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Haruki Murakami: The Moment I Became a Novelist

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Re: Haruki Murakami: The Moment I Became a Novelist

#21

Post by a_bonobo »

howlingfantods wrote: post #9

Among my group of friends, I've found that everyone's favorite Murakami book is always the first or second they read. After you read a couple, they all start sounding the same. Another angsty young man searches for a girl with serious emotional issues, and there's some metaphor heavy dream sequences and talking animals along the way. I haven't read his recent books but I've read five books of his and it was really ti…

I agree with you - the only really "unique" Murakami works I've read are Hard-Boiled Wonderland (a mix of SF and fantasy), his non-fiction (especially Underground is good, a series of interviews with victims and perpetrators of the 1995 Aum Shinrikyo Tokyo gas attack), and After the Quake (even that one walks straight into "typical Murakami" territory sometimes).

I think it's one of the reasons why he won't get the Nobel Prize even though so many always list him as top contender, he's just too repetitive.

Re: Haruki Murakami: The Moment I Became a Novelist

#23

Post by cb18 »

whiddershins wrote: post #16
howlingfantods wrote: post #9

Among my group of friends, I've found that everyone's favorite Murakami book is always the first or second they read. After you read a couple, they all start sounding the same. Another angsty young man searches for a girl with serious emotional issues, and there's some metaphor heavy dream sequences and talking animals along the way. I haven't read his recent books but I've read five books of his and it was really ti…

I very rarely downvote comments, but I find it distressing that the top comment thread on this post seems to be turning towards a hate-on-Murakami theme. Not only do I enjoy his work very much, and found some of it to be extremely influential in my life (i.e. Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World) I fail to see the value add in these sorts of comments about any creator's work. The points about his recurring…

I enjoyed that little essay about the origins of his writing career so much

Have you read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_I_Talk_About_When_I_Talk_... ?

That wiki article doesn't really do the contents of the book justice.

Re: Haruki Murakami: The Moment I Became a Novelist

#24

Post by 616c »

howlingfantods wrote: post #9

Among my group of friends, I've found that everyone's favorite Murakami book is always the first or second they read. After you read a couple, they all start sounding the same. Another angsty young man searches for a girl with serious emotional issues, and there's some metaphor heavy dream sequences and talking animals along the way. I haven't read his recent books but I've read five books of his and it was really ti…

Or rather:

I am so sick of reading about your calendar/planning startup. It is a company with similar people, using similar technology, doing similar things for the same amount of money and cultural mindshare. Sure everyone likes you as you are the new kid on the block, but can you disrupt some other thing you do not enjoy for the sake of your consumer? You are really boring me.

No one ask Van Gogh to paint another Starry Night, man. (It is this quite, oft-repeated by my parents, that makes me thinks Jodie Mitchell is a true genius).

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/489495-that-s-one-thing-tha...

Re: Haruki Murakami: The Moment I Became a Novelist

#25

Post by bemmu »

howlingfantods wrote: post #9

Among my group of friends, I've found that everyone's favorite Murakami book is always the first or second they read. After you read a couple, they all start sounding the same. Another angsty young man searches for a girl with serious emotional issues, and there's some metaphor heavy dream sequences and talking animals along the way. I haven't read his recent books but I've read five books of his and it was really ti…

I don't think it's necessarily bad to jam on some themes which you've found to work, looking for the perfect permutation of those ideas.

One of my favorite authors Hermann Hesse has very similar themes in almost every book, with just very different remixes on the same concepts. But I love it that he kept searching for the perfect way to present those themes.

Jumping into a different world, if you look at some stand-up comedians like Louis C.K., they have a certain set that they repeat and perfect over time.

A short ebook I recently read (Hooked On You) put it nicely: "Think of yourself as a DJ building a set. The stories are the records in your record box. All you have to do is choose the right ones, and play them in the right order."

Re: Haruki Murakami: The Moment I Became a Novelist

#28

Post by antome »

evjan wrote: post #6

This epiphany he writes about sounds almost religious in nature. Did he really not consider writing before that? Does his memory fail him, is this a memory construct that makes for a good story but doesn’t hint at what really happened? I’ve never experienced anything like this myself. I often tell people, when asked about why I do what I do, that I knew I wanted to be a software developer at the age of 10. But it was…

Quite right. As with the "Draw the rest of the owl" idiom, it often looks like people just "realise" what they want to do, then suddenly become that thing. Whereas anyone with remotely complex thoughts and dreams, will generally be taking plenty of steps and introspecting along the way.
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