murakami enriquecito "the world is mediocre. about that there is no mistake. Well, then, has the world been mediocre since time immemorial? No. In the beginning, the world was chaos, and chaos is not mediocre. The mediocratization began when people separated the means of production from daily life. For when Karl Marx posited the proletariat, he thereby cemented their mediocrity. And precisely because of this, Stalinism forms a direct link with Marxism. I affirm Marx. He was one of those rare genuises whose memory extended back to primal chaos. And by the same token, I have high regard for Dostoyevsky. Nonetheless, I do not hold with Marxism. It is far too mediocre." 010802 ... sim "The heroes in Haruki Murakami's dazzling, addictive and rather strange novels don't fit the stereotype of conformist, work-obsessed Japanese men at all. They're dreamy, brainy introverts, drunk on culture (high and pop), with a tendency to get mixed up with mysterious women and outlandish conspiracies." 010829 ... DannyH So good he makes me want to learn Japanese. 010830 ... enriquecito and just keeps on getting better. the first story in After The Quake is a little earthquake of its own. i read him when i forget the primeval chaos, when i am sad that life is mediated and kodachromed, when i want to pull back and feel the electricity pulsing through every cell in my body. it's the most delicious tonic for the soul i have ever found. 021216 ... the Spanich Bolero I read that book one time, The Wind Up Bird and I remember thinking about the darkness of a well. It reminded me of those sensory deprevation chambers, and I wanted to tell someone that I loved their eyes. I wanted to tell someone that their eyes reminded me of the blackness of a well. I just made all that up, but who would know, definitley not you. This is so comfortable. I could live in this space 021217 ... u24 "hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world" was delightful. i never finished "the wind up bird chronicle", maybe i will start again. i was reading it in praha, and once i returned it just lay forgotten on a shelf. i got a fair chunk through it, too. i have started reading it again 060324 ... u24 finished it a few weeks ago. it was good. saw some more in a bookshop. I mislead you. Actively searched for more in a bookshop. Decided not to buy. The next day I saw a second hand copy for £1. Fate had decided I should read "Norweigan Wood" next. I haven't started yet, but I will soon. I cannot praise Murakami highly enough. 060427 ... u24 if you like murakami, you should also read ian banks. recommended are "the bridge" and "the business". very different, but quite similar. not as good as murakami, but you may enjoy. personally, I won't read another ian banks book, but I may re-read the business at some point. I still haven't read NW (see above) 060506 ... u24 still haven't read NW. 061026 ... DannyH Begin now. It's so good I'm jealous of you for not having read it yet. 061026 ... u24 lol, seriously? I was dissuaded by the fact that it was seen by some as 'just' a love story, rather than a twisty tangly web, such as was Hard-Boiled Wonderland. Unfortunatley I don't have it here, so it'll be easter before I can read it. 061026 ... u24 i don't even know where it is anymore. still haven't finished kafka_on_the_shore, either. 070415 ... unhinged i finished kafka_on_the_shore ; it didn't really end. japanese culture makes me shrug. 070415 ... u24 finished kafka on the shore, will be starting "south of the border west of the sun" soon. still haven't read NW. bought "haibane renmei", an anime series said to be based (loosely) on hardboiled wonderland.. it's ok but doesn't seem to go anywhere. it's a little too shojo for me. 080226 ... u24 while at the time, I didn't enjoy the wind up bird as much as hard boiled wonderland, I find myself returning to the image of the protagonist in the well again and again. perhaps I should book a day's sensory deprivation sometime. 080226 ... u24 read the first chapter last night. looks promising, as usual I'll have to wait until three quarters through before I know if I like it. 080227 ... unhinged murakami is weird like that...i kept reading kafka on the shore thinking something was going to HAPPEN and it never did. which of course i didn't figure out til i read the whole thing. that's zen for you. i guess...? 080227 ... u24 I did finally read Norweigan Wood. Can't remember what I thought to it. I have 1Q84 waiting for me now. I haven't read Murakami, probably since those blathes above me. Looking forward to it. 140507 ... epitome of incomprehensibility Wild Sheep Chase was meditative in some parts, absurd and hilarious in others. I have good memories about reading it too - doing so, at one point, while pacing in the near-deserted parking lot of a gas station. It was night, so the artificial lights were appreciated. I think something was wrong with the car I was traveling in, but I wasn't unduly worried since I wasn't in charge of driving it. Selfishly seventeen, was I? Or eighteen. But like unhinged said, I was also waiting for something more to happen. 140507 ... u24 I quite like that nothing happens. It makes me revel in the details without looking for a bigger picture. 140507 ... e_o_i I don't disagree (e_o_i grows rosebushes around people named Bets) - I like having expectations reversed sometimes - I guess it depends what mood my mind's in. 140509 what's it to you? who go blather from