Novelist as a Vocation
Brief Summary
A wonderful book that possesses instructional qualities on how to write fiction by Murakami (2022).
Key Takeaways
Operating in the confines of limited language skills forced him to convey a pure prose.
Employ iteration in creative work and you will get better at your work, you will refine it. Perfect is the enemy of good.
Mental and intellectual work are linked to physical strength.
All creative activity is, to some extent, done partly with the intention to rectify or fix yourself... I think I was instinctively seeking that kind of self-cleansing action. Which is why he started wanting to write novels in the first place.
Miscellaneous Notes
p.28: Hear the Wind Sing... First draft fulfilled the formal requirements of a novel but it was boring.
p.29: Just write down your feelings and thoughts as they come to you, freely, in a way you like. But that wasn't easy as it sounded.
A decision to experiment; write the opening of novel in English.
The English composition didn't amount to much, his vocabulary was severely limited. The result was rough and uncultivated prose.
Struggling in that fashion, the process started to yield a distinctive style.
In the end, his limited vocabulary and syntax made him a more effective writer. (Also see Agota Kristof)
He translates the English version into Japanese (not a direct verbatim translation). A new style of Japanese prose emerges as a result.
He rewrote the entire novel in this new style. While not entirely satisfied with this style because he could deliver only 20-30% of what he wanted, he had written his first novel.
Writing felt like performing music rather than composing literature.
p.36: On Literary Prizes: Murakami refuses to be on selection committees and he is bitter about one article written about him (see Akutagawa Prize). He says he is not suitable for being a jury member and he also doesn't have the time to devote to the task.
p.48: The reason is a simple one; I am just too much of an individualist. I'm a person with a fixed vision and a fixed process for for giving that vision shape. Unavoidably, sustaining that process entails an all-encompassing lifestyle. Without that I cannot write.
That is my yardstick, my recipe for success, but although it works for me, I doubt it would be suitable for other writers.
I just can't get my head around. I'm the sort of person who can only appraise things that with his own view point. Looked at positively, this is an example of individualism; negatively, the mark of a self-centred and egoistic person.
p.49: ... from what I have seen publishing houses seem to have no problem assembling juries... Nor have I heard of publishers forced to terminate a prize for a lack of jury members.
p.60. Basic requirements of originality
- Unique and individual style immediately perceivable on first sight and hearing,
- That style must update itself and maintain self-reinvention through passage of time,
- That style is internalized in societal being and inspire/influence subsequent generations.
Note: An artist need not to fulfill all three requirements in equal measures.
p.63: To reach the source, you have to swim against the current. Only trash swims downstream - Polish poet Herbert
see pp. 63, 64, 66 and 86.
p.87: I took a lot of heat when I launched my career: "This cannot be called a novel, this is not literature".
p.88: It is from the correlation of material and vehicle - from their influence, as it were, that new forms of novelistic reality emerge.
p.93 On Writing a Novel: Since a novel is a long term project requiring an inordinate amount of energy, creating a solid base is absolutely crucial.
p.101: Dance Dance Dance was written using a laptop (late 80s). An entire chapter went missing... He was a greenhorn when it came to word processors, it was likely his oversight, not uncommon story, he grew depressed...
p.103: What's crucial is the physical act of rewriting.
After many review and rewrites came gestation period, another crucial step in the process. The quite time spent germinating and cultivating the seeds of what's growing within you. It's an invisible process but the difference it makes is huge.
A fitting metaphor for this might be soaking in the tub at home versus doing the same thing in a hot spring. The water temperature may be the same in both cases but the resulting sensation is not. You feel reborn after spending some time in a hot spring while just relaxed in a hot tub.
pp. 116-117: There's a correlation between physical and mental health and resulting throughput: The more active physically, the more productive mentally.
p.118-119: I run an hour everyday. I get the feeling every day that my ability as a writer is gradually improving and my creativity is becoming more secure and steady. Not that I can demonstrate it with objective facts and figures but I do have a strong indelible sense inside me that this is whst is happening.
I persist in my daily running routine -for thirty years- my mantra: no matter what, this is something I have to do in my life.
p.119: I feel like the act of running represents, concretely and succinctly, some of the things I have to do in this life.
p.125-126: Murakami links mental and intellectual work to physical strength and states why he runs/swims to support his work. That's how he writes and lives.
p.126: Life is often capricious, unfair and sometimes cruel.
p.137: Unless he really wants to do it, he cannot work up the desire to do it. If someone orders him to do something (especially somebody above him) he'll do a perfunctory job at best.
p.170 Who do I write for: All creative activity is, to some extent, done partly with the intention to rectify or fix yourself... I think I was instinctively seeking that kind of self-cleansing action. Which is why he started wanting to write novels in the first place.
p.172: See Ryu Murakami "Coin Locker Babies". Also see Kawabata, Tanizaki and Mishima. New comers: Ryuichi Sakamato and Banana Yoshimoto.
p.203: His translators: Alfred Birnbaum, Jay Rubin, Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen.
p.207: He escaped from the land of Japan, from the rigid framework of its society, only to find himself compelled to return to a relationship with that very land. To clarify, it's not a return to the land itself but a return to a relationship that land.
Reference(s)
Murakami, H. (2022). Novelist as a Vocation. (P. Gabriel & T. Goossen, Trans.). Bond Street Books.