"I already have a certain age, but I definitely don't care if I am called 'Uncle', or should I be called 'Daddy', there is no doubt that this is the age, but I don't call it that myself." If you ask for any reason, it's because when a person calls himself 'I'm already an uncle', he becomes a real uncle. ”
Haruki Murakami, who said this, has celebrated his 73rd birthday today, and his new book "First Person Singular" was newly released not long ago, and when you open it, the text still does not deliberately bypass his personal hobbies: music, baseball, writing, it turns out that it is still a familiar and fresh recipe.
Just as in his own fictional world, Murakami sets some timescales, but it seems that people do not feel the weight of time.
In reality, regarding the matter of "age", his understanding is also to try not to think about it: "When it is a last resort, it is enough to think about it privately on the tip of the head." ”
Time can turn us into all sorts of things, but Murakami's time makes it hard to associate him with the word "aging." Just as he always played life the way he liked, even if it took twenty or thirty years.
In the spring at the age of 29, Haruki Murakami lay on the outfield seat of Jingu Stadium, drinking beer and watching a baseball game.
At that moment, "Maybe I can write a novel too?" Such a thought came to mind in the crisp sound of a shot.
Then every night, after the closure of his jazz bar, he could be seen at the table of the shop waving his pen.
In June 1979, his first work ,"And Listen to the Wind" won the 23rd "Group Portrait Newcomer Award", and since then he has officially debuted as a novelist.
In the autumn of the 33rd year, Murakami's life became regular: every day he got up at four o'clock in the morning, wrote for five or six hours, and ran ten kilometers.
Later, it was changed to nine or ten o'clock in the morning, and ran for an hour after finishing work. The habit of 60 cigarettes a day has changed, the extra flesh around the waist is gone, and even obsessed with triathlon, participating in world-class marathon events every year.
When some reporters interviewed him, they chose "Did you run today?" "When such a clever opening statement, most of them can get the good luck of Murakami entering the state to answer.
Haruki Murakami, 48, collaborated with illustrator Makoto Wada to publish Jazz Group Score, and in 2001, he launched Jazz Group Score 2.
Among the two popular science books that can be called jazz enthusiasts, Haruki Murakami vividly expresses his years of experience in listening to jazz and his understanding and feelings about jazz masters on paper with a delicate writing skill.
At the age of 68, Haruki Murakami added a "bar" to his identity and went as a DJ.
In the radio program "Murakami RADIU" on TOKYO FM in Tokyo, Japan, he patiently answered questions from the audience while introducing music in a magnetic, calm midrange.
▲Facing the walls of vinyl records in Murakami's house,
Someone even gave him one
The title of "The Best-Selling Author Who Recommends Jazz",
Music is one of the most important things in Murakami's life.
What else? Traveling masters around the world, gentle and warm veteran cat slaves, spaghetti fanatics, translators who have translated more than 60 works by Raymond Carver, Fitzgerald, Alice Monroe and others...
To say, the abundant life condensed in Haruki Murakami is quite like the jazz played in a bar: after hearing similar openings many times, I can't guess the melody that changes later, and he seems to have endless vitality!
Therefore, for people who like Haruki Murakami, no matter what stage of life they are in, as long as they talk about Haruki Murakami, they don't seem to be fully ready.
"Haruki Murakami" – an adjective, a symbol, a lifestyle representation. At least it is not enough to measure his value by his status as a "novelist".
Unlike many contemporary writers, Haruki Murakami and us have a sense of the reality of ordinary people's lives.
First, he does not have the habit of "hiding" words, almost everything he has written will be published, and it is appropriate to share a master; second, his content and subject matter are quite rich, writing running, writing travel, and writing life essays, whether it is himself or the characters in the book and feeling lonely in the neon of the city, which makes it easy to substitute himself into the text of The Village, because that may be the stage and scene that each of us is experiencing.
▲ With the publication of "Norwegian Forest" in 1987 as the landmark node,
The book broke the 10 million copies sold in both Japan and China.
Triggered the "Murakami phenomenon".
Everyone's opportunity to enter the world of Haruki Murakami is different, but in the book, Murakami constructs the same world for the reader: we face our youth, loneliness and alienation there, which are also one of the themes of his literary creation.
For example, in the preface to Kafka by the Sea, Haruki Murakami paints group portraits of his protagonists, which are common in his novels:
"Before, the protagonists of my novels were mostly men in their twenties and thirties, living in metropolises such as Tokyo, either engaged in specialized occupations or unemployed.
From a societal point of view, they are by no means highly regarded characters, rather a group of people who live outside the mainstream, but they have unique personal values.
In this sense, they maintain consistency and sometimes become stronger depending on the situation. What I have described so far is roughly this way of life, this kind of values, the life they personally experienced, the real state of the world reflected in their eyes. ”
▲ The young Watanabe in "Norwegian Forest",
Represents the confused generation of the last century
In many of Murakami's works, the portrayal of those who live outside the "mainstream" and the protagonists with their backs to the times is actually showing readers a history of spiritual growth and the right to choose life again and again. As he once said in an interview:
"There seem to be a lot of places like 'gaps' in the whole world, as long as you are lucky and find the 'gaps' that suit you, you can survive."
