Article 1: Murakami

Title/Link: Haruki Murakami: How a Japanese writer conquered the world By Stephanie Hegarty

Date Published: Oct. 17, 2011 Date Accessed: Oct. 19, 2011 H/T: Hee Seo

Summary: Murakami's new 1,600-page novel, 1Q84, is generating Harry Potter-style hype, with more than a million copies sold in the original Japanese and midnight openings planned for the English translation at bookstores in the United Kingdom and United States. His work has been translated into 42 languages and the new novel required two English translators so that the publisher could get it into bookstores quickly (before fans could translate it online); in fact, the official translation of the first chapter is available on Murakami's facebook page. Murakami's writing is seen as decidedly non-Japanese, with Western references and a conversational style. The new novel -- about a male novelist and a female serial killer living in parallel universes -- deals with classic Murakami themes, including love and loneliness, alternative and surreal worlds, enigmatic characters and emotional people who seem impassive and raises questions about free will and cult religion. These, according to his translators, make Murakami a modern writer relevant to readers anywhere.

Response: I went through a Murakami phase several years back, absolutely devouring several of his novels, including Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Sputnik Sweetheart, and Dance Dance Dance. I agree with one of the translators quoted, who said, "Some novels are too tied in with the shared culture of a nation to be easily appreciated in translation. Murakami's are mostly the opposite." At the same time, I think Murakami's stripped-down style, spare language, and characters who are calm on the surface make his writing very Japanese, much like a bonsai tree. In many of his works, there seems to be a Buddhist search for meaning or, I should say, a search for something or someone that is missing. Answers are rarely found, but I guess the search is what's important. In any case, there's a great quote from Murakami in this piece: "I get up early in the morning, 4 o'clock, and I sit at my desk and what I do is just dream. After three or four hours, that's enough. In the afternoon, I run." Sounds like a wonderful life (I think as I write this at 4 a.m.).

Vocabulary:

A. ennui

1. "His early works capture the spirit of his generation - the lack of focus and ennui of the post-Student Movement age."
2. a feeling of weariness and dissatisfaction; boredom. From Old French enui annoyance, from enuier to vex, from Late Latin inodiare to make loathsome. First Known Use: 1732 (merriam-webster)
3. Most students get hit by a wave of ennui sometime in the second semester of senior year.

B. quintessential

1. Philip Gabriel sees him as the quintessential modern writer, one who speaks to a truly globalised world.
2. def. for quintessence: the essence of a thing in its purest and most concentrated form; the most typical example or representative. Middle English, from Middle French quinte essence, from Medieval Latin quinta essentia, literally, fifth essence. First Known Use: 15th century (the fifth and highest element in ancient and medieval philosophy that permeates all nature and is the substance composing the celestial bodies) (merriam-webster)
   
3. Many agree that the comma splice is the quintessential SAT error.

C. enigma

1. He is an utter enigma, he is really strange.
2. something hard to understand or explain; an inscrutable or mysterious person. Latin aenigma, from Greek ainigmat-, ainigma, from ainissesthai to speak in riddles, from ainos fable. First Known Use: 1539 (merriam-webster)
3. One of our school's many enigmas is this: three demerits equal an SMD, but what do three merits equal?