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I've heard mixed things about Murakami but knowing that the translators mucked about with his books makes me wonder if that isn't casting him in a more negative light than he deserves.
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Aug 11, 2021 07:21
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Heath posted:I've heard mixed things about Murakami but knowing that the translators mucked about with his books makes me wonder if that isn't casting him in a more negative light than he deserves. no he definitely sucks
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Aug 11, 2021 08:43
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Heath posted:I've heard mixed things about Murakami but knowing that the translators mucked about with his books makes me wonder if that isn't casting him in a more negative light than he deserves.
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Aug 11, 2021 09:45
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murakami has a boner throughout the entire writing process probably
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Aug 11, 2021 10:47
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Generally speaking it is safe to assume all of that is at the publisher's behest.
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Aug 11, 2021 11:57
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In Murakami's case, though, English publishers' prudish interference is probably for the best
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Aug 11, 2021 12:00
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Also, no translator is out to "gently caress with a story"
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Aug 11, 2021 12:04
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And yet if someone translates Ivan Ivanich's exclamations while he swims in Chekhov's Gooseberries as anything but "By God!" they have inadvertently ruined that story
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Aug 11, 2021 14:18
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Heath posted:
I haven't read that book or read about any of the 'mucking about', but I'd bet a dollar that any changes were in order to reduce the amount of sex the protagonist has with teenagers.
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Aug 11, 2021 15:04
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Lex Neville posted:In Murakami's case, though, English publishers' prudish interference is probably for the best Here is an overview of the cut content.
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Aug 11, 2021 16:48
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I was referencing Dance Dance Dance, in which the main character getting an underage girl drunk is cut from the English translation (along with about a quarter of the total work, apparently)
Lex Neville fucked around with this message at 17:54 on Aug 11, 2021 |
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Aug 11, 2021 17:51
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I'll just continue not reading Murakami then What accounts for his popularity, then, especially among young women? I know almost nothing about him except that his books are a frequent prop in Instagram photos
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Aug 11, 2021 18:21
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Heath posted:I'll just continue not reading Murakami then it's just there along with "the subtle art of not giving a gently caress" and stuff like that. his books are a visual metaphor for being vaguely literary, and they read like perverted wes anderson movies with "quirky characters" and there's a big audience for that kind of stuff
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Aug 11, 2021 18:43
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What are thoughts on Murakami's "After Dark"? I still haven't read anything by him besides some parts from Running, and I'm curious how many of his tics everyone hates are in that one. My girlfriend gave me a copy, and it's short, so I figured I could give it a try even though this thread's wrecked any objectivity I could have towards him.
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Aug 11, 2021 18:50
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Please hate something better and more interesting, people
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Aug 11, 2021 19:06
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Tbh I'm just going through my usual spiel of sticking up for translators, I have little to no opinion re:Murakami
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Aug 11, 2021 19:09
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I've been reading a lot of Japanese authors lately (mainly Mishima, Tanizaki, Oe, and some assorted excerpts from Donald Keene's Modern Japanese Literature, which I recommend as a good primer, in addition to a couple of nonfiction things) and basically everyone who sees me reading them goes to Murakami as That Japanese Author Everybody Knows who I should pick up next. But nobody seems to be able to give a specific reason as to why he's worth reading except that his books are popular and almost always get described as "dreamy" or "dreamlike," whatever that means. I'm curious about him because he clearly has some kind of cache with a general American audience that other Japanese authors don't seem to have broken through, but like was said above that appears to be accounted for simply by a combination of social media saturation and the fact that the stuff he writes holds the kind of quirky appeal that resonates with the sort of audience that would pose a dog-eared copy of WUBC next to a napkin with a semicircular coffee stain. From what you guys are describing it sounds more like the books are fantasy (in the non-genre sense) romps with manic pixie dream teens. And I guess jazz records are a constant theme too.
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Aug 11, 2021 19:22
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it's because people tend to think he is high minded literature for some reason and then come and post in the literature thread about him. otherwise i never think of his books.
