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Sunday, October 29, 2006

Haruki Murakami And Creative Expression. 'Our' Generation vs. 'Their' Generation.

These pedalicious little DiGi Charat Cosplayers disapprove Haruki Murakami's ways.


The following MSN conversation occurred last night while Justin and I were working on the previous Haruki Murakami Is Wrong! entry. As you can see, we aren't some mindlessly insecure, whiny bigots who take pleasure in blindly bashing a famed literary figure just to make ourselves feel better. An earnest and intelligent discourse WAS exchanged between Justin and I prior to posting the entry. Once again, it's profanity-laced, so don't read if you don't want to defile your virgin eyes.





Swifty says:
actually, if some American author of Murakami's generation starts dissing the younger generation in the States, will you give that much shit too?
Justin says:
No man, I could care less about that, hahaha
Justin says:
That shit doesn't concern me, haha
Swifty says:
...
Swifty says:
exactly
Swifty says:
maybe Murakami might be right.
Swifty says:
and the new generation in Japan DOES suck
Justin says:
How?
Justin says:
They've produced some of the greatest visual beauty, music, and art of the millennium
Justin says:
Murakami has produced "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle."
Justin says:
I rest my case.
Swifty says:
it's entirely subjective.
Justin says:
Do you really want to read "The Elephant Vanishes" over listening to SPEED?
Swifty says:
That's like listening to Spice Girls over a John Grisham book
Justin says:
Spice Girls are still better, you can't dance to John Grisham
Justin says:
You can get laid to Spice Girls, can't do that to John Grisham
Swifty says:
hmm.
Justin says:
How's your part coming?
Swifty says:
I am too indifferent towards the kogyaru to even defend them
Swifty says:
it's Murakami I'm focusing
Swifty says:
it's the inability to accept the new generation that irks me
Swifty says:
but that doesn't mean that the new generation is that damned good
Swifty says:
fuck kogyarus, how different are they compared to the americans who grew up watching MTV?
Swifty says:
oh, right, a more outlandish sense of fashion
Swifty says:
perhaps to western eyes
Swifty says:
so why do i defend them? they all suck.
Justin says:
I think in this whole post, it's pretty much taken for granted that America is a horrible place and anywhere is better than there.
Swifty says:
it's not just America
Swifty says:
i'm not going to beautify and idealize the new generation of Japan
Swifty says:
merely because they are different from us
Justin says:
But dude, that's the thing
Justin says:
They're not different from us
Swifty says:
what the fuck do they have? Kanehara?
Justin says:
That was the point of what I was saying
Justin says:
Why else would I defend them if I didn't identify with them?
Swifty says:
oh
Justin says:
Just like us, they have to deal with
Justin says:
the expectations of people currently in positions of power
Swifty says:
Founder syndrome.
Justin says:
Who fed them lines of bullshit about how to dress, how to think, how to get jobs, etc.
Justin says:
Yeah, except I don't respect them
Justin says:
All my heroes are dead men from like 80 years ago, like I said
Justin says:
Your position might be different, but that's the reasoning behind it
Justin says:
I can relate to kogyaru, I can't relate to Murakami
Justin says:
I've had people say 'sad' and 'disgusted' about things I've done, the way I've tried to live my life
Justin says:
And yeah, writers in the U.S. DO say the same shit
Swifty says:
yeah, but i'm just saying that are the newer generations really worth defending?
Swifty says:
or are we just idealizing them?
Swifty says:
Hm.
Swifty says:
even the people of 80 years ago mean nothing to me. they belong to the past, where the environment made them do things much different from us
Swifty says:
hence 'hardcore'
Swifty says:
I'm too selfish to think myself belonging to any groups. that's why i never gave a shit about movements
Justin says:
Me either, I'm pretty much talking about you and myself in this
Justin says:
I mean, I'm not proscribing anything, I'm just saying we're more creative than people like Murakami
Justin says:
And he knows it
Justin says:
That is the essential point behind it
Swifty says:
but there is a possibility that Murakami's generation do have people more creative than us.
Swifty says:
hmm
Justin says:
Yeah, but who?
Justin says:
Man
Justin says:
No one cares about the people I've just mentioned in this
Justin says:
No one knows what Shirakaba is or who these people are
Justin says:
I'm from the U.S. all right
Justin says:
All I ever hear is like
Justin says:
Fitzgerald
Justin says:
Hemingway
Justin says:
Capote
Justin says:
Carver
Justin says:
No one can think outside of these people
Justin says:
I'm probably the only person who has even been influenced by Akutagawa in like 50 years, outside of Japan
Swifty says:
Yeah, exactly. That's why there might be the US equivalents of those Shirakaba group that you know nothing about
Justin says:
No man
Justin says:
That shit was not underground
Justin says:
They were hell mainstream popular
Justin says:
Mishima signed people's panties in public
Justin says:
The world just doesn't care now because they're not European
Justin says:
If it's not English or American, fuck it, it's nothing
Justin says:
That is the mindset
Justin says:
Even French and Italian writing is ignored
Justin says:
Everyone knows who Hemingway is, no one knows Calvino, Svevo, Gautier, etc.
Swifty says:
that's only because of America's cultural imperialism
Justin says:
Yeah
Swifty says:
over the entire world
Justin says:
That's what I'm saying
Swifty says:
but like i said, those who are living outside U.S. might not necessarily be the best either.
Swifty says:
Kubrick vs Godard
Swifty says:
Fellini vs Kubrick
Swifty says:
or, i dunno, Abbas Kiarostami, Ken Loach vs Wes Anderson, Darren Aronofsky. The Americans aren't weaker than the non-Americans, just that people aren't that used to the more 'exotic' foreign directors.
Justin says:
But dude, again, if you grew up in America, you'd know this
Justin says:
You grew up in Malaysia, like, you had Chinese culture, Malay shit, Western shit from your dad, everything
Justin says:
I had none of this, I mean, no one knows shit in that country
Justin says:
I am just saying, if I didn't have foreign parents and came here, neither would I
Justin says:
I never would have known any of this shit
Swifty says:
Ah, yeah, that's kinda different.
Justin says:
I wouldn't have been able to think outside of those English and American writers
Justin says:
When I say this, I am talking about like PEOPLE WHO WRITE FOR THE NEW YORKER
Justin says:
I know the people that will one day become the staff of that magazine, of Harper's, etc.
Justin says:
I know people that went to Princeton, Harvard, etc., they didn't know shit
Justin says:
They couldn't think outside of that Anglo-American mindset of figures and influences
Swifty says:
Yeah. And they wouldn't bother to know either.
Justin says:
I mean serious, THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT MALAYSIA IS.
Justin says:
I mean THINK about that concept.
Swifty says:
Kinda like when I went to America, and the majority of the people didn't even know where Msia is
Swifty says:
yeah, exactly
Justin says:
Your ENTIRE COUNTRY is irrelevant to that mindset
Justin says:
This is the shit I am saying
Swifty says:
Those fuckers.