And you will find that no matter whether you are 43 years old, 53 years old, 63 years old, 73 years old, Haruki Murakami can still express the mood of teenagers so stubbornly and accurately in his books, and this "sense of youth" that is unwilling to go with the flow and has a bit of stubbornness, no matter which stage of society and which generation of readers, it is a driving force.
▲ Stills from the norwegian forest movie
"Youthfulness" is the background color that every adult has lost, but most desires, it symbolizes youth, vitality, non-marketing and infinite possibilities.
In this current society, which is not mentally and psychologically ready for adulthood, Murakami's words and attitudes have given affirmation and comfort to the confusion of "being unable to become an adult for a long time".
To borrow the words of Murakami's hardcore fan and Taiwanese writer Yang Zhao: The spectacle that Haruki Murakami really created is not those millions and tens of millions of sales figures, but the unremitting and non-stop writing of more than 40 years of growth and struggle experience, as well as always hovering on the border between teenagers and adults, refusing to officially enter the adult field.
He is an eternal teenager who is obsessed with being brave and strong.
Obviously, time has pushed generations of readers forward, and Haruki Murakami has left time alive and vigorous.
Of course, even if you refuse to read Haruki Murakami, it is difficult to get rid of its influence.
After all, one of the things Haruki Murakami has been practicing is to show readers "another possibility of life" with his unique and delicate perspective.
For example, in the essay collection "If There Really Is a Time Machine", Murakami wrote: "Life is a one-way line, if there is a time machine, what wish do you want to achieve?"
- Not sure why to go, it is the reason to start, if it is smooth sailing, it will lose the meaning of travel, this is the so-called travel, the so-called life.
It is speculated that in Murakami Haruki's own understanding, life may not be easy, but the posture of facing life needs to be relaxed.
The foodie who explores the food wherever he goes, and likes to revisit the old place and reminisce about the past.
The one who saw the lost puffin flying shouted into the sky, "Come on! Be strong and live! "The warm man.
The fan who is keen to use the Internet to communicate with readers, to fans with age anxiety, said with relief and laughter, "If you are 28 years old, you are not actually an 'adult', your life has just begun." "Wonderful old man.
Each character is the real Haruki Murakami, and when we gaze at him differently, we also reflect on "what life really is".
"Run like Murakami."
"Travel like Murakami."
"Listen to jazz like Murakami."
……
Inadvertently, you will find that there are too many people around you who are not fans of Haruki Murakami, but they are loyal fans of his lifestyle, grasping those subtle and soft happiness in feeling the "Murakami-style" life.
If there were a time machine, someone told you that you could use it once at will – only this time, what do you want to do? In contrast, Murakami's answer is really "very Murakami":
"My answer was clearly fixed a long time ago. I want to fly to New York in 1975 (that's a stupid question, is time chance to fly?). Enjoying a live performance of Clifford Brown and max Roach quintets at the jazz club there is my current desire. ”
Perhaps we also need to face the future life with the idea of not having "next time".
We also have reason to continue to expect that Haruki Murakami will bring more surprises of "this is very Murakami".
From which book did you know Haruki Murakami?
It is undeniable that "Murakami novels" as a phenomenon have indeed shaped and changed the face of world literature, and many of the classics we mentioned above have remained in the hearts of readers who like Murakami.
If you want to quickly and richly harvest a "sketch portrait" of Haruki Murakami, then the following books are a good choice.
Abandoned Cats: When I Talk About My Father
"Abandoned Cat" is Haruki Murakami's only essay on the nature of memories. A soldier who has fought in an evil war, a peaceful and tender father, two torn identities placed on the same person, how will he face life.
Haruki Murakami, who almost never writes about his family, uses realistic writing for the first time to recall his real-life father. And the father's problem has evolved into a problem in the village, and the severed self and the divided father can't tell which one is more difficult to face.
"If Our Language Were Whiskey"
Haruki Murakami's travelogue "If Our Language Is Whiskey" features 40 colorful landscape photographs taken by his wife Yoko, because the places described in the travelogue are shared by the two of them. These photos make Haruki Murakami's text add a vivid and wonderful color, and the couple's matching can really be described as "beaded and wall-to-wall".
In addition to the scenery, the book also includes some photos taken by Yoko for Haruki Murakami, allowing you to see Haruki Murakami playing a game of pétanque in Scotland.
"When I Talk About Running, What Am I Talking About"
In "When I Talk About Running, What Do I Talk About", Haruki Murakami uses running and writing as metaphors and references, transforming them into the strength to move forward in life.
This is the first book written by Haruki Murakami to write only about himself, and it also describes how he used running to understand life, exercise spirit and will. If you have a plan or habit of running, or want to exercise your willpower to stick to one thing, this book is highly recommended.
"My Profession is a Novelist"
In this book, For the first time, Haruki Murakami talks in detail about his view of writing. "Writing fiction is an inclusive profession, like a boxing ring, anyone can come up and compete, but even if it shines briefly, it does not mean that he has become a writer." Writers are the ones who stand to the end in the ring. ”
As a writer with a high degree of unity of lifestyle and values, Murakami also reveals his attitude towards life when he talks about writing: why he runs, why he wants to be self-disciplined, why he wants to be soft. You may not want to be a writer, but you probably want to live like him.
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