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Aug 11, 2021 19:23
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Heath posted:I've been reading a lot of Japanese authors lately (mainly Mishima, Tanizaki, Oe, and some assorted excerpts from Donald Keene's Modern Japanese Literature, which I recommend as a good primer, in addition to a couple of nonfiction things) and basically everyone who sees me reading them goes to Murakami as That Japanese Author Everybody Knows who I should pick up next. i have seen this too and it's so hilarious to me 'ohh I see you are reading faulkner! you should read brandon sanderson next!'
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Aug 11, 2021 19:26
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derp posted:it's because people tend to think he is high minded literature for some reason and then come and post in the literature thread about him. otherwise i never think of his books. That seems to be it. In other news, Oe is good Before the Coffee Gets Cold seems to be the other new Japanese up-and-comer in the bookstagram photosphere prop world lately, but I don't know if that's actually any good
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Aug 11, 2021 19:27
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Heath posted:I've been reading a lot of Japanese authors lately (mainly Mishima, Tanizaki, Oe, and some assorted excerpts from Donald Keene's Modern Japanese Literature, which I recommend as a good primer, in addition to a couple of nonfiction things) and basically everyone who sees me reading them goes to Murakami as That Japanese Author Everybody Knows who I should pick up next. But nobody seems to be able to give a specific reason as to why he's worth reading except that his books are popular and almost always get described as "dreamy" or "dreamlike," whatever that means. I'm curious about him because he clearly has some kind of cache with a general American audience that other Japanese authors don't seem to have broken through, but like was said above that appears to be accounted for simply by a combination of social media saturation and the fact that the stuff he writes holds the kind of quirky appeal that resonates with the sort of audience that would pose a dog-eared copy of WUBC next to a napkin with a semicircular coffee stain. From what you guys are describing it sounds more like the books are fantasy (in the non-genre sense) romps with manic pixie dream teens. And I guess jazz records are a constant theme too. I feel like it's a mix of several things. The John Gall cover art most of them had for years, which were often prominent in book stores. His popularity with other writers that talked about him in interviews (that's how I heard about him originally). His inclusion on 1001 Books To Read Before You Die. And also, I guess the quirkiness of the stories mixed with the rather simple, straightforward prose his translations have. Maybe his popularity on GoodReads has fueled it too? He's one of those authors whom a lot of my friends own copies of his novels, but haven't actually read any of them. 1Q84 was everywhere, at a time, but I still don't know anyone who ever read it.
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Aug 11, 2021 19:31
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Franchescanado posted:
i read it. it was very long and repetitive and not very good. in fact i quote it every time anyone brings up murakami: derp posted:She thought of Ayumi Nakano, the lonely policewoman who, one August night, wound up in a hotel room in Shibuya, handcuffed, strangled with a bathrobe belt. A troubled young woman walking toward the abyss of destruction. She had had beautiful breasts as well. Aomame mourned the deaths of these two friends deeply. It saddened her to think that these women were forever gone from the world. And she mourned their lovely breasts—breasts that had vanished without a trace.
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Aug 11, 2021 19:34
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I had to read that a couple times to determine whether "the loss of these two friends" referred to the women or their boobs
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Aug 11, 2021 19:37
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Why is it OK for Pushkin to write about feet but not for this guy to write about breasts
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Aug 11, 2021 19:41
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There are so many other books that were not written by Haruki Murakami, i'm begging you Semi-related though, and to contribute, I'm over halfway through 100 Years of Solitude and loving it a lot. It's incredibly well put together and written, and my exposure to magical realism has always been in modern stuff that's way too twee and cutesy, so it's cool to see it done properly. Run, don't walk, to a book that anybody reading this thread should have already read by this point.
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Aug 11, 2021 19:45
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Murakami’s non-fic is pretty good though. The running book is decent if you’re into that, and the one about the sarin attack is harrowing. He really conveys the trauma of the survivors in a believable and touching way.
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Aug 11, 2021 19:48
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been meaning to read that for years and just never have somehow, i loved 'love in the time of cholera' though. currently reading ghosts by aira, i like it, not sure if i love it yet. it's made me laugh a few times already though.
