I see there is a new Murakami book coming out in 3 days — "Novelist as a Vocation."
November 5, 2022
"He writes for five hours a day and spends the evening at home listening to music. On top of this he gets up at dawn to run every morning...."
"... 'To keep writing for 30, 40 years is not easy,' he says. 'It’s very difficult to keep up your standards. I did everything to keep on writing books, so I sacrificed other things in order to do that. Other pleasures — for instance, nightlife. I didn’t make so many friends, especially in the literary world. I don’t want those relationships and connections. I don’t like dinner parties.... I try to imagine there’s another Haruki Murakami... He’s famous and popular and has many fans. But I’m a different Haruki Murakami and I live a quiet life. Most of the time I forget that I’m a famous writer. I ride the subway or take a bus and go to some used record shop or bookstore, and in those times I’m just nobody. When I write fiction I’m somebody else, but when I’m not writing I don’t feel any ego. Ego is a kind of burden to man, and I don’t like those burdens. I just want to live lightly.'"
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So, how’s the book coming along?
I admire his discipline.
Sounds like a typical Japanese man of that age...
I remember when Philip Roth's ex-wife trashed him for (among many other things) neglecting her, because he spent most of his time alone, writing. But that's what allowed him to produce something like 32 novels and short-story collections. (All of which were highly respected in his time, although his style of male, Jewish reflection on self and the world is no longer approved of by the literary establishment.) You either put those hours into writing or living. Without them, the books don't exist.
Jorge Luis Borges, "Borges and I."
This should be his answer to questions regarding misogyny.
Fuck you. Don't read my books.
One of the problems faced by a famous/successful novelists is they attract worthless timewasting critics and parisites. People who want to live off their work and give them "advice". Or manipulate the writer into pushing some political/cultural view, or prevent him from writing about certain topics in certain ways.
Or they just want to waste the writers time by reflecting in their fame (and money).
Many artists and novelists give into temptations. Good that this guy hasn't.
MalaiseLongue,
Dang, exactly what I came here to say. Borges takes a little longer to say it, but not much -- the essay is just over a page, IIRC. He speaks of being hounded from love to love, hobby to hobby, as the "other one," Borges, claims each in turn as his own. The last line (translated, obviously) is "I do not know which of us is writing this page."
I just pre-ordered the book from Amazon and the "Recommendations Based on Your Order" suggested the Bob Dylan Modern Song book. I thought that was interesting. I have never looked at anything even peripherally related to Bob Dylan on Amazon.
He deserves the Nobel Literature Prize more than most that have received it. But it's perhaps a good thing for his writing and well being that he hasn't.
Is "Haruki Murakami" Japanese for "Paul Auster"?
It's nice that he spends all those hours writing. I just hope it's not the same book over and over again.
Once novels seemed like they got us closer to reality. Now it seems like they take us further away from it. Or maybe pure "reality" today is boring both in the real world and in fiction and needs to be spiced up to be interesting.
"Ego is a kind of burden to man, and I don’t like those burdens. I just want to live lightly.'"
Duty is heavy as a mountain, yet life is light as a feather. If life is tough, be a kamikaze.
The link goes to the Times and not the Guardian.
I bet he is well behaved.
A writer goes into a flow state. Creating is a pleasure and a critical endeavor. Without it life is lessened.
Murakami is absolutely fucking with this reporter.
I was going to read him. But then he was accused of misogyny. No doubt by women who refuse to be well-behaved. Hard pass.
I wonder...has there ever been a male writer of any stature who can’t be accused of misogyny by today’s “standards”? I can’t think of any offhand.
Every-day writer like you, right?
No wonder I love his writing. He sounds eminently sane.
His novels are a little too weird for me, such that I know I've read at least two, but I'm not sure which they were? A Wild Sheep Chase and Kafka on the Shore, maybe? Anyway I know I really liked What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.
I wish there were two of me so that the other one could spend all her time reading and writing. Meanwhile, there's always a child who needs attention, a load of laundry that needs folded, an email that needs returned.
Ann, Your link is for The Times article.
The Guardian has "‘I want to open a window in their souls’: Haruki Murakami on the power of writing simply"
(https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/nov/05/i-want-to-open-a-window-in-their-souls-haruki-murakami-on-the-power-of-writing-simply?utm_term=6367698687125b7baaaeb60f34d44227&utm_campaign=Bookmarks&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=bookmarks_email)
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