Hello
Gentle Reader,
On
a recent google search streak of Haruki Murakami, the writer appeared three
different times in the news. For a large part for great positive announcements;
while another in a more apathetic if albeit humorous tone. The reasons for the
recent Murakami searches are simply personal predilections on my part; though I
will say, they came around during a recent discussion of the compare and
contrast debate of Haruki Murakami and his senior Kenzaburo Oe. There has not
been much love lost between Haruki Murakami and Kenzaburo Oe, who has been a vocal
critic about the decline of Japanese literature, which he stated has become
too: ‘Murakami Centered.’ Though this is not a vocal criticism against
Murakami, it is safe to presume that the two writes differ greatly in their
perspective of Japanese literature, and its future. For example, Kenzaburo Oe,
is quite a difficult writer to translate. His work is intricate and deeply
Japanese, and apparently is even quite difficult to understand or comprehend in
the native language. In this sense, Kenzaburo Oe, would best be considered a ‘modernist,’
writer—though quite removed from his own predecessors: Yasunari Kawabata and Yukio
Mishima. Oe in fact had a complicated relationship with Mishima. Still
Kenzaburo Oe is noted for his deeply introspective novels, in which hope and
despair equally black each other out. Yet, because of his continual
experimentation with style and form, Kenzaburo Oe is considered a intellectual
writer (not an insult) and highly inaccessible; in which he has few readers. On
the contrary, Haruki Murakami is a publishing pop star of Japan’s literary
community. He openly has used pop culture motifs in his work, and has made no
qualm about distancing himself away from the traditional literary aspect of
Japanese culture and his rich literary history. Murakami is noted for being
easily translatable into other languages – as he has quite a readership in the
English language; this cannot be denied as part of the Murakami appeal for his
publishers both in Japan and abroad, as he is exotic enough to attract curious
readers, but familiar enough he won’t alienate any readers of an alien language.
With Murakami one can expect aimless narrator, cats, disappearing women, jazz
and spaghetti. Of the two writers though, Murakami is the most accessible by
his themes, but also because of his highly influenced westernized literary
motifs. In this sense Haruki Murakami is the ‘post-modernist,’ shadow to his
successors like Kenzaburo Oe; in which he discusses the globalized suburbia of
Japan today, where you can have sushi and spaghetti. On a personal note, neither
Kenzaburo Oe nor Haruki Murakami, are all that appealing to me as writers. I
find Kenzaburo Oe: slow, repetitious, recyclable, intensely personal, and
highly inaccessible. Despite attempting to read: “Somersault,” over ten years
ago, and giving up, it still has left a nasty taste in my mouth. Whereas Haruki
Murakami is light and accessible, his later oeuvre appears to be a rehash and
an attempt to continue to support he received from his earlier novels. In this
sense, on novel summarizes them all. His work is too similar with itself that
it becomes self-absorbed, and one can see the perspective of easily marketable
criticism is not without justifications.
Yet
Haruki Murakami’s international appeal continues to hold strong.
[
I ]
Haruki
Murakami recently won The Hans Christian Andersen Award for 2016. Previous
winners include: Salman Rushdie, J. K. Rowling and Paulo Coelho. The adjudicators
for the award, praised Haruki Murakami’s imaginative prose and his global
perspective, in which is narrative work is in a similar succession of Hans
Christian Anderson. In winning the award Murakami will receive $500,000 Danish
Krone (DKK) or roughly: $72, 000 dollars (American), along with a statue and a
diploma.
