Haruki Murakami Forum

Created by Amy on Feb 26, 1999
Last updated on March 20, 1999

Welcome to the very first Haruki Murakami Forum on the Internet! Here, you are free to voice your opinions on the renowned Japanese writer, Mr. Haruki Murakami, and discuss his works, style, viewpoints and outlook on life. Please tell his other fans about his forum, so as to make the site as busy as possible! You want to comment on my unofficial Murakami site, The World of Haruki Murakami?
You are Welcome!
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after dark reviewed on dutch radio

For the dutch readers :
I just listened to 'de avonden' with Hans Goedkoop en Stine Jensen talking about 'after dark'.
I figure you can hear it on the website :
http://www.vpro.nl/programma/deavonden/

Posted on Mar 24, 2006, 8:45 PM

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a running article about HM

by hayden fry

Don't know how new/old this is.

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,5033,s6-197-198-0-8908,00.html

Posted on Mar 24, 2006, 7:26 AM

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Boston Marathon race

It's rather old story. He will run at the Boston Marathon race on April 17th.

Bib Name Age M/F City State Country Ctz *
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19404 Murakami, Haruki 57 M Cambridge MA USA JPN

http://www.baa.org/cfm_Public/2006/pg_ConfirmResultsQuick.cfm?&snap=48669792&

OSAKABE Yoshio
http://www.geocities.jp/yoshio_osakabe/indexE.html

Posted on Mar 25, 2006, 8:57 AM

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Re: Boston Marathon race

by John Chen

oh, I thought he was living in Japan. Does he reside in Cambridge, Mass now, or is he just there temporarily?

Posted on Mar 25, 2006, 9:11 PM

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Boston

Please read articles on this forum or the Dolphin Hotel carefully. He and his wife, Yoko-san, are living in Boston since last year. Maybe they will come back to Japan after the Boston Marathon race this spring.

Posted on Mar 26, 2006, 1:15 PM

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Re: Boston

by John Chen

I didn't see any mention of it in the recent messages on this forum. But you're right, I should have noticed the search function and tried that. Thanks for the info.

Posted on Mar 27, 2006, 1:47 AM

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Re: Boston

by Anonymous

THE AFP article in the GOOGLE today, says he is living in the USA this year. YEs. Most probably at Harvard, doing a kind of fellowship for famous writers. with APril 17th pencilled in for the big race.

Posted on Mar 27, 2006, 7:19 AM

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Murakami's manuscripts sold without permission: Any related articles in English?

I read Haruki's article on Bungei Shunju -April Edition about his former editor who sold his manuscripts without permission. He has known the Super Editor, Ken Yasuhara (1939-2003), more than 25 years since he had a jazz bar and Ken was his customer. Ken published Haruki's debut novel from the established publishing house, Chuo Koron. His article was full of sorrow.

http://longtailworld.blogspot.com/2006/03/why-he-sold-murakami-manuscripts.html

I was just wondering if any of you know related articles in English. If there is, I want to add the link to the entry. Thanks.

Posted on Mar 24, 2006, 6:47 AM

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Japan Times

You can read the related article in English on the Japan Times. Maybe you must register at first but it's free.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060311a5.html

OSAKABE Yoshio
http://www.geocities.jp/yoshio_osakabe/indexE.html

Posted on Mar 24, 2006, 10:00 PM

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http://japundit.com/archives/2006/03/11/2095/

by Danny

http://japundit.com/archives/2006/03/11/2095/

Mishandling Murakami

Haruki Murakami is pissed off, and well he should be.

Turns out that his former editor, one of his former editors, now dead, secretly tried to sell the future Nobel prize winner��s earlier handwritten manuscripts, pocketing the money for himself. The cad!

Popular novelist Haruki Murakami said in a monthly magazine released Friday that a number of his manuscripts have been put up for auction on the Internet and at secondhand bookshops without his permission.

In a contribution to the April issue of the magazine Bungei Shunju, Murakami discussed details on the auctions, denouncing it as ��unlawful trading of original manuscripts.��

Murakami, 57, a celebrated contemporary Japanese writer, said that among the manuscripts is a handwritten translation of The Ice Palace by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940). A set of 73 of the manuscript��s
400-character pages was put up for sale at a secondhand bookshop for more than 1 million yen.

In the 16-page article in the magazine, Murakami said he had handed the scripts to a now-deceased editor of the Chuokoron publishing house.

