What We Talk About When We Talk About Haruki Murakami -- Presented by Monkey Business

Monkey Business, a Tokyo-based magazine founded in 2008 by Motoyuki Shibata, features the best contemporary Japanese literature, translating works by both established and emerging authors.
This event at Book Court is the last stop on the Monkey Business fall tour and features Shibata, Jay Rubin, and Roland Kelts for a panel discussion about Haruki Murakami and Japanese literature, audience Q&A, and a book signing.
Rubin, Professor Emeritus of Harvard University, is author of Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words and Making Sense of Japanese: What Textbooks Don't Tell You. He is the major translator of Haruki Murakami, with 1Q84, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, After Dark, and others to his credit. His other translations include Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa and Sanshiro by Soseki Natsume.
One of the editors of Monkey Business, Roland Kelts is author of the best-selling Japanamerica, and his articles, essays, and stories have been published in The New Yorker, Time, Zoetrope, The Wall Street Journal, The Yomiuri, Japan Times, and many others. He has taught at a number of universities including New York University, Rutgers University, and the University of Tokyo.
Motoyuki Shibata teaches American literature and literary translation at the University of Tokyo. He is the co-editor of Monkey Business, the only English-language literary journal focused on Japanese literature, manga, and poetry. Among others, he has translated Paul Auster, Stuart Dybek, Kelly Link, Steven Millhauser, Richard Powers, Charles Simic, and Barry Yourgrau.

[@warmleatherette]

Every Murakami reader should watch this.

[@muratisik6956]

Does it contain spoilers?

[@tyt1762]

Every Seinfeld viewer should watch this.

[@lachlanstill4813]

Nice, Wonderland is my favorite book of his as well.

[@mypersonalpainpoint]

great discussion by the way :)

[@zhongdehuang1938]

I really like his books

[@andrewsokulski8922]

I must admit, reading it in the English makes it sound like I’m reading a wonderful complication of song lyrics that were brought together as a story...However, when I read some short stories in Japanese, there was definitely a unique touch to it that was quite extraordinary as well. Especially 雨の日の女 which I don’t think has been translated yet.

[@user-wl4lk9eg5m]

Hello everyone, I'm Asian, Japan's neighbor China Taiwan, I always have a doubt, living under different cultural and educational backgrounds, and you can understand the way Mr. Haruki Murakami expression of pan-Chinese circles thinking it? For example: Why Watanabe feel lonely confused?

[@mypersonalpainpoint]

wow, this guy looks exactely like Larry David!!!! WOWWWW

[@nickcartertokyo]

Pretty good. Pretty, pretty good

[@persononline123]

Did you just make a Larry David reference..?

[@nickcartertokyo]

Er, yes. Well spotted.

[@persononline123]

We are now friends.

[@berlitzmandelbrot4273]

43:20 is sending me

[@StanfordFan-jn1dp]

no closed-captions and poor sound

[@habileb]

I am frustrated about how quickly they brushed over the question about "why are women characters so elusive ( in his novels)?" I am very curious about his portrayal of women and would like to know more.

[@denniszenanywhere]

Have not yet read any of his books but plan to. What do you mean by elusive women characters? Curious to know. Thanks

[@HimeBaezChan]

I have read Murakami in English and Spanish. To be honest it is more beautiful in Spanish.

[@eras4552]

Me paso lo mismo con Yukio Mishima incluso desde el título me llamaba mas la atención: "El rumor del oleaje"en comparación a "the sound of the waves"

[@muratisik6956]

What is your mother language, if I may ask?

[@hosseinhabibi3870]

Kafka on the Shore...

[@mohsinkazi1531]

hossein habibi Kafka on the shore.....

[@jazztemple2]

"...an interior voice, a capacity to penetrate some kind of collective unconscious..." Wow, that sounds like such a bunch of shite.

[@drunknmonk12]

The woman at the start can't even pronounce his name correctly, quite embarrassing.

[@beatriz894]

when it's about speaking japanese, english speakers are quite limited in my opnion