New Murakami

[kelber at mindspring.com]

>
>I've read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, but didn't find much resemblance to Pynchon, save for the WWII references.  I had trouble getting through it.  I thought he descended into cuteness (particularly in his characterizations of the female characters), in a way Pynchon never does, and I can believe that the spaghetti and lemon drop references were there more for quirkiness than any real meaning.
>
>Laura
>
>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Sean Mannion <third_eye_unmoved at hotmail.com>
>>Sent: Jun 27, 2006 1:51 PM
>>To: bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net, pynchon-l at waste.org
>>Subject: Re: New Murakami
>>
>>I can see the similarities and discontinuities in those points about 
>>Murakami, but I think would probably err against using the term surrealist 
>>at all in characterising his work.
>>
>>With 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle' as an example, specifically the war 
>>episodes (the Boris and 'Clumsy Massacre' threads), while there are 
>>undisputedly elements of the fantastic present in these in terms of both 
>>events and their transmission to the characters who experience them, it 
>>would be a stretch to infer them as describing 'surrealist, alternative 
>>realities' since it's made quite clear that they are episodes of recalled 
>>memory, of actual past experience, embedded in the main narrative (whose 
>>realism, in turn, doesn't question their aunthenticity); they do not belong 
>>in an alternative reality - they are presented very much as constitute (and 
>>causal) fragments of an accurate past space/time; the absurd character of 
>>these descriptions of a past reality doesn't seem to ever challenge the 
>>adequacy the description itself (to me, anyway), or the form, and so, for 
>>myself at least, I wouldn't call them surreal.
>>
>>As for the Borges comparison, I haven't read enough Borges to feel qualfied 
>>to comment. However, Murakami also gets compared to Brett Easton Ellis on 
>>the blurb on the vintage paperbacks i've read, but i've been hard-pressed to 
>>see that one clearly. Which would suggest either lazy reading or lazy 
>>journalism....
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>From: bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
>>>To: MalignD at aol.com, pynchon-l at waste.org
>>>Subject: Re: New Murakami
>>>Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 17:52:04 -0700
>>>
>>>At 7:11 PM -0400 6/26/06, MalignD at aol.com wrote:
>>>>In a message dated 6/26/06 6:53:22 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>>>>bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net writes:
>>>>
>>>><< The surrealist, alternative realities,  part.    In Kafka,  there's a
>>>>story about fish falling from the sky and dual personalities (or 
>>>>something)   And
>>>>in Wind-Up Bird I think the war episode in China was kind of surreal.     
>>>>In
>>>>Borges' Ficciones  try  "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" (a fave),  "The 
>>>>Garden of
>>>>Forking Paths,"  or any of them really. >>
>>>>
>>>>Borges is rigorous, structured, intellectual, ironical.  Murakami is
>>>>free-roaming, instinctual, sensual.  I see no correspondence.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>I can see what you're saying and yes,  there are certainly differences, but 
>>>there are some similarities as well.
>>>It seems  they work with the same sort of things in two very different 
>>>ways.   Fwiw,  Murakami is frequently said to have similarities to Borges.  
>>>  (I thought of it on my own but used some googling to see if I was way off 
>>>base or if others had sensed that.)
>>>
>>>Bekah
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>