Posted on Mar 27, 2006, 7:14 AM

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thank you for the input!

I added them to my entry, thanks!

Posted on Mar 29, 2006, 10:22 PM

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conflicto suicide

by anony mouse

I heard : "comments here and here that suggest the origin of their conflict may go well back to the time when Haruki refused Yasuken and other prominent novelists' offering to get his "Pinball 1973"(1980) compiled in "Showa Bungaku Zenshu (Showa Era Literature Collection)," causing its editor to commit suicide. Haruki himself recalled it as an unfortunate event in his essay collection published in 1999.

One thing sure about Haruki, is that his power has outgrown so much, as to make some people live in fear in Japan's lit society."

Posted on Apr 5, 2006, 8:02 AM

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Japanese novelist Murakami to receive Franz Kafka award

I hope that my contacting you is not an imposition in any way.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060323/kyodo/d8gh1q503.html
(Japanese novelist Murakami to receive Franz Kafka award)

It is interesting news. I`m very happy to hear that as Japanese.
Murakami`s stories give us power!

I`m afraid I`m not good at English.

Copperfield

Posted on Mar 23, 2006, 4:57 AM

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Re: Japanese novelist Murakami to receive Franz Kafka award

by brian wilson

Thanks for the info. Franz Kafka award after Kafka on the Shore. What a coincidence!?

Posted on Mar 23, 2006, 7:01 AM

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Re: Japanese novelist Murakami to receive Franz Kafka award

by Anonymous

and the last two winners of the Kafka award went on that same year to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, so this may be the year HM wins the award, too.

Posted on Mar 27, 2006, 7:15 AM

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Summer Course on Murakami/Carver

I'm teaching a course at Tufts this summer, "Murakami Haruki and Raymond Carver," in the second session, July 5 - August 11. Students from other universities, as well as professionals, are welcome. For more information go to Tufts Summer website: http://ase.tufts.edu/summer/default.asp

The course number is: JPN 0091BA. It is under Japanese.
http://ase.tufts.edu/summer/courses/index.asp?Dept=&Course=o&ot=39&o=2117

I'm sure it'll be a relaxed class discussing our favoritie writer along with his favorite writer...

Hope you can join.

Posted on Mar 21, 2006, 11:46 PM

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Re: Summer Course on Murakami/Carver

by Allen Ford

Sounds great!

Title: Murakami Haruki & Raymond Carver: The Art of Short Fiction Across the Ocean

Course Number : JPN 0091BA Call Number : 00343
Room : -

Course Description

The distinguished contemporary Japanese writer, Haruki Murakami, is also a prolific translator of American literature. He has invested much time and effort especially on the short story writer and poet, Raymond Carver. Murakami has been working on producing the unabridged collected works of Carver in Japanese. We will study both writers' short stories and discuss their art with attendant issues of cross-cultural influences, literary histories, and translation in general.

Offered in : Second session
Day(s) : MTTh Times : 10:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Instructor : Hosea Hirata
Credit Value : 1 Credit Tuition: USA$1490.

Audit Enroll Option: Yes Audit Charge: USA$ 460
Audit Course Number: JPN 0091BAU
Status : Open

Posted on Mar 27, 2006, 7:25 AM

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Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman ; July 2006

by yoyo

You may have missed it;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1843432692/ref=pd_luc_mri/202-7960929-9006207?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

Posted on Mar 21, 2006, 7:11 PM

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re : after dark

Thanks Cornelius for your reply, I guess you may be right how it worked out with the translator running to publisher in our case.
I agree on your ideas about Birnbaum, all his translations I had to force through. Somehow he doesn't succeed in making it sound like a simple powerfull Murakami rhythm.

The feel of the book may be different but I'm sure I missed out something very essential in this dutch translation. ( makes me wonder if english is more suitable ? what language do you read in your neck of your woods ? ).

Anyhow, I got worried in the first case by the 'dutch title' : 'after dark'.
No suitable dutch words for this ???

Posted on Mar 21, 2006, 6:40 PM

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Your right

I agree. I also just read the Dutch transaltion, and it doesn't appear to caputure the strength of Murakami's other writing. Although I could read vintage Murakami through the lines, which seems more reason not to trust the Dutch translation. About the title: it is not that difficult to translate into Dutch someway, so I wonder.....

Nick

Posted on Mar 22, 2006, 10:42 AM

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Re: Your right

by george

What's the deal with the title?

