A BRIEF LOOK AT AUTHOR HARUKI MURAKAMI
By Alex Ness
April 25, 2022
Haruki Murakami writes works that are deeply emotive, intelligent, and work in vast layers. His worldview contains observational writing, philosophical questions, and absurdist settings. Along with all that, he writes in fashions that make references to current culture, without judgment, but by doing so
allows the reader to plumb further depths.
I'd point readers to the book 1Q84. In the city of Tokyo, the year is 1984, and all of the dystopia that refers towards, exists but in ways the reader has to discover. Character Aomame, a young woman, is faced with asking her reality about the world around her, and questioning the clues and mysteries that she eventually discovers, leading her to perceive she has found an alternate reality, and one that can't be fully defined, perhaps only experienced. Tengo writes, and in the course of work discovers threads of a different reality too, but from a different entry point.
This work is not altogether similar in structure to 1984 of George Orwell, but is delightfully intriguing in the some powerful ways. 1Q84 asks questions of the reader, about love, life, control, and how we might respond, ourselves, if faced with such a weird discovery. Would you dive head first in a different reality, or would we run like hell to escape it?
I think it'd be wrong to start off here by saying any genre of writing or more generally entertainment, should be ______ or _________. I think there are some aspects of every genre that help to define the genre, but it isn't up to the reader to demand one thing or another. As a matter of fact, I think we help guide the publishers of books when we buy what we buy. If a book sells greatly and it is found to be outside of a genre, it might be that whatever that book has created will be adopted into the genre as a guideline or boundary marker to the other writers yet to come.
A decade ago in the Steve Niles Forum, I was asked, for example, what Horror movie was my favorite. Since I love the movie and franchise, I said Alien. People immediately began to say how I had cheated and that Alien in Science Fiction, not Horror. They said it nicely but I thought about that for a long time afterward. And I do think Alien could belong in either genre, but without the trappings of Science Fiction the concept would still be horror. In the reverse, if an alien being hunted humans, even if it did terrible things to the humans, it would be Science Fiction due to the setting and events being those that could only exist in a work that speculated about creatures from fiction, and outside of our normal existence. (So far...) The people were kind and the discussion wasn't an argument, but still, to me the thing we like doesn't actually need to be dissected and labeled. It should simply work.
I've mentioned before here that I've met people who believe that fantasy is frivolous and less than serious. But first off, that isn't actually true, secondly, I think it limits what can be found in the genre, beyond the normal expression of the genre of fantasy, and thirdly, it doesn't really matter. In the 1960s one picking up a Superman comic might read on the inside, this is an imaginary story, or basically, a story that doesn't happen in the canon of the character. But of course, as you readers know, all stories that aren't detailed factual events are born from one's imagination. Just as fantasy isn't limited by someone who doesn't like the genre's boundary, stories are only limited by the mind of the writer of the story.
DIFFERENT THAN THE NORMAL FANTASY SUGGESTED READINGS
I've absolutely mentioned Alan Dean Foster's Spellsinger series. It is high fantasy, but, why I recommend it, is the reliance upon intelligence, humor and wit versus combat, the clichéd massive battles that solve everything. The main characters might not inspire you to go out and lift weights and go kill an army of orcs, but the role of the bard has a great heritage about it, and should inspire the reader if not similarly, with as much depth. Alan Dean Foster is an author who well could write about muscular hero and stereotypical battles without cliché, but he excels in being a storyteller, and like the main characters, he found different ways to win the battles, and different goals to solve problems.
Meryn Peake might be somewhat forgotten at this point, with fantasy books being turned into movies being well remembered most of all. But his writing was rather unique, in that as an artist his words paint settings and characters differently than most other writers, and in creating as he does, he allowed for a story that was new for the day it was written. It is a thoughtful work about a kingdom and two young men, Titus and Steerpike. It shows a kingdom filled with oddities, rituals needing to be modified or abandoned, and the consequences of holding power, when perhaps the divine right is wrong. Who is more worthy of a throne, one chosen by birth, one chosen by circumstance, or one where desire is balanced by the ability and willingness to lead.
About Getting Reviews from Me
I can be found on Facebook, Twitter or through email Alexanderness63@gmail.com. I accept hard copies, so when you inquire at any of these places, I'll follow through by telling you my street address. I no longer have a post box, although I regret that. It was a crushing defeat to no longer have a p.o. box, when I came to realize I was getting so little product it made no sense to pay for the privilege to not receive mail at both my home and at the post office. If you send hard copies for review I will always review them, but if you prefer to send pdf or ebooks to my email, I will review these at my discretion. I don't share my pdf/ebooks, so you can avoid worry that I'd dispense them for free to others.
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