Seeing flowers in the mist

Qi Fan Qi Micro Lesson (theme article)

——Interpretation of Murakami Haruki's "Listen to the Sing of the Wind"

So far, in the history of Japanese literature, There are two Nobel Prize winners in literature: Kawabata Yasunari and Oe Kenzaburo. The former's representative works include "Snow Country", "Ancient Capital", "Thousand Paper Cranes", etc. His works have strong realism characteristics. The latter's representative works include "Football Team in the First Year of Wanyan", "Personal Experience", etc., and his works have strong symbolism characteristics.

Although Haruki Murakami did not win the Nobel Prize, he can be called a heavyweight contemporary Japanese writer. His representative works include "Kafka on the Shore", "Norwegian Wood", etc. Compared with Kawabata Yasunari and Oe Kenzaburo, Murakami Haruki's works can be said to be in a school of their own. His works "shatter" reality and do not have the strong symbolic color in Oe Kenzaburo's works. This can be seen from his first published work "Listen to the Sing of the Wind".

"Listen to the Sing of the Wind" was published in 1979, when the author was 30 years old. This is his creative attempt four years after graduating from college. At that time, he planned to participate in a literary essay competition. After writing the first draft, I felt unsatisfied, so I tore it up and rewrote it. Unexpectedly, his work was well received by the judges. Since then, a new star has risen in the Japanese literary world.

What kind of book is "Listen to the Sing of the Wind"? At first glance, it seems to be a "youth body" novel. Write a story about college students’ love. After careful reading, I found that such a superficial interpretation was a mistake. If you interpret it this way, you actually fail to understand the work, let alone comprehend the connotation of the work.

Fragmentation is the main feature of the structure of this work. In "my" relationship with the rat, in "my" conversation with Jay, in "my" date with the girl in the record store, readers cannot find a very clear narrative thread. That said, for readers with a strong sense of story, this may be disappointing. They may feel that the author talks about philosophy at one moment, writes about "Jay's Bar" at another moment, writes about "I"'s discussion with the mouse at another moment, and writes about me drinking with the girl in the record store at another moment. There is no obvious change of time, no obvious conflicts, and no coherent chain of character destiny.

To sum up, the whole work feels like seeing flowers in a fog. There are "flowers" in the content, that is, there are descriptions of life scenes, the appearances of characters ("I", Rat, Jay, the record store girl, etc.), and there is also a lack of detailed settings, but these "flowers" are far apart. Just like a long lens, you can see the outline but not the process.

How to understand the author’s intention? To be sure, this is the author's intention, or in other words, this is the narrative method pursued by the author: intermittent and fragmented. In the flow of the text, several "dispersed shots" are arranged for the readers. Perhaps this kind of "life" is a more real life.

The fact is that real life is more scattered, more disordered, and less story-telling. In traditional realist works, the background of life is clearly explained, the fate of the characters has ups and downs, the storyline is carefully set up, and the emotional conflicts have obvious traces. This narrative perspective is an all-round perspective, also known as the "God's perspective." From this perspective, readers can feel a very close reality, even close to a "naked" reality. The biggest advantage of such a work is that readers can have a strong "sense of involvement", be able to intervene in the protagonist's "joys and sorrows", and understand certain "scenes" similar to their own experiences. And this is exactly what Haruki Murakami tries to avoid.

The reason should be related to the author's influence from some writers, such as American writer Kurt Vonnegut. As far as Kurt Vonnegut is concerned, he is by no means a traditional realist writer. In fact, he is a black humor writer. His masterpiece "Slaughterhouse-Five" mainly writes about the bombing of Dresden by the US and British troops during World War II. This was an "indiscriminate" bombing that occurred at the end of World War II, causing a large number of civilian casualties (shown in the movie "The Bombing of Dresden"). Vonnig used the male protagonist Billy Pilger to express doubts about the nature of this war. There is a classic saying in the article: "That's it." This is a black humorous attitude. The author shows his alienation and alienation from reality.

From the text of "Listen to the Wind Sing", it is not difficult for readers to find this attitude of alienation from reality. In section 38, the author writes: "Everything will disappear and no one can capture it." This sentence can explain the relationship between "I" and Rat, Jay, and the girl in the record store. Relationships are always bright and dark, like a fleeting glimpse of light. Even the interaction between "I" and the girl in the record store, which is much discussed in the article, only has a few brief fragments, and is turned away without waiting for the reader to think about it. The girl used the excuse of "traveling" but actually went to have an abortion. The girl’s family background and her experience of having sex with someone and getting pregnant (not with “me”) were all “shielded”. After a brief relationship, "I" left the "record store girl" because I wanted to go back to Tokyo for school, and the two never met again. As for "I"'s interactions with three other girls in college, the author spares no effort in writing and writes briefly. Like fish scales in the water, they flashed away. Going back further, a high school girl requested a song for "me" on a radio station during the summer vacation in August 1970. I tried to contact her, but after many twists and turns, nothing came of it. .

The author's alienation and alienation from reality run through the entire work. In verse 39, “I” graduated from college and had a family. Is this the happiness of life? The author wrote: "If someone asks: Are you happy? I can only answer: maybe. Because the so-called ideal is just that in the end." "That's just the way it is." This is so similar to the tone in Vonnig's writing!

Of course we cannot think that Haruki Murakami copied Vonnig. This can only be said that Haruki Murakami is similar to Vonnig in his attitude towards reality.

In addition to the ambiguity of the "shot" in the text, the characteristics of the writing are also noteworthy: conciseness and humor.

The whole work has 40 sections, and each section is not long. Some have 1 page per section; some have 2 pages per section, and some have 3 pages per section. . . . . The shortest is the second section, which has only one sentence: "The story begins on August 8, 1970, and ends eighteen days later, on August 26 of the same year." The longest is 9 pages and one section. . In any case, the text in each section seems "sparse", so it is easy for readers to read.

The language of the work also has a kind of "casual humor", which gives people a sense of ease. For example, it is written in one place in Section 1: "My *** had three uncles, one died in the suburbs of Shanghai - he stepped on a mine he had laid on the third day after the defeat..." In the calm narrative , readers can imagine the author's cunning eyes. At the end of the same section: "As for those who look for food in the refrigerator in a quiet kitchen at three o'clock in the middle of the night, they can only write articles like this." The author used this to laugh at himself, showing a relaxed and humorous attitude.

Generally speaking, this work is not a realist work in the true sense. Its focus is not on realism, but on "expression". If the content reads with a "realistic" impression, it also creates distance and "scale". And this is exactly Haruki Murakami's writing style. Since "Listen to the Wind Sing", Haruki Murakami has maintained and developed this style.

Qi Fan Qi Micro Class No. 5, 28 Days, Chapter (3) has accumulated (2292) words? *** Total (4552) words