WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.299 Okay, let's unpack this. We are diving deep into 00:00:02.299 --> 00:00:06.379 a truly unique corner of contemporary literature, 00:00:06.700 --> 00:00:09.779 the world of Haruki Murakami. This is a writer 00:00:09.779 --> 00:00:12.259 who has just, I mean, he's completely transcended 00:00:12.259 --> 00:00:15.199 borders. His work is available in over 50 languages 00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:17.699 globally, sells millions of copies, and yet he 00:00:17.699 --> 00:00:20.460 remains this kind of enigmatic figure, a global 00:00:20.460 --> 00:00:23.579 phenomenon who for a time essentially went into 00:00:23.579 --> 00:00:25.980 self -exile because he became, well, too famous 00:00:25.980 --> 00:00:28.620 in his own country. That duality is the perfect 00:00:28.620 --> 00:00:29.980 starting point. I'm glad you brought that up 00:00:29.980 --> 00:00:32.359 because it really does define his entire career. 00:00:32.500 --> 00:00:35.520 He created a path that was just completely separate 00:00:35.520 --> 00:00:38.399 from the traditional established Japanese literary 00:00:38.399 --> 00:00:41.399 world. Right. So you have this figure who, by 00:00:41.399 --> 00:00:43.579 some really powerful critics in his home country, 00:00:43.740 --> 00:00:46.479 is called an outcast. He's called un -Japanese 00:00:46.479 --> 00:00:48.880 because of all these perceived Western influences. 00:00:49.020 --> 00:00:51.600 Yet this is the same writer who produced what 00:00:51.600 --> 00:00:53.679 a major national survey called the best ranked 00:00:53.679 --> 00:00:56.119 work of Japan's entire Heisei era. And that's 00:00:56.119 --> 00:01:01.500 1Q84. The sprawling three volume epic 1Q84. So 00:01:01.500 --> 00:01:03.299 the mission of this deep dive is to really unpack 00:01:03.299 --> 00:01:06.099 that paradox, to share how his unconventional 00:01:06.099 --> 00:01:08.959 life from being a jazz bar owner to a marathon 00:01:08.959 --> 00:01:12.739 runner. directly shapes the specific, really 00:01:12.739 --> 00:01:14.879 potent knowledge nuggets you find in his novels. 00:01:15.060 --> 00:01:17.719 Absolutely. And for you, the learner, what's 00:01:17.719 --> 00:01:20.640 so fascinating here is the sheer breadth of the 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:22.420 source material we're pulling together. We're 00:01:22.420 --> 00:01:24.659 covering his humble beginnings running a jazz 00:01:24.659 --> 00:01:27.620 bar, the single instantaneous moment an idea 00:01:27.620 --> 00:01:30.159 hit him at a baseball game, the signature magical 00:01:30.159 --> 00:01:33.200 realism that defines his style, his intense commitment 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:35.959 to running, and maybe most surprisingly, his 00:01:35.959 --> 00:01:38.540 powerful outspoken political stances that came 00:01:38.540 --> 00:01:40.420 out later in his life were connecting all the 00:01:40.420 --> 00:01:43.500 dots. The biographical facts, his different literary 00:01:43.500 --> 00:01:46.599 periods, the core stylistic analysis. major awards 00:01:46.599 --> 00:01:49.819 and his profound political commitments. It's 00:01:49.819 --> 00:01:52.400 a full picture of a 21st century master. And 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:54.420 we want to deliver those surprising facts and 00:01:54.420 --> 00:01:56.659 insights that really define his unconventional 00:01:56.659 --> 00:01:59.299 path. To begin that journey, we really have to 00:01:59.299 --> 00:02:01.340 look at his foundation because it immediately 00:02:01.340 --> 00:02:04.280 sets him apart from, well, most of his contemporaries. 00:02:04.599 --> 00:02:07.540 Murakami was born in Kyoto in 1949, and then 00:02:07.540 --> 00:02:09.740 he was raised near Kobe. He was an only child, 00:02:09.900 --> 00:02:12.000 which is a detail I think is pretty crucial when 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:14.259 we start considering the solitary nature of his 00:02:14.259 --> 00:02:16.780 characters later on. and the family background 00:02:16.780 --> 00:02:19.580 it's almost ironically academic and traditional 00:02:19.580 --> 00:02:22.379 which is what makes his whole literary path feel 00:02:22.379 --> 00:02:24.819 so rebellious his parents were both teachers 00:02:24.819 --> 00:02:27.159 of japanese literature so he was completely immersed 00:02:27.159 --> 00:02:30.080 in the very tradition he would later almost aggressively 00:02:30.080 --> 00:02:33.139 reject exactly he absorbed the surrounding japanese 00:02:33.139 --> 00:02:37.400 culture of course but his intellectual and his 00:02:37.400 --> 00:02:40.280 creative nourishment came almost entirely from 00:02:40.280 --> 00:02:43.139 overseas. This is where we see that intense influence 00:02:43.139 --> 00:02:45.400 of Western culture, starting in childhood with 00:02:45.400 --> 00:02:47.680 Russian music and then just rapidly expanding 00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:50.099 to European and American literature. And this 00:02:50.099 --> 00:02:51.639 wasn't just a passing interest for him. It was 00:02:51.639 --> 00:02:54.659 foundational to his whole worldview. We're talking 00:02:54.659 --> 00:02:56.560 about an author whose formative reading list 00:02:56.560 --> 00:02:59.639 was not the Japanese classics, but a global syllabus. 00:03:00.300 --> 00:03:03.219 You've got Franz Kafka, Gustav Flaubert, Charles 00:03:03.219 --> 00:03:06.180 Dickens, Kurt Vonnegut. Fyodor Dostoevsky, Richard 00:03:06.180 --> 00:03:09.430 Brodigan, Jack Kerouac. It's this diet of Western 00:03:09.430 --> 00:03:12.189 authors, especially those American post -war 00:03:12.189 --> 00:03:14.650 novelists and their Russian masters, that just 00:03:14.650 --> 00:03:17.370 fundamentally distinguished him. He wasn't looking 00:03:17.370 --> 00:03:19.610 inward to the Japanese literary tradition. He 00:03:19.610 --> 00:03:22.229 was looking globally. He was looking for themes 00:03:22.229 --> 00:03:25.030 of alienation, of existential searching. And 00:03:25.030 --> 00:03:27.770 he found that all over American literature. And 00:03:27.770 --> 00:03:31.090 that point is absolutely central to the un -Japanese 00:03:31.090 --> 00:03:34.759 criticism he faced. When the literary gatekeepers 00:03:34.759 --> 00:03:37.020 in Tokyo looked at Murakami, they saw a writer 00:03:37.020 --> 00:03:38.919 who sounded like, you know, a foreign transplant. 00:03:39.139 --> 00:03:41.020 He was using sentence structures and narrative 00:03:41.020 --> 00:03:43.319 techniques that felt borrowed from California 00:03:43.319 --> 00:03:46.259 or New York, not from Kyoto or Tokyo. So his 00:03:46.259 --> 00:03:48.360 early work just didn't have that emphasis on 00:03:48.360 --> 00:03:50.719 collective identity or the kind of domestic family 00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:53.120 drama that was so characteristic of the established 00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:55.860 Japanese literary output. Not at all. And this 00:03:55.860 --> 00:03:58.240 leads us directly to that famous period of his 00:03:58.240 --> 00:04:01.400 life that truly defined his aesthetic, the jazz 00:04:01.400 --> 00:04:04.479 bar years. Before becoming this globally recognized 00:04:04.479 --> 00:04:07.099 author, he was a student of drama at Waseda University. 00:04:07.379 --> 00:04:09.879 He took a first job at a record store, and then, 00:04:09.979 --> 00:04:13.020 with his wife, Yoko Takahashi, they decided to 00:04:13.020 --> 00:04:15.699 jump into entrepreneurship. That pivot happened 00:04:15.699 --> 00:04:18.759 when they opened Petercat. It was a coffeehouse 00:04:18.759 --> 00:04:22.819 and jazz bar in Kokubunji, Tokyo. This is from 00:04:22.819 --> 00:04:26.180 1974 to 1981. It wasn't just some brief stint. 