(no subject)

[proximoception]

Murakami's the heavy favorite (over Munro) to win this year's Nobel.

On the strength of 1Q84.

What the fuck?

Seriously - while I'm eternally mad at people who make high claims for There Will Be Blood or Donnie Darko these make perfect sense next to the total madness of even a vaguely positive assessment of that book.

Comments

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

So, what´s wrong with Murakami? I´ve read one of his books (I forget the title, it simply didn´t stick to my mind) and was not impressed. From what little I´ve heard about 1Q84 it´s nothing but an Eastern soap-opera, "Kill Bill" made in Japan. But, if someone like Jelinek ("Here come the toilets" as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Reich-Ranicki exclaimed when she was bestowed with Prizzi´s Honour made in Sweden) can go to the golden hall ball in Stadshuset, that´s no reason not to give Murakami the same opportunity. He might meet someone interesting.

Since one single effort is enough to catapult someone into the Nobel Prize position (you can play the Lord of Flies game here http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/ but not here http://www.greatbooksguide.com/altnobel08.html) I´d have proposed someone like Andrzej Szczypiorski based simply on his Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman because I like it but he has gone and died beforehand, though a posthumous prize might be nice (can´t recall if it´s been done).
Generally,
the Swedish Academy has dubious taste not only in literature but also in restaurants. The one in the Old Town of Stockholm they use to meet in regularly is widely overrated http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Den_Gyldene_Freden, they will sell you ikean meatballs for the price (sic) of a ***daube. Therefore, maybe the restaurant should go for a prize in one of these cathegories: http://www.improbable.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html#ig2005
It used to once upon a time be a nice and unpretentious pub-like bar to have lousy Swedish beer with friends in in my long gone youth but has since deteriorated into becoming a tourist trap. Perhaps it follows that way: Murakami gets the prize to get people to go to Japan. Bad taste = tough luck, like? http://www.svenskaakademien.se/en/news/press_releases/2013

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's the "on the strength of" part that's the trouble. 1Q84 isn't his typical book - he decided to proceed completely on is-inspiration, refused to rewrite, refused editing or had a completely cowed editor. There's aspects of Kafka on the Shore that gesture at this level of badness, but no other hints in his other books that this could ever have happened.

I hate Kill Bill but it's novelization would be light years better than 1Q84.

Wind Up Bird Chronicle has some really good stuff in it, Norwegian Wood is a fun pop novel. I'm neither a Murakami lover nor hater. But 1Q84 needs to be famous for its astonishing terribleness. That the opposite is true genuinely frightens and confuses me.

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

Geez, you almost make me want to read more Murakami! Lots of transport space, though (as I remember it) but look who´s talking: "Kill Bill" had it´s five minutes of fun (though I hate being addressed that way just because I happen to be a femelle of the species and host estrogen) but it was the other five hours or so that got at me and I was in good company at my fav. crazy neighbour´s, drinking Osborne while husband was at work; time was on my bloody hands. So, when I pick up a Murakami sometime between now and World´s End, it won´t be 1Q84 and it´s your fault, too.

[tdaschel.livejournal.com]

Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.