Blog 6 Final Thoughts

It's not usual that I get to take a class on a more contemporary writer, which automatically made the class interesting from the beginning. I took this class because I've read some of his novels but got the sense that I wasn't getting the full value in his works. I wanted to know more about what's going on in Murakami's mind.

After taking this class, I realized that there are many ways to read/analyze his stories. For instance, it's interesting to see that there is a pattern of women being unable to speak, or that men often have trouble communicating with the women. For my second paper, I wrote about the taxi scene in the opening chapter of 1Q84. I read the text once, purely for enjoyment. This time around, even though I only read the opening scene, I felt that I was able to appreciate the story on a much deeper level. Who knew that the music playing in the taxi would align with Aomame's feelings, or foreshadow her long journey? I think the biggest thing I got out of this class was that Murakami had created a story where you could either enjoy the story on a surface level, or really dig as deep as you want and discover some more possible meaning behind his words.

Also, the second time around reading Norwegian Wood made me appreciate the novel even more. I really loved how Murakami wrote the scene of Hatsumi's death; the flashback made for such a wonderful way to tell her story. Murakami is not scared to talk about death; he talks about the things that are often not talked about. There is a pattern of young people committing suicides due to their inability to live in a world where their innocence no longer shields them.

Lastly, taking this class as an elective for my English minor, made me become really interested in Japanese culture. After trying out Japanese food, seeing the slideshow of photos in Japan and simply learning more about the culture in class, I now really want like to visit Japan one day! Perhaps, I'll also run into Murakami.

Final Thoughts

Before this course, I had only read a few pages of 1Q84 and didn't really know what kind of author Haruki Murakami is; however, through reading his various works I've been thoroughly surprised, engaged and informed on why Murakami is such a renown author. I initially approached Murakami with a realistic lens but in turn, I was surprised to find mystical elements combined with a deeper metaphorical narrative. It was interesting to see the various sources Murakami was influenced by and makes me wonder how much of literature itself is interconnected.
I found myself quite engaged since much of Murakami's work takes you on an unexpected journey. I especially enjoyed The Strange Library and found the surrealism captivating--seemingly streams of imagination representing truths about life. It also made me wonder how much of Murakami's own personal life struggles were placed in these works, does Boku reflect an aspect of Murakami? Also, the references to politics and Japanese history seem to suggest that Murakami is using literature as a platform for social commentary. The references to specific music and right-wing figures are all intricately laced into a magical story--I don't think I would have noticed it if we didn't go over it in class! Through studying Murakami as an author that is influenced by various works, I've gained a greater appreciation towards his literature and a greater interest towards foreign writers as well.

Charmaine - Final Thoughts

Before this semester, I had always seen Murakami's writing as magical realism, and hadn't questioned this author-to-genre association. In this past semester, as I continued to read more Murakami as well as compare his work to those of other authors, whether he drew inspiration from their writing or not, I found myself questioning whether it really was as cut-and-dry as that. There were so many sides to his writing that it was hard to pinpoint whether one could simply associate him with just one writing genre. And delving into the books even more had allowed me to enjoy Murakami's work at a deeper level, better understanding so many aspects to each individual novel as well as his writing as a whole.

However, in the end, I still believe that Murakami's writing is mostly magical realism, with hints of other genres here and there. 

In my final paper, I focused on Murakami as a magical realist, and how his writing portrays his own, original form of the genre. Drawing examples from two of my favorite Murakami novels, A Wild  Sheep Chase and Kafka on the Shore, I tried to elaborate on the points in which I thought made his writing specifically magical realism. In this way, I also found myself learning new things from each novel. During the process of writing my final essay, I was inspired to go back and re-read the Murakami novels I've already read before, as well as continue reading more of Murakami's works, so that I can further develop my understanding of his writing that I've enjoyed so much of since I was first introduced to his novels.

Ty - Final Thoughts

For my final paper I decided to look at the connection between Norwegian Wood and The Great Gatsby in more detail.  In class we were only able to bring up a vague memory of what Gatsby was like, but after rereading most of the book it quickly became clear to me how much these novels are connected.  Toru mentions The Great Gatsby  multiple times throughout the novel and the reasons behind it were made much clearer to me after I reread some of the scenes.  The argument in the hotel between Tom and Gatsby stood out to me as very similar to Nagasawa and Hatsumi's argument at the restaurant.  The topic of this argument, the fact that those not closely involved were not allowed to leave, and that the characters were stuck in a car with one of the arguing people afterwards all stood out to me.  I'm glad I was able to look at The Great Gatsby again since the first time I read it I did not pick up on as many themes and key lines as I did this time.  Comparing authors and how they influenced other people was a really interesting part of the course and I'm glad that we did it.  I had never compared how works influenced each other in a class so it was a new experience.  I'm glad I took the class.

Leyla's Final Post

All semester I’ve been thinking about the connection between Murakami’s writing and contemporary art. We examined this somewhat in our discussion of postmodernism, but couldn’t entirely assign that label to Murakami’s style. In art, we have currently moved even beyond postmodernism, and I think Murakami is even more at home here in this post-post mishmash of ideologies. Here’s what I’ve been able to distill: Murakami’s work reminds me of current art in its fluid subjectivity, its denial of meaning but paradoxically inherent poignance, and the unobvious way in which that meaning is conveyed or withheld. There is also a certain transparency of material, which has been a theme in art movements since impressionism. We are made aware of the fact that this is writing, maybe even writing for writing’s sake, the same way that impressionism embraces the physicality of paint. The viewer is not presented with the closest imitation of the reality of an object, but a painting of an object. In Murakami, cadence, word choice, incongruous subject matter chosen for the pleasure of its depiction, these seem to be on equal footing with content or message. 

Murakami’s work, just like so much art today, abhors didacticism. It’s meaning is elusive and possessed of many multivalent interpretations. It occupies a space between mundane reality and the realm of magic, psychology and imagination. And Murakami himself seems to subscribe to that opinion that art is best left unexplained and thus untainted by its author, owing a much greater portion of its creation to the constructions of its audience. 

On Murakami Adaptations

After having watched snippets of a few Murakami stories that have been adapted for the screen,  I've found myself wondering what the key to a successful adaptation of his style is, and whether it's a style that can really translate to the screen. I'm a huge film lover and I try and resist the notion that adaptations are always inferior, or that there are stories that are supposedly "un-filmable", but even I have to admit that the flighty, aloof surrealism of Murakami seems to be the most magical on the page rather than on the screen. The adaptation of All God's Children Can Dance is a prime example of this; what feels magical and downright cool on the page ends up feeling plodding and pointless on the screen. It just feels like any one of the many dime dozen directionless indies that one can watch, entirely lacking that special Murakami pizzazz.

The film version of Tony Takitani, however, is a much more interesting, far more watchable adaptation of Murakami's work than All God's Children. There's something about Tony Takitani that just works. Maybe it's the stylish shot compositions, the camera moves that glide from left to right, scene to scene. Or maybe its the way characters will complete the narrator's next thought via dialogue, or the confident pace the story allows itself to unfold, or some other hard to define aspect. Just like the source author's style, maybe it's that hard to define aspect of the Tony Takitani film that makes it a success.

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.