00:04:26.339 --> 00:04:28.399 Running that bar consumed seven years of his 00:04:28.399 --> 00:04:30.629 life. The sources really emphasized that his 00:04:30.629 --> 00:04:32.990 wife, Yoko, actually had more business acumen 00:04:32.990 --> 00:04:35.110 than he did when they started out. Oh, interesting. 00:04:35.389 --> 00:04:37.089 Yeah, so just a partnership that was really built 00:04:37.089 --> 00:04:39.670 on a shared commitment to this very unconventional 00:04:39.670 --> 00:04:42.129 lifestyle. And what's also notable is their life 00:04:42.129 --> 00:04:44.569 decision during this period. They decided not 00:04:44.569 --> 00:04:47.009 to have children. That choice, combined with 00:04:47.009 --> 00:04:49.810 the rigorous solitary schedule of running a small 00:04:49.810 --> 00:04:53.470 business, it created this very focused, insular 00:04:53.470 --> 00:04:56.360 environment. It was an existence dedicated to 00:04:56.360 --> 00:04:58.399 music and the demands of their own enterprise. 00:04:58.899 --> 00:05:02.000 I have to wonder, did running Teeter Cat prepare 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:04.759 him for the long, solitary work of writing? Oh, 00:05:04.800 --> 00:05:07.360 absolutely. It provided a context for intense 00:05:07.360 --> 00:05:10.579 observation. He wasn't participating in the standard 00:05:10.579 --> 00:05:13.240 salaryman life, nor was he embedded in those 00:05:13.240 --> 00:05:15.339 traditional academic literary circles. He was 00:05:15.339 --> 00:05:17.319 constantly surrounded by music, which he adored, 00:05:17.339 --> 00:05:19.899 and people. But his job was to manage the space, 00:05:19.980 --> 00:05:23.079 to be the quiet observer. And that duality, the 00:05:23.079 --> 00:05:25.100 noise of the bar, and the solitude of managing 00:05:25.100 --> 00:05:27.500 it, it's a perfect metaphor for the inner world 00:05:27.500 --> 00:05:29.939 of his typical protagonist. Detached, observant, 00:05:29.939 --> 00:05:32.240 yet surrounded by all this complex life. Exactly. 00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:34.199 And that passion for music, which was sparked 00:05:34.199 --> 00:05:36.500 by seeing Art Lakey and the Jazz Messengers and 00:05:36.500 --> 00:05:39.079 Kobe when he was, what, 15? Around 15, yeah. 00:05:39.579 --> 00:05:42.339 It's legendary. He originally aspired to be a 00:05:42.339 --> 00:05:44.680 musician, but he very candidly admitted he just 00:05:44.680 --> 00:05:46.699 wasn't skilled enough to play instruments well. 00:05:46.899 --> 00:05:49.720 So instead, music became his narrative blueprint. 00:05:50.079 --> 00:05:52.060 It's not just background noise in his books, 00:05:52.120 --> 00:05:54.920 it's structural. It's the rhythm and the counterpoint 00:05:54.920 --> 00:05:57.439 of his storytelling. It really is. I mean, think 00:05:57.439 --> 00:06:00.120 about jazz improvisation. You have a clear theme, 00:06:00.279 --> 00:06:02.360 but then you take off on a tangent, a solo that 00:06:02.360 --> 00:06:05.100 explores something unexpected, only to smoothly 00:06:05.100 --> 00:06:07.259 return to the established chord progression. 00:06:07.709 --> 00:06:10.550 That is precisely how Murakami's plots work. 00:06:10.670 --> 00:06:13.490 Yes. They start grounded, then they spiral into 00:06:13.490 --> 00:06:16.449 the surreal, but always with an underlying structure, 00:06:16.629 --> 00:06:19.009 a rhythm that's often dictated by the musical 00:06:19.009 --> 00:06:21.050 reference in the background. And all of this 00:06:21.050 --> 00:06:22.930 background, the Western books, the jazz bar, 00:06:23.129 --> 00:06:25.689 the self -imposed solitude, it all culminated 00:06:25.689 --> 00:06:29.310 in probably the most famous origin story in modern 00:06:29.310 --> 00:06:32.430 literature, the baseball game epiphany. This 00:06:32.430 --> 00:06:34.990 is where his entire life just pivoted at age 00:06:34.990 --> 00:06:38.420 29. It's such an extraordinary nugget of knowledge 00:06:38.420 --> 00:06:41.399 because it completely de -romanticizes the writing 00:06:41.399 --> 00:06:43.779 process while at the same time giving it this 00:06:43.779 --> 00:06:47.220 divine spark. Murakami himself described his 00:06:47.220 --> 00:06:49.560 life up to that point as being just one of those 00:06:49.560 --> 00:06:53.319 ordinary people. In 1978, he's watching the season 00:06:53.319 --> 00:06:55.980 opener at Jingu Stadium in Tokyo. He's a big 00:06:55.980 --> 00:06:58.060 fan of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. And the moment 00:06:58.060 --> 00:06:59.839 is so specific, you feel like you were there. 00:07:00.680 --> 00:07:03.120 He recounts the American hitter Dave Hilton hitting 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:05.839 a double, and as the bat made contact, he felt 00:07:05.839 --> 00:07:08.959 a warm sensation hit him, realizing with absolute 00:07:08.959 --> 00:07:11.759 certainty, I think I can write a novel. It wasn't 00:07:11.759 --> 00:07:14.399 a slow realization. It was a sudden, you know, 00:07:14.459 --> 00:07:17.500 a seismic shock. It was. He went home that very 00:07:17.500 --> 00:07:19.360 night and began his first novel, Hear the Wind 00:07:19.360 --> 00:07:22.019 Sing. But what needs to be emphasized here is 00:07:22.019 --> 00:07:24.680 the absolute dedication that's required. He wasn't 00:07:24.680 --> 00:07:26.560 suddenly a full time author. He worked on it 00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:29.259 for 10 months in these brief, exhausted stretches 00:07:29.259 --> 00:07:31.720 during the nights after closing the jazz bar 00:07:31.720 --> 00:07:34.480 and finishing all his other duties. So this origin 00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:37.740 story. is as much about sudden inspiration as 00:07:37.740 --> 00:07:40.120 it is about the sustained, solitary commitment 00:07:40.120 --> 00:07:42.819 it took to execute that inspiration while juggling 00:07:42.819 --> 00:07:45.800 real -world responsibilities. And that very first 00:07:45.800 --> 00:07:47.620 novel, despite being written in these stolen 00:07:47.620 --> 00:07:50.300 moments, won the Gunzo Prize for New Writers. 00:07:50.519 --> 00:07:53.139 It immediately validated this impulsive decision 00:07:53.139 --> 00:07:55.560 and gave him the platform that would launch a 00:07:55.560 --> 00:07:58.420 truly international career. It's the ultimate 00:07:58.420 --> 00:08:01.699 narrative of the accidental author who just bypassed 00:08:01.699 --> 00:08:04.060 the entire traditional Japanese literary apprenticeship 00:08:04.060 --> 00:08:06.939 process. purely on the strength of an idea born 00:08:06.939 --> 00:08:09.500 at a baseball game. So his career begins with 00:08:09.500 --> 00:08:11.779 that immediate validation, the Gunzo Prize for 00:08:11.779 --> 00:08:14.279 Hear the Wind Sing. The initial phase of his 00:08:14.279 --> 00:08:16.339 career is really focused on what critics now 00:08:16.339 --> 00:08:19.220 call the trilogy of the rat. And this sequence 00:08:19.220 --> 00:08:21.439 provides the foundational building blocks of 00:08:21.439 --> 00:08:24.680 his style. It's made up of Hear the Wind Sing, 00:08:24.860 --> 00:08:29.459 which was 1979, Pinball, 1973 and 1980. And then 00:08:29.459 --> 00:08:31.600 the novel that really cemented his trajectory, 00:08:31.980 --> 00:08:35.500 A Wild Sheep Chase in 1982. All three of them 00:08:35.500 --> 00:08:38.139 center on the same unnamed narrator and his friend 00:08:38.139 --> 00:08:41.019 who is referred to only as the rat. And it's 00:08:41.019 --> 00:08:44.299 crucial to understand his own. critical distance 00:08:44.299 --> 00:08:46.980 from his initial efforts, Murakami considered 00:08:46.980 --> 00:08:48.679 the first two novels, Hear the Wind Sing and 00:08:48.679 --> 00:08:52.480 Pinball, 1973, to be immature and even flimsy. 