For nearly three decades, [the] chief emissary [of contemporary Japanese literature in translation] abroad has been Haruki Murakami, whose American influences and penchant for late-20th-century nostalgia and magical realism obscure whatever genuine insights he might offer foreign readers about life in Japan today.
The middle-class malaise of Murakami’s protagonists, who are more likely to speak with cats than to have uncomfortable conversations about late rent with their landlord’s wife, is largely absent from Kawakami’s work. That she has found success abroad through novels that look squarely at the times she is living through, with an emphasis on gender and class, suggests that Western readers may once more be ready for contemporary Japanese fiction that embraces the magic of realism itself....
Personally, I find the idea of more "emphasis on gender and class" tiresome. This is the refreshing new approach?! And then gratuitously kicking Murakami around? Is that really necessary? There's no reason why one person needs to occupy a position called Japanese "emissary." Anyone can read whatever books they want written by authors from anywhere.
One writer's use of fantasy doesn't prevent another writer from sticking to what is (supposedly) realistic. (Is it "realism" to use the gender-and-class template?)
It's certainly not realism to suggest that Murakami always uses fantasy. I know the article writer hedges by saying "more likely to speak with cats," etc., and I think that's because he knows Murakami's most popular book — "Norwegian Wood" — doesn't have fantasy elements.
Toward the end of the review, there's also this about Murakami:
Among Kawakami’s more surprising influences is the work of Haruki Murakami, who has praised her work as “breathtaking” and called her a “genius” and his favorite young author but has also been criticized for writing women as one-dimensional characters who can seem as though they exist for no reason beyond advancing the plot.
What an awkward statement! The article-writer has it in for Murakami.
For Kawakami, though, his novels provided a model for how to think about the individual. “No parents, no family, no soporific preaching, none of the self-conscious struggles or triumphs so common in literature,” she would later write in an essay. “For me, bogged down by situations and circumstances I had never opted into, Murakami’s individualism was shocking.”
This isn’t to say that Kawakami does not differ from Murakami in terms of how she thinks about female characters.
Perplexing double negative there.
When he made himself available for a series of rare public appearances with Kawakami, including a 2017 Q. and A., she broached the obvious incongruity of their mutual admiration by telling him, “It’s common for my female friends to say to me, ‘If you love Haruki Murakami’s work so much, how do you justify his portrayal of women?’”
Kawakami chose to highlight an example from his 2017 novel, “Killing Commendatore,” in which a woman introduces herself to the narrator by asking what he thinks of her breasts. Murakami responded by saying this was the woman’s way of suggesting that she viewed the narrator as a kind of eunuch; for Kawakami, though, it seemed like a way of fashioning herself into a sexual object for no obvious reason or benefit.
It's a 500-page novel, but let's fixate on the woman's breasts and try to figure out what they mean. Look squarely!
१९ टिप्पण्या:
Get back to me when they recommend Yukio Mishima's surrealist fiction, which they never will, because everything they recommend is a recommendation for children. They're aesthetic taste is so much mushy peas, for spoonfeedin of art. Custom recommended for the Oprah book-club matrons of the upper East side.
Technically, magical realism is the opposite of realism, and this novel sounds as if it engages in more, not less of it.
NYT book reviewers seem to become more ignorant of their purported expertise by the day.
They should check the building for leaky gas stoves.
When Mr. Hunt wrote the following sentence about his subject, it seemed like a bit of projection on his part, "As much as the good life suits her, I sensed a whiff of the shame that arises when climbing out of poverty forces you to look down on the people and places that shaped you."
There's no reason why one person needs to occupy a position called Japanese "emissary."
We see our esteemed hostess as the emissary of white American liberal but not crazy/leftist females (a rapidly diminishing group).
Here I am speaking as the emissary of old white American deplorable men (a more rapidly diminishing group).
The more I think about it, the more I realize that novels peaked in the romantic (in the artistic movement sense) era. This constant hectoring from the left doesn't make for entertaining stories.
climbing out of poverty forces you to look down on the people and places that shaped you."
