Final Thoughts

I always loved Murakami novels but never really knew why. I read Kafka on the Shore, 1Q84, Norwegian Wood, Sputnik Sweetheart, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Colorless Tsukuru, and a couple of his other famous works for fun. Now, I feel like I need to go re-read every book that we didn't finish in class. I missed so many details and probably read his books a little too casually in my spare time, since I didn't always unravel the complex layers of his stories. I always liked how Murakami's narrators were straightforward and no-nonsense, jumping straight into the story without questioning the leeches falling from the sky, disappearing cats and people. Although I was more or less aware of the magical realism in Murakami books, I never really gave much thought to his Japanese characters cooking spaghetti or the intertextuality of his works, or really anything that we talked about in this course.

The highlight of this class for me was definitely learning about Murakami in the context of translations. It never occurred to me that the works I was reading were translated. I enjoyed nit-picking at Jay Rubin's word choice, and learning about how difficult translating a text really is. Comparing Murakami's works in different languages, as well as getting to look through physical copies of his novels in their many different printed editions really changed how I read my favorite author's books.

When giving my mom a short synopsis of the course, I gave her the same example of falling snow we heard in the Tales of Genji translation talk. Japanese is a vertical language, English is horizontal. That structural difference alone, disregarding the two separate languages and their individual complexities, can change how people read and interpret the text. I also showed her how Murakami's books look completely different from country to country and edition to edition. This class really shed light on the translation process, as well as how Murakami was influenced by other famous writers. Reading those stories in the context of Murakami made me realize that I'd been more or less reading his books with my eyes closed!

Finally, thanks Professor for bringing us delicious food and heaps of Murakami books to look at. Getting the chance to look through many editions of his works, especially the ones with illustrations, was a bonus that I didn't expect from this class.