A Cat, A Woman, Snakes & God In "Kino" By Haruki Murakami

[@ctsuhako1]

Nice video! I purchased the other book after hearing you talk about it. Thank you. : )

[@expatkaz742]

The other book contains so many interesting stories from the famous authors to unknown (to me) authors. I have been cherishing it.

[@davidsheriff9274]

Didn't you think the name "Kamita" being represented by the symbol for "God" was a little obvious? Not very subtle. I don't understand why Murakaki would do something that showed such a lack of imagination and creativity. If Murakaki wanted the character of "Kamita" to represent some magical God like figure, sent down to force Kino to address the various aspects of his persona in order to help him have a life with true meaning and emotional awareness,then we could have figured that out. We didn't need it handled to us on a silver platter. Murakaki readers are not stupid. You are much more of an expert on his work than I am. Am I missing something? I think my favorite story in the book is"The Independent Organ". I think I am going to read"Colorless"next.

[@expatkaz742]

When I read it, I enjoyed that he may be a "God" by the way of his acts not by the name. I never thought the God person would exist that way in real life. In his stories, a savior appears in the very tough life of the protagonist. Most Japanese people's mind, the idea of God may not be existing and apparent. Therefore, the savior may be surprising idea. But for some, I believe it could be trite.

[@davidsheriff9274]

@@expatkaz742 You are right, I have to remind myself that Murakami is writing from the perspective of someone that grew up and lives in a society and culture that in many ways is very different than what I grew up and live in. Everything is the same on a fundamental human level, but culturally there are many differences between the east and the west regarding how we look at things like God, religion, politics, romantic relationships, ideas of masculinity and femininity, social customs ect. I had never heard of Murakami before. I picked up ",Men without Women" because I am so in love with the movie "Drive my Car" I wanted to see where the story came from. It's amazing to me that the director could create such a rich epic masterpiece out of a couple of short stories. He's a true genius. I want to read more Murakami. What else should I read? I don't know if I should start with Kafka on the shore, I can see myself getting very confused and frustrated with a book like that.What do you think of The wind up Bird chronicle, After Dark, Colorless or Norwegian Wood. I like the idea of Colorless, the plot seems like the kind of book that I would like, but maybe the wind up Bird chronicle might be more fun, if it's not too confusing. Or of course if there are any others that you think I would like. It's a few hours later and I just finished"Samsa in Love", absolutely horrible! What was the point, that it is better to be a human as opposed to an animal because humans can feel love? How trite and banal.And there was supposed to be some sort of mysterious event going on in the world with tanks on the streets and people being rounded up. I have to tell you, that I could not have been less interested in what that might have been. I don't think I have any desire to read anymore from Murakami. I know that fans of his don't consider "Men without Women" to be one of his best, but I worry that if I read one of his novels, and stuck with it through to the end, and it ends with a big boring nothing, I will be really angry. If his novels are like "The Independent Organ"or"Yesterday" I would be interested, because I though those were very good stories, but if the novels suck, like "Samsa in Love" "Kino"or "Scheherazade", I'm not interested.

[@expatkaz742]

@@davidsheriff9274 For me, I like "Wind-Up ...", "Norway..", "1Q84", ""Killing..", "Sptnik...", "Kafka...", and others. I think the reader in my mind should enjoy his world of fantasy and meditative searching for something in life. If you liked some of his short stories, you are the kind of person who enjoy Murakami. You have to submit yourself in his world to enjoy his fiction, I guess. But, mostly, it is fun to read his fiction, isn't it? When I read "Scheherazade", I was completely engrossed with his depiction of this girl who get into somebody else's house as a teenager who has this crash on the boy. I guess if you did not enjoy this story, you may have expected too much out of Murakami's fiction. Just give him a chance to entertain you.

[@kuki7925]

I didnt really understand the story of kino…

[@expatkaz742]

Short story is often like that. Reader's own interpretation is more important, I guess.

[@amarpatil7770]

​@@expatkaz742 whats your interpretation in one line

[@expatkaz742]

@@amarpatil7770 I interpreted that sometimes in your tough life, the help will come to deal with the problems on hand.