How to Murakamify a regular story
Normal Story:
A guy drifts along, not too happy with his life but not unhappy enough to do something about it, until one day he wonders if he should. He quits his job, and embarks on a novel about a guy in love with two sisters and unable to decide which one he loves more.
He likes a girl, a lot, but he isn't sure she has any feelings for him. Let's call her W. They go on long walks, they discuss movies, books, art, music. His crush on her intensifies, but she is vague in her responses to him.
Dawdling on the internet, he comes across X, a girl who makes him laugh. A romance ensues. X and he meet, finally, and they fall in love. He forgets W. X goes back to the country she came from, but their romance remains.
His novel gets rejected by various publishers. One tells him it has too many big words. He practices darts on a photograph of Chetan Bhagat.
X decides she cannot romance him on the internet, and finds herself a guy closer home. By the time he comes back to W, she has moved on.
He travels to Rajahmundry, and throws the manuscript of his novel down the Godavari. He finds himself another job.
Murakamification:
A guy drifts along, not too happy with his life but not unhappy enough to do something about it, until one day, he has a dream where he has furious sex with an Amar Chitra Katha character who comes alive. The next night, he dreams of being seduced in a bizarre manner by the character's sister. He decides to quit his job and write a novel about this.
A girl, W, who has the most perfect set of teeth, and he go on long walks for days. He likes her, but he's too intense to do anything about it. He only stares at her teeth. One day, he has his Amar Chitra Katha character dream again, and when it ends, he realises the girl is W. W mentions something vague that suggests to him that his dream might not just be a dream, but he's not sure if what she said means what he thinks she said.
The next day, he decides he must read the relevant Amar Chitra Katha, and Googles it. He comes across various threads where a mysterious woman, X, represented only by a stick-figure cartoon, writes Freudian interpretations of the stories. She makes him laugh. He responds, they correspond. His dreams now involve him having furious sex with the stick-figure cartoon. He locks himself up in a dark room to think. He can only think of furious sex with the stick-figure cartoon. Occasionally, W's teeth make an appearance, but they're quickly forgotten. Finally, the stick-figure cartoon begins filling out, until it becomes the sister of the Amar Chitra Katha character that W turned into. His fantasies now only involve the sister and not the original character.
His novel closely recounting these adventures is rejected by various publishers because it isn't translated from Japanese. He finds a translator who tells him gory stories of the Indo-Bangladesh war, but doesn't translate the novel. His translator commits suicide.
X disappears from the internet altogether - from the threads on Amar Chitra Katha, from his inbox, his chat-transcripts. Her facebook profile is missing, her twitter account is empty. He looks for her everywhere, but it is like she never existed. He only gets a mail with a singular attachment containing a cartoon drawing of the Amar Chitra Katha woman's navel.
W has also disappeared from the real world. All that is left behind is a photograph of her navel in his house.
After meandering along the Kerala coast for weeks, meeting a man who thinks he is a rhinoceros, a yogi who might be a fraud, a hotel owner who is a Geeta Dutt fan, he finds out where W and X have gone. He opens the pages of his manuscript and delves into it.
***
It goes without saying - I've pre-ordered 1Q84 and I can't wait for it!
A guy drifts along, not too happy with his life but not unhappy enough to do something about it, until one day he wonders if he should. He quits his job, and embarks on a novel about a guy in love with two sisters and unable to decide which one he loves more.
He likes a girl, a lot, but he isn't sure she has any feelings for him. Let's call her W. They go on long walks, they discuss movies, books, art, music. His crush on her intensifies, but she is vague in her responses to him.
Dawdling on the internet, he comes across X, a girl who makes him laugh. A romance ensues. X and he meet, finally, and they fall in love. He forgets W. X goes back to the country she came from, but their romance remains.
His novel gets rejected by various publishers. One tells him it has too many big words. He practices darts on a photograph of Chetan Bhagat.
X decides she cannot romance him on the internet, and finds herself a guy closer home. By the time he comes back to W, she has moved on.
He travels to Rajahmundry, and throws the manuscript of his novel down the Godavari. He finds himself another job.
Murakamification:
A guy drifts along, not too happy with his life but not unhappy enough to do something about it, until one day, he has a dream where he has furious sex with an Amar Chitra Katha character who comes alive. The next night, he dreams of being seduced in a bizarre manner by the character's sister. He decides to quit his job and write a novel about this.
A girl, W, who has the most perfect set of teeth, and he go on long walks for days. He likes her, but he's too intense to do anything about it. He only stares at her teeth. One day, he has his Amar Chitra Katha character dream again, and when it ends, he realises the girl is W. W mentions something vague that suggests to him that his dream might not just be a dream, but he's not sure if what she said means what he thinks she said.
The next day, he decides he must read the relevant Amar Chitra Katha, and Googles it. He comes across various threads where a mysterious woman, X, represented only by a stick-figure cartoon, writes Freudian interpretations of the stories. She makes him laugh. He responds, they correspond. His dreams now involve him having furious sex with the stick-figure cartoon. He locks himself up in a dark room to think. He can only think of furious sex with the stick-figure cartoon. Occasionally, W's teeth make an appearance, but they're quickly forgotten. Finally, the stick-figure cartoon begins filling out, until it becomes the sister of the Amar Chitra Katha character that W turned into. His fantasies now only involve the sister and not the original character.
His novel closely recounting these adventures is rejected by various publishers because it isn't translated from Japanese. He finds a translator who tells him gory stories of the Indo-Bangladesh war, but doesn't translate the novel. His translator commits suicide.
X disappears from the internet altogether - from the threads on Amar Chitra Katha, from his inbox, his chat-transcripts. Her facebook profile is missing, her twitter account is empty. He looks for her everywhere, but it is like she never existed. He only gets a mail with a singular attachment containing a cartoon drawing of the Amar Chitra Katha woman's navel.
W has also disappeared from the real world. All that is left behind is a photograph of her navel in his house.
After meandering along the Kerala coast for weeks, meeting a man who thinks he is a rhinoceros, a yogi who might be a fraud, a hotel owner who is a Geeta Dutt fan, he finds out where W and X have gone. He opens the pages of his manuscript and delves into it.
***
It goes without saying - I've pre-ordered 1Q84 and I can't wait for it!
Posts
11 replies:
i want whatever he's smoking. Or drinking. or eating. Or not eating. Or Whatever. I want it.
Hahaha me too :-D
He is not smoking anything only running like avar Ludwig..:-)
So another friend recently wrote a post titled The Maze of Murakami. To which one had replied: Also, please note there is the Haze of Haruki Murakami. By which I refer to the cloud that begins to surround your head, especially your vision, as you read his books and refuses to fade for days afterwards. It is usually very slightly pastel in color, but if you try to focus and determine exactly which shade, it all just turns to white mist. And when it finally clears, you say ah, time for another.
hahaha... only your crooked mind will call that first story normal!!
you are brilliant I say!
AH. Ah. Ah. It is THIS you must have directed me to first. THIS. Genius.
@Varali:
I also want!
@S.
:D
@Anonymous
I can barely walk. What run-gin and all?
@Varali2:
Somewhat brilliant.
@ajay
Trust you to make a comment like this. Long time, brother. How life is and all? :P
@madrasi:
Thank you!
@SB:
x
@mami - you have a talent. Time for Paul Auster.
:) and :(
@Anu: Hahaha. Soon.
@Anon: I know :) :(
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