Haruki Murakami

[landho]

whenever i read murakami books i can't help but wonder how much of his true style/message etc is lost in translation. i'm sure many other people feel this way?

You may want to read Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words by Jay Rubin. Rubin is a professor of Japanese literature at Harvard and also one of the primary translators of Murakami's work; he discusses very specifically the problems and the process of translation, specially translating Murakami.

[jpgm]

i grabbed after dark at the airport the other day...i should finish it tomorrow - its brilliant, and much more direct than his other works that ive read.

i read HBW while i was away too....amazing as well, i enjoyed it at least as much as dance dance dance, but it was a headfuck from time to time, especially given my oh-so-relaxed state when reading it.

[pompadork]

A Murakami thread, word. With the exception of the soft cover After Dark which was released recently, i'm pretty sure i have everything that's been translated into English - except Pinball. Letter-pressed Tony Takitani, so great.

Also i have a bunch of his works that are Japanese only but they are of no practical use to me ]:

[fallen angels]

if anyone wants a PDF scan of Pinball 1973, lemme know

[pompadork]

Ah - i was just uploading that to share, actually!

http://www.sendspace.com/file/0ipfp9

Though i'd rather have the story itself.

By the way, despite being so short, it will really make A Wild Sheep Chase that much better if you read pinball and hear the wind sing before it.

[sircheesecake]

About 2/3 of the way through Wind-up Bird Chronicle and I can honestly say this novel has hit a homerun for me. Im at a point in my life where I am really looking for meaning and I can relate to Okada-san's problems in so many ways. A few years ago, one of my literature teachers was telling me how This Side of Paradise affected him so much and how he now loves to teach it and it means so much to him. I feel that way towards this book.

I also bought Norwegian Wood and will read that in a few weeks. Hope its just as good.

[pompadork]

They are all great, at least to me. Wind-up i probably like better than NW, with Hard Boiled Wonderland being liked a bit more than both.

You'll like it though. More 'real,' but similar characters.

[Wolves]

Actually just finished Wind Up Bird a couple of nights ago. It was great.

[pompadork]

Norwegian Wood Japanese Movie Incoming

I'm sure it'll be okay, since it probably won't be a huge film. Tony Takitani was good, and Murakami likes this director (which is why he's allowing it in the first place) so i'm psyched!

[sircheesecake]

Anywhere you can buy/rent/download Tony Takitani? Ive been looking for it for a week or two and could only find a russian version.

[fallen angels]

Norwegian Wood Japanese Movie Incoming

I'm sure it'll be okay, since it probably won't be a huge film. Tony Takitani was good, and Murakami likes this director (which is why he's allowing it in the first place) so i'm psyched!

very excited about this.

Anywhere you can buy/rent/download Tony Takitani? Ive been looking for it for a week or two and could only find a russian version.

amazon.com probably has it

[cyberPUNK]

Anywhere you can buy/rent/download Tony Takitani? Ive been looking for it for a week or two and could only find a russian version.

found it at blockbuster awhile ago. not sure but netflix may have it.

[pompadork]

I got mine from a friend via ebay.

[cersepn]

this rocks. Thought i'ld finally have my hands on wind up bird, kino had them in stock according to the computer. Headed down to the section, saw a lady with wind up and after dark in her hands. Felt soo happy i'll finally have the book, searched the shelves thoroughly, but no chronicle to be found. PLENTY of other murakami tho. Bloody sad.

[weidna]

started off marukami reading after dark. about halfway through and not disappointed. are scenes set up so incredibly vividly and with such care in the rest of his novels? i love whenever "we" are brought to a new location/setting at the beginning of some of the chapters.

[memoryscreen]

Reading Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, the collection of short stories. They keep me coming back for more, each story a new addicting rush. Kind of like cigarettes.

[martinj]

I read most of his books, but after dark was allright, and norwegian wood a bit shallow or I missed some points, might re read it, but Kafka was amazing.

[martinj]

Just bought : What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Saw it at Page One (HK bookstore). Will read it on my flight to Sweden =)

[mr.invincible]

just wanted to ask, are people jumping on Murakami because bobby hundreds was on his blog not too long ago? i don't know, just a speculation

SPOILER ALERT. IF YOU DID NOT READ "AFTER DARK" PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS POST!!!!!!

After seeing a thread on murakami, I happened to bump into "AFTER DARK" and decided to pick it up. Finished reading it last night and I am still kind of confused on what I was suppose to understand. The book was very script written. I didn't quite understand the point or what he was trying to convey through the sleeping girl trapped in the TV or the guy in the mask. um..I thought a lot of the stuff were kind of unnecessary, I don't know. Does anyone have a good understanding of what Murakami tries to point out?

