Very good. I've never found him sexist or anything. A sexist writer would have a worldview of women as inferior all over his books, but he doesn't have that at all. I think he just never figured out how to write women and comes out the way it comes out.
Great work man. Would recommend working on your audio you can hold the mic a little further and clean it up in post. Happy to help in detail if you’d like to dm. Super well written tho and good editing.
Personally I've found Murakami to be a kind of literary equivalent of fast food: easy but ultimately empty. I've read 3 of his novels and a few short stories and all of them felt exactly the same: affective junk. The prose is flat, all the pop culture references and vague surreal sequences are just aesthetic, ticking enough items off the Bingo card to fulfill the required "symbolism" and "themes" for readers to think there is something being said. For me, none of his stories ever escape feeling constructed. The characters cannot possibly exist beyond the edges of the story. Their existence is forced, invented. Creating mystery through surrealism is easy when your characters don't behave like actual people. And after reading I feel like one of his female characters: exploited and used. And personally I don't think Murakami fell from grace, I don't think he got worse by constantly repeating himself each book, I think he really didn't start out well. There are far better authors to spend your time reading.
Despite having really liked his work in the past, and occasionally enjoying a novel even now, i have to 100% agree. I also think it wouldn't be so bad if he didn't think he could write long novels. Though you say he was bad from the start, I think the cracks showed less in his much shorter works.
As a bookseller, I have come to loathe Murakami, or rather the sect-like, homogenous following he has come to attract. In my 14 years as a bookseller, the top three questions I get each year for the last 14 years are: 1. Do you have Murakami? 2. Do you have Murakami? 3. Do you have Murakami? Compare his writing to that of Alice Munro, whose books often sit next to Murakami. Although Munro is strictly a short story writer, there is no doubt that she is a quality writer, capable of writing entirely different characters -- both male and female (!) -- with radically different themes. She need not dabble with magical realism in order to add the appearance of depth to her narratives. This is not at all to say that Murakami is a bad writer. I think he's good and competent at what he does. What irks me is the utter lack of proportionality between the quality of his works and the intensity of the following they attract. In that respect, I think Murakami's excellence lies in his mastery as an entrepreneur.
@@jameswg03Authors with similar themes of alienation that I like are: John Banville (no magic realism tho, and very different style), Paul Auster (only the New York trilogy imo, he suffers from similar self-copying as Murakami), Salman Rushdie kinda?, Kazuo Ishiguro If you're wanting Japanese authors: the other Murakami (Ryū), Kawabata, Mishima, are all great (to name just a few)
I want to inform you that you need a different microphone, I was very interested in listening to the video, but I had to stop at 0:43, the voice is very annoying
Very good. I've never found him sexist or anything. A sexist writer would have a worldview of women as inferior all over his books, but he doesn't have that at all. I think he just never figured out how to write women and comes out the way it comes out.
I agree. He has his own perception of women, and some might disagree with it, which is fine, but it is also part of what makes his books unique.
Great work man. Would recommend working on your audio you can hold the mic a little further and clean it up in post. Happy to help in detail if you’d like to dm. Super well written tho and good editing.
Thanks dude. Appreciate the feedback :)
Personally I've found Murakami to be a kind of literary equivalent of fast food: easy but ultimately empty. I've read 3 of his novels and a few short stories and all of them felt exactly the same: affective junk.
The prose is flat, all the pop culture references and vague surreal sequences are just aesthetic, ticking enough items off the Bingo card to fulfill the required "symbolism" and "themes" for readers to think there is something being said.
For me, none of his stories ever escape feeling constructed. The characters cannot possibly exist beyond the edges of the story. Their existence is forced, invented. Creating mystery through surrealism is easy when your characters don't behave like actual people. And after reading I feel like one of his female characters: exploited and used.
And personally I don't think Murakami fell from grace, I don't think he got worse by constantly repeating himself each book, I think he really didn't start out well.
There are far better authors to spend your time reading.
What are some other writers that you would recommend instead?
Despite having really liked his work in the past, and occasionally enjoying a novel even now, i have to 100% agree.
I also think it wouldn't be so bad if he didn't think he could write long novels. Though you say he was bad from the start, I think the cracks showed less in his much shorter works.
As a bookseller, I have come to loathe Murakami, or rather the sect-like, homogenous following he has come to attract. In my 14 years as a bookseller, the top three questions I get each year for the last 14 years are:
1. Do you have Murakami?
2. Do you have Murakami?
3. Do you have Murakami?
Compare his writing to that of Alice Munro, whose books often sit next to Murakami. Although Munro is strictly a short story writer, there is no doubt that she is a quality writer, capable of writing entirely different characters -- both male and female (!) -- with radically different themes. She need not dabble with magical realism in order to add the appearance of depth to her narratives.
This is not at all to say that Murakami is a bad writer. I think he's good and competent at what he does. What irks me is the utter lack of proportionality between the quality of his works and the intensity of the following they attract. In that respect, I think Murakami's excellence lies in his mastery as an entrepreneur.
@@jameswg03Authors with similar themes of alienation that I like are: John Banville (no magic realism tho, and very different style), Paul Auster (only the New York trilogy imo, he suffers from similar self-copying as Murakami), Salman Rushdie kinda?, Kazuo Ishiguro
If you're wanting Japanese authors: the other Murakami (Ryū), Kawabata, Mishima, are all great (to name just a few)
Ngl a bit of a bait title, nonetheless great vid
Yeah, I agree, but that's the TH-cam game. Happy to hear you enjoyed the video though!
Incredible content 👌
Is this the Kanye Murakami or the Batman one?
NEITHER???
Fix your audio, man.
Sounds like you're farting into a boot.
I had it up my ass. But I'll be sure to take it out next time, thanks for the heads up.
I want to inform you that you need a different microphone, I was very interested in listening to the video, but I had to stop at 0:43, the voice is very annoying
Yeah, I agree, my microphone is good quality but I think it's some sort of interference with my clothing that distorts it. Thanks for the feedback.
Oh shit! I get to be one of the og subs! Man... I never get to he an og sub to a cool channel.
I don't get it? Why'd you put sexist in the thumbnail?