Apr 25, 2011

Haruki Murakami's texts always inspire me.

I've finished reading Haruki Murakami's book "A Collection of Short Texts (雑文集)". His texts always inspire me and I wanted to write many journals about them.

In this book Haruki Murakami wrote about what a novelist was. I'd like to quote this part of his text as follows. (The original text is of course in Japanese. This is my translation.)

When I am asked what a novelist is, I usually answer "a novelist is a person who observes much and judges little".

Why does a novelist have to observe much? You can't describe exactly without much experience and correct observation. Even if, for example, you write about a bowling ball through the observation of Amami black rabbits. Why does a novelist judge so little? It's the readers who always reach their own final conclusions by themselves, not the authors. The role of a novelist is to hand over resources for making decisions to readers gently (or violently) in a fascinating way.

As you know, when a novelist begins to judge by themselves (because of his laziness or just exhibitionism) and does not leave the conclusions in his readers' hands, a novel becomes uninteresting. It loses depth and the natural brightness of words, and its story doesn't work.

One of the reasons why Haruki Murakami's texts inspire me a lot is that he doesn't put his own idea onto me and I can draw my own conclusions from his texts.

When I write a journal, I often give in to the temptation to put an impertinent conclusion to readers because of my exhibitionism.

I should just write what is proper to myself.

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