[Yardsale]

submit questions to the murakami for an upcoming time interview:

http://time-blog.com/10questions/novelist-haruki-murakami/

[fallen angels]

SPOILER ALERT. IF YOU DID NOT READ "AFTER DARK" PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS POST!!!!!!

After seeing a thread on murakami, I happened to bump into "AFTER DARK" and decided to pick it up. Finished reading it last night and I am still kind of confused on what I was suppose to understand. The book was very script written. I didn't quite understand the point or what he was trying to convey through the sleeping girl trapped in the TV or the guy in the mask. um..I thought a lot of the stuff were kind of unnecessary, I don't know. Does anyone have a good understanding of what Murakami tries to point out?

have you read his other works? it would probably help you understand AD if you did.

[mr.invincible]

I have not. What would you recommend?

what did you get out from AFTER DARK?

[fallen angels]

I would pretty much recommend you read as many of his earlier works as you can get your hands on, especially..

"Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World"

"Kafka on the Shore"

"Dance Dance Dance"

"Wild Sheep Chase"

"Wind Up Bird Chronicle"

those will give you a strong dose of murakami-style fiction, and help you understand the realm of thought he likes to explore as an author

[habia]

I just finished Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World earlier today. I liked it.

and I don't know much about The Hundreds, so no. I started reading his work after his recent New Yorker article along with recommendations from real life friends, cyberPUNK, datasupa and landho.

I don't know enough about Murakami to really comment on wether this is a theme in most of his work or not, but I enjoy and am amused by how well the main characters seem to get along with girls in his novels which I have read. Not all girls necessarily, but in Hard Boiled Wonderland the way the main character and librarian get along, from Norweigan Wood how the main character and girl from his history class get along, and in Wind Up Bird the relationship between main character and his neighbor.

It seems effortless, as though they have no self-conscious weird social issues to deal with.

[landho]

I just finished Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World earlier today. I liked it.

and I don't know much about The Hundreds, so no. I started reading his work after his recent New Yorker article along with recommendations from real life friends, cyberPUNK, datasupa and landho.

I don't know enough about Murakami to really comment on wether this is a theme in most of his work or not, but I enjoy and am amused by how well the main characters seem to get along with girls in his novels which I have read. Not all girls necessarily, but in Hard Boiled Wonderland the way the main character and librarian get along, from Norweigan Wood how the main character and girl from his history class get along, and in Wind Up Bird the relationship between main character and his neighbor.

It seems effortless, as though they have no self-conscious weird social issues to deal with.

Warning: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World spoiler

Here is a brief comment I wrote about the end of Hard-Boiled Wonderland a few years ago:

In

HBW

, the narrator of the "End of the World" didn't have a choice as to whether he remained in the End of the World. It only

looked

like he did, but really, his decision was already made; which is not to say that the narrator from the "End of the World" knew he was going to stay, but rather that was the only decision that he could have made; it is impossible for him to make any other decision. Remember, the End of the World is just a manifestation of the consciousness of the narrator from "Hard-Boiled Wonderland." And since

that

narrator was doomed to get lost in his consciousness on October 2 (

HBW

197), that entails the narrator from "End of the World" to stay at the End of the World; once the narrator from "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" gets stuck in his consciousness, he goes on living forever in the world of the Town. Choosing to leave the End of the World is tantamount to being alive in the Hard-Boiled Wonderland, but there's nothing he can really do about that.

[lmaozedong]

whos read What I Talk About When I Talk About Running? I just finished it, really enjoyed it.. now I kinda wanna run a marathon even though that totally wasn't the point..

[salaryman]

I just finished Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World earlier today. I liked it.

Its probably my favorite Murakami novel.

I would say that I liked most of his work a lot more before I had actually read a significant portion of it. Now that I have, a lot of it blends together, which is arguably a positive point in some ways (making his work a kind of blurry collection of fantasy with weird connections in the plotlines, recurring characters or themes etc.) but his main male characters always seem too autobiographical and it makes several of the novels stale and familiar.

Still waiting for him to make something truly different.

[cersepn]

I'm 4/5 through Norwegian Wood. It's my first Murakami novel, and it's really enjoyable. Somehow i never felt i was a fan of this kinda genre, but it drew me in.

[headtowall]

Thus far I've read Sputnik Sweetheart, Underground, Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Kafka on the Shore, and After Dark. Working on The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle right now.

I'm really into his work, but having read them all back to back (a friend recommended him to me and loaned me a stack of books) can make events and characters run together.

I think my favorite so far is Kafka on the Shore.

[cernunnos]

My relationship with Murakami books is quite strange. I feel that it's not very serious or deep literature, but I continue to re-read some of his books (like Kafka).