kafka on the Shore:
The girl frowns and gives me a hard look. "You don't watch at all?" I shake my head silently. Wait a sec – should I nod or shake my head here? I go with the nod.
I want to know if the author is rconsidering using "shake" or "nod" for concern of them being semantically precise or are they(the author) in confusion themselves whether they watch or not in actual? And also why are they saying that they go with the nod when they actually have shook before?
It would appear to me that the narrator (not really the author) isn't too sure of how to parse the question that was posed - he knows that he doesn't watch, but isn't sure whether to say no to the question as posed, or to agree with the basic sentiment that the girl is saying - he ends up nodding to say that she is correct.
There's an additional layer of interpretive difficulty because most Asian languages have a different response to a negative question.
First, let's look at a positive question.
Q: Do you watch Game of Thrones?
A: Yes (nodding head). This answer in both western and Asian cultures means, "Correct, I watch Game of Thrones."
Next, let's consider a negative question.
Q: Don't you watch Game of Thrones?
A: No (shaking head). This answer in GbE and AmE means "Agreed, I don't watch Game of Thrones."
However, if the question were asked in Japanese, the translated answer
A: Yes
would mean "Agreed, I don't watch Game of Thrones." The "Yes" indicates agreement with the question asked in the negative.
I could imagine how the author or translator would be split on whether to answer (in the narrative) in the way that a Japanese speaker would respond to a negative question posted in English.
