Norwegian wooden was flawed in one of the best ways (my opinion)
Haruki Murakamis novel ,, Norwegian wooden” is one in all his finest books and it is extremely controversial. However I nonetheless prefer it. I’ve seen individuals complain concerning the e-book being misogynistic in the case of describing the feminine forged, in addition to being to miserable and the mc being a dick. However i believe that folks do not perceive that that’s the level. This books discusses Toru’s life 17 years in the past. I really feel that the way in which all the things is written is as a result of it is from his perspective and it is in his phrases. The feminine characters are written unhappy, and so they complain and are simply made into that stereotype. However I can see them being extra then that. Regarding Toru’s writing about them 17 years later he would possibly simply bear in mind sure elements of them. Like their physique’s, the occasions they complain and struggle with him. As a result of he’s a misogynistic man. All he actually sees these ladies for are their issues and the way they’re in mattress. Instance, Naoko is generally targeted on her psychological struggles and her sexual relations with Toru. As a result of that is how he remembers her as, he could not see her as the rest. Aswell as Midori, he simply remembered her as a lady who fell in love with him, talked out intercourse, drank and fought with him. I’ve little question that she was extra then that however that was the way in which he noticed her. He isn’t the hero of this story. He is a foul and gross particular person and he is not purported to be another manner. The purpose of the e-book isn’t that he is this harmless man going by means of all this. It is that he has a posh, he thinks he is an trustworthy considerate man and that is not altering.
This e-book has many flaws, from Reiko’s piano backstory to the grafic manner he describes intercourse. It is a nicely written e-book, it isn’t purported to make you suppose a sure manner. It is a e-book for interpretation. With rights and wrongs which are totally different in everybody’s eyes. Thanks for studying:)
Comments ( 2 )
I haven’t read Norwegian Woods, but in my understanding this kind of character is very difficult to make, specially if the book have flaws that seem to show that the author have the mentality he’s trying to criticise (not saying is the case here, idk). The problem is that more often than not you will have people not understanding that the bad actions of a character isn’t supposed to validate the reader’s bad actions. You can see that in American psycho. The guy is a terrible person and the entire work makes that very clear, but you have a lot of people who want to be like the MC. Majority of the times is not the authors fault, it’s just that a lot of people don’t seem to accept the fact that the character that they identify so much with is a terrible person, therefore, the reader is, by conclusion, a terrible person.
I won’t weigh in on the misogyny of the author. That’s a moral assessment and I like to keep that separate from any artistic assessment. It’s fair for someone to not want to read Murakami because of misogyny, just as it’s fair for me to not want to read Ian Fleming because of the racism. But I’m just asking people to understand that being a fan and reader of Murakami does not mean one condones misogyny, any more than being a reader of Fleming or Lovecraft means condoning racism, or being a reader of MZB means condoning pedophilia.
Murakami is not interested in moral statements, at least not to the degree that you can say he is moralizing in any of his works. That is a fairly Western way of looking at art and fiction. While Murakami’s work has a Westernized bent, he is nevertheless a Japanese author and we should take that into account.
I don’t think Murakami writes Toru, Hajime, Kafka or anyone else as a hero, but I don’t think he writes any of them as bad people, either. You know when he wants to paint a character as bad. He makes that very clear. Noboru Wataya, for example. Toru is hardly in the same ballpark. I am almost certain that he is simply meant to be a regular Joe.
I don’t know if Murakami is influenced by the French New Wave, but their works seems to have sympathy with each other. I’m talking about the way they employ familiar tropes in idiosyncratic ways, with a larger emphasis on feeling, style and “being cool” over making sense or providing narrative satisfaction.
The question is, why would they do this? I think, probably, because there is a beauty in being confounding. Not only confounding, but being unapologetically opaque, almost like a Zen koan.
Anyway, back to Toru. He is experiencing a bittersweet recollection of his youth. He is remembers when he struggled between holding on to the past (Naoko) versus moving on without baggage (Midori). He never does make a clean choice, and the eventual outcome is messy and unsatisfying, because that’s life. There is no moral, only: this is what happened.