In “1Q84” Murakami describes novels as holding out the promise to solve our problems only we can’t quite make them out.
Tag Archives: Haruki Murakami
The Magic Spell Cast by Stories
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 1Q84, Charles Dickens, children reading, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Oliver Twist, Ozma of Oz, Twelfth Night Comments closed
Trump Sees Garbage and Rocks in Foes
I’ve compared Donald Trump to Murakami’s villain in “Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.” Today I dig deeper into the comparison.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump, politics, Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Comments closed
Trump as a Haruki Murakami Villain
Donald Trump has an uncanny resemblance to the villain Noboru Wataya in Haruki Murakami’s masterful novel “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” (1998). Both have a similar hollowness and both have the ability to separate people from the higher instincts and put them in thrall to their lower ones.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump, GOP, Jonathan Bernstein, politics, racism, Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, xenophobia Comments closed
Literature as a Social Activity
Literature becomes especially interesting when it enters social situations.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Lawrence Sterne, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy, Tristram Shandy Comments closed
Murakami’s Emotional Blandness as Shield
Haruki Murakami’s protagonists have a distinctive form of emotional blandness that helps them cope with the world.
Bigotry = A Loathsome Lack of Imagination
Murakami says that the worst thing about bigots is that they are hollow men devoid of imagination.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged bigotry, homophobia, intolerance, Kafka on the Shore, racism Comments closed
Portal Fantasies – Nadal Loses, Italy Wins
Judging by the Supreme Court’s Obamacare decision and the defeats of Rafael Nadal and the German soccer team, the world passed through a strange portal this past Thursday.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 1Q84, Alices through the Looking-Glass, English Soccer, German Soccer, Importance of Being Earnest, Italian Soccer, Jud, Lewis Carroll, Oscar Wilde, Rafael Nadal, Roger Fedderer, Sports Comments closed
High Art, Low Art, and Murakami
Murakami’s “1Q84” seamlessly moves between high art and pop culture, complicating the issue of guilty reading pleasures.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 1Q84, high art, pop culture, postmodernism, reading Comments closed
