I love reading Haruki Murakami. I normally find him very easy to read, don't want to put the book down, and find the themes in his books very relateable (e.g. love, loss, loneliness). I'd go so far as to say I find his writing profound, and even moving at times. However, I have been known to like pleb-tier literature before (ASOIAF, for example) and typically these signs mean that /lit/ will consider him plebeian-tier.
So do you think he is patrician or pleb? Is it possible that he's one of the few writers who manages to deliver genuinely good writing to a wide audience?
tried to read Hard Boiled Wonderland. Didn't like it. Might try again. Might not.
Not Pleb, not Patrician.
>>7453860
I have mixed feelings senpai
I read WUBC first and I still love it. I think it's meditative, I love how dryly funny it can be with its passive narrative voice, and I love the supporting characters.
But then he writes NW and Tsukuru Tazaki which kind of establish their own sort of genre fiction and IMO just use the leftover themes and motifs of WUBC.
He's alright at his worst yet excellent at his best
I found The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle to be pretty good. Liked the introverted stuff, the parts about the invasion of China, and his complete disregard for realism was refreshing to me.
Read Kafka on the Shore afterwards, which basically felt like he started bastardizing himself, writing only the easily disgestible parts, leaving out the parts that gives a story depth and genuine emotion.
Doubt that I will read any of his stuff again.
>wide audience
his books are just for chicks, mang
>>7453898
>tfw no slightly-depressed, slightly-social-misfit, qt gf to discuss Murakami with
>>7453860
i've read somewhere all his books are about a lonely guy who finds a girl he likes
>>7453913
Yeah, even though I'm a big fan, it's hard to deny that lots of his books are very similar - especially in terms of the main character and his love interest.
>>7453860
>the pleb/patrician dichotomy
what is this, mu?
>>7453930
>thinks /lit/ is any better than /mu/
kekked. at least /mu/ is self-aware of their shittiness.
>>7453860
Considering popular literature inferior to "high" literature is the true mark of plebeian.
>>7453963
I never said lit was better, I just hoped the cancerous memes stayed in their respective boards.
>>7453977
it's too bad that /lit/ is the perfect host for cancerous memes like that. plenty of retards here to soak it up.
>Is Murakami patrician or pleb?
pleb if you care what others think about murakami as with this thread
patrician if you read whatever you want because it's literature/art and not a hospital emergency room.
Is a lot of anime inspired by Murakami?
I recently finished Norwegian Wood. I enjoyed it. I was aroused when he talked to about having sex with Reiko 4 times in one night... he also described her vagina as a wrinkle.
I was waiting for the stern motherly, Japanese, sexscapade and I got it.
Midori was disgusting. Naoko was a dumb cunt. Nagasawa was a G.... are you buttmad yet /lit/
>>7454060
but Im in a hospital emergency room and I want to read only the best before my time is up.
He didn't start writing until he was 29! That must be inspiring to at least some of us.
I have to make up my mind. I'm going to be forced into some code monkey role soon so I won't have oceans of free time anymore to screw around, trying my hand at both drawing and writing. I'll finally have to pick one of them.
Just give me a sign, /lit/. Tell me I can be a patrician code monkey.
>>7453860
>i like it
>should i like it?
jesus, form your own opinions already you sad sheepy fucker
Pleb
Copy pasted characters and pop culture references.
Read Mishami instead
>>7454871
>Tell me I can be a patrician code monkey.
write a new kind of cypherpunk
>>7454921
>Mishami
tfw you become a meme that gets recommended by all the wannabe 'patricians' but never actually read by anyone
>>7455241
>wannabe
Wrong.
>>7453860
The guy poses... and you ask if he's patrician. He's hip for all the yuppies who think themselves intellectual. No discernible talent!
>a tiny, slightly chubby redhead lent me 1Q84
>I read it
>she asked if I wanted the second part
>I declined
>mfw I now have evidence she was into me
I'm sure she was a domme too. Those boots she wore. And at the time I never considered her sexually. Years later, she's what I fap to the most.
Murakami could have gotten me a handjob but I screwed it up. Shit writer tho
>>7455278
His pose makes me want to urge the US to reconsider nuking the island for good this time.
>>7455291
>>a tiny, slightly chubby redhead lent me 1Q84
Good riddance to bad rubbish
He is a hack by precise definition of the term; he has the one thing he does and does it over and over. His novels are good for the transitional reader but he's no more than middlebrow.
>>7453930
/mu/ did not invent it, fuck off /mu/tant.
>>7454665
The artist/writer of Haibane Reinmei was definitely inspired by his works
>>7453912
Well clearly you've not met anyone who likes Murakami. I know a girl who considers him her favorite author, and she is among the happiest, peppiest people I know. It's truly disgusting. Not once have I seen her frown sincerely and with tangible despair.