00:08:52.779 --> 00:08:55.240 He felt he was still finding his literary language. 00:08:55.399 --> 00:08:57.539 Right. He famously wrote the first one in this 00:08:57.539 --> 00:09:00.259 highly constrained, simple Japanese, almost as 00:09:00.259 --> 00:09:01.960 if he were translating his thought process directly 00:09:01.960 --> 00:09:04.259 from English to find a voice that was uniquely 00:09:04.259 --> 00:09:06.519 his own and distinct from the Japanese literary 00:09:06.519 --> 00:09:08.840 establishment. And that harsh self -assessment 00:09:08.840 --> 00:09:11.500 had real concrete consequences for international 00:09:11.500 --> 00:09:14.059 readers. He delayed their wide mainstream English 00:09:14.059 --> 00:09:16.899 translation until 2015. He wanted readers to 00:09:16.899 --> 00:09:18.940 focus on his more mature work. Right. Well, an 00:09:18.940 --> 00:09:20.899 earlier English edition did exist, translated 00:09:20.899 --> 00:09:23.399 by Alfred Birnbaum. It was primarily for Japanese 00:09:23.399 --> 00:09:26.139 students learning English. A neat detail. Yeah, 00:09:26.159 --> 00:09:28.419 but it speaks to his control over his own legacy, 00:09:28.620 --> 00:09:31.059 waiting until he felt the work was really ready 00:09:31.059 --> 00:09:33.480 for global critique. But the true breakthrough 00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:36.399 came with the third in the trilogy, A Wild Sheep 00:09:36.399 --> 00:09:38.659 Chase. This is the moment he realized he was 00:09:38.659 --> 00:09:42.399 onto something big. Yes. He described it as the 00:09:42.399 --> 00:09:44.659 first book where I could feel a kind of sensation, 00:09:44.940 --> 00:09:48.379 the joy of telling a story. This novel successfully 00:09:48.379 --> 00:09:51.600 blended the realism of the earlier works, the 00:09:51.600 --> 00:09:54.740 bar atmosphere, the loneliness, with the elements 00:09:54.740 --> 00:09:56.899 that would become his trademark. The quest narrative, 00:09:57.080 --> 00:09:59.500 the surreal landscape, and the disappearing mysterious 00:09:59.500 --> 00:10:02.039 characters. It was the first time that the music, 00:10:02.200 --> 00:10:04.840 the Western hardboiled genre, and his emerging 00:10:04.840 --> 00:10:07.779 magical realism really harmonized. That blending 00:10:07.779 --> 00:10:10.379 of genre was successful, for sure, but the novel 00:10:10.379 --> 00:10:12.840 that completely shattered his anonymity and shifted 00:10:12.840 --> 00:10:15.000 his entire personal life was Norwegian Wood, 00:10:15.159 --> 00:10:17.509 published in 1987. This book was an absolute 00:10:17.509 --> 00:10:20.590 cultural phenomenon in Japan. It was a massive 00:10:20.590 --> 00:10:22.330 national success because it was such a departure. 00:10:23.070 --> 00:10:25.490 Unlike the Rat Trilogy, which was surreal and 00:10:25.490 --> 00:10:28.690 stylized, Norwegian Wood was grounded, nostalgic, 00:10:28.870 --> 00:10:32.250 and deeply emotional. It focused on themes of 00:10:32.250 --> 00:10:35.330 loss, memory, and sexuality in a way that just 00:10:35.330 --> 00:10:37.549 resonated profoundly with young Japanese readers, 00:10:37.750 --> 00:10:40.830 moving millions of copies almost overnight. So 00:10:40.830 --> 00:10:43.750 if a wild sheep chase was the literary breakthrough, 00:10:44.190 --> 00:10:47.429 Norwegian Wood was the celebrity explosion. And 00:10:47.429 --> 00:10:50.009 the consequence of that sudden intense fame is 00:10:50.009 --> 00:10:52.029 staggering. It forced him out of the country. 00:10:52.149 --> 00:10:54.330 The sources state that the novel propelled the 00:10:54.330 --> 00:10:56.750 formerly quiet Murakami into such an intense 00:10:56.750 --> 00:10:59.230 spotlight that he became an overwhelming celebrity. 00:10:59.549 --> 00:11:01.830 This led to his actual departure from Japan in 00:11:01.830 --> 00:11:04.330 1986, even before Norwegian Wood was published 00:11:04.330 --> 00:11:06.070 because he was anticipating the coming storm. 00:11:06.250 --> 00:11:09.000 Wow. He was, to use the phrase, literally mobbed 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:11.379 at airports after the book came out. So he went 00:11:11.379 --> 00:11:13.639 into a self -imposed exile that lasted for years. 00:11:13.740 --> 00:11:15.539 He traveled through Europe, lived in the United 00:11:15.539 --> 00:11:18.639 States, and took up these prestigious fellowships 00:11:18.639 --> 00:11:20.879 at places like Princeton, Tufts, and Harvard. 00:11:21.139 --> 00:11:24.539 And this geographic and cultural detachment was 00:11:24.539 --> 00:11:26.860 essential for him. It allowed him to write works 00:11:26.860 --> 00:11:29.159 like South of the Border, West of the Sun, and 00:11:29.159 --> 00:11:31.600 The Wind -Up Bird Chronicle without that suffocating 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:37.940 glare of celebrity back home. for global intellectual 00:11:37.940 --> 00:11:41.360 engagement. And during the same period of profound 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:45.519 literary output and physical displacement, he 00:11:45.519 --> 00:11:48.139 solidified his other massive public persona, 00:11:48.440 --> 00:11:51.240 the dedicated solitary long distance runner. 00:11:51.769 --> 00:11:53.649 It's a fact that surprises a lot of readers. 00:11:53.789 --> 00:11:56.250 He didn't start running until he was 33 after 00:11:56.250 --> 00:11:58.850 he began writing. Yeah, as a necessary counterpoint 00:11:58.850 --> 00:12:01.169 to the sedentary, rigorous schedule of the jazz 00:12:01.169 --> 00:12:04.009 bar in his new writing life. So why is running 00:12:04.009 --> 00:12:06.289 so essential? Is it just a hobby for him or is 00:12:06.289 --> 00:12:07.970 it fundamentally intertwined with his craft? 00:12:08.269 --> 00:12:10.830 It became an extreme commitment, reflecting the 00:12:10.830 --> 00:12:13.580 discipline required for his creative life. It 00:12:13.580 --> 00:12:15.779 mirrors the intense solitude and the relentless 00:12:15.779 --> 00:12:18.360 persistence that's required to produce his lengthy, 00:12:18.399 --> 00:12:20.740 complex novels. And we're not talking about casual 00:12:20.740 --> 00:12:24.059 dogs here. Not at all. In 1996, he completed 00:12:24.059 --> 00:12:27.299 his first ultramarathon. That's a staggering 00:12:27.299 --> 00:12:30.340 100 -kilometer race around Lake Soroma in Hokkaido. 00:12:30.419 --> 00:12:34.620 That physical rigor, the pain, the mental commitment. 00:12:35.470 --> 00:12:39.049 It's the perfect analog for the lonely, often 00:12:39.049 --> 00:12:41.649 painful process of wrestling a complex narrative 00:12:41.649 --> 00:12:43.490 onto the page. That's a powerful connection. 00:12:43.649 --> 00:12:46.169 If the writing process is guided by the mysterious 00:12:46.169 --> 00:12:49.009 automatic dwarfs, which we'll get to soon, the 00:12:49.009 --> 00:12:51.610 running process is guided entirely by his conscious 00:12:51.610 --> 00:12:53.990 will. It's the counterbalance. Precisely. And 00:12:53.990 --> 00:12:56.389 he beautifully connected these two aspects of 00:12:56.389 --> 00:12:59.529 his life in his 2007 memoir, What I Talk About 00:12:59.529 --> 00:13:01.470 When I Talk About Running. And you have to appreciate 00:13:01.470 --> 00:13:03.629 the literary lineage right there in the title. 00:13:03.669 --> 00:13:06.799 Oh, absolutely. direct, knowing play on Raven 00:13:06.799 --> 00:13:08.580 Carver's collection, what we talk about when 00:13:08.580 --> 00:13:10.659 we talk about love. It's a subtle signal to the 00:13:10.659 --> 00:13:12.740 reader that this nonfiction book about Miles 00:13:12.740 --> 00:13:15.159 and Sweat is actually about the craft of storytelling. 