Haruki Murakami

[nagasawa]

Well, a lot of news from the Murakami front and most of it's coming out of Ann Arbor.

Monday night I attended a lecture/discussion in Ann Arbor on Murakami's works by Matthew Strecher. He's the author of a readers guide to Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and an indepth study of Murakami's work published by U of M press. Curiously, the blurb stated that "Mr. Strecher is the foremost expert on the works of Murakami Haruki". Well, that's debatable as there are a host of studies done in Japanese by Japanese authors and critics, but Strecher does have a more indepth psychologically probing work that deconstructs each work individually.

The discussion had a somewhat disappointing turnout of maybe 50 people (where were the droves of Murakami fans?!), and was attended mostly by aging pensioners who were members of the Ann Arbor library book club. They were reading The Elephant Vanishes stories and most of the discussion centered around the stories in that collection. While Mr. Strecher is a tad bit stiff (they were filming the lecture and he kind of wilted in front of the camera), he did dig into some important hallmarks of Murakami's work, most importantly the role of the unconcious or "other" in his fiction. It was pretty fascinating to speak to someone pointedly who's an acquaintance of the man himself and a good opportunity to get my books signed. He even agreed to a photograph opportunity. He was a pretty affable guy and we chatted a while, even though the library was closing.

Also of note is the staging of three Murakami short stories from The Elephant Vanishes by Complicite with Setagaya Public Theatre, directed by Simon McBurney. They are staging the stories Sleep, The Elephant Vanishes and The Second Bakery Attack. It opened Wednesday night but I could only score tickets for tonight and tomorrow so more details to follow on this.

Lastly, I finally finished Kafka on the Shore. This is by far Murakami's most dense, complex narrative with no less than four simultaneaous narratives, each changing from chapter to chapter somewhat reminiscent of Hard-Boiled Wonderland. It was a whirlwind of a read and my head is still swimming from trying to grasp what exactly happened. I plan on rereading it next week

[t3h1337p3nguin]

You...you're obsessed!

I'm currently reading Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk, but I have The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle next in my to-read file.

[randall fairbrook]

i hope the elephant vanishes plays comes here soon.......



i adored the months i spent reading all of murakami's stuff......99% wonderful.......

[panda phocker]

yeah yeah

and now all he needs is the nobel yadda yadda

[randall fairbrook]

go suck off chang rae lee

[panda phocker]

i resent that

[randall fairbrook]

Originally posted by panda phocker
yeah yeah

and now all he needs is the nobel yadda yadda

i resent this

[randall fairbrook]

in your mouth

[randall fairbrook]

then spit

[nagasawa]

Well, comments on the production last night? It's kind of difficult to explain: multimedia for sure, but it's equal blend of ballet/physical theatre/monolugue/multimedia. It begins without you knowing it, one of the actresses coming on stage and announcing they're having technical difficulties and please bear with us, then she starts speaking about the stage lighting intensity, then electricity, then the Tokyo powergrid, then relativity, next thing you know the lights go out and...

The Elephant Vanishes monologue starts with the narrator and his "kit-chin" appliance speech. The stage props are in constant flux and I'm still amazed at the sheer physical rhythm, sychronizing of the actors, chairs, sliding doors, etc. There was an amazing segment when five actors combined to imitate the walking elephant (this is a very difficult segment to explain but very inventive). Every surface was utilized for the video projections, people's bodies, heads, the refrigerator (inside & out).

I have to say that the Second Bakery Attack (one of my all time fave stories) was my favorite part of the evening. The narrator does some high-wire work kind of floating above the production and interjecting comments.

Sleep was at times frightening with some beautifully coreographed segments involving four/five different actors all dressed exactly alike. Some stunning video camera work, too.

I wish I could go into more details, but I've got to do some crunching here at work, then I leave to see it again tonight. I strongly urge everyone to see this production. I don't know if they've announced any other North American dates other than Ann Arbor. Fascinating stuff!

[tangent23]

heelo all...

coming late to the party [as usual]

i've only recently read murakami in the last month, starting with Dance Dance Dance, and finishing Wind-Up Bird Chronicles not just 15 minutes ago. thinking that i would wean myself off reading too much scifi, i discover a writer that that likes to hang out in the same strange dreamworlds of everyday life as PKD...

anyway, i'm glad i found him, and partly thanks to you people too [though i was given DDD as a present].

my question:
although i've only read two of his books, there seem to be recurring themes [eg the strange hotel rooms, alternate worlds which influence each other, though not in normal linear ways].

does this continue through his other works? i will definitely read more of his stories, just curious as to whether his central themes point to his underlying experiences, or whether these are mostly literary devices.

i'm prompted to ask as the similarities in both books i read feel kind of similar to when reading some of philip k dick's later works, when he [pkd] explores certain strange things that happened in his life that he could not explain through the course of several books, often returning to the same motifs and situations paralleling real events in his life.

this post isn't designed as a serious questioning, just curious.

[lakebottom]

read Norwegian Wood.

[ja.net]

Yes, it does continue throughout other works and I think that it's more of a recurrent obsession (not quite the right word -- motif?) than a device. I agree with nagasawa's comment, and would add that I think it is a technique he uses in a very disciplined way to point toward things about which it's difficult to speak directly, and to convey their potency.

[ja.net]

The more I read of his stuff the more interesting and thoughtful I find it.

[yamchild]

anybody read his latest yet? i bought a chinese translation of it, but at the rate i'm going, it may be like half an year before i get to it.... -_-;