>>7454772
No, the milf made my dick diamonds constantly. Midori seemed too slutty, to the point that it contrasted with what I've learned of Japanese women via my Japanese animes, so I couldn't vibe to that. I hated the suicidal girl because I've known in real life many other weak-willed women who thought they had depression, and I was thus disgusted with her whole character.
The novel would have been better with more protester/rioter stuff. It seemed Murakami threw that shit in just to set the time period, yet he did nothing to capitalize on it. Then again, Murakami is basically Wasted Potential: The Author, so I guess you just have to take it as it comes
Most Murakami I've read has been interesting enough that I'd finish whatever book in one or two sittings (WUBC is an exception as it's like 3 times as long as anything else he's done), but I really do have some issues with his shit. All the protagonists are the same guy, even in After Dark when the main character is just female Kafka, etc. Also the references to books and music are pretty shitty when read through the lens of a guy who has spent years on /mu/ and /lit/. Western literature references aren't impressive to me, as I am a non-Japanese who reads frequently, so I've heard of The Magic Mountain long before NW mentioned it. And constantly namedropping Radiohead in KotS is ridiculous because it seems to set Kafka up as some "intellectual" young man, but he's listening to one of the most popular English-language bands of the time when that novel was published. "Oh wow look how cool Kafka Tamura is for listening to fucking OK Computer, a critically acclaimed album that everyone in the late 90s in the West knew of! Such a special fucking snowflake! Did I mention his librarian friend is a futa? And he fucks ghosts too!"
>>7456634
>Did I mention his librarian friend is a futa? And he fucks ghosts too!
Picked up
>>7456668
I'm somewhat wrong on the futa thing, if you're moderately serious. The librarian is, I think, just a gay trap, or otherwise an asexual reverse-trap. I can't remember at all, but it was definitely something that was unusual for me before I dove deep into the sadpanda
>>7456470
I was wondering because one of the most popular light novels in japan, Kagerou Daze, has a peculiar style. In the first two volumes, odd numbered chapters are short, dream-like sequences with no direct connection to the even numbered chapters. In the fourth volume, it is revealed that the conflict of the series ultimately stems from an immortal shapeshifting being that is older than the universe who one day thought "what the fuck am I, this shit isn't normal".
He's neither. I have WUBC sitting on my bookshelf, I might try to read it again but I remember his prose being very vague to the point of being irritating.
>>7456700
I don't know if that has much to do with Murakami. I know the Monogatari light novels are almost-postmodern but I would argue Nisio Isin is much better in such styles than Murakami. Murakami just has weird plots, not really weird prose, I guess is what I'm saying
No where near patrician since almost everyone in animeland reads him.
>>7456684
it doesn't matter because they didn't fuck anyway
>eternal disappoint
>>7456710
Well it's not like that's the whole picture. What elements does something need to have to say for certain that it's based on Murakami?
>>7453972
This is bullshit. Stop trying to be a patrician.
>>7455227
>expect mockery
>receive cool idea instead
Thanks, I'll take it.
>>7456896
Fuck off, retard, go take your pills.
>>7455419
thank you. murakami is literally the dan brown of middlebrow lit
>>7453860
It's comfy reading, nothing special, doesn't invoke anything in you apart from occasional boners.
The wapanese David Mitchell desu senpai.
>>7454917
Wasn't asking whether I should like it tbqh, I will like it either way. Was just curious about how he was perceived by /lit/.
Haruki Murakami is a fantastic writer with a mixed oeuvre
>>7456614
>I hated the suicidal girl because I've known in real life many other weak-willed women who thought they had depression, and I was thus disgusted with her whole character.
Are you me?
so far i've read kafka on the shore and it was pretty good but it had the dialogues had that weird uniquely japanese over saturation of emotions you see in anime that is vaguely autistic. Really turns me off japanese culture. Pretty cool surrealism though.
I also read What I talk about when I talk about Running and did not enjoy it at all. I guess running isn't my thing.
Better than the Greeks.
>>7454665
My buddy tries to introduce me to tons of super sad anime dramas and they all remind me of Norwegian Wood.
>>7455419
Pretty much this, I loved Murakami but the more I read him the more I realized he recycles his ideas every novel. I recently read A Wild Sheep Chase which has nearly every theme mirrored in 1Q84, minus the absurd length and repetition.
Side note; do read the newly translated Hear the Wind Sing/Pinball along with Sheep Chase (they are prequels), these might be the only Murakami worth reading. The former two provide context to Sheep chase and are also a great example of what Murakami can do when he writes realist fiction.