00:13:15.620 --> 00:13:18.320 That level of discipline, running a marathon 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:20.600 every year, getting up early every day to write 00:13:20.600 --> 00:13:23.240 for exactly four hours, whether he feels inspired 00:13:23.240 --> 00:13:26.519 or not, it seems central. It allowed him, the 00:13:26.519 --> 00:13:29.740 quiet jazz club owner, to manage the chaos that 00:13:29.740 --> 00:13:32.519 global fame brought and to maintain his creativity 00:13:32.519 --> 00:13:35.860 in exile. The running is the structure that allows 00:13:35.860 --> 00:13:38.519 the surreal narrative to exist. And it serves 00:13:38.519 --> 00:13:41.159 a practical purpose, too. He maintains that routine 00:13:41.159 --> 00:13:43.139 allows him to channel the deep concentration 00:13:43.139 --> 00:13:45.779 needed for writing these complex, multilayered 00:13:45.779 --> 00:13:48.419 stories without breaking down physically or mentally. 00:13:48.620 --> 00:13:50.720 When you read about the physical struggle in 00:13:50.720 --> 00:13:52.980 his memoir, you realize it's the foundational 00:13:52.980 --> 00:13:55.240 discipline that makes the artistic risk in his 00:13:55.240 --> 00:13:58.259 fiction possible. Now we arrive at the core of 00:13:58.259 --> 00:14:00.960 his distinctive voice. The style itself. It's 00:14:00.960 --> 00:14:03.159 dense, it's philosophical, it's funny, and it's 00:14:03.159 --> 00:14:05.759 utterly strange. Critics often label it magical 00:14:05.759 --> 00:14:08.740 realism or surrealism, but this labeling is central 00:14:08.740 --> 00:14:12.320 to the critique he faced in Japan. Yes. The overview 00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:15.120 firmly places him in the camp of magical realism, 00:14:15.360 --> 00:14:19.039 featuring those signature surreal elements. Stylistically, 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:21.820 he often leans on the framework of the Japanese 00:14:21.820 --> 00:14:24.620 i -novel tradition through his use of a distinct 00:14:24.620 --> 00:14:28.100 first -person narrative. However, we should pause 00:14:28.100 --> 00:14:30.600 here and really define that tradition for the 00:14:30.600 --> 00:14:33.000 learner. That's necessary context. What exactly 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:35.919 is an i -novel? The i -novel, or trishatsusu, 00:14:36.139 --> 00:14:38.919 is a form of autobiographical Japanese literature. 00:14:39.240 --> 00:14:41.539 It's often intensely focused on the author's 00:14:41.539 --> 00:14:44.080 internal life, detailing their personal, domestic, 00:14:44.220 --> 00:14:46.840 and family sphere. It requires a profound level 00:14:46.840 --> 00:14:48.919 of sincerity and self -exposure. So it's very 00:14:48.919 --> 00:14:51.799 intimate and inward -looking. Very. And Murakami's 00:14:51.799 --> 00:14:54.139 usage takes this form, the first -person narrator. 00:14:54.919 --> 00:14:57.179 but completely subverts the content So if I'm 00:14:57.179 --> 00:14:59.720 getting this right, the Japanese literary establishment's 00:14:59.720 --> 00:15:01.759 complaint was that while he used the form, the 00:15:01.759 --> 00:15:04.080 intense first -person voice, the content was 00:15:04.080 --> 00:15:06.700 all wrong. Precisely. It was criticized as un 00:15:06.700 --> 00:15:08.620 -Japanese because the emotional landscape was 00:15:08.620 --> 00:15:11.139 too Western, too detached, and too influenced 00:15:11.139 --> 00:15:13.240 by American pop culture and surreal European 00:15:13.240 --> 00:15:17.059 writers. Exactly. His protagonists value freedom, 00:15:17.220 --> 00:15:19.759 solitude, and intellectual exploration over the 00:15:19.759 --> 00:15:22.139 intimacy and collective responsibility that are 00:15:22.139 --> 00:15:24.399 so inherent in the traditional I novel, which 00:15:24.399 --> 00:15:27.419 often elevates the family unit. Murakami's response 00:15:27.419 --> 00:15:30.539 to this sustained criticism was to proudly claim 00:15:30.539 --> 00:15:33.220 the label of black sheep, just embracing his 00:15:33.220 --> 00:15:35.860 outsider status. And he also pushed back against 00:15:35.860 --> 00:15:38.600 the technical classification itself. He doesn't 00:15:38.600 --> 00:15:41.620 see his work as surrealism or magical realism 00:15:41.620 --> 00:15:44.720 in the defined literary sense. What's his counterargument? 00:15:44.919 --> 00:15:47.740 He views the narrative as an organic, natural 00:15:47.740 --> 00:15:51.279 flow. When asked, Murakami said that he simply 00:15:51.279 --> 00:15:53.299 writes the stories he wants to write in a style 00:15:53.299 --> 00:15:55.700 that suits him. He compares the narrative flow 00:15:55.700 --> 00:15:58.059 to flowing water following the lay of the land. 00:15:58.299 --> 00:16:00.460 For him, the sudden appearance of a talking cat 00:16:00.840 --> 00:16:03.179 or a trip down a mysterious well, isn't a magical 00:16:03.179 --> 00:16:05.399 trick. It's simply the most logical thing to 00:16:05.399 --> 00:16:07.799 happen next in the story he's unfolding. He sees 00:16:07.799 --> 00:16:09.960 his job as faithfully putting that spontaneous, 00:16:10.259 --> 00:16:13.600 sometimes illogical, flow into words. That comparison 00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:17.480 flowing water is brilliant. It reframes the surreal 00:16:17.480 --> 00:16:20.539 as simply inevitable. It means the strange events 00:16:20.539 --> 00:16:23.919 aren't intrusions on reality, but essential components 00:16:23.919 --> 00:16:26.179 of this reality. And if the style is flowing 00:16:26.179 --> 00:16:29.120 water, the structure is often provided by music. 00:16:29.789 --> 00:16:32.110 This is the second major component of his aesthetic. 00:16:32.549 --> 00:16:34.909 The influence of Peter Katt is everywhere, not 00:16:34.909 --> 00:16:37.090 just semantically, but structurally, in both 00:16:37.090 --> 00:16:39.480 classical and popular music. We see this most 00:16:39.480 --> 00:16:42.240 clearly when he uses music to title and frame 00:16:42.240 --> 00:16:45.100 his larger works. Take the wind -up Bird Chronicle, 00:16:45.179 --> 00:16:47.419 for example. The three major sections of the 00:16:47.419 --> 00:16:49.759 novel are titled The Thieving Magpie, which is 00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:52.620 the title of an opera by Rossini, Bird as Prophet, 00:16:52.820 --> 00:16:55.200 a reference to a piano piece by Schumann, and 00:16:55.200 --> 00:16:57.259 The Bird Catcher, a character in Mozart's The 00:16:57.259 --> 00:16:59.740 Magic Flute. That detailed classical framing 00:16:59.740 --> 00:17:01.580 is so significant. It's not just an illusion. 00:17:01.779 --> 00:17:04.859 It's providing a hidden scaffolding. Rossini's 00:17:04.859 --> 00:17:07.140 opera deals with suspicion and public outcry. 00:17:07.500 --> 00:17:10.319 Schumann's piece is about elusive beauty in isolation. 00:17:10.759 --> 00:17:13.000 And Mozart's work is about the journey through 00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:15.319 trials toward enlightenment. By structuring the 00:17:15.319 --> 00:17:17.500 book this way, he signals the underlying thematic 00:17:17.500 --> 00:17:20.440 concerns to the reader, even as the plot descends 00:17:20.440 --> 00:17:22.880 into wartime history and trips down dry wells. 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:25.559 And then there's the pop influence, which is 00:17:25.559 --> 00:17:27.519 perhaps more recognizable to his wider audience. 00:17:28.059 --> 00:17:30.420 Norwegian wood comes directly from the Beatles. 