Murakami: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman - Invitation to view

[John Bailey]

I'm currently reading a book by the other Murakami - Ryu Murakami -
called Popular Hits of the Showa Era and it's a laugh-out-loud comedy
as black as they come. It concerns a war between a group of deadbeat
20-something boys and a gang of equally useless 30-something
divorcees. Starts out with sashimi knives duct-taped to mops, but the
ladies have just gotten their hands on a rocket launcher.

"A strange old tale had recently been revived in popular novels and
films about a man who in accordance with the rules of the social group
in which he lives must leave his aged mother to die on a desolate
mountaintop. It was a story that would surely have caused any
self-respecting immigrant or refugee or descendant of slaves to gag in
disgust, but it was the stuff of Yano's deepest aspirations. If only
he could be given a chance to abandon something of tremendous
importance to him - to dump it as if it were no longer needed in his
life! He often reflected that if he were a woman, all he'd have to do
was get pregnant, give birth to the baby, and abandon it; and it had
even occurred to him that if he dressed up in drag and left a Cabbage
Patch Kid somewhere he might be able to experience a similar sort of
sensation, though he was restrained by the fear that if he went that
far he might never find his way back."

On Sat, Oct 10, 2015 at 12:27 PM,  <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
> I've only read The Windup Bird Chronicle, which seemed to me self-consciously cute - almost as if it had been written for the (then) futuristic Brooklyn Williamsburg hipsters - spaghetti/jazz/quirky characters, etc. I should track that short story down, Mark, but other than that, have no interest in reading more.
>
> Laura
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>>From: John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com>
>>Sent: Oct 9, 2015 7:40 PM
>>To: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
>>Cc: Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>, David Kilroy <thesaintgodard at gmail.com>, Leandro Poblet <leandrodrhouse at gmail.com>, pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>>Subject: Re: Murakami: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman - Invitation to view
>>
>>Agree his metaphysics are quite bound up with Japanese culture... lots
>>of stuff about energy flows and blockages and the contiguity of
>>external and internal worlds that reads as pretty naff to Western
>>eyes.
>>
>>Some of his literary tricks are completely untranslatable, too. Most
>>of his work plays on the long Japanese tradition of the I-Novel which
>>is a first-person, naturalistic confessional; Murakami degrades the
>>form by employing informal grammar (eg his I is the subjective,
>>solipsistic 'boku' instead of the usual respectful 'watashi') and
>>switching into a cold, academic grammar when things get more abstract.
>>
>>On Sat, Oct 10, 2015 at 10:35 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> It wasn't enough for me.  His main character is usually in crisis and
>>> depression, and on a quest, which is always a good start.  Lots of teasing
>>> ensues with little depth, and thus shallow resolution, IMHO.
>>>
>>> David Morris
>>>
>>>
>>> On Friday, October 9, 2015, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> His empathy on paper, empathy as a deep theme.....is worthy and unusual.
>>>>
>>>> Sent from my iPad
>>>>
>>>> On Oct 9, 2015, at 7:01 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> My main problem is the tangential throwaway metaphysics. They are either
>>>> silly and shallow or lead nowhere.  I've wondered if maybe it's due to my
>>>> lack of Japanese cultural background.  If so, his archetypes are extremely
>>>> parochial.  And the stories without them aren't compelling.
>>>>
>>>> David
>>>>
>>>> On Friday, October 9, 2015, David Kilroy <thesaintgodard at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> My main argument against the Chronicle is the cast.  I find them all very
>>>>> difficult to engage with, unlike most other Murakmi I've read.  I realize
>>>>> this is more to do with the culture, set & setting, than anything else.  I
>>>>> exist in a culture actively estranging itself so a story about coming to
>>>>> terms with alienation has to have some emotional texture, some rock in the
>>>>> stream with an irregular surface for me to cling to.
>>>>>
>>>>> Contrariwise, my favorite character in WUBC-- that is, the most clearly
>>>>> embedded in my memory --is Noboru Wataya.  It's his cipherlike nature as an
>>>>> antagonist.  He's a cloudy diamond, of the same water as Brock Vond or
>>>>> Windust.  Could be I'm just a sucker for ambivalent villainy.  Could be
>>>>> that's why I haven't absquatulated from Amerika already...
>>-
>>Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l