Book 3 (May 16 - 17)
"There is no such thing as a perfect piece of writing"
I have a long story of not reading Haruki Murakami. Perhaps, something was in his name to me that indicated exotic literature, that kind of literature which I am usually very picky about not to shock my precious European self with something beyond my comfort zone.
One of my friends, Valeria, has always been sharing her thoughts on numerous Murakami's books, and I have always felt ashamed and ignorant for not knowing anything about this acclaimed author. Well, when I came across a shelf with Murakami's novels in the local library, I decided it was time to put an end to this evasive literary behaviour.
And, surprisingly, my first novel by Haruki Murakami, "Hear the Wind Sing", appeared to be less Japanese than the novels by foreigners who write about Japan. Murakami writes in a western style, and in this novel you can hardly see any mention of tatami or sushi. Instead, the reader finds so many indicators of the western world imbedded in the text - Mercedes, jazz music, Coke. So, basically, his novel is not about specifically Japanese world, but about universally understandable lives of very ordinary people.
The tone of the book reminded me of "Three Comrades" by Remarque. A turbulent travel of a young man through his life. Different characters appear on the sky of his life like comets, they flash and die away.
The main character, whose name I don't know because the story was written from the first person, is thinking about writing a novel.
'So the novel will be for myself,' he says. 'Or maybe for the cicadas. What could be cooler than writing something for the cicadas and frogs and spiders, and the summer grasses and the wind?'
These words are the highlight of the whole novel. They evoked nostalgia in me, nostalgia for the times when I wrote for the pleasure of it, not for somebody's approval, not to follow the hints from the books on writing, not for money or for making a statement on social networks. I miss the times when it was something ultimately my own, a refuge I used to have to myself. This passage from the novel made me reconsider my approach to writing which have been making me miserable lately.
Even more than the novel itself, I liked the foreword by Haruki Murakami. This was a kind of a beautiful pep talk which came into my life just in time to raise my spirits. His words soothed my hesitations concerning my writing prowess. I discovered that he is, like me, a writer who writes in English while it is not his first language, that he struggled through limited vocabulary and lack of understanding of all shades of the foreign language, the same as me. But in some miraculous way, this helped him develop his own unique style, which I think is happening to me too.
Here are some of his quotes from the foreword which I found particularly profound.
"There is no such thing as a perfect piece of writing. Just as there's no such thing as perfect despair."
"I find the act of writing very painful. I can go a whole month without managing a single line, or write three days and nights straight, only to find the whole thing has missed the mark. At the same time, though, I love writing. Ascribing meaning to life is a piece of cake compared to actually living it."
"If it is art or literature you're interested in, I suggest you read the Greeks. Pure art exists only in slave-owning societies. The Greeks had slaves to till their fields, prepare their meals, and row their galley while they lay about on sun-splashed Mediterranean beaches, composing poems and grappling with mathematical equations. That's what art is. If you're the sort of guy who raids the refrigerators of silent kitchens at three o'clock in the morning, you can only write accordingly. That's who I am."
"A gulf separates what we are trying to perceive from what we are actually able to perceive."
'So you don't read books by living authors?'
'No, I don't see the point.'
'Why not?'
'I guess because I feel I can forgive dead people.'
All in all, Haruki Murakami made a lasting impression on me. I think in the future I'm going to have a Murakami's shelf at home.
10 / 10
Next thing I'm going to read is Murakami's novel "Pinball", May 18 - 19.
I have a long story of not reading Haruki Murakami. Perhaps, something was in his name to me that indicated exotic literature, that kind of literature which I am usually very picky about not to shock my precious European self with something beyond my comfort zone.
One of my friends, Valeria, has always been sharing her thoughts on numerous Murakami's books, and I have always felt ashamed and ignorant for not knowing anything about this acclaimed author. Well, when I came across a shelf with Murakami's novels in the local library, I decided it was time to put an end to this evasive literary behaviour.
And, surprisingly, my first novel by Haruki Murakami, "Hear the Wind Sing", appeared to be less Japanese than the novels by foreigners who write about Japan. Murakami writes in a western style, and in this novel you can hardly see any mention of tatami or sushi. Instead, the reader finds so many indicators of the western world imbedded in the text - Mercedes, jazz music, Coke. So, basically, his novel is not about specifically Japanese world, but about universally understandable lives of very ordinary people.
The tone of the book reminded me of "Three Comrades" by Remarque. A turbulent travel of a young man through his life. Different characters appear on the sky of his life like comets, they flash and die away.
The main character, whose name I don't know because the story was written from the first person, is thinking about writing a novel.
'So the novel will be for myself,' he says. 'Or maybe for the cicadas. What could be cooler than writing something for the cicadas and frogs and spiders, and the summer grasses and the wind?'
These words are the highlight of the whole novel. They evoked nostalgia in me, nostalgia for the times when I wrote for the pleasure of it, not for somebody's approval, not to follow the hints from the books on writing, not for money or for making a statement on social networks. I miss the times when it was something ultimately my own, a refuge I used to have to myself. This passage from the novel made me reconsider my approach to writing which have been making me miserable lately.
Even more than the novel itself, I liked the foreword by Haruki Murakami. This was a kind of a beautiful pep talk which came into my life just in time to raise my spirits. His words soothed my hesitations concerning my writing prowess. I discovered that he is, like me, a writer who writes in English while it is not his first language, that he struggled through limited vocabulary and lack of understanding of all shades of the foreign language, the same as me. But in some miraculous way, this helped him develop his own unique style, which I think is happening to me too.
Here are some of his quotes from the foreword which I found particularly profound.
"There is no such thing as a perfect piece of writing. Just as there's no such thing as perfect despair."
"I find the act of writing very painful. I can go a whole month without managing a single line, or write three days and nights straight, only to find the whole thing has missed the mark. At the same time, though, I love writing. Ascribing meaning to life is a piece of cake compared to actually living it."
"If it is art or literature you're interested in, I suggest you read the Greeks. Pure art exists only in slave-owning societies. The Greeks had slaves to till their fields, prepare their meals, and row their galley while they lay about on sun-splashed Mediterranean beaches, composing poems and grappling with mathematical equations. That's what art is. If you're the sort of guy who raids the refrigerators of silent kitchens at three o'clock in the morning, you can only write accordingly. That's who I am."
"A gulf separates what we are trying to perceive from what we are actually able to perceive."
'So you don't read books by living authors?'
'No, I don't see the point.'
'Why not?'
'I guess because I feel I can forgive dead people.'
All in all, Haruki Murakami made a lasting impression on me. I think in the future I'm going to have a Murakami's shelf at home.
10 / 10
Next thing I'm going to read is Murakami's novel "Pinball", May 18 - 19.
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