00:17:30.740 --> 00:17:33.319 Dance. Dance Dance takes its title from a song 00:17:33.319 --> 00:17:36.180 by the Dells. And South of the Border, West of 00:17:36.180 --> 00:17:38.900 the Sun is also named after a song. These titles 00:17:38.900 --> 00:17:41.440 act as these cultural anchors, providing a bit 00:17:41.440 --> 00:17:43.940 of familiarity before the narrative takes the 00:17:43.940 --> 00:17:46.579 reader into the unknown. And often the music 00:17:46.579 --> 00:17:49.740 itself acts as a kind of portal or an emotional 00:17:49.740 --> 00:17:52.599 mnemonic device. When a character plays a specific 00:17:52.599 --> 00:17:55.259 piece of music, it's often a cue for a memory, 00:17:55.400 --> 00:17:57.920 a shift in atmosphere, or even the arrival of 00:17:57.920 --> 00:18:00.720 a surreal element. It's the most reliable constant 00:18:00.720 --> 00:18:03.460 in an unreliable world. Now let's look at the 00:18:03.460 --> 00:18:05.619 characters and the creative mechanism that produces 00:18:05.619 --> 00:18:08.250 them. His protagonists, as we noted, are often 00:18:08.250 --> 00:18:10.509 detached, prioritizing freedom and solitude, 00:18:10.690 --> 00:18:13.069 but the sources give us the most incredible insight 00:18:13.069 --> 00:18:15.450 into how these characters come to life through 00:18:15.450 --> 00:18:18.349 what he called the automatic dwarfs. This concept 00:18:18.349 --> 00:18:20.769 is maybe the greatest nugget of knowledge about 00:18:20.769 --> 00:18:23.109 his creative life. When asked about where his 00:18:23.109 --> 00:18:25.650 characters originate, he clarified that almost 00:18:25.650 --> 00:18:28.809 none of them are based on real life. Instead, 00:18:29.049 --> 00:18:31.630 he described the subconscious process of pulling 00:18:31.630 --> 00:18:34.430 fragments from his brain to weave a person together 00:18:34.430 --> 00:18:37.630 using this evocative term. The automatic dwarfs. 00:18:37.670 --> 00:18:40.690 The automatic dwarfs. It sounds like a title 00:18:40.690 --> 00:18:42.430 for one of his own short stories. What does he 00:18:42.430 --> 00:18:45.150 mean by this? Is he suggesting his creative process 00:18:45.150 --> 00:18:48.609 is entirely passive? Not passive, but automatic 00:18:48.609 --> 00:18:51.809 like a subconscious assembly line. He clarifies 00:18:51.809 --> 00:18:54.089 that these characters are formed by an internal, 00:18:54.230 --> 00:18:56.769 autonomous process. And here's where it gets 00:18:56.769 --> 00:18:59.170 really interesting. He says that once these characters 00:18:59.170 --> 00:19:01.650 are assembled and alive in a literary sense, 00:19:01.849 --> 00:19:04.289 they eventually break free of the writer's control 00:19:04.289 --> 00:19:07.450 and begin to act independently. Wow. He views 00:19:07.450 --> 00:19:09.690 writing almost like creating his own film, just 00:19:09.690 --> 00:19:11.890 for himself, where he experiences the story as 00:19:11.890 --> 00:19:14.250 it unfolds, often noting how strange the story 00:19:14.250 --> 00:19:16.369 presents itself, just like his characters do 00:19:16.369 --> 00:19:19.230 in the narrative itself. If he lets the dwarfs 00:19:19.230 --> 00:19:21.509 run the show, though? Doesn't that undermine 00:19:21.509 --> 00:19:24.450 the intense discipline he displays through running 00:19:24.450 --> 00:19:26.349 and his daily writing? Isn't that a contradiction? 00:19:26.710 --> 00:19:28.730 That is the beautiful paradox of the creative 00:19:28.730 --> 00:19:32.329 mind. The running provides the vessel, the disciplined, 00:19:32.490 --> 00:19:35.029 healthy container, while the dwarfs provide the 00:19:35.029 --> 00:19:38.130 content. His four hours of disciplined writing 00:19:38.130 --> 00:19:40.869 every morning is simply the time he dedicates 00:19:40.869 --> 00:19:42.329 to listening to what the dwarfs have been up 00:19:42.329 --> 00:19:44.990 to overnight. He's a transcriber of his own subconscious. 00:19:45.470 --> 00:19:48.140 Right. This system allows him to blend the mundane 00:19:48.140 --> 00:19:50.319 reality, you know, a man looking for his wife's 00:19:50.319 --> 00:19:52.839 cat, with the utterly absurd, like a six -foot 00:19:52.839 --> 00:19:55.440 -tall talking frog. And that absurdity is balanced 00:19:55.440 --> 00:19:58.119 by his unique brand of humor, which is essential 00:19:58.119 --> 00:20:01.220 to making the surreal palatable. The anecdote 00:20:01.220 --> 00:20:03.819 about Super Frog Saves Tokyo is perfect for this. 00:20:04.059 --> 00:20:06.839 Yes. In that story, the protagonist is confronted 00:20:06.839 --> 00:20:09.460 with a six -foot -tall frog discussing the imminent 00:20:09.460 --> 00:20:12.920 destruction of Tokyo over a cup of tea. He stated 00:20:12.920 --> 00:20:14.579 that he believes readers should be entertained 00:20:14.579 --> 00:20:17.740 and amused even when approaching a serious existential 00:20:17.740 --> 00:20:21.000 subject like mass destruction. The humor provides 00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:23.779 a necessary emotional release valve, preventing 00:20:23.779 --> 00:20:27.180 the surrealism from collapsing into mere pretension. 00:20:27.319 --> 00:20:29.940 OK, so for the first decade and a half of his 00:20:29.940 --> 00:20:31.980 career, especially during his time in exile, 00:20:32.579 --> 00:20:35.220 Murakami was largely seen as this introspective 00:20:35.220 --> 00:20:37.849 writer. He was focused on the internal journeys 00:20:37.849 --> 00:20:40.470 of alienated loners. But the sources clearly 00:20:40.470 --> 00:20:43.250 delineate a turning point in the mid -1990s, 00:20:43.269 --> 00:20:46.250 a documented shift from detachment to profound 00:20:46.250 --> 00:20:48.470 commitment. And this shift wasn't abstract. It 00:20:48.470 --> 00:20:50.490 was explicitly confirmed by Murakami himself. 00:20:50.890 --> 00:20:53.549 In a 1996 conversation with the psychologist 00:20:53.549 --> 00:20:55.930 Hayao Kawai, he stated that his position had 00:20:55.930 --> 00:20:58.450 changed to one of commitment. He said it was 00:20:58.450 --> 00:21:00.250 catalyzed by his experiences living in the U 00:21:00.250 --> 00:21:02.509 .S. and the traumatic events he witnessed back 00:21:02.509 --> 00:21:05.079 home. He identified The Wind -Up Bird Chronicle, 00:21:05.140 --> 00:21:07.759 published in 1995, as the novel that marked this 00:21:07.759 --> 00:21:10.400 transition. And The Wind -Up Bird Chronicle is 00:21:10.400 --> 00:21:13.519 the perfect testament to that change. It fully 00:21:13.519 --> 00:21:16.039 fuses the realism and the fantastic, but for 00:21:16.039 --> 00:21:18.740 the first time, it integrates this powerful element 00:21:18.740 --> 00:21:21.880 of social and historical consciousness. It moves 00:21:21.880 --> 00:21:23.819 beyond the personal quest of finding a missing 00:21:23.819 --> 00:21:26.420 cat and delves into the collective memory of 00:21:26.420 --> 00:21:29.549 Japan's dark past. Specifically, it deals with 00:21:29.549 --> 00:21:32.109 the sensitive and often avoided topic of war 00:21:32.109 --> 00:21:34.789 crimes committed by the Japanese military in 00:21:34.789 --> 00:21:37.490 Manchukuo, which is northeast China, during World 00:21:37.490 --> 00:21:41.329 War II. Why was this a subject historically sidelined 00:21:41.329 --> 00:21:43.950 by his generation of writers, the one he chose 00:21:43.950 --> 00:21:46.130 to pivot on? It was a very conscious decision 00:21:46.130 --> 00:21:49.089 to confront the wall of historical amnesia. His 00:21:49.089 --> 00:21:51.309 time abroad gave him a perspective that was outside 00:21:51.309 --> 00:21:53.920 the Japanese bubble. When he returned he chose 00:21:53.920 --> 00:21:56.339 to weave this historical trauma into the narrative 00:21:56.339 --> 00:21:58.579 of fantasy, suggesting that the surreal elements 00:21:58.579 --> 00:22:00.859 of the present are just inextricably linked to 00:22:00.859 --> 00:22:03.539 the unaddressed chaos of the past. And the novel's 00:22:03.539 --> 00:22:05.579 success demonstrated that this committed stance 00:22:05.579 --> 00:22:08.509 really resonated. And it was acknowledged by 00:22:08.509 --> 00:22:10.990 the literary establishment that he had once shunned. 