Kino by Haruki Murakami | Hacker News Reader

Kino by Haruki Murakami

newyorker.com

187 pointspmcpinto42 comments

Murakami has always been one of my favorite writers...

Fundamentally, he explores the space between a person and the greater society, loneliness and alienation and the way people connect with each other like two sparks in a vast darkness.

If you're just reading the comments, go ahead and read this short story :)

Murakami is one of those authors that has good enough style, culture and influences that at first they come of as quite profound, and at the same-time are pleasant to read in a way that say Kafka or Dostoevsky are not - then about half-way through the novel you realize it's a cheap knock-off to sell profundity to the general public.

That's a rather negative way to look at his writing. Sure, he still has plenty of room for improvement in his writing, but it definitely doesn't qualify as a "cheap knock-off." Is there anything specific you can point to, or do you just not like the writing?

I would say it's a realistic way to look at his writing. It probably seems negative to you because you believe Murakami has more merit than the GP does. Personally I am in agreement with the GP's estimation.

One oftentimes hears arguments along these lines about Murakami. That his writing is just pop commercial stuff. I am not sure I ever really grokked what these complaints were all about. Can you say more about what makes his writing like a "cheap knock-off"? At the very least what is the argument that it is a knock off at all (deferring considerations of its valuation)?

I can't speak for everyone who makes these arguments. My problem with his writing has nothing to do with its status as a knockoff.

That said, if I had to guess, the answer to your question would be that faux profundity is always a knockoff of the truly profound.

I happen to agree, I don't like Murakami all that much, and I've read 6 or 8 of his novels. I feel a bit similar about him as I do about Stephen King or TV series like Games of Thrones, Orange is the New Black or House of Cards: more manipulative and plain than genuinely interesting. Throw in a little bit of cheating, a little bit of drama, "lovely breasts bouncing violently in the air", "Emotions that, if cut, would bleed", a little bit of vagina, the "bloody weight of desire and the rusty anchor of remorse", to substitute for lack of substance. Then again, who am I to criticize, what have I written that has any substance...

All that said, I wonder what it is that makes us feel that trying to pander to the general public is so bad... If by using "cheap tricks" he reaches a bigger audience and connects with more people... More power to him?

Is profundity something we should need a doctorate to have access to? Should Murakami be larding up his books with Turkish puns to alienate the plebian readers?

Profundity? Strange, I would describe the stories he tells as being wonderfully shallow: there's a stillness about them that makes you feel more like you were just described a painting or an instant in time in a dream, not a narrative with a plot.

I know he's super famous, and I'm sure lots of people have written lots of bullshit about his work, but you can do what I do which is read nothing about him and just enjoy his work like you might casually stroll through a museum. If it feels pleasant, keep doing it.

Now now, you're confusing him with Milan Kundera

A further sampling of non-paywall Murakami short stories from The New Yorker:

Yesterday (Jun. 9, 2014 issue) http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/06/09/yesterday-3

Scheherazade (Oct. 13, 2014 issue) http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/scheherazade-3

Samsa In Love (Oct. 28, 2013 issue) http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/10/28/samsa-in-love

Town of Cats (Sep. 5, 2011 issue) http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/09/05/town-of-cats

U.F.O. in Kushiro (Mar. 28, 2011 issue) http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/03/28/u-f-o-in-kushir...

When I started reading Murakami, I couldn't stop. He weaves a world which seems so surreal without feeling absurd. Eventually, I read 4 of his books back to back and then bought the rest.

But, then I read the 5th one. And for some reason it felt like I've read it before. The protagonist in his novels has some very common characteristics - they like being alone, they cook and like to run. More often than not, a cat is involved (probably owing to the crazy high ratio of cats/people in Japan).

The last thing I read by him was actually a short story in New Yorker called 'Town of Cats'. I am now reading 1Q84. After a few pages, I felt like I had read some of it before. Even the character's jobs were the same. Peculiar details were common. And then I realised that I had read this in the short story.

I agree, it's very easy to wolf his books down, but in the end you don't feel like you gained much from it. After a while it gets a bit same-y. Hard-Boiled Wonderland had some nice ideas though.

IQ84 turned me off Murakami for a long time. Count how many times he recounts the same incident in almost the same words (narrator, mother). Count how many times he mentions breasts and the shapes of them (it's likely the same number of times he mentions any female). I read book one and two and realised at the end of it that I couldn't bear to buy the third book just to discover what happens to the protagonists.

Time for Murakami Bingo:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/06/01/books/review/0...

I count: mysterious woman (?), cats, old jazz record, urban ennui, cooking, weird sex, Tokyo at night, unusual name, and vanishing cats -- no bingo!

Is Murakami really this predictable though?

Yes.

What's this, no Cutty Sark?

