Carne, he taught Comparative World Literature at WHTU in Santa Ana pretty much while he was rising to international fame.
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, 29 August 2018 04:05 (five years ago) link
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.
― (•̪●) (carne asada), Wednesday, 29 August 2018 04:07 (five years ago) link
I really liked A Wild Sheep Chase, remember hearing that there was a sequel Dance Dance Dance but haven't read it
― Dan S, Wednesday, 29 August 2018 04:27 (five years ago) link
ok it was already mentioned many times I guess I should read this thread
― Dan S, Wednesday, 29 August 2018 04:30 (five years ago) link
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
― josh az (2011nostalgia), Wednesday, 29 August 2018 06:23 (five years ago) link
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 proseWhile 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
― F# A# (∞), Wednesday, 29 August 2018 08:08 (five years ago) link
...but are highly praised in japan i should add
― F# A# (∞), Wednesday, 29 August 2018 08:13 (five years ago) link
Name names!
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 29 August 2018 09:29 (five years ago) link
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, 29 August 2018 12:55 (five years ago) link
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.
― Brad C., Wednesday, 29 August 2018 14:40 (five years ago) link
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)
― 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!
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, 29 August 2018 15:46 (five years ago) link
Surely there have been more than two at this point
― The Vermilion Sand Reckoner (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 29 August 2018 15:47 (five years ago) link
recommend a translation
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, 29 August 2018 15:49 (five years ago) link
jay rubin
― brimstead, Wednesday, 29 August 2018 15:51 (five years ago) link
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
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Wednesday, 29 August 2018 15:54 (five years ago) link
i should give hard boiled wonderland a shot before completely giving up on this dude anyway
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Wednesday, 29 August 2018 15:55 (five years ago) link
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
― Vinnie, Wednesday, 29 August 2018 17:18 (five years ago) link
I agree, Hardboiled Wonderland is tighter and more memorable than Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
― Brad C., Wednesday, 29 August 2018 17:27 (five years ago) link
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
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Wednesday, 29 August 2018 17:33 (five years ago) link
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, 29 August 2018 17:35 (five years ago) link
Yeah, I don’t think a translator could make the last third significantly less painfully boring.
― JoeStork, Wednesday, 29 August 2018 17:39 (five years ago) link
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.
― Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 29 August 2018 18:09 (five years ago) link
― Matt DC, Wednesday, August 29, 2018 10:35 AM (thirty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
this is also good to know
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Wednesday, 29 August 2018 18:11 (five years ago) link
Alfred Birnbaum's translations make HM read naturally in English. Jay Rubin's make HM read like an idiot.
― massaman gai, Wednesday, 29 August 2018 19:43 (five years ago) link
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
― massaman gai, Wednesday, 29 August 2018 19:47 (five years ago) link
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.
― difficult listening hour, Wednesday, 29 August 2018 20:06 (five years ago) link
i feel so vindicated, i thought i was alone!!!!!!!!
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Wednesday, 29 August 2018 20:07 (five years ago) link
murakami writes about what people wear a lot.rubin will always write "he had on his blue shirt with the button down collar"several times in the same paragraph.birnbaum will write "he wore... / he was wearing..."
― massaman gai, Wednesday, 29 August 2018 20:19 (five years ago) link
I saw Lee Chang-Dong's film Burning, which is an adaptation of a Murakami story called Barn Burning. It's very good but my slight reservations are also reservations I generally have with Murakami although in a much less frustrating way in the film than in his books.
― Britain's Sexiest Cow (jed_), Wednesday, 29 August 2018 22:15 (five years ago) link
Murakami feels like a side-step away from High Fidelity to me. I’ve tried several books and usually come up empty (that said, Wild Sheep Chase was ok). I read his book about running last year and it was deeply arrogant and boring. Blah blah I opened a bar and got famous writing but I didn’t even want it and then I was great at running.
― tangenttangent, Wednesday, 29 August 2018 23:08 (five years ago) link
i think of this guy as the guy who begins every book with the same idea as Calvino in If on a winter’s night a traveler... but then actually finishes the story, thus missing the joke.
― sciatica, Wednesday, 29 August 2018 23:10 (five years ago) link
Fun fact, 1Q84 was translated by two people to meet the publisher's deadline - Jay Rubin pts 1 and 2, and Philip Gabriel pt 3. Agreed that Birnbaum is the best Murakami "voice" but he works pretty closely with his English translators I'm told.The best Murakami is deadpan Murakami, the flat neutrality of style when describing things people typically get excited about is the hook for me.