00:22:11.109 --> 00:22:13.789 The Wind -Up Bird Chronicle won the Yomiuri Prize, 00:22:13.970 --> 00:22:16.190 which is hugely significant because the award 00:22:16.190 --> 00:22:18.670 was personally given by Kenza Bruchet. A Nobel 00:22:18.670 --> 00:22:20.970 Prize laureate who had previously been one of 00:22:20.970 --> 00:22:23.950 Murakami's most vocal critics. Wow. Yeah. It 00:22:23.950 --> 00:22:25.690 was an acknowledgment from the highest levels 00:22:25.690 --> 00:22:27.970 of the establishment that the black sheep had 00:22:27.970 --> 00:22:30.609 produced a work of undeniable national importance. 00:22:30.890 --> 00:22:32.829 And this commitment was then solidified when 00:22:32.829 --> 00:22:35.329 he returned to Japan in the mid -90s, where the 00:22:35.329 --> 00:22:37.859 nation was reeling. from these dual tragedies, 00:22:37.900 --> 00:22:41.420 the 1995 Kobe earthquake and, crucially, the 00:22:41.420 --> 00:22:44.700 horrific alien Shinrikyo sarin gas attack in 00:22:44.700 --> 00:22:47.299 the Tokyo subway system. He felt compelled to 00:22:47.299 --> 00:22:49.940 respond, not just as an artist, but as a chronicler. 00:22:50.079 --> 00:22:52.720 His response to the sarin gas attack was immediate 00:22:52.720 --> 00:22:55.539 and profound, leading him to his first work of 00:22:55.539 --> 00:22:59.140 nonfiction underground in 1997. This wasn't a 00:22:59.140 --> 00:23:01.380 philosophical essay. It was a grueling, expansive 00:23:01.380 --> 00:23:04.579 oral history. That book required immense commitment. 00:23:05.019 --> 00:23:07.359 It was based on extensive interviews with the 00:23:07.359 --> 00:23:09.759 victims of the sarin attacks, the people whose 00:23:09.759 --> 00:23:12.779 lives were instantly and unjustly shattered by 00:23:12.779 --> 00:23:15.859 a psychotic system. He spent months meticulously 00:23:15.859 --> 00:23:18.720 documenting their stories. But what makes Underground 00:23:18.720 --> 00:23:21.700 so structurally important is that he also interviewed 00:23:21.700 --> 00:23:24.519 members of the I Am Shinrikyo cult who perpetrated 00:23:24.519 --> 00:23:27.059 the attacks. Yes, providing a really disturbing 00:23:27.059 --> 00:23:30.059 dual perspective on the events, exploring the 00:23:30.059 --> 00:23:32.589 motives of those who constructed the wall. He 00:23:32.589 --> 00:23:35.670 wasn't just speculating about chaos. He was documenting 00:23:35.670 --> 00:23:38.829 the fragile, unique souls, the eggs that had 00:23:38.829 --> 00:23:41.529 been broken against the wall of the system. And 00:23:41.529 --> 00:23:43.490 his subsequent fiction, the short story collection 00:23:43.490 --> 00:23:46.309 after the quake, also dealt with these raw collective 00:23:46.309 --> 00:23:49.690 events, showing how large public tragedies ripple 00:23:49.690 --> 00:23:52.250 through individual lives. It signaled an era 00:23:52.250 --> 00:23:54.109 where the isolation of his earlier characters 00:23:54.109 --> 00:23:56.849 was complicated by inescapable national reality. 00:23:57.470 --> 00:23:59.690 This commitment then extended to his explicit 00:23:59.690 --> 00:24:02.490 political stance, which he articulated most famously 00:24:02.490 --> 00:24:04.730 in his acceptance speech for the Jerusalem Prize 00:24:04.730 --> 00:24:08.569 in 2009. He framed himself as an artist who needed 00:24:08.569 --> 00:24:11.190 to stand against the system, aligning himself 00:24:11.190 --> 00:24:13.750 philosophically with George Orwell. Right, though 00:24:13.750 --> 00:24:16.849 he continues to avoid explicitly stating political 00:24:16.849 --> 00:24:20.430 messages in his fiction. His goal is to maintain 00:24:20.430 --> 00:24:23.109 the artistic integrity while providing the moral 00:24:23.109 --> 00:24:25.240 framework. And this brings us to the egg in the 00:24:25.240 --> 00:24:28.259 wall metaphor, which is arguably his most critical 00:24:28.259 --> 00:24:31.180 political statement and his most recognized nonfiction 00:24:31.180 --> 00:24:33.380 insight globally. We need to spend some time 00:24:33.380 --> 00:24:35.859 on this. It is the encapsulation of his humanism. 00:24:36.079 --> 00:24:38.799 In that speech, he stated, if there is a hard, 00:24:38.880 --> 00:24:41.539 high wall and an egg that breaks against it, 00:24:41.579 --> 00:24:44.079 no matter how right the wall or how wrong the 00:24:44.079 --> 00:24:46.420 egg, I will stand on the side of the egg. And 00:24:46.420 --> 00:24:48.859 he defined the wall as the system which forces 00:24:48.859 --> 00:24:51.200 us to do the things we would not ordinarily see 00:24:51.200 --> 00:24:54.460 fit to do as individuals. The egg, in contrast, 00:24:54.759 --> 00:24:57.660 is the tangible living soul, the fragile, unique 00:24:57.660 --> 00:25:00.660 individual. What's fascinating is how this overtly 00:25:00.660 --> 00:25:04.319 political moral statement squares with his historical 00:25:04.319 --> 00:25:07.779 reluctance to include explicit politics in his 00:25:07.779 --> 00:25:10.279 fiction. It seems contradictory. It's the difference 00:25:10.279 --> 00:25:13.200 between a direct editorial statement and a philosophical 00:25:13.200 --> 00:25:16.720 foundation. He provides the moral rule in the 00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:19.259 speech, but he allows the fiction to demonstrate 00:25:19.259 --> 00:25:22.319 the principle in action. Ah, I see. His detached 00:25:22.319 --> 00:25:24.640 characters, who are always searching for authenticity 00:25:24.640 --> 00:25:27.839 and meaning, they become the eggs. When they 00:25:27.839 --> 00:25:30.000 encounter institutional power, societal pressure, 00:25:30.160 --> 00:25:33.779 or historical trauma, the walls, the reader understands 00:25:33.779 --> 00:25:36.319 where the author's sympathy lies without him 00:25:36.319 --> 00:25:38.430 having to write a manifesto. He has consistently 00:25:38.430 --> 00:25:41.630 applied this philosophy to global issues. Regarding 00:25:41.630 --> 00:25:44.170 Japan's wartime past, he has stressed that Japan 00:25:44.170 --> 00:25:47.009 must continue to apologize for its wartime aggressions 00:25:47.009 --> 00:25:49.369 until the aggrieved countries say they have apologized 00:25:49.369 --> 00:25:51.670 enough. Right. He noted that Japanese people 00:25:51.670 --> 00:25:53.769 tend not to have an idea that they were also 00:25:53.769 --> 00:25:55.970 assailants, pointing to a continued need for 00:25:55.970 --> 00:25:58.569 national reflection. And he brought this clarity 00:25:58.569 --> 00:26:00.730 to contemporary international disputes as well. 00:26:01.200 --> 00:26:03.500 When his books were temporarily removed from 00:26:03.500 --> 00:26:05.779 sale in China following intense anti Japanese 00:26:05.779 --> 00:26:09.220 demonstrations in 2012, he immediately criticized 00:26:09.220 --> 00:26:11.559 the overwrought nationalism. He characterized 00:26:11.559 --> 00:26:14.880 it as cheap liquor that politicians feed to the 00:26:14.880 --> 00:26:17.880 public. He stood against the nationalist sentiment 00:26:17.880 --> 00:26:20.640 of both nations in favor of individual conscience. 00:26:20.980 --> 00:26:23.380 That's a strong political statement for a writer 00:26:23.380 --> 00:26:25.940 often characterized as a recluse. He also weighed 00:26:25.940 --> 00:26:28.259 in directly on national issues, criticizing Prime 00:26:28.259 --> 00:26:30.579 Minister Yoshihide Suga's handling of the COVID 00:26:30.579 --> 00:26:34.380 -19 pandemic. Yes, saying Suga saw an exit from 00:26:34.380 --> 00:26:37.480 the crisis only because His eyes must be extremely 00:26:37.480 --> 00:26:40.500 good for his age, implying a blindness to the 00:26:40.500 --> 00:26:42.720 true depth of the problem. He also champions 00:26:42.720 --> 00:26:45.160 progressive social issues, notably lending his 00:26:45.160 --> 00:26:47.420 support to same -sex marriage, which isn't nationally 00:26:47.420 --> 00:26:49.960 recognized in Japan. And his engagement continued 00:26:49.960 --> 00:26:52.039 most recently during the Russian invasion of 00:26:52.039 --> 00:26:54.839 Ukraine in 2022. He prepared a special radio 00:26:54.839 --> 00:26:57.339 program with about 10 musical pieces that encouraged 00:26:57.339 --> 00:27:00.000 peace and a focus on the preciousness of life. 00:27:00.319 --> 00:27:02.420 So his commitment is clearly not just literary, 00:27:02.480 --> 00:27:05.059 but civic. The output during this committed period. 