Posted on Mar 22, 2006, 12:15 PM

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Re: Your right

by Nick

I wonder why the translater left it in English. Its vert translatable.

Maybe he can answer himslef.

Posted on Mar 22, 2006, 2:00 PM

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re : your right

by mimosa

the translator is hiding I think, if he turns up I want me money back !

Posted on Mar 23, 2006, 8:35 PM

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good idea

by Nick

Good idea, lets track him down...

by the way: are you Dutch, and if yes, where are you from?

Posted on Mar 26, 2006, 2:06 PM

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let's do it

by mimosa

Right so, any idea how ?
Did you read the other Murakami books he translated too ?
yes I'm dutch, from A'dam.

Posted on Mar 26, 2006, 6:23 PM

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Re: let's do it

by Nick

Yes, i read eveything. I have been reading his books for some years now, and still very much love his writing. I must say that parts of the translation are ok, seem to capture the drift of Murakami. I found that it was mainly the first part of the book thatw as badly writen. What do you do in Amsterdam, I also live there?.

Nick

Posted on Mar 27, 2006, 9:53 AM

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after dark

i just finished reading 'after dark' in the dutch translation and wonder if the book itself or reading it in dutch was dissapointing. So far I read all in english and liked the minimal language use.
Maybe the translation was bad, hard to judge.
I wonder why the dutch translation was out before the english version, after all Murakami is still not really discovered in the Netherlands.
Anyone comments on this ?

Posted on Mar 20, 2006, 9:28 PM

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Re: after dark

by cornelius

i haven't read the book yet, so it's a bit hard to comment, but here's a few thoughts. from what i heard, murakami strays a bit away from his usual style for this book and does a little experimenting, so that might be one of the reasons why the book feels different. also, did it occur to you, that maybe the translation could be closer to the original than you are used to? i can't comment on jay or rubin, but as much as i have read of birnbaums translations, i hated. to me, those weren't really translations, they were rewrites. enjoyable to read, but in the end not very faithful to the original. i don't really trust english translators anymore, because since i'm more seriously involved in translation, i have come across numerous examples of translators just "winging it" on occasions. again, this is probably unfair to a lot of people out there doing honest work, and is only my personal opinion. number three: you say murakami is not really discovered in netherlands yet? it's the same thing in my neck of the woods, and as far as my experience goes, this means there is no real coordinated effort put in translating his work. rather than that, it's pretty much up to translators to "discover" a book and take it to a publisher. so this is probably what happened in the netherlands, i suppose. the translator chose to do after dark, took it to a publisher and had it published. it just so happens this meant it was published before the english translation.

of course, it could be just a bad translation, too.

Posted on Mar 21, 2006, 11:50 AM

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don't hate me

by Anonymous

Did anyone else think that Murakami's latest short story in the New Yorker was a piece of uninspired crap? I love all the man's stuff, but in that latest monkey story it just seems like he was going through the motions. What's the deal? It's like The New Yorker will publish anything by Murakami just because it's "Murakami" much like John Updike (yeah, his fiction's featured in the latest issue.) What is this? Is Murakami not even trying anymore? Is he content to just rest on his laurels and get published on his name alone? I hope not. Does talent and imagination falter in old age? In most cases yes. I'm hoping Murakami is the exceptional exception.

"non sequiturs unite!"

Oh, yeah, this is THE Anonymous, not those idiots who are just too lazy to type in a name.

Posted on Mar 12, 2006, 10:22 PM

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Re: don't hate me

by toribird

I second your opinion.

I think he's been becoming more and more "normal" writer, since he wrote After the quake.

And it's not interesting.

After dark was such a terrible mess that I don't want to consider it as one of his works.

Posted on Mar 13, 2006, 4:12 AM

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Re: don't hate me

by george

I only read the translation, but I didn't think Kafka on the Shore was that hot.

(Are you the Anonymous who, ages ago, recommended reading The Moviegoer by Walker Percy? If so, thank you; it's a great book.)

Posted on Mar 13, 2006, 11:31 PM

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siwwy boy

by peeyoo

You're the stupidest ass on the block, that's for sure.

