Ni Jovelyn Javier
“Murakami’s work is contemporary art because it has
so many interpretations.”
Ito ang pagsasalarawan ni The Japan Foundation –
Manila’s Assistant Director, Tetsuya Koide kay renowned writer Haruki Murakami,
na kamakailan lang ay ipinagdiwang ng mga “Harukists” ang mga obra nito sa
pamamagitan ng paglulunsad ng The Japan Foundation – Manila (JFM) sa
kauna-unahang “Haruki Murakami Festival” na tumakbo ng pitong araw.
Nauna na itong idinaos sa Seoul, Singapore, at Tokyo.
A journey in life in a
magical-realist world
Ayon kay Alona Guevarra (Ateneo) sa talk nito na
Murakamiesque: Understanding the Fiction of Murakami Haruki, “The Murakami hero
– to succeed, one must bend social justice (despite the system not changing)
but is firm on changing himself.”
Madalas ang mga karakter nito ay “set between the
banal and the fantastic” o “between the material and the frivolous” na
naghahanap ng kanilang pagkakakilanlan sa pamamagitan ng “sealing over the
lack” o “living with the lack.” At ang mga tema ay tumatalakay sa “critic of
the urban living” at “exploration of the dark side.”
Dagdag pa ng propesor na nagsimulang basahin si
Murakami noong 1995, “The consumption of pop culture ironically serves as
Murakami’s grip on pragmatic reality, as well as the Bubble Economy, on how he
offers resistance to his novels, champions the everyday man, and problematize
the middle class experience.”
Ani Guevarra, para kay Murakami ay may three-pronged
evaluation na kailangan ang mga manunulat – imagination, intelligence, at
focus.
Murakami: Running and
Writing
“No one ever taught me how to write, and I’ve never
made a study of writing techniques. So how did I learn to write? From listening
to music. And what’s the most important thing in writing? It’s rhythm. I’m a
jazz lover, so that’s how I set down a rhythm. No one’s going to read what you
write unless it’s got rhythm. It has to have an inner rhythmic feel that
propels the reader forward.” – Haruki Murakami.
Bahagi ito ng The Three R’s of Murakami: Rhythm,
Routine, and Running talk ni poet-essayist at Rappler correspondent, Frank
Cimatu, na nakilala si Murakami sa short story na “A Shinagawa Monkey” na unang
inilathala sa The New Yorker magazine.
Ani Cimatu, istrikto si Murakami sa kanyang routine –
nagsisimula siyang magsulat nang alas-kwatro ng umaga sa loob ng lima hanggang
anim na oras, tumatakbo ng 10 kilometro pagkatapos magsulat, at natutulog kapag
alas-nuwebe na ng gabi.
Dagdag naman ni Achilles Mina, editor-runner,
“Running is his insurance that he will continue writing great novels, and he’s
always competing with his old self when he’s running while listening to rock
music.”
Bagaman maagang namulat si Murakami sa jazz nang siya
ay 15-taong-gulang, napagtanto na lang niya na gusto niyang magsulat sa edad na
29 habang pinapanood si Dave Hilton ng Yakult Swallows na tumatakbo sa pagitan
ng 2nd at 3rd base sa isang baseball match noong 1978, at
33 naman siya nang nagsimula siyang tumakbo.
Foremost appeal to Filipino
readers and internationally
“Play on the dreamword. Like Kurt Vonnegut. He gives
you this psychological puzzle and lets you drown in them. Compared to Western
literature, he never ties loose ends by the end. It’s almost like a hole,” ang
paglalarawan pa ni Mina sa worlwide appeal ng mga nobela ni Murakami.
Bilang isang Pinoy na mambabasa, para kay Guevarra,
“He offers a different experience, different model, a new way of looking at
reality, or at looking at myself on a personal level.”
“We read him and consume him because we see
ourselves,” ang saad ni Julz Riddle (Ateneo) ukol dito. At ayon pa sa isang
Chongguk University professor, “readers develop empathy to the Japanese of
their age through Murakami.”
Isa rin sa mga interesanteng istilo ni Murakami ang
naiibang tingin sa mga kababaihan. Ayon kay Mary Thomas (Ateneo), “Women read
Murakami to find alternative ways of being a woman. And the woman is always
important to the man in his stories, a part of his being.”