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Wednesday, 29 August 2018 23:30 (five years ago) link
I also got about a third into WIBC and couldnt finish it, and couldnt put my finger on why. Something about it felt so male and listless. Maybe coming right off the back of a pile of Le Guin had me in a more demanding frame of mind. I dont know what turned me off.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Wednesday, 29 August 2018 23:37 (five years ago) link
(wether this is his or the translators fault, who can say)
"the flat neutrality of style when describing things people typically get excited about" yes agree
it was the 'strange casualness' of Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki that first got me interested in his writing
― Dan S, Wednesday, 29 August 2018 23:40 (five years ago) link
I listened to the audiobook of A Wild Sheep Chase while on a long journey. I had the player set to shuffle, though, and I didn't notice for hours.
― Leaghaidh am brón an t-anam bochd (dowd), Thursday, 30 August 2018 03:16 (five years ago) link
legendary
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Thursday, 30 August 2018 03:28 (five years ago) link
once when i was 8 or 9 i actually got my dad to read me a bedtime story, and he read for ~10mins before announcing he'd been reading all the sentences out of order "and you didn't notice because the prose doesn't go anywhere", then turned out the light
― difficult listening hour, Thursday, 30 August 2018 03:49 (five years ago) link
the plain bedtime be damned
― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 30 August 2018 03:50 (five years ago) link
just dad things
― macropuente (map), Thursday, 30 August 2018 04:37 (five years ago) link
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, August 29, 2018 2:29 AM (seventeen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
obviously this depends on the type of books you like, but to name a few random contemporary ones:
shinichi hoshitoh enjoeyoriko shonokenji nakagamiryu murakamiyoko ogawayoshikichi furui (probably good to put him on the list, he was at the forefront of a turning point in japanaese lit)genpei akasegawayoko tawadahiroko oyamadakenta nishimurahiromo kawakami
okay so not all are highly praised, but most of them are
i stuck to 1970s and onward because that's when haruki murakami first started publishing
modern writers would be its own list (pre-1960s ish), and though they are what i prefer, it wouldn't be fair to compare him nor any contemporary writer to them. but suffice it to say, in my opinion, most contemporary literature in japan leaves a lot to be desired. i've included some very recent names on that list, but not because i particularly like them
i will break from this for one instance to say as much as murakami gets compared to kafka every so often, kobo abe is the real japanese kafka, a pretty amazing writer, though, again, a modern one
some of those authors i read in japanese and others in translation, so i don't know if everything is available in english
― F# A# (∞), Thursday, 30 August 2018 04:40 (five years ago) link
I really fucked up with this guy by reading The Wind Up Bird Chronicle first and then reading all the others trying to recapture that high without much success. Although Wild Sheep Chase/Dance Dance Dance are very enjoyable and Kafka On The Shore has a lot to recommend it, most of them are all basically the same after a while. I'm pretty sure I'd find Norwegian Wood ideologically reprehensible if I were to reread it.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 30 August 2018 13:49 (five years ago) link
Yup
― Spirits Having Pwned (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 30 August 2018 13:54 (five years ago) link
Dance Dance Dance was my first and still my favourite - loved the combination of deadpan absurdity with actual suspense. I like most if his stuff, a bit in the way I love all of Modiano, because he's always writing the same book. 1Q84 was horrendous though.
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Friday, 31 August 2018 08:13 (five years ago) link
https://lithub.com/haruki-murakami-a-brief-history-of-japanese-short-fiction-according-to-me/?single=true
Long intro (in non-translated English!) to Penguin's new Japanese short story collection, which is funny because he admits that he not only detests but actively avoids most Japanese literature haha.
If you go to a Japanese bookstore, you'll notice that he's translated quite a few Western Literature authors into Japanese (Salinger, Fitzgerald, Theroux, Capote, Paley, Carver, Chandler... off the top of my head).
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 16:03 (five years ago) link
― Britain's Sexiest Cow (jed_)
I saw Burning last week, read the short story a few days ago. The film deepens the story, I think, but I'm not sure it added up to anything more than marvelous flashes (the ending felt out of character).
― The Silky Veils of Alfred (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 30 September 2018 20:19 (five years ago) link
I agree with that. Still the 4th best thing I caught at TIFF
― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Monday, 1 October 2018 05:23 (five years ago) link
(of 14 or so)
He's been pretty visible this year, here's a "DJ set" he put together (appears that this is a running series so perhaps more of these to come?):
https://www.tfm.co.jp/murakamiradio/
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, 16 October 2018 18:51 (five years ago) link
yoshikichi furui sunds great. I'll try and hunt down Yoko
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 16 October 2018 22:39 (five years ago) link