Chapter 4 young as ever

When Japanese writer Junichi Watanabe visited China, a reporter asked him what he thought of other Japanese colleagues. Because Haruki Murakami was very popular in China, he was inevitably mentioned.Watanabe's comments on Murakami are somewhat derogatory, saying that he is a bit naive, as if he has never grown up, and everything he writes is youthful. Some people say that Watanabe's remarks are obviously sour grapes, because Murakami has a special status in the Japanese literary world, with both literary strength and amazing market appeal.And Jun Watanabe's writing is full of the desolate mood of middle-aged people, and it is not difficult to understand that he claims to be more mature than Murakami.However, it is not easy to freeze youth forever, which is probably the charm of Murakami.

Largely because of that, if it's Murakami enough.This "youth" novel is actually written by Murakami when he is about to enter his forties. At the age of 38, he wrote a book at his desk during his sojourn in Europe, and his daily life outside of writing is very low-key, practical and rational. All the confusion and bewilderment are left in the pen. There, time seems to be frozen forever, just like at the end of the story, when Naoko is far away, Midori asks on the other side of the phone, where are you?Mr. Watanabe looked around in a daze: "Where am I?" The great appeal lies in the fact that there was such a period of confusion and bewilderment. We also didn't know where we came from and where we were going. I think maybe this is youth, maybe one day it will pass.

However, as time goes by, we grow old listlessly and still don't know where to go, but Murakami is as young as before, galloping all the way from "Norwegian Forest" to "Kafka by the Sea".How exactly did he achieve it? When Haruki Murakami was interviewed by Taiwanese translator Lai Mingzhu, he mentioned the concepts of time and freedom. I think it may echo Watanabe Junichi's comments and others.Murakami said that he did not have the things that he accumulated with age, such as company colleagues, children, etc., because without these things, the years do not exist for him, and in this world, he has nothing but his wife .Murakami said that "the feeling of living on your own" may be freedom.

In other words, Murakami looks at time not so much as a straight line moving forward, but rather as defining time through external relationships.The traces of the years are formed by the interweaving of these secular and personal relationships.And lacking the usual interpersonal branches to prove the aging of life, he can ignore the existence of the years and live freely—that is a relaxed life with no one else but himself. Some people may think this is lonely, but Murakami said that this is freedom.If sometimes you are troubled by the unavoidable personnel disturbances and family burdens in your life, if sometimes you don't want to live for others, maybe you will understand the freedom that Murakami said.Such freedom comes at a price, but Murakami made it happen.The youth in his works is a kind of embodiment of his independent struggle against the world.