After doing the two presentations (The Great Gatsby and David Copperfield) this week, I really vividly felt how cleverly Murakami had incorporated all these elements from the things he read, heard, or watched. Although all along we have been looking at his sources, I felt the character of Steerforth compared to Nagasawa really made an impact on me. It was eerie how similar they were as characters, yet it took Murakami way fewer words and descriptions to convey the same aura and atmosphere of Steerforth in Nagasawa. Furthermore, he had achieved this with the character in a completely different language and the novel set in a completely different country. The transfer of Steerforth into a Japanese setting was also very convincingly done as if I did not have the context of David Copperfield I would not have realized he was based on an English character. This can also be applied to his detective fiction inspirations, the foreign musical elements, and everything else.
It really is the same for all the resources and ideas that Murakami pays homage to, borrows from, and is inspired by. It is truly amazing the way he can incorporate so many different elements into the Japanese setting and make it all flow smoothly and naturally. Through writing, he transcended literature the past stiff boundaries of culture, nationality, and ethnicity. I think that this is what makes his novels truly post-modern. This also particularly stood out to me as I think that this post-modern style was still a little unsteady in A Wild Sheep Chase, at the point of Norwegian Wood 5 years later, it feels like he has perfected this craft and I really enjoyed this book a lot more as it seemed a bit more polished in terms of style.
Celine Yuan
No comments:
Post a Comment