When does climbing out of poverty force you to scorn your background?
Jamie, when you are at a party somewhere along Central Park West.
Too much of art criticism (fiction, painting, drama, etc.) just revolves around the critic wanting to gatekeep and force us to applaud or boo based on the work's cultural politics or the artists identity.
In other words, does it support the CURRENT NARRATIVE. One established Japanese writer doesn't support the CURRENT NARRATIVE - so he gets a Boo. The Japanese Chick writer DOES support the CURRENT NARRATIVE, so she gets a cheer.
Unsuprisingly, this form of criticism came to prominence with the Daily Worker in the 30s. Now the entire MSM does it.
I was listening to a podcast where the speaker said that Professor Stanley fish refused to teach Ezra Pound (great poet and critic) in his Class on American Poetry because Pound wanted us to stay out of WW II. That's what you get with this sort of "Politics uber alles" attitude in art criticism and analysis.
"It's a 500-page novel, but let's fixate on the woman's breasts and try to figure out what they mean. Look squarely!"
Are they square (presuming two)?
Squitties?
"Breasts and Eggs"? I guess that's a book title, not a breakfast. Might have something there, though.
Sunnyside? With the yolks still runny? Hmmm...
In a box? With a fox?
Because Mieko Kawakami’s novels "look squarely at the times she is living through, with an emphasis on gender and class"...
I think the two halves of that sentence are contradictory. Notice, sure. Emphasis, preaching.
For nearly three decades, [the] chief emissary [of contemporary Japanese literature in translation] abroad has been Haruki Murakami
I guess it depends on what you mean by "literature." I think Murakami may still have the widest distribution in the US, but I think adolescent novels ("light novels" -- like fantasy and that sort of thing) are now being translated into English and other Western language in significant quantities, even if NYT Magazine is unaware. Even within Japan, I don't think Murakami is necessarily the most popular or representative writer in his generation. E.g., I recall I would tell people I enjoyed Murakami and they'd think I meant Murakami Ryu. Although for his more recent novels, I've seen big spreads in the bookstores.
For my part, at this point most of the Japanese novels I read are mystery novels. I used to have broader tastes, but I think the last non-mystery novel I read in Japanese was Kafka by the Shore. I prefer the ones with a comedic bent (e.g. Higashigawa Tokuya, Akagawa Jiro), although I read some that are more straight mysteries, albeit with somewhat quirky protagonists (e.g. Higashino Keigo, Kishi Yuusuke, etc.). I don't know what the mystery genre is like in English, because I haven't read any contemporary mystery novels in English, but I think these would do pretty well in translation, if they haven't already been translated. The characters are entertaining, and the mystery gimmicks are usually pretty good. Some of the comedy might not translate well, though (because the Japanese love puns).
Some authors translate well into English, others don't. I'm sure its the same in American authors to foreign language.
I'm always amazed when foreigners say they like "Huck Finn" and other Twain novels, because so much of the humor, especially the dialect stuff is lost in translation. Supposedly, Dr. zhivago is better in Russian since it captures the authors "poetic" style.
Balfegor, can you recommend any Japanese poetry in translation?
All I can remember reading in prose is The Makioka Sisters, which is a wonderful, long, women's novel set before WWII. It's a novel of manners, like Jane Austin or Edith Wharton. I'm pretty sure few of the menfolk here would enjoy it unless they have a particular interest in traditional Japanese culture.
can you recommend any Japanese poetry in translation?
Here's a Haiku I recommend.
She showed me her tits
Thinking I was a eunuch
Who cares what she thought
I Am a Cat, Soseki Natsume
RE: Tina Trent:
Balfegor, can you recommend any Japanese poetry in translation?
Sorry, no. I really don't know Japanese poetry well at all, and the only Japanese verse I know off the top of my head is the famous opening to the Tale of Heike. Somewhat odd given how much I love English poetry, but I've just never got into Japanese poetry.
DIEversity [dogma]: color, sex, age, class, etc. blocs
टिप्पणी पोस्ट करा