Haruki Murakami

honestly given the way other people talk about him i just really hate his style i think

j.'s reference upthread to murakami's "clunky" prose in 1Q84 seems otm to me just with a different book

I listened to Wind-Up Bird Chronicle as an audiobook. I really think an audio experience makes almost any book more enjoyable, but I get your point

I think the “clunkiness” is a deliberate effect. There is a real clinica detachment and awkwardness to his style that lends it a kind of weird naivete/documentary quality... i don’t think it’s a translation thing

That’s why i like him though. I feel his books are of variable quality. Norwegian Wood struck me as trite and bad whereas Wind Up Bird Chronicle was an incredible experience

I am halfway through reading Windup Bird... it just seems very Japanese modernist/introvert. It could be a weird translation but I can see why people are so gaaah over him.

note: i never really wanted to read him before because every indie boy ever in brooklyn was over the moon about him so I wanted to stay away. Now that I just hit 40, I figure it's time.

Brooklyn indie boys are good though

Oh and I guess I saw the Norwegian Wood movie with Virginia plain? when it came out ages ago. I only remember there being too much slo-mo to depict ANGST!

I am not into Canterbury Tales types of books so I am going to be pissed if there are tons of shorts stories the remainder of this book.

Yeah, i think that book is really bad; I can imagine the movie would be bad too. Such boilerplate coming of age, set in the 60s, although even so there was somethinf “off” about it that made it even less enjoyable. It’s possible I didn’t get it.

The wind up bird chronicle is just an amazing trip. I had ideas at the time about the way history figures into the narrative—how it only appears as trauma and is otherwse invisible—but it’s been too long for me to really talk about it

“That book” = norwegian wood obv

I just loved Malta the clairvoyant, the backyard pathway, the open space between the apartments, the missing cat, the abandoned house, the knowing teenage girl May Kasahara, the dream states, the bottom of the well...that last aspect reminds me a little of The Red Haired Woman by Orhan Pamuk

I think the “clunkiness” is a deliberate effect

yeah i'm aware of this. and i hate it

i enjoy it possibly only filtered through the cinema of wong kar-wai

When you guys read it do/did you see it through the eyes of a japanese dude or through your own eyes? I was wondering about this earlier this week.

note: i never really wanted to read him before because every indie boy ever in brooklyn was over the moon about him so I wanted to stay away. Now that I just hit 40, I figure it's time.

Hah now I'm wondering how re-reading it in my early 40s would compare to when I was a LA indie dork in my early 20s

You should do it and let us know. I mean it's fine to read on the subway but Terrace House is 100xs better.

When I talked to him he told me he wrote Wind-Up Bird when he was living in Orange County (CA), which kinda blew my mind.

What? No way

did you ask him if he likes Murakame Udon?

1991 – January, Went to the US as a associate researcher of Princeton University.

1992 – In January, nominated an associate professor at Princeton University (till August 1993). South of the Border, West of the Sun

1993 – In July, transferred and taught at William Howard Taft University (till May 1995).

1994 – The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle volume 1 and 2

1995 – Returned to Japan. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle volume 3 For The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle , Murakami received the Yomiuri Literary Award (Best Novel).

1997 – The first nonfiction by Murakami, Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche received the Takeo Kuwabara Prize (1999).

http://www.philosophical-investigations.com/2016/09/16/study-note/timeline-of-haruki-murakami/

Haha, no but he spends half the year in Hawaii.

Hard Boiled Wonderland is better than Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. And shorter!

Carne, he taught Comparative World Literature at WHTU in Santa Ana pretty much while he was rising to international fame.

I've read and loved some of his books but really don't know much about him I really had no idea he was in southern California when I was.

I really liked A Wild Sheep Chase, remember hearing that there was a sequel Dance Dance Dance but haven't read it

ok it was already mentioned many times I guess I should read this thread

When you guys read it do/did you see it through the eyes of a japanese dude or through your own eyes?

Oh god, definitely not through my own eyes. I like Toru, but he's definitely in that mold of "passive everyman protagonist" where viewers/readers project themselves onto the character and get emotionally invested as a result, despite the character's immature moments. Fortunately he exists in a fascinating world, so it works out

The blurb of Norwegian Wood seemed like it doubles down on at character archetype, and with a far less interesting setting/plot line (a college dorm love triangle?) to boot. But it has a number of fans so maybe I should check it out

This dude is such a boring writer that it makes sense japanese high schools would have you struggle through (one of) his books just to study his prose

While it’s true that there’s something very japanese about his writing style and characters’ personalities (a kind of victimized male), there are so many varied and great japanese writers who have done/are doing something totally different and remain unpopular/unknown in the west

...but are highly praised in japan i should add

Name names!

Recently met a Japanese Murakami fan who told me the variable quality in the translations is due to him having two translators who have different styles. I haven't read him for a decade, and haven't checked this up.

Some of the English translations, like 1Q84, show signs of having been rushed -- he sells well and his publishers want to get those books out in a hurry.

I've never been less than entertained by any of his books, and I'm impressed by his ability to alternate between sprawling fantasies and low-key realism.

Recently met a Japanese Murakami fan who told me the variable quality in the translations is due to him having two translators who have different styles. I haven't read him for a decade, and haven't checked this up.

― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, August 29, 2018 5:55 AM (two hours ago)

There's a thread on ILB where a poster discussed this very issue quite some time ago!

Surely there have been more than two at this point

recommend a translation

jay rubin

oh god i think i've read all of that stuff before which is why my brain gets stuck on "this has to be his translator, right????" anyway jay rubin sucks

i should give hard boiled wonderland a shot before completely giving up on this dude anyway

I liked Hard Boiled Wonderland a lot more than Wind Up, Brad - both are interesting trips, but HBW more focused and concise. In fact, haven't read anything else of his I liked nearly as much as HBW

I agree, Hardboiled Wonderland is tighter and more memorable than Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

i actually studied japanese for years—not to the degree where i can speak it and write it well at all but i got pretty close to that point in college— and what i like about alfred birnbaum’s sentences in that post is that they feel like actual japanese sentences and phrases to me, just in english

I find it quite hard to believe that 1Q84 has as much to do with the quality of the translation as much as just being a bad book.

Yeah, I don’t think a translator could make the last third significantly less painfully boring.

I loved *Wind-Up Bird* 10 years ago when I read it, it spoke v deeply to me, I have nothing of import to add to that observation at the moment. I've got a whole set of sub-thoughts brewing about that, Persona 5 and my own private semiconscious, but I don't know if I can or want to articulate them yet. Can't articulate it to myself comfortably yet.

I find it quite hard to believe that 1Q84 has as much to do with the quality of the translation as much as just being a bad book.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, August 29, 2018 10:35 AM (thirty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is also good to know

Alfred Birnbaum's translations make HM read naturally in English. Jay Rubin's make HM read like an idiot.

satoshi kon's "paprika" (2006) is a neat little anime movie that pretty much has the same story as Iq84 (2009) excepting the boobcentric nonsense, cats etc. check it out if you haven't already

tried twice to read wind-up bird but twice stalled in rage over the prose style-- somehow both fastidious and flabby-- had never seen the birnbaum translation but that excerpt rly is better. huh.