/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.17389997]

I read Norwegian Wood and I wasn't particularly impressed. I'd heard a lot about Murakami, from this board and from friends, but what I got was frustratingly average. The language wasn't exciting and the insights didn't strike deeply. It felt like I was reading the very good novel of a high-school student because the sentiments (and perhaps the tone of the translation) felt a bit platitudinous. Overall it was surprisingly middle-of-the-road. I'm actually pretty disappointed considering the literary hype; I was expecting something more original. (For example, it didn't hold a candle to Catcher in the Rye, which treads a similar theme. Catcher in the Rye had a violence and viscerality to it, an originality of image and sentiment, as in things had a real life to them in the book. In Norwegian Wood, it felt as the characters and situations were contrived (like the stupid dinner with the rich guy and his girlfriend), not entirely original, washed out, except perhaps Reiko.)

My question is, why should I read Murakami? What am I going to get from a different work of his? Why is he mentioned so often?

[Anonymous No.17390001]

japanese lit if entry-core
chances are you were already past that phase

[Anonymous No.17390020]

It’s a book for teenagers. So is everything Murakami ever wrote

[Anonymous No.17390055]

Why are the fools on here always referencing him? I just wasted four nights on this shlock. I'm genuinely confused.

[Anonymous No.17390071]

>>17390055
>Why are the fools on here always referencing him?
Edgy incel highschoolers

[Anonymous No.17390081]

>>17389997
Any Japanese lit with decent prose? Read some Murakami and Mishima last year and the language of both felt similarly flat. Hard to tell if this is specific to them or a characteristic of Japanese-to-English translations. Haven't read very much Japanese lit obviously, was thinking of checking out Kokoro or No Longer Human

[Anonymous No.17390090]

>>17390055
it's a website founded by weeaboos. everything japanese gets bonus marks by default

[Anonymous No.17390099]

>>17390081
no longer human is more of what you describe. I really think it's an issue of translation, or the japanese just have different sensibilities. don't forget this is the country that invented haiku.

[Anonymous No.17390180]

>>17389997
Isn't it good?

[Anonymous No.17390206]

>>17389997
You should read more Murakami because Norwegian Wood is a deliberate departure from the style he built his whole oeuvre off of. It's very different from anything else he's written.
I recommend Wind-Up Bird Chronicle to get a good idea of whether you like him or not.

[Anonymous No.17390208]

I listened to some Haruki Murakami book while grinding in WoW, it was entertaining and quirky but very intensely plebeian.

[Anonymous No.17390212]

>>17390081

[Anonymous No.17390302]

>>17389997
norwegian wood is his worst 'must read'. It was his attempt at writing in a realistic style and he was shocked and confused at its' success.

i would have started with Wind-Up Bird. it loses something in the translation and there's no unabridged english version, but the surrealism comes through and its much more interesting than norwegian wood.

[Anonymous No.17390535]

His short stories are better.

[Anonymous No.17390595]

Thus far I only read Murakami's intro into Akutagawa's shorts by Penguin and he sounds like a terrible autofellator.

[Frater Asemlen !XS8vrClKs2 No.17390674]

>>17390081
I really enjoyed Kawabata, he has a really nice slow burn and juxtaposition fixation, at his best he’s like reading somber poetry

[Anonymous No.17390701]

>>17389997
it went over your head no worries

[Anonymous No.17390707]

>>17390701
>t. 14

[Anonymous No.17390739]

Read a wild sheep chase and the rat trilogy, that's really great

[Anonymous No.17390887]

>>17389997
You have to have had experienced young love to get the full effect, OP.

[Anonymous No.17391650]

>>17389997

“Norwegian Wood” is one of his more “realistic” novels so it doesn’t do what he’s best at—quiet weirdness, a confused but unflappable narrator, and a melancholy noirishness.

Read “Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World” for a more fun, weird experience and/or “Windup Bird Chronicle.” If you liked those there are lots more that feel like them. He tends to be ... consistent.

[Anonymous No.17391751]

>>17389997
why do women like him so much

[Anonymous No.17391808]

>>17390206
Almost this exact advice is given every time an anon males a post like OPs, just change the title to suit and hit post. It gives a weird cult like feeling to Murikami fans. Does not matter what book was read, it is always the exception and you just nees to read more. Just keep readin and you will know the love of Murikami. If that does not work some shows up at you door and next thing you know you are locked in a closet listening to people read Murikami 24/7, not being allowed to eat or sleep.

[Anonymous No.17391817]

>>17391751
I doubt women enjoy Kafka or Wind Up Bird. Every time I have seen women discuss Murakami it's mostly Norwegian Wood

[Anonymous No.17391846]

>>17390212
You're probably the only person shilling Kusamakura on this board and I honestly don't know what you found so interesting about it to rec it above Kokoro, And Then or The Gate. Maybe it's the fact I read the older translation, but it didn't strike me in any particular way.

[Anonymous No.17391863]

>>17389997
>Why should I read Murakami
You shouldn't, it's not worth it. I felt the exact same way after reading NW. Murakami is a moderately talented coomer who has to namedrop an album in every other paragraph to make up for a lack of substance and character in his prose

[Anonymous No.17391921]

>>17391808
just say you've never read him. norwegian wood is completely different from his other work and reads like a shitty ya novel. it's not representative of his other work at all.

[Anonymous No.17391925]

>>17391863
>lack of substance and character in his prose
>reading the translation

[Anonymous No.17391964]

>people actually defending Murakami
Yikes.
Hope this isn't a new trend like the Bukowski autist.

[Anonymous No.17392057]

>>17391921
>misses the point
I started with hardboiled, after reading it and not caring for it i came here and was told pretty much the exact same thing as OP by about 5 anons each making different recommendations and of the few dozen replies total not a single one answered any of my questions, even of simple things like what they likes about it and what made it good for them. After that I read 1Q84 thinking perhaps he would develop the characters and store more in a longer work, nope, pretty much the same thing just with a shitload more useless details added in. Make a thread here, pretty much the same thing again, not a single answer to my questions, more talk of it being the exception and more reccomendations.

[Anonymous No.17392076]

I enjoy Murakami because a lot of his western influences are authors I really like. I don't particularly like NW though and quite a lot of his novels are completely forgettable.

[Anonymous No.17392235]

>>17389997
I didn't particularly like Norwegian Wood either, it is quite boring.
Sputnik Sweetheart, Kafka on the shore, 1Q84, and After Dark are all much better.

[Anonymous No.17392695]

>>17389997
Murakami's works are just /comfy/

[Anonymous No.17392705]

>>17390887
based and true. if you had a close friend kill themselves, had unfufilled love, reasonable success in college with girls but still feel empty in your 20s you can relate to this book.
You can relate to this book when you feel for the other characters beside Toru as well.
If you feel talented but apthetic you can relate to Nagasawa, if you feel like escaping society and just everything--if you have anxiety you can relate to Reiko, if you went to college-highschool you can relate to seeing people like Stormtrooper, to the mechanics described. And so on.
They're rather accurate in a metaphorical sense, asian fiction is always mind over matte in that regard--some things just happen because of metaphor while other things are just there because they're beautiful. Wester publishers, editors, writers; would not publish, cut, and not write that.

I actually didn't enjoy other Murakami books as much, but Norwegian wood was there for me at the right time and the right place after I was reflecting on my last 6-7 years.

[Anonymous No.17392715]

>>17390055
It depends what you want. I like to read him as an in between of more serious works.