[
II ]
Haruki
Murakami’s influence is contained strictly in the literary world. His influence
has now extended into inspiration for television, music and now video games. “Memoranda,”
is described a ‘surreal adventure,’ video game. A independent developed and
published point and click video game. The lead developer Sahand Saedi is noted
to have kept a stack of Murakami books next to his bedside, and when
encountered blocks and challenges in in the games aspects, be it a puzzle or
the story; he would pick up a book from his bedside table and read a random
passage, to seek inspiration. ‘Memoranda,’ itself centres around a young woman
who has lost her memory in a European inspired town, she uses sticky notes
(hence the title Memoranda) to remind herself about important aspects. Now the
video games story itself evokes no specific Murakami novel or story; but it
does seek to evoke a similar feeling of disquiet. As Sahand Saedi explains [
from ‘The Verge,’]
‘“Most
of the short stories by Murakami happen in a very calm and realistic setting
and the introduction of a strange and unexpected character or a small event
will break the atmosphere and change everything. Suspense and fright are very
clear elements that have been ingrained in my mind while reading Murakami’s
stories,” Saedi explains. “These feelings, and also Murakami’s knowledge about
music and many aspects of technology, made me think that a videogame can be
made by combining them.”’
‘Memoranda,’
is expected to be released on January 25th. The developers of the
game hope that it will entice both fans of Murakami to play, but also people
who enjoy a good adventure story to also play the game as well.
Though
I rarely play video games myself, the setting, art style, and even the story
appear unique and interesting. For those who enjoy independent video games, a
good story, and beautiful art work, it appears that ‘Memoranda,’ will most
certainly deliver.
[
III ]
Toronto
is famous for many aspects: its metropolitan quality; the CN tower, being the
rival of both Montreal and Vancouver, a crack smoking mayor – and in many
aspects of Canada, for being called ‘the centre of the universe.’ Now though,
Toronto is in the paper for a humorous story involving Haruki Murakami. As a
recent article with CBC (Canadian Broadcast Corporation) pointed out: ‘Japanese
author Haruki Murakami may be known worldwide for novels that straddle the
border between the dreamworld and reality.’ But in Toronto, the famous Japanese
author is known more for disappearing from bookshelves, and ending up on the
black book market, and then he is for his dreamlike and surreal novels and
stories, with disappearing women, men who eat cat hearts, and leeches that rain
from the sky. The article states that Murakami is the new Kerouac with how his
books will disappear and end up in the dark shady black market of contraband
books. Though as the owner of the bookstore states, the thieves themselves most
likely have never even cracked open a Murakami novel. The reason though Haruki
Murakami may have such great appeal towards sticky fingered bookworms, is the
high readership amongst millennials. Despite the slight satirical hilarity of
the books going missing, the issue still persists, book store owners, who
operate independent chains who are competing against larger ‘brands,’ and
amazon, are starting to feel the pinch. Unfortunately, the police (and I quote
the article) are not cracking down on book thieves. Put into perspective
though, it’s not always appropriate to call out the Mountie’s for everything .
. . horses may not need gas (and
therefore environmentally friendly), they are terrible in traffic. Perhaps though
the recent hike in Murakami’s books being stolen and fenced is due to the fact
his newest novel is set to be released in Japan in February. Not much is known
about the new novel, other than its title: “Kishidancho Goroshi,” or in English
(roughly) “Murder of the Knight Commander.” Murakami has only commented on the
novel, that the story is very strange.
[
IV ]
Whether
one loves Haruki Murakami or views him as a postmodern pop cultural hack, there
can be no denying his influence as a writer extends wide to music, video games,
pop culture, other writers and other novels who may follow the Murakami
formula. He maybe a poster child of publishing success both at home and abroad,
and a voice of a listless and generation of people who view they are now stuck
in a globalized world of interconnectivity with no meaningful relationship to
discerned or discovered; yet he is still admired, loved and appreciated by all.
My own opinion of Murakami is indifference at the end of the day. His continual
speculation to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, is not something that I
support, nor do I think he possess the quality or perspective to deserve the
award. Then again others have received the award, despite—in my opinion; not deserving
it either. It’s a strange world, and perhaps Murakami understands this better
than he is given credit for.
Thank-you
For Reading Gentle Reader
Take
Care
And
As Always
Stay
Well Read
M.
Mary
The
following links are refrenced to the news above:
Hans
Christian Andersen Award –
Memoranda
Video Game –
Murakami’s
books being stolen – Original CBC article and a article from The Guardian –
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