Murakami: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman - Invitation to view

[Mark Thibodeau]

Hold on... I realize now that I may have made a terrible, terrible
mistake...

Oh, Christ... I have.

Michiko Kakutani. Hakuri Murakami.

I'm an idiot, and have been one for years on this point... dismissing
Murakami every time I heard his name because of that one shitty Pynchon
review.

I think I may need to revise my life goals and sense of self.

Sincerely,
yer old pal Jerky

On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 11:12 PM, Mark Thibodeau <jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com>
wrote:

> My dismissal of M. stems purely from what I take to be his misread of P. I
> haven't read his fiction, only his criticism. That's enough for me to
> dismiss him as a Flavor of the Month, especially considering the size (and
> quality) of my current TO READ pile.
>
> St. Jerky of Dismissal
>
> On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 10:12 PM, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 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/?listpynchon-l
>>
>
>
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