/lit/ - Literature

>>14625151
He belogs in the reddit crowd.

i liked his long distance running memoir better than any of his novels

I finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle this month and it's a good book until the last 90 pages or so. Two characters are there as a tool for the protagonist do something, the second letter from the lieutenant talking about the gulag is unnecessary and the last chapter is ridiculous.
I do not regret reading it because I really loved the people Okada meet and the whole anime thing of living in a suburb in Tokyo and doing normal stuff, but I won't read another book from the worst Murakami after this.

>>14625151
His novels are good but eventually he just writers the same novel over and over again. Which is fine but it does get stale. Used to be my favorite author.

>>14625151
really enjoyed this when i was 16, borrowed it from a friend, first time i'd ever heard of "hegelian dialectics"

The plot was interesting enough for me to keep reading (primarily the nakata side), however the Kafka side was cringy and the ending sucked.

>>14625788
I'm feeling the same way atm. personally, Kafka has just come off as a mary sue so far. I pretty much race through his chapters to get to the Nakata stuff. Tho I do like Crow.

>>14625151
Wild sheep chase:8/10
Dance dance dance: 7/10
Kafka: 8/10
Wind up bird: 9/10

>>14625151
Murakami's good, /lit/ only hates him because he's popular and accessible

>>14625151
only thing I've read by him is Kafka on the Shore, but I liked it. I still have no fucking clue what was going on with the entrance stone and his dad though (couldn't tell if the thing with him and Crow was metaphor or not)

>>14625683
Which of his novels are the best?

>>14625788
kafka is literally me though unironically

>>14626537
In no particular order
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Sputnik Sweetheart
A Wild Sheep Chase
South of the Border, West of the Sun

>>14625151
>If you think God’s there, He is. If you don’t, He isn’t. And if that’s what God’s like, I wouldn’t worry about it.

>If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.

>Taking crazy things seriously is a serious waste of time.

>Narrow minds devoid of imagination. Intolerance, theories cut off from reality, empty terminology, usurped ideals, inflexible systems. Those are the things that really frighten me. What I absolutely fear and loathe.

>In ancient times people weren't just male or female, but one of three types: male/male, male/female, or female/female. In other words, each person was made out of the components of two people. Everyone was happy with this arrangement and never really gave it much thought. But then God took a knife and cut everybody in half, right down the middle. So after that the world was divided just into male and female, the upshot being that people spend their time running around trying to locate their missing other half.

- Haruki Onionscummy.

>>14626954
>male/male, male/female, or female/female
That's just Aristophanes you midwit.

>>14626954
lol at reading murakami translations

>>14626959
lol at reading murakami

>>14626959
If you absolutely insist on reading his garbage, read it through a computer screen, never subvocalize and run the text through a couple of machine translations so that the original pernicious influence is dealt with.

>>14625695
>mentions and namedrops "hegelian dialectic"
>does not have cute anime girls to offset the effect
His writing belongs solely on >>>/r/eddit/.

>>14625157
>>14626954
>>14626963
>>14626983
Based.

>>14626969
:/

I like his writing style, but I just straight up didn't understand what the point of the novel was.

>>14627124
the major point in my opinion is that you will never know the answers to everything and that you just have to deal with it

Aesthetic and comfy, but his novels are all the same, basically.

>>14625151
I like it because it made me get into music. Also I liked the librarian.

>>14627638
>music
was retroactively refuted by Guénon (pbuh).

>Concerning non-vocal music, by which I mean one involving any use of pitched musical instruments, it is humbly and with all deference my opinion that all such activities should be abandoned in favour of purely vocal chants handed down through the oral tradition. It is more than likely that if a free reign of music was permitted in a society displaying even a slight state of decadence, there would remain very few musicians who display a true understanding of the traditional order and the purpose of music within it, which is a role purely subordinate to that of the traditional institutions; instead, as in the case of Europe, we might face ourselves with certain groups infiltrating the musical tradition and subverting it from within. Certainly, the historical record would bear this out. The events of the past few decades with the emergence of the most vile and repulsive 'composers' such as Erik Satie and Erwin Schulhoff offer the perfect example.
- from the Guénonian-Evolan correspondence.