00:27:05.420 --> 00:27:07.519 includes some of his most recognized global works. 00:27:07.779 --> 00:27:11.019 Kafka on the Shore from 2002 won the World Fantasy 00:27:11.019 --> 00:27:15.619 Award in 2006, and of course 1Q84 from 2009 -2010. 00:27:16.220 --> 00:27:18.980 pronounced Ichikihachiyon, the same as 1984. 00:27:19.259 --> 00:27:21.559 Which became a global phenomenon and led to that 00:27:21.559 --> 00:27:24.079 best -ranked work status back home. Even his 00:27:24.079 --> 00:27:26.559 later works continue to cause cultural friction, 00:27:26.740 --> 00:27:28.799 which proves the ongoing power of his themes. 00:27:29.099 --> 00:27:32.440 Definitely. Killing Kaman Dator in 2017 caused 00:27:32.440 --> 00:27:34.920 major controversy in Hong Kong, where government 00:27:34.920 --> 00:27:38.420 censors labeled it Class II Indecent. Wow. What 00:27:38.420 --> 00:27:40.720 did that mean in practice? It led to mass censorship. 00:27:41.289 --> 00:27:43.369 requiring warning labels and restricting sales 00:27:43.369 --> 00:27:46.329 to people under 18. That kind of reaction, so 00:27:46.329 --> 00:27:48.569 late in his career, it just underscores how challenging 00:27:48.569 --> 00:27:51.150 his exploration of sexuality, reality disruption, 00:27:51.390 --> 00:27:53.930 and anti -authoritarianism remains for certain 00:27:53.930 --> 00:27:56.390 systems. And his most recent novel, The City 00:27:56.390 --> 00:27:59.349 and Its Uncertain Walls, from 2023, which was 00:27:59.349 --> 00:28:02.730 based on an unsatisfactory 1980 novella, shows 00:28:02.730 --> 00:28:04.730 him still processing current events through his 00:28:04.730 --> 00:28:07.910 surreal lens. Indeed. He explicitly connected 00:28:07.910 --> 00:28:10.170 the physical setting of the walled town in that 00:28:10.170 --> 00:28:12.309 novel to the modern experience of the pandemic. 00:28:12.609 --> 00:28:15.230 He noted that the walled environment was a metaphor 00:28:15.230 --> 00:28:18.170 for the worldwide lockdown, reflecting the difficult 00:28:18.170 --> 00:28:21.470 coexistence of extreme isolation and warm feelings 00:28:21.470 --> 00:28:24.450 of empathy. Even in his latest work, the personal 00:28:24.450 --> 00:28:26.930 quest is constantly interacting with the collective 00:28:26.930 --> 00:28:30.190 global crisis. The power of Murakami's unique 00:28:30.190 --> 00:28:32.490 storytelling is that it translates exceptionally 00:28:32.490 --> 00:28:35.440 well across media. His narratives mixing the 00:28:35.440 --> 00:28:37.720 mundane with the fantastic have made him one 00:28:37.720 --> 00:28:40.039 of the most adapted living authors. It began 00:28:40.039 --> 00:28:42.509 early. Hear the Wind Sing was adapted into a 00:28:42.509 --> 00:28:45.250 film way back in 1981, and short stories like 00:28:45.250 --> 00:28:48.089 Bakery Attack were quickly made into films. But 00:28:48.089 --> 00:28:50.230 the recent cinematic successes have truly defined 00:28:50.230 --> 00:28:52.430 his global influence for a new generation of 00:28:52.430 --> 00:28:55.009 non -readers. Films like Tony Takitani in 2004 00:28:55.009 --> 00:28:58.690 and Norwegian Wood in 2010 brought his emotional 00:28:58.690 --> 00:29:01.549 depth to the screen. But the watershed moment 00:29:01.549 --> 00:29:03.769 really came with films that proved the versatility 00:29:03.769 --> 00:29:07.390 of his shorter fiction. Burning, from 2018, the 00:29:07.390 --> 00:29:09.529 South Korean film adapted from his short story 00:29:09.529 --> 00:29:11.890 Barn Burning, was highly acclaimed internationally. 00:29:12.410 --> 00:29:15.029 It won the FAPRESHI International Critics Prize. 00:29:15.329 --> 00:29:17.150 It showed that his work could be transplanted 00:29:17.150 --> 00:29:19.529 to completely different cultural contexts while 00:29:19.529 --> 00:29:21.990 retaining its central mystery intention. But 00:29:21.990 --> 00:29:24.329 the adaptation that truly blew up was Drive My 00:29:24.329 --> 00:29:27.849 Car in 2021. This film became a global darling, 00:29:28.069 --> 00:29:30.009 winning the Academy Award for Best International 00:29:30.009 --> 00:29:32.950 Feature and receiving nominations for Best Picture, 00:29:33.089 --> 00:29:35.329 Best Director and Best Editor. adapted screenplay. 00:29:35.490 --> 00:29:38.150 What's so critical about Drive My Car is a complexity 00:29:38.150 --> 00:29:41.289 of its source material. The director, Ryusuke 00:29:41.289 --> 00:29:44.089 Hamaguchi, didn't just adapt to the title story. 00:29:44.329 --> 00:29:46.589 Right. He wove together elements from several 00:29:46.589 --> 00:29:49.470 Murakami short stories, like Scheherazade and 00:29:49.470 --> 00:29:51.730 Kino, and combined them with structural inspiration 00:29:51.730 --> 00:29:55.109 from Anton Chekhov's play Uncle Vanya. It proved 00:29:55.109 --> 00:29:57.089 that Murakami's emotional and thematic layers 00:29:57.089 --> 00:29:59.529 are so rich that they could be disassembled and 00:29:59.529 --> 00:30:03.009 reassembled into an entirely new, complex narrative 00:30:03.009 --> 00:30:05.589 structure. The sources also list extensive theatrical 00:30:05.589 --> 00:30:08.289 adaptations which really speaks to the visual 00:30:08.289 --> 00:30:10.789 and thematic strength of his work. We see the 00:30:10.789 --> 00:30:13.970 2003 play The Elephant Vanishes, which blended 00:30:13.970 --> 00:30:16.750 multimedia and physical theater to capture his 00:30:16.750 --> 00:30:19.170 surreal atmosphere. And playwright Frank Calati 00:30:19.170 --> 00:30:21.869 adapted major works like After the Quake and 00:30:21.869 --> 00:30:24.289 Kafka on the Shore for the stage in the late 00:30:24.289 --> 00:30:27.490 2000s, turning that internal journey into a public 00:30:27.490 --> 00:30:30.150 performance. And his ecosystem just continues 00:30:30.150 --> 00:30:32.630 to evolve with modern formats. Yeah, the adventure 00:30:32.630 --> 00:30:35.589 video game Memoranda was released in 2017 based 00:30:35.589 --> 00:30:38.589 on various short stories and demonstrating his 00:30:38.589 --> 00:30:41.140 enduring appeal to diverse audiences, there's 00:30:41.140 --> 00:30:43.500 a three -volume original English language manga 00:30:43.500 --> 00:30:46.259 series that started in 2023. Oh, that's cool. 00:30:46.480 --> 00:30:48.539 It adapts nine of his most famous short stories, 00:30:48.579 --> 00:30:51.279 including Super Frog Saves Tokyo. Moving from 00:30:51.279 --> 00:30:53.839 the popular ecosystem to his academic and personal 00:30:53.839 --> 00:30:56.460 legacy, he recently made a huge contribution 00:30:56.460 --> 00:30:59.559 to his alma mater, Waseda University, essentially 00:30:59.559 --> 00:31:02.140 cementing the physical archive of his entire 00:31:02.140 --> 00:31:07.000 unconventional life. Yes. In 2021, the Waseda 00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:09.099 International House of Literature, often just 00:31:09.099 --> 00:31:11.400 called the Haruki Murakami Library, officially 00:31:11.400 --> 00:31:14.380 opened. It houses his massive global archive, 00:31:14.660 --> 00:31:16.859 which includes his original manuscripts, source 00:31:16.859 --> 00:31:19.000 documents, and translations into those 50 -plus 00:31:19.000 --> 00:31:21.799 languages. It's a testament to his global literary 00:31:21.799 --> 00:31:24.220 journey. And it serves as a beautiful tribute 00:31:24.220 --> 00:31:26.319 to his roots, doesn't it? It connects the jazz 00:31:26.319 --> 00:31:29.660 bar owner directly to the literary giant. Absolutely. 