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Aug 11, 2021 19:48
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I do think the Murakami hate on these forums is overblown. The perverted stuff is a pretty small part of his work, and his books basically being quirky Wes Anderson movies in prose form is actually pretty cool. Wes Anderson is good! I've enjoyed all the Murakami I've read, except the third book of 1Q84, which was garbage. I mean that breasts quote is weird, but it's also a single paragraph in a massive 1000-page trilogy. It's not like people are constantly monologuing about weird sex. Muarakami is overrated, not terrible.
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Aug 11, 2021 19:49
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I really liked Kokoro by Soseki. Its language (or at least the translation) was really simple, but there's a huge depth to the yearning implied over its 200 or so pages. I can think of some novels where they give me flashes of images and ideas in memory, Kokoro really brings up the idea of a feeling. As for 100 Years of Solitude. I couldn't handle the expansiveness of it. The breadth of meaning reduced to a few people in a family. It just screams at you how this is all important, the entirety of everything, an entire, nigh-on mythology, but I couldn't take in an entire history in however many pages, despite trying. I was talking to a guy who said he loved it for "the images" that stand out. I'm not too sure that's its point. The images actually mean something, even if their meaning can never be identified, and there's just so many of them it's overpowering. And this is entirely my failing for what is a superb book.
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Aug 11, 2021 19:56
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I'm reading Min Kamp 2 by good old Karl Ove Knausgård. I like it. And to an American, his life in Sweden is effective as a fantasy story as well.
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Aug 11, 2021 19:59
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derp posted:been meaning to read that for years and just never have somehow, i loved 'love in the time of cholera' though. It's an amazing, sprawling experience. I keep meaning to read Cholera. I dunno if I've read a book as intricate and expansive as 100 Years, and I already feel like rereading it, only three years later.
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Aug 11, 2021 20:00
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Franchescanado posted:It's an amazing, sprawling experience. I keep meaning to read Cholera. I dunno if I've read a book as intricate and expansive as 100 Years, and I already feel like rereading it, only three years later. I thought Cholera was really, really good, and want to read 100 Years, but unfortunately my library doesn't currently offer it as an ebook.
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Aug 11, 2021 20:24
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SimonChris posted:I do think the Murakami hate on these forums is overblown.
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Aug 12, 2021 02:39
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I mean, if you think they're good I would like to hear more about why since the general opinion around here seems to be the opposite
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Aug 12, 2021 02:59
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I'll stand up and say I found Hard-Boiled really wonderful and I would recommend that in a heartbeat, but Murakami is so trope heavy and boring otherwise. He gets hate because his popularity:quality ratio is so disproportionate and his esteem amongst amongst self-proclaimed "book fans" is so high. Though... considering how much YA mindset has become epidemic amongst that set I suppose I shouldn't complain so much.
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Aug 12, 2021 03:45
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Ras Het posted:Please hate something better and more interesting, people
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Aug 12, 2021 06:08
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reading les années by annie ernaux atm and it's very good nostalgia fare even to someone who didn't grow up in post-war france. its structure is a little hackneyed but it's an enjoyable read all the same. i thought it was extremely funny that she ended up getting pregnant immediately before the contraceptive pill became legal in france, for instance
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Aug 12, 2021 09:35
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im reading against nature by huysmans again. id forgotten how much i like this novel
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Aug 12, 2021 11:18
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Franchescanado posted:It's an amazing, sprawling experience. I keep meaning to read Cholera. I dunno if I've read a book as intricate and expansive as 100 Years, and I already feel like rereading it, only three years later. I loved both when I read them some years back. If I remember correctly, Love in the Time of Cholera is more tightly focused and less sprawling and intricate than 100 Years of Solitude, but it has been a while.
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Aug 12, 2021 18:12
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Cholera treads water for half of its length and we hear too much of the gross weird guy who didn't die. 100 Years is one hundred times the book it is
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Aug 12, 2021 18:38
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