Monday, March 05, 2007
Murakami miss
Got talking to a (inverted commas)High Level(close inverted commas and disgorge the remnants of breakfast over the guy in the next booth) student on the subject of literature the other day.
The Man in the High Castle loathes him dearly, but Murakami Haruki has had a lot of books translated into English that I really enjoy: Kafka on the shore is one of my favourites, The wind-up bird chronicle is also a classic, Underground is a must read and Norwegian wood would be a great deal better if it didn't have a shit name (and ending.)
I mentioned Murakami to the HLS and he lit up. He said that one of Murakami's most famous books was Hitsuji-tachi no chinmoku.
I considered the words.
Hitsuji = sheep
Tachi = group
Chinmoku = silence
So, according to my HLS, Murakami wrote The Silence of the Lambs.
Normally, if I could have any super power I asked for, I would request the ability to make pigeons explode with telekinesis- I hate those filthy bastards. However, there are times when I would request the ability to slow down/stop time itself and this was one of those occasions.
I would have stepped out of the classroom, walked past the booths of lost souls, frozen between the first and the second "so" in response to some question involving their opinion; I would have walked out of the school, past the hospital, down to the bank of the Yodogawa river. I would have sat by the river and collected my thoughts. I would have drank in the stillness of the universe.
I wouldn't have wept in the shrivelled pit of my soul and said:
"I'll keep an eye out for that one."
The Man in the High Castle loathes him dearly, but Murakami Haruki has had a lot of books translated into English that I really enjoy: Kafka on the shore is one of my favourites, The wind-up bird chronicle is also a classic, Underground is a must read and Norwegian wood would be a great deal better if it didn't have a shit name (and ending.)
I mentioned Murakami to the HLS and he lit up. He said that one of Murakami's most famous books was Hitsuji-tachi no chinmoku.
I considered the words.
Hitsuji = sheep
Tachi = group
Chinmoku = silence
So, according to my HLS, Murakami wrote The Silence of the Lambs.
Normally, if I could have any super power I asked for, I would request the ability to make pigeons explode with telekinesis- I hate those filthy bastards. However, there are times when I would request the ability to slow down/stop time itself and this was one of those occasions.
I would have stepped out of the classroom, walked past the booths of lost souls, frozen between the first and the second "so" in response to some question involving their opinion; I would have walked out of the school, past the hospital, down to the bank of the Yodogawa river. I would have sat by the river and collected my thoughts. I would have drank in the stillness of the universe.
I wouldn't have wept in the shrivelled pit of my soul and said:
"I'll keep an eye out for that one."