00:31:29.920 --> 00:31:31.920 The building itself is designed to reflect his 00:31:31.920 --> 00:31:34.509 life. The library includes a coffee shop run 00:31:34.509 --> 00:31:36.829 by students called Orange Cat, a deliberate nod 00:31:36.829 --> 00:31:39.289 to his first jazz bar, Peter Cat. I love that. 00:31:39.490 --> 00:31:41.910 And even more significantly, it features a dedicated 00:31:41.910 --> 00:31:43.990 listening lounge where visitors can hear the 00:31:43.990 --> 00:31:46.369 vast collection of records accumulated by Morikami 00:31:46.369 --> 00:31:49.529 himself, over 3 ,000 works. The physical space 00:31:49.529 --> 00:31:52.230 is a statement. His literary legacy cannot be 00:31:52.230 --> 00:31:54.549 separated from his love of music. Finally, we 00:31:54.549 --> 00:31:56.150 have to address the contradiction surrounding 00:31:56.150 --> 00:31:58.930 his tremendous recognition. He has this massive 00:31:58.930 --> 00:32:01.710 list of awards, the World Fantasy Award, the 00:32:01.710 --> 00:32:04.950 Tanizaki Prize, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Princess 00:32:04.950 --> 00:32:09.130 of Asturias Award in 2023. Yet he has a famously 00:32:09.130 --> 00:32:12.109 complex relationship with prizes and public attention. 00:32:12.390 --> 00:32:15.670 It stems directly from the trauma of the Norwegian 00:32:15.670 --> 00:32:18.029 Wood success, the one that forced him into exile. 00:32:18.730 --> 00:32:21.650 While he accepts numerous major accolades, the 00:32:21.650 --> 00:32:24.289 sources point out notable rejections and withdrawals. 00:32:24.390 --> 00:32:27.750 He declined the 2007 Kiriyama Prize for reasons 00:32:27.750 --> 00:32:31.029 of personal principle. And in 2018, when he was 00:32:31.029 --> 00:32:33.190 widely expected to win the Alternative New Academy 00:32:33.190 --> 00:32:36.089 Prize in Literature, he requested that his nomination 00:32:36.089 --> 00:32:39.309 be withdrawn. He stated he wanted to concentrate 00:32:39.309 --> 00:32:42.029 on writing away from media attention. And that 00:32:42.029 --> 00:32:43.849 brings us to the perennial Nobel speculation, 00:32:44.009 --> 00:32:46.430 which haunts him every autumn. He jokes about 00:32:46.430 --> 00:32:47.950 it. He says, no, I don't want prizes. That means 00:32:47.950 --> 00:32:51.230 you're finished. This just reinforces the persona 00:32:51.230 --> 00:32:53.950 of the detached, committed artist who finds joy 00:32:53.950 --> 00:32:56.369 in the solitary process, the writing and the 00:32:56.369 --> 00:32:58.250 running rather than the public accolades. He 00:32:58.250 --> 00:33:00.230 doesn't want the spotlight that Norwegian would 00:33:00.230 --> 00:33:03.569 thrust him into again. No. His rejections are 00:33:03.569 --> 00:33:05.730 his way of maintaining the controlled solitude 00:33:05.730 --> 00:33:08.529 that is so necessary for the automatic dwarfs 00:33:08.529 --> 00:33:11.230 to continue their work. His career is a fascinating 00:33:11.230 --> 00:33:14.069 balancing act between staggering global acclaim 00:33:14.069 --> 00:33:17.269 and intentional personal solitude. It truly is. 00:33:17.410 --> 00:33:20.289 His success highlights the unique appeal of his 00:33:20.289 --> 00:33:23.410 blend of Western literary styles and deeply personal 00:33:23.410 --> 00:33:26.990 Japanese sensibilities, all anchored by a dedication 00:33:26.990 --> 00:33:29.789 to craft that he maintains through his extreme 00:33:29.789 --> 00:33:32.589 running discipline. He's the introvert who became 00:33:32.589 --> 00:33:35.009 the most popular writer of his generation by 00:33:35.009 --> 00:33:37.650 writing the strange, complex stories that came 00:33:37.650 --> 00:33:40.029 to him, regardless of whether they were considered 00:33:40.029 --> 00:33:43.130 Japanese enough or marketable enough. So let's 00:33:43.130 --> 00:33:45.529 quickly summarize the key knowledge nuggets we've 00:33:45.529 --> 00:33:48.549 extracted for you today. The learner. Haruki 00:33:48.549 --> 00:33:51.289 Murakami is a self -taught jazz -loving runner 00:33:51.289 --> 00:33:53.490 who built his literary foundation not on traditional 00:33:53.490 --> 00:33:56.250 Japanese letters, but on Kafka, Vonnegut, and 00:33:56.250 --> 00:33:58.609 Kerouac, finding his initial inspiration at a 00:33:58.609 --> 00:34:01.099 baseball game. His signature style is marked 00:34:01.099 --> 00:34:03.200 by these surreal, flowing narratives, what others 00:34:03.200 --> 00:34:05.660 call magical realism, but what he calls simply 00:34:05.660 --> 00:34:07.759 the natural course of the story, assembled by 00:34:07.759 --> 00:34:10.440 his internal automatic dwarfs. And most importantly, 00:34:10.639 --> 00:34:13.559 his career trajectory underwent a profound, conscious 00:34:13.559 --> 00:34:17.300 shift. evolving from intimate introspection and 00:34:17.300 --> 00:34:19.739 geographic detachment during his early success 00:34:19.739 --> 00:34:23.059 in the 1980s and 90s to a strong social and political 00:34:23.059 --> 00:34:25.199 commitment in response to real -world trauma 00:34:25.199 --> 00:34:27.539 like the sarin gas attack and global political 00:34:27.539 --> 00:34:30.420 crises, articulated most powerfully in his egg 00:34:30.420 --> 00:34:32.900 -in -the -wall humanism. His lasting global impact 00:34:32.900 --> 00:34:35.559 stems from his ability to synthesize these disparate 00:34:35.559 --> 00:34:38.420 influences. jazz structures, western literary 00:34:38.420 --> 00:34:41.780 traditions, the i -novel form, surrealism, and 00:34:41.780 --> 00:34:44.780 concrete historical trauma. This fusion is why 00:34:44.780 --> 00:34:47.199 his work resonates everywhere, offering a potent 00:34:47.199 --> 00:34:49.619 method for processing global chaos through deeply 00:34:49.619 --> 00:34:52.400 personal, often illogical, yet strangely universal 00:34:52.400 --> 00:34:55.199 narratives. He gives us language for coping with 00:34:55.199 --> 00:34:58.039 modern uncertainty. We noted that Murakami stated 00:34:58.039 --> 00:35:00.400 his surreal books appeal most to people during 00:35:00.400 --> 00:35:02.460 times of tremendous turmoil and political chaos, 00:35:02.659 --> 00:35:05.440 like the Russia of the 1990s or post -Berlin 00:35:05.440 --> 00:35:07.940 Wall Germany. It suggests a comfort found in 00:35:07.940 --> 00:35:10.440 the acknowledgement of the world's illogic, a 00:35:10.440 --> 00:35:11.780 feeling that if the world doesn't make sense, 00:35:11.820 --> 00:35:13.440 at least the story of the world can still be 00:35:13.440 --> 00:35:16.159 beautifully, strangely told. So the learner, 00:35:16.340 --> 00:35:18.420 as you reflect on this deep dive into the man 00:35:18.420 --> 00:35:20.699 who talks about running, consider this final 00:35:20.699 --> 00:35:22.739 provocative thought drawn from the core of his 00:35:22.739 --> 00:35:25.599 philosophy. If his creative output is managed 00:35:25.599 --> 00:35:28.199 by the automatic dwarfs and his surreal settings 00:35:28.199 --> 00:35:31.019 reflect global political turmoil, what unexpected 00:35:31.019 --> 00:35:33.980 political or social walls in your own world, 00:35:34.039 --> 00:35:36.420 be they institutional, societal, or purely personal, 00:35:36.599 --> 00:35:38.659 might actually be best understood, not through 00:35:38.659 --> 00:35:41.599 reasoned debate, but by embracing the wild, illogical 00:35:41.599 --> 00:35:43.579 narratives of a six -foot -tall talking frog. 00:35:44.360 --> 00:35:46.260 Perhaps the only way to beat the system is to 00:35:46.260 --> 00:35:48.380 let your own automatic dwarfs run the show for 00:35:48.380 --> 00:35:48.719 a while.