August 5th, 2010 / 8:00 pm
Author Spotlight

Haruki Murakami has a lot of issues (not talking about his various extra copies of The New Yorker in which he published) and being alienated in Tokyo with a hard-on is not one of them. Does thinking you have hypochondria make you a hypochondriac? What if you really suffer from thinking you suffer? I suspect Murakami, during and in between writing novels and their respective advances, has a handful of time on his hands — and should those hands be populated with parts of his failing body, then we are not to judge. Everyone loves a sensitive man, but lay off the Bengay.

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42 Comments

  1. thus roithamer
  2. Sean

      Dude is a distance runner. It hurts. Back off him.

  3. thus roithamer
  4. Sean

      Dude is a distance runner. It hurts. Back off him.

  5. Justin RM

      Weird n’ eerie. I just finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle mere hours ago. Too many stories within stories. Loses momentum after about the 300 page mark. If Markson had a copy, he’d have written in the margins something like: “We got the point of this stuff a long time ago. A long time ago. It’s now BORING! And has been.” Or: “Oh God.” Although the stuff about Lieutenant Mamiya was gripping.

      Anyway, those pictures of Murakami made me realize that he is damn near identical to the MMA legend Kazushi Sakuraba (pictured here: http://www.thetrainingmat.com/Images/Stock_Photo/kazushi-sakuraba.jpg). And while the pictures of Murakami’s shoulder pain/tennis elbow/stomach cramps look uncomfortable—at least he doesn’t have to go through anything where he ends up looking like this: http://cdn2.sbnation.com/imported_assets/265733/sakuraba_arona.jpg

  6. Justin RM

      Weird n’ eerie. I just finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle mere hours ago. Too many stories within stories. Loses momentum after about the 300 page mark. If Markson had a copy, he’d have written in the margins something like: “We got the point of this stuff a long time ago. A long time ago. It’s now BORING! And has been.” Or: “Oh God.” Although the stuff about Lieutenant Mamiya was gripping.

      Anyway, those pictures of Murakami made me realize that he is damn near identical to the MMA legend Kazushi Sakuraba (pictured here: http://www.thetrainingmat.com/Images/Stock_Photo/kazushi-sakuraba.jpg). And while the pictures of Murakami’s shoulder pain/tennis elbow/stomach cramps look uncomfortable—at least he doesn’t have to go through anything where he ends up looking like this: http://cdn2.sbnation.com/imported_assets/265733/sakuraba_arona.jpg

  7. zusya17

      a pox on thee.

      shudder.

  8. ZZZIPP

      THEY DON’T LOOK THE SAME AT ALL

  9. jereme

      how dare you soil sakuraba’s name. that dude is fucking legit. the gracie killer.

      before anyone else.

      murakamii is a fad. and he’s lame.

      like old hippy pulp shit.

      meaningless.

  10. Schulyer Prinz

      don’t knock old hippie pulp shit like that.

  11. luke

      YES YES YES finally someone else sees the resemblance

  12. herocious

      i remember liking norwegian wood. there’s some scene where they see smoke in the air from a nearby fire. not much of an indelible image, but indelible nonetheless.

  13. Steven Augustine

      Srsly. Similar like Diddy and Fiddy in their remarkable un-Brangeliniality.

  14. jh

      That book was terrible.

  15. jereme

      hahahaha.

  16. Rey

      Murakami is a fad? Either you haven’t read him, or you don’t know what the word means. Plus, the fact that HTML Giant is ripping him is proof of his genius. Complaining about his discursiveness is like complaining that AC/DC is loud.

  17. ZZZIPP

      THEY DON’T LOOK THE SAME AT ALL

  18. jereme

      how dare you soil sakuraba’s name. that dude is fucking legit. the gracie killer.

      before anyone else.

      murakamii is a fad. and he’s lame.

      like old hippy pulp shit.

      meaningless.

  19. jereme

      htmlg is a fad.

  20. Blake Butler

      the shoulder pain picture is a musical

  21. Schulyer Prinz

      don’t knock old hippie pulp shit like that.

  22. luke

      YES YES YES finally someone else sees the resemblance

  23. herocious

      i remember liking norwegian wood. there’s some scene where they see smoke in the air from a nearby fire. not much of an indelible image, but indelible nonetheless.

  24. Sean

      I didn’t rip him. He’s a flawed writer but good look in your search for perfect.

      Cat+Jazz+Beer+1st person narrator+ talking monkey=Murakami!!

  25. Steven Augustine

      Srsly. Similar like Diddy and Fiddy in their remarkable un-Brangeliniality.

  26. Schulyer Prinz

      Blake and Jereme just wrote an excellent haiku. I’m going to title it Murakami for them.

  27. Schulyer Prinz

      Though, once I asked a friend who was studying Japanese lit what the deal with Japanese punctuation was. He pointed at a glyph (politically correct? doesn’t seem so) and said “See this? It means nothing. It’s not codified. It’s a symbol without a signifier. Murakami makes up characters when he wants to create a blank space, a pause in the river of words.” I still think about that.

  28. jh

      That book was terrible.

  29. jereme

      hahahaha.

  30. Rey

      Murakami is a fad? Either you haven’t read him, or you don’t know what the word means. Plus, the fact that HTML Giant is ripping him is proof of his genius. Complaining about his discursiveness is like complaining that AC/DC is loud.

  31. jereme

      htmlg is a fad.

  32. Blake Butler

      the shoulder pain picture is a musical

  33. Igor

      fad…that’s the word i’ve been looking for the past five years

  34. Sean

      I didn’t rip him. He’s a flawed writer but good look in your search for perfect.

      Cat+Jazz+Beer+1st person narrator+ talking monkey=Murakami!!

  35. Schulyer Prinz

      Blake and Jereme just wrote an excellent haiku. I’m going to title it Murakami for them.

  36. Schulyer Prinz

      Though, once I asked a friend who was studying Japanese lit what the deal with Japanese punctuation was. He pointed at a glyph (politically correct? doesn’t seem so) and said “See this? It means nothing. It’s not codified. It’s a symbol without a signifier. Murakami makes up characters when he wants to create a blank space, a pause in the river of words.” I still think about that.

  37. Igor

      fad…that’s the word i’ve been looking for the past five years

  38. sarah b

      oh poor haruki :(
      what about jimmy chen’s failing body pix??

  39. sarah b

      oh poor haruki :(
      what about jimmy chen’s failing body pix??

  40. Jon Cone

      In terms of pain endured, the greatest Japanese writer must surely be Yukio Mishima.

  41. Khakjaan Wessington

      They say only older Japanese men have perverted fetishes, but this thread proves that in the West, there is a perverted fetish for older Japanese men.

  42. Khakjaan Wessington

      They say only older Japanese men have perverted fetishes, but this thread proves that in the West, there is a perverted fetish for older Japanese men.