Upon reading more of Murakami's works, I believe in my own opinion that he does a wonderful job providing a parody to other works he may have seen in films or other literary works at some point in his life. When we mention parody in class, I don't see it as something negative or as making a mockery of the work he has been exposed to, but more so as a tribute to it. He has a skill in picking apart other people's works and creatively composing something in his own manner that is completely unique to who he is as a writer. He creates a parody of his own writing in some of his works as well. For example, we see a Sheep Man and a Sheep Professor appear in both "Sydney Green Street" and "A Wild Sheep Chase". Both of the protagonists are also on a quest to find something, Boku and his girlfriend go on a search for the Rat in "A Wild Sheep Chase", while Boku and "Charlie" go on a search for the Sheep Man's missing ear in "Sydney Green Street".
Something that interests me about this parody is whether they are relative to one another as being within a same universal setting or if it is simply just parody of his work combined with bits and pieces from other works. Such as the article we looked at about the detective fiction genre being a junkyard and authors salvaging pieces from this junkyard to create unique innovations from their own creativity. On a side note from that same article, I agree on the fact that the authors do take bits and pieces and create a parody of them in their work, but I disagree with the fact that it can never be improved upon. A writer's writing can always be improved upon, and much like what we have heard from being in class Murakami has stated, he always sets a benchmark for himself to do something different and/or better in each of his works. Following this evidence and the argument I am attempting to make, I feel that the detective fiction genre can be improved upon and it is not just simply the same elements over and over in every work of writing such that it cannot be improved upon.
Coming back to the topic of parody, I believe we do see some elements of other writers such as Raymond Chandler, Edgar Allen Poe, and more in Murakami's works. We see the elements of detail, mystery, and anxiety reflected from "William Wilson" in "The Mirror", in which Murakami capitalizes on Edgar Allen Poe's attention to detail and ability to create an overall uncomfortable and anxiety-filling environment whilst giving it his own twist with a sense of Japanese culture. We see elements from "The Long Goodbye" in "A Wild Sheep Chase" in which he parodies Marlowe with Boku, and various other details, such as counting, alcoholism, smoking, description of people and the environment surrounding the protagonist. All of these parodies are tributes to the works he has been exposed to while maintaining his uniqueness as a writer. Even when his style of writing may parody other people's style of writing, he always manages to put a twist on it that definitively marks it as his own, such as the inclusion of Japanese culture.
"Yes, that's quite true. And in that sense there probably is a non-nationality about it, but it's not as though I am after a sense of non-nationality. If that were really what I was after, I think maybe I would have set my novels in America. It would be easy if I were really to have them take place in New York or San Francisco. But, you see, what I wanted was first to depict Japanese society through that aspect of it that could just as well take place in New York or San Francisco. You might call it the Japanese nature that remains only after you have thrown out, one after another, all those parts that are altogether too "Japanese." That is what I really want to express.
I think my novels will tend more and more in that direction from now on. In that sense, but in a very different sense from Mishima, I am after something Japanese. Why? Because, after all, I am a Japanese author writing fiction in Japanese. Since I have come to America, I am often asked whether my next novel will be set in America. I don't think it will. I think I will be living in America for some time to come, but while living in America, I would like to write about Japanese society from the outside. I think that is what will increasingly define my identity as a writer. By the way, do you know there is no equivalent in Japanese for the English word "identity"? That's why when we want to talk about identity we have to use the English word." (Murakami, Roll Over Basho)
This sets his identity as a writer and I believe that this is greatly important to the cultural exposure for those that read works by Murakami. For a person who has never been exposed to Japanese culture, this is a great way to learn and become aware of Japanese customs and society that is exhibited in this cross-cultural exposition of writing that Murakami presents. He can create this view of Japanese culture from the outside, which gives an outsider better understanding and improves their awareness on the culture of Japan. Perhaps, the same can be said for those inside of Japan as well. His work generalizes and parodies western works as well, which may give those inside of Japan a window to his ideas about the culture in Western civilization. This in totality, I believe, establishes a breaking of walls and pushes forth a cross-cultural understanding and awareness for both people outside towards the Japanese culture and inside of Japan towards the Western culture.
~ Jonathon Little
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