I studied Japanese lit as well as CS in college so I've read a bunch of his stuff in english and japanese. This is one of his better short stories in a while. If anyone is looking for something international by him I recommend Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World ( http://www.amazon.com/Hard-Boiled-Wonderland-End-World-Inter... ). Read it in your first language: you're missing nothing. It's one of the best Japanese -> English translations I've ever seen.

Partially because Murakami i very involved in the Japanese to English Translation. He cares a lot about translation, he's actually a very accomplished English to Japanese translator himself, he's translate F. Scott Fitzgerald and Truman Capote among others. Plus he has an excellent series of English translators, like Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel. He's noted that he really learned to love novels by reading imported English language dime novels as a teenager in Kobe.

Ever since I found a tattered copy of "A Wild Sheep Chase" at a used bookstore in Bangkok, he has been my favorite writer.

This was a great short read for a Sunday morning, thanks for posting this.

Just yesterday, I read Sputnik Sweetheart, and convinced myself to read more Murakami. In the process, I've noticed his works tend to be subtle, and yet are very good at making me feel all sorts of emotions in the process.

Definitely read kafka on the shore or wind-up bird chronicle next. Most of his short story collections are excellent as well.

I'm a huge Murakami fan but his style hasn't evolved hugely, so I'd recommend against binging on them so you don't burn out.

Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is amazing. My two favorites by him are that and Afterdark which is very short but incredibly fascinating...I think it's his best work, pound for pound.

You have to follow up with Norvegian Wood.

I'm reading Sputnik Sweetheart too and it is brilliant.

If you want more gripping stuff, there is always "Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche". It's a collection of interviews from different people affected by it and how their tales sync with each other. Very, very good!

"Kino" is the protagonist's name as well as the name of the bar he run. It may be interpreted as an identfity, an armor and a comfortable place hidden in a crowded world. It provides a perfect hideout for Kino where he doesn't have to face the reality. I wonder if he has been suppressing his feelings when he found out about his wife and his colleague or she left a void in his heart and he is incapable of having any emotions until that rainy night.

Super cool! One of my favorite contemporary writers.

I just started "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle", and was instantly hooked.

Can anyone offer an explanation for why Kamita needs to specify that his name is not pronounced 'Kanda'?

'Kamita' and 'Kanda' share the same kanji "神田" in japanese and the latter is much popular.

Japanese characters can have multiple readings. For most words and phrases, there is a standard correct reading, but for names, things get more complicated. Presumably 'Kanda' is the most common reading.

http://jisho.org/words?jap=%E7%A5%9E%E7%94%B0&eng=&dict=enam...

His name would be written as "神田". Those two symbols are refereed to as kanji. The reading of a kanji depends on what word it is used in.

Kamita is literally the combined readings of the words "神"(god-kami) and "田"(field-ta), not their readings for when used in a name, or when combined with other kanji. Additionally, the "t" sound at the beginning of a kanji often becomes a "d" when it is placed in the middle of a word (although it is hit or miss for when this happens).

Out of curiosity, I looked up "神田", and it turns out that it is an (archaic) word, pronounced kamita, meaning "field affiliated with a shrine (the tax-exempt proceeds of its harvest going to pay for shrine operations)" [1]

[1]http://jisho.org/words?jap=%E7%A5%9E%E7%94%B0&eng=&dict=edic...

It's interesting to note that in the original, a reader would also be reading his name as Kanda until the first explanation pops up.

I didn't know Murakami's short were published in the New Yorker. Thanks for sharing. :)

I love this short story

[SPOILER ALERT]

I don't quite get it.

Who is Kamita? Why did he tell him to shut the bar and go far away? Who was knocking on the door and how did the knock suddenly start coming from the outside window of an 8-story building?

To me, Kino is a portrayal of the emotionally inert, of those who will not risk. The longer I live, the more of these persona I recognise (myself included). Come on, look about you, the computer profession is replete with this personality type. The "tap, tap" of rain on a window is Nature's message to Kino: Let life, with all its sweet sorrows, in.

Ah .. it was the rain tapping the window? That makes more sense now.

I think I did get the part where he's repressing his emotions, etc. Not even properly "crying" over his ended marriage.

Still the setting and the narration hit me as pretty dark. If this was made into a short anime film, I can't help but imagine it would be one of those dark silent films.

My take (spolers abound)

    - the main theme is emotional detachment / coldness as a comfortable place - is it a desirable position to be in?
    - Kamita is a god who protects the bar, perhaps he may be the willow tree.
    - the cat represents his comfort in feeling detatched from his emotions
    - the woman who he sleeps with breaks this spell - he is neither able to remain detached (he feels sympathy for her due to her wounds) nor act decisively once her lover returns
    - his trip is a chance for him to regain his detachment and his comfortable place, but he blows it with his emotional letter
    - he has decide if he can face the fact he really does have some woes, attractions, desires etc. . that's the cliff he stands on the edge of while he sobs under the covers..

Kamita => Kami da => (He) is God

Interesting interpretation!

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