Posted on Mar 13, 2006, 11:45 PM

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Looking for all Murakami's works

Hello, I'm a relatively new Murakami fan (I've read Kafka on the Shore, Norwegian Wood, after the quake and Hear the Wind Sing) and I'm looking to find all his works. I'm sure someone will be able to help me out. Although I notice a difference in style by the translator (Alfred Birnbaum/Jay Rubin) I'm going to leave them out of it for now. This is what I have so far:

� Hear the Wind Sing (1979)
� Pinball, 1973 (1980)
� A Wild Sheep Chase (1982)
� Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985)
� Norwegian Wood (1987)
� Dance, Dance, Dance (1988)
� South of the Border, West of the Sun (1992)
� The Elephant Vanishes (1993)
- The Wind-up Bird And Tuesday's Women
- The Second Bakery Attack
- The Kangaroo Communique
- On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning
- Sleep
- The Fall of the Roman Empire, The 1881 Indian Uprising, Hitler's Invasion of Poland, And The Realm of Raging Winds
- The Magazine (Mobil Corp.)
- Lederhosen
- Barn Burning
- The Little Green Monster
- A Family Affair
- A Window
- TV People
- A Slow Boat to China
- The Dancing Dwarf
- The Last Lawn of the Afternoon
- The Silence
- The Elephant Vanishes
� The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994/5)
� Underground (1997/8)
� Sputnik Sweetheart (1999)
� After the quake (2000)
- UFO in Kushiro
- Landscape with Flatiron
- All God's Children Can Dance
- Thailand
- Super-Frog Saves Tokyo
- Honey Pie
� Kafka on the Shore (2002)
� After Dark (2004)
� Tōkyō Kitanshū (2005)

Those appear to be all his book published works although After Dark and Tokyo Kitanshu don't appear to be available in English translation yet. If I have missed any please let me know.

I have also managed to find a number of other works online:
- A Poor-Aunt Story
- Airplane
- Birthday Girl
- Blind Willow, Sleeping Girl
- Dialogue on Individualism and Commitment (with Kawai Haya)
- Ice Man
- Man-Eating Cats
- The Folklore of Our Times
- The New York Mining Disaster
- The Zoo Attack
- Tony Takitani (I also have the film that was made from this)

I don't have any dates for these, or know where they were published. Can anyone tell me? Also if I have missed any of his other works which haven't been book published but are available, please let me know.

One more question - how are certain books linked? I've been told that Hear the Wind Sing, Pinball, 1973 and A Wild Sheep Chase are linked in some way to form 'the Trilogy of the Rat' but also that Dance, Dance, Dance is a sequel to this trilogy but is not considered a part of it (confusing).

Thanks for any help!

Posted on Mar 12, 2006, 7:49 PM

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his works

New translations of the following stories are available in "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman". I think the book will be published this year or next in UK. The last five stories are from "Tokyo Kitanshu". I did not update my website recentely but some parts of it will help you.
http://www.geocities.jp/yoshio_osakabe/Haruki/Translation-English-E.html

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
The Birthday Girl
New York Mining Disaster
Airplane
Mirror
The Folklore Of Our Times
Hunting Knife
Perfect Day For A Kangaroo
Dabchick
Man Eating Cats
The Poor Aunt Story
Nausea
The Seventh Man
The Girl From Ipanema
In The Year Of Spaghetti
Tony Takitani
Sharpies
Ice Man
Crab
Firefly
The Kidney-Shaped Stone That Moves Every Day
Hanalei Bay
A Chance Traveler
Where I'm Likely To Find It
A Shinagawa Monkey

OSAKABE Yoshio
http://www.geocities.jp/yoshio_osakabe/indexE.html

Posted on Mar 12, 2006, 10:00 PM

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Re: Looking for all Murakami's works

by george

oooh, I like your name!

Posted on Mar 13, 2006, 11:27 PM

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Re: Looking for all Murakami's works

by George

Your name isnt bad either! But that doesn't really help..

Posted on Mar 16, 2006, 6:23 PM

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Re: Looking for all Murakami's works

by george

Basically, Osakabe-san has all the answers. Anything I say will only be superfluous. His website is AMAZING.
Anyway, I think you've got most, if not all, of the translated stuff. All you should know is that they're publishing a new book of short stories this year, called Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman and it comes out on July 6th in England. Here's a handy link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1843432692/202-5744950-7033404
Also, if you're into interviews then check out the backlog on this forum. There are quite a few. One of note is a massive one he gave to The Paris Review last year. I don't think it's on the net but I'm fairly sure you can order the appropriate edition.

Posted on Mar 17, 2006, 2:07 PM

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Carver.

by george

Also, you might want to read all of Raymond Carver's work too. One hand shakes the other, you dig?

Posted on Mar 17, 2006, 2:11 PM

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