Chapter 42 "Appendix" Haruki Murakami/Lai Mingzhu, the standard-bearer of literature in the 1980s

Haruki Murakami was born in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan in January 1949, and grew up in Kobe, an exotic and open port city.When he was studying in the drama department of Waseda University, it was the era of student turmoil. He seldom took classes, but he was keen on watching movies. He graduated from university after seven years (Japanese universities can study for up to eight years. Students want to work or love life in Tokyo. There are many people who have studied for five to eight years before returning to their hometowns for employment).After graduation, he opened a jazz cafe in Kokubunji Temple in Tokyo (later in Sendagaya). He usually likes to read American novels, and also translates works of some modern American writers. He can be called a unique cafe owner.After ten years of blank youth, Haruki Murakami released his first novel "Song of Listening to the Wind" at the age of 29. This work won him the Newcomer Award for Group Portrait in 1979. Pinball Toys ("The Lost Pinball Toy") and "Adventures of Sheep Hunting" won the Noma Newcomer Award. In 1985, he won the Tanizaki Junichiro Award for "The End of the World and Brutal Foreign Land". It is tied with the last masterpiece "Forest" by the centenarian female writer Yayoko Nogami as the most watched pure literature work of the year.

◎Tranquil scribe in Japanese-style dress Although Haruki Murakami is a big celebrity in today's literary circles, he hardly associates with the literary circles. He doesn't like excitement or watching TV. He gets up early every morning and runs in the morning. His literary style has become another factor of his popularity. Haruki Murakami is good at describing the lost youth full of blankness and nothingness with the sense of urbanites and the mocking eyes of the 1960s.His style is light, clear, and refreshing, in contrast to the heavy, dark, sweaty, tear-wet stickiness of Japanese novels in the past, and can be said to be closer to the world of modern American writers.This is closely related to the fact that the new generation of Japan absorbed a large amount of European and American culture after the war. However, if we taste carefully, we will find that his articles still have a strong oriental thought. To understand the Japanese of this generation, it is necessary to first understand the works of Haruki Murakami.

Haruki Murakami's articles are concise and fluent in writing, which is very simple at first glance, but his dialogue and metaphors are quite abstract, which makes readers have to think about it, just like looking at an abstract painting, and it is impossible to understand what he is talking about at a glance , this is the appearance of his dress, and it is also what makes Japanese young people feel fashionable, fresh and full of charm.His part of harmony and soul is thought-provoking, self-examination, suspicion and exploration.This combination of contradictions has made his works repeatedly discussed and analyzed by many critics.Although his novels are not many, there are more than 20 short and medium stories.

◎The work is full of unique style Many people admit that his works have a unique style, as long as they read a page or even a sentence, they can immediately recognize Haruki Murakami.Critics have different views on his works, which cannot be explained in a few words, so here are just a few examples. 1. His protagonist has no name. No matter men or women, there are often no names in his novels, only pronouns or symbols instead.All articles refer to me as the main character, the mouse (my friend), 208, 209 (twin girls), her, K, etc. in first person.Or use animal names as allegorical or anthropomorphic representations.Such as sheep man, sheep doctor, elephant, sea donkey and so on.Perhaps his purpose is to transcend a particular character, to make you feel that he is actually talking about the general phenomenon between you, me, and him.

Second, his dialogues are often abstract and aphoristic. For example: What were you doing when you were twenty? Desperately miss girls. What happened to you and her? Separated. Are you happy? Most things look beautiful from a distance. "The Pinball Toy in 1973" Every time I think of her, I think of the corridors of high school, I don't know why? Because human nature is complex. "Meet the 100% Girl" The so-called aphorism usually refers to a phenomenon that should be explained in a hundred sentences, but it is expressed in only one sentence.On the other hand, readers may have a hundred different associations for a sentence of his dialogue.

3. He likes to use numbers to describe. Numbers are inherently more abstract than language, but also more concrete and crisp.For example, in the article "Slow Boat to China", he mentioned: I was twenty-eight years old, and six years had passed since my marriage, and I had buried three cats in those six years. I sharpened a dozen new pencils on Sunday morning. Forty desks are lined up in the classroom The third Chinese opens his mouth for five seconds This highly abstract and crisp expression is obviously very different from the sticky brushwork of other writers. 4. He likes to quote proper nouns.

Although his protagonists have no names, just like in real life, everyone is just an ordinary unknown, but they receive a lot of information, a lot of people's names, and product names every day; director names, movie names, song titles, etc. often appear in his works. Author name, product name. For example: The rain fell very quietly like Claude.The kind of rain that often falls in Lee Lush's films. "The Pinball Toy in 1973" Sparks fly like Goethe meets Beethoven. "Slow Boat to China" Haruki Murakami's works seem relaxed on the surface, but they actually hide the helplessness and sorrow of modern people, which is a kind of re-start after a thorough understanding.His writing is extremely refined, cutting off redundant language, and refining a pure crystal-like world through abstraction, inorganicization, symbolization, allegorization, and fragmentation.He is indeed worthy of being the most creative and outstanding contemporary writer in Japan today.

Originally published in "Nippon Digest" No. 12, January 1, 1987 Note: "The Pinball Toy in 1973" is "The Lost Pinball Toy".The three protagonists, I, Mouse and Jie, are the same as the protagonists of "Listening to the Wind's Song".Therefore, it can be said to be a sequel to "Listening to the Wind".