Thoughts on Haruki Murakami?

wait he doesn't even count because he lived in england since age 5 so he's practically not even a jap

literally all japanese authors are terrible

To be fair Murakami isn't a jap author either.

he has lived in japan all his life tho

lithub.com/the-murakami-effect/

Jap authors suck because their style of writing is totally different from Western conventions and philosophies. To crudely summarise, their works emphasize symbolism and imagery over meaning. The classic example is the Japanese haiku, which when produced by a Japanese is a series of sense-impressions, but when composed by a Westerner tends to project additional meanings and interpretations that clearly mark it as a foreign creation.

meh whatever, by that logic all translations a shit unless they are filled with footnotes and require a foundation in the relevant culture anyway, in which case why read a translation when you could just read the original

that seems like a pretty huge generalization, japan might still be spooky asian land but their media is getting WESTED in some spheres so you would think there would be like a handful of good ~30 year old japanese novelists, but nada

>by that logic all translations a shit unless they are filled with footnotes and require a foundation in the relevant culture anyway, in which case why read a translation when you could just read the original
???

Did you skip over 90% of the article or something.

i heard he is good,but didn't read him

It's not easy to shift the entire literary mood of a nation, since it's rooted in things greater than media. You could say that Soseki tried and succeeded, but the result was still clearly Japanese and distinguishable from Western works.

Read A Wild Sheep Chase, everything else is optional and preferably to be skipped.

Good earlier books. Decent later ones.

Well what three books then?

I've read Hard Boiled Wonderland and thought it was interesting enough. It has some nice piece of prose, but I wasn't blown away or anything. Overall I'd rate it a comfy read.

I came across a copy of Kafka on the Shore but haven't read it yet.

Who is Abe Kobo

...

thats a good one.

i still cant decide whether or not kafka on the shore is deep or just pseudo swill

osamu dazai is p good

Only contemporary author I read

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I think there should be a rule of thumb that if one wants to get the full experience of a foreign work, especially one that relies significantly on cultural literary devices within the writing system and language, one must read it in the original language. This is more so for poems. It just doesn't do to attempt to shift and translate words with immense cultural significance and difference in phonetics.
Moreover, Most English readers and westerners in general, just don't have the cultural capital to thoroughly understand Japanese works.
I doubt the cultural capital of the translators involved as they translate the work as well. For example, some literary devices reference nuances only understood if you understand the script of that language(in this case, the different readings of characters) and of course the translator must understand both cultures.

So he's Japynchon?

if you are a weeb try six four by hideo yokoyama. its very """kafkaesque"""

it is comfy, that it is for sure

The three are Hard-boiled Wonderland, Kafka on the Shore and the Wind-up Bird Chronicle, the third being the best.
I should addend my previous statement: if you like Murakami all the other stuff is worth reading, but one of my three selections are the best and you should read one of those if you are unfamiliar with Murakami.

Fucking comfy, especially for young lonely urban males like me.

He's the best writer out there. PERIOD!!!!

>~30 year old japanese novelists,
Anime. Manga. They have evolved from the barbaric novel

He's not even that bad, he's comfy af.

Veeky Forums turns on anyone who's popular, especially among females though. No misogynstic contrarians here!

a true ching chong

Can't you look at the fucking archive?

This man in my country, he is nothing.

isn't ishiguro british tho?

he's a nip

murakami is nothing like pynchon

Ah yes, the Japanese man that writes in English first before translating into Japanese, the very same man known for his fascination with western culture to the extent that it dominants his stories can only possibly be understood by reading him in the "original" Japanese.

>Reads Norwegian Wood
>Just gratuitous sex

It’s strange how popular he is with young females when a lot of his stuff seems to be borderline male fantasy self-insert porn.

was there even a dried up well in more than one book (wind-up bird chronicle, was it?)

He only did the English-to-Japanese thing in, like, the first chapter of Hear The Wind Sing. Everything else has been written in Japanese from the get-go.

Murakami is incredibly Japanese still, just like Soseki. Japanese society and the rules it imposes on people are central to his work. Even the aforementioned Hear The Wind Sing is a direct response to Japanese societal expectations.

Guy who can read Japanese here currently on the last stretch of his latest, Killing Commendatore. Here's what I got for Bingo so far with about 200 pages left.

Chrissakes how can one person be such a fucking pseud.

>Murakami is incredibly Japanese still

Incredibly is a stretch. He's pretty un-Japanese. But he's also more Japanese than he gets credit for I think.

kakkoi, senpai!

No u, kohai-kun

three of his short stories involve wells

How good/bad is it so far? Is it on Wind-Up Bird's level? Seems particularly similar to it.

It's pretty so so. It's got the inevitable Murakami comfiness (hate that overused word though) and engrossing nature.

At its worst its just the usual memes rehashed in more lazy and predictable ways. At its best it's pretty captivating and manages to do some things differently. Hard to say more without talking about the contents at all.

Definitely not on Wind Up Bird's level.

how long is it in japanese compared to his other works? I know japanese to english pagination is a bad measure but is it a very long work?

It's in two 500 page volumes, one of his longest. Japanese is more physically compact than English so I would expect the English version to clock in at over 1,000 unless serious editing is done.

>Lifts, reads and likes Sonico
Nice bro
>Reads Murakami unironically
Fug