Since this seems to be a day when folks are suggesting new threads on other threads ...I'm going to start one on this topic. Right now....
I wouldn't bother to argue. It's like trying to squeeze jello with your bare hands. It's pointless and you'll make a mess. Murakami is the kind of writer everyone calls a genius because that's the popular opinion and to defy that is either 'ignorance' or sacrilege. Like Orson Scott Card. I can't stand either.
I suggest you guys read this blog post. Might give you some ideas about racial representation and identities.
It's a quote by Edmund Burke. Generally such sayings are meant to be seen as things to consider, not something to look as a scientifically sound argument. I believe the key word here would be "context." Just about everything can be made to look stupid when taken out of its intended context and stuffed into one it doesn't fit. In any case, I like at least some description of a character's looks unless there's a specific reason to leave the reader in the dark (I know some exist and sometimes you can get away with no description in a short, but for novels...). Not doing it because it might be seen as an offensive move... fuck that and all other such absolutes. Almost anything can work if done well, so it's just a matter of executing those descriptions well enough that they work within that story's narrative and stylistic context. I wonder if a shopping list -like description can be done well enough to actually work... As for the Murakami OT, I've no idea how good he is, not having read any of his work, but as far as I know, hacks aren't nominated for a Nobel all that often, so my uneducated guess is that he's probably quite a bit better than at least me and possibly a few others too. But that's just a hack's guess.
Of course Murakami is brilliant, perhaps magic realism isn't everyone's cup of tea but his best prose is sublime. 'Wind-Up Bird Chronicles' remains my favourite, alongside 'Kafka On the Shore', but I recently really enjoyed 'Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years Of Pilgrimage'. Any writer, aspiring or published, would be lucky to reach the precision and magic of expression he is capable of. But as with everything, some people just don't know a good thing when they see it. It's the nature of the game
@jazzabel, thanks for the heads-up, I'll check those out. I don't like all the greats either, but that doesn't mean they suck, just that their style doesn't mesh with my likes. And whether I like Murakami or not is kinda irrelevant anyway when I'm just looking for interesting authors to study.
No, hacks aren't nominated - but not everyone who is nominated nor everyone who has won is universally revered and loved - or well-known. To insinuate that someone is somehow 'low-brow' because they didn't fawn over the writing is no different than insinuating someone else is just a fangirl because they do. People have different tastes - which should be obvious by looking at the variety of people who have actually won the Nobel over the years.
All I was "insinuating" was that at least the less accomplished among us (I figured everyone can make their own call whether they belong to that group or not, hence I didn't name any names), myself most definitely among them, can probably, possibly, maybe learn something from reading those who are further in their writing career than us even if their writing isn't exactly to our tastes. If someone is so advanced in their writing that they have nothing to learn from writers who are fairly well-regarded by quite a few professionals of the writing industry... well, good for them, right? I only wish I was that good. I've read only a few Nobel Prize winners and so far I've liked just one (Marquez) but I've learned from reading the others too. I don't always even finish the books I pick up (here referring to all books I read) if they're really not my cup of tea, but that's fine; even if the only thing I take away from reading a book is what not to do in my own writing, I consider it a worthwhile effort instead of a waste of time (although so far I've always learned more than that from Nobel Prize winners and nominees). Some may disagree and that's fine too. That's all.
Sorry, should have been clearer in my comment. I was actually referring to statements such as this "But as with everything, some people just don't know a good thing when they see it.". That's a pretty presumptuous and quite frankly pompous statement. As I said earlier, I don't have to love songs by Grammy winners or movies that win the Oscar. That doesn't make me a philistine.
Where did I claim it did? Or that you have to like Grammy and Oscar winners? Or Nobel Prize winners? In fact, when it comes to that post of mine, what has liking got to do with anything? To cut this short, I'll try to be clearer: it doesn't. I never talked about nor insinuated one bit about liking anything unless you count my whole argument that you do not have to like a piece of work or its producer to learn from it. If you think I claimed you had to like e.g. Murakami to qualify as a decent human being... well, that's not really my problem anymore than it is yours if I thought your post accused me of, say, hating dromedaries.
You didn't say it. Jazzabel did, along with other similar statements. I thought, at the time, your comment about Nobel prize nominees probably being better than others was an appropriate time to mention that they aren't necessarily - blame it on a splitting headache. Next time I'll respond directly to the actual culprit.
Exactly. I wanted to read fantasy novels based in/about Africa with African characters. I found a few of them and I realised rather than complain about it I should just write my African based fantasy novels/short stories. I personally don't think there's anything wrong with say a an Indian author writing novels that is set in India or insert "ethnicity/nationality" writing novels that are set/based on insert same "ethnicity/nation". It would be very weird if a say Japanese person decided to write a story based on say the Sudano-Sahelian monarchies of Ghana, Mali and Songhay. However if the person has done their research and they have written a fantastic story then more power to them.