>>14627863
Don't lîsten to mutants.

>>14625151
I really liked Murakami but after a few books realized he was just a Stephen King of Japanese creepy books

>>14625151
My gf bought it for me, trying to get into it but the first chapter felt so YA it is difficult to continue...

>>14625151
more like Murakoomer

>>14625151
A shallow writer. Read one good book in your life.

>>14625151
Comfy books with basically the same stoic character, structure, and common tropes among all his books. I can't even tell one book apart from another anymore. They are bizarre, some would call "dreamy" if they are being kind. Mostly void of any deep meaning. Just fun bullshit.

>>14627863
>repulsive 'composers' such as Erik Satie
How can you not like Satie? Fucking retard.

All I’ve read by him is Norwegian Wood and I enjoyed it enough to finish it in a few days. Recently purchased Windup Bird Chronicles, I’m hoping it will be just as good.

I've read a good chunk of his stuff and I've liked it all. Some less than others, but I think a lot of it is at least good, if not great. Haven't read his most recent stuff though

>>14629042
t.
anyone actually discussing muracummies on /lit/ is embarrassing themselves

>>14625824
>the Nakata stuff

Man alive.

>>14626956
>That's just Aristophanes

No, that's Plato making fun of Aristophanes.

>>14628041
holy shit are you me? wtf

I dropped the book when Kafka got a handjob from some random girl after he reveals he woke up covered in someone else's blood, after he reveals he's a 15 year old, and after the girl talks about how she won't have sex with him because she has a steady boyfriend. This book is extremely cringe-y. It feels like its written by some fucking nerd who says shit like "Kafka is literally me."

Japanese can't into art.

>>14627863
Wow what an ugly prose

>>14630785
>the social justice feminists in the library scene
>ridiculous, laughable sex descriptions on the verge of being gratuitous
>kafka listening to radiohead out of nowhere
>old guy talks to cats
>only thing his friend could say is "man alive"

>>14628026
>realized he was just a Stephen King of Japanese creepy books

Imagine being this wrong

>>14630785
>I dropped the book when Kafka got a handjob from some random girl
Wow! That is like.... So cool and Realistic! It says something about Life!

>>14628939
He needs a good editor.

Fucking terrible. I hate Murakami with a passion, and I don't understand why he's so popular. I read most of Norwegian Wood but I couldn't bring myself to finish it. Ridiculously childish, faux-deep gratuitous, somewhat sexist/male gaze-y. Just fucking annoying really. Basically slightly edgier YA.

>>14630785
>>14631005
I wonder what goes through his mind when he is writing these epic reddit sex scenes?

>>14626537
My favorite was Kafka on the Shore. But honestly, they all feel so similar to me. Colorless Tsukuru and His Years of Pilgrimage I think is one of his more underrated novels. I've also read 1Q84, which was probably his worst and longest but imo, it was still worth reading. Killing Commendatore, his most recent novel is 800+ pages and I probably won't ever read it a second time. Wind-Up, Kafka, Colorless Tsukuru and South of the Border West Of The Sun, and Hard Boiled, I'll probably read a second time. He's like Herman Hesse, exploring the same thing over and over again.

>>14632581
>My favorite was Kafka on the Shore. But honestly, they all feel so similar to me. Colorless Tsukuru and His Years of Pilgrimage I think is one of his more underrated novels. I've also read 1Q84, which was probably his worst and longest but imo, it was still worth reading. Killing Commendatore, his most recent novel is 800+ pages and I probably won't ever read it a second time. Wind-Up, Kafka, Colorless Tsukuru and South of the Border West Of The Sun, and Hard Boiled, I'll probably read a second time. He's like Herman Hesse, exploring the same thing over and over again.

i agree that pretty much every murakami text is very similar. honestly think they are still pretty interesting because you end up being able to piece together quite a lot about murakami himself from all the different perspective on the same themes.

>>14632726
>piece together quite a lot about murakami himself
Such as him drinking pic related >>14626954?