Reading Books: Pinball, 1973

13Jun10

Can you remember the first book that you read in English? Probably not, right? It was probably a simple book aimed at young readers. It may have been a challenge, but looking back now, you would find it a breeze. But what if your first novel as a fresh faced kid was something waaaay above your level? Would you still one day look back and laugh about how you once found it difficult? I’m hoping so…

I’ve just finished my first Japanese language novel – Pinball, 1973 (１９７３年のピンボール) by Haruki Murakami (村上春樹). It’s a proper Japanese novel (though probably a novella, technically), written for native speakers without any of the training wheels found in lower level texts. Basically, it’s way above my level. But I wasn’t going to let that get in the way of reading my favourite author’s work in it’s original form, was I?

Pinball, 1973 was one of the first 日本語 books that I bought, mere months after starting the language. I tried deciphering and translating the first sentence many times, but it proved difficult. Every now and then, I’d do the same thing – pick the book up, try to deeply understand that first sentence. I would fail and put the book back on the shelf. Obviously, that’s no good.

I wanted to read this book, so I had to change the way I read.

Rather than trying to understand every word and every sentence, I just went with the flow of the text. I wasn’t trying to understand everything, rather just trying to read everything. Observing the kanji compounds and sentence patterns and trying to make sense of it all, but not getting dismayed when it confused me. I just kept on reading. I find it more fun this way too, since it’s all new and I can take it at whatever pace I want.

Before I would pick the book up, read a line, then put it back down due to frustration. But now, I wasn’t feeling bad about not understanding things. I can come back to them at a later date. Besides, the very next sentence might be one that I can grasp. It’s just a good idea to keep on reading, because you’re getting massive amounts of contact with Japanese. Comprehension is low, but contact with the language in a pure form like this is priceless.

I  was learning Japanese so I could read, but now I’m learning Japanese by reading. If I read enough, eventually it’ll all fall in to place.

What Next?

I’ve got a few options with that I can do next regarding reading Japanese books:

• Another Murakami novel? One down – many more to go. Possibly 風の歌を聴け, Murakami’s first novel.
• Short stories? – less of a commitment and smaller chunks to digest.
• Other novels? – The Catcher in the Rye is on it’s way from Amazon.jp.
• Something easier? Maybe a light novel? Simpler text with furigana.
• Something contemporary? A book with a more modern use of the language.
• Reread and sentence mine Pinball, 1973? This is a definite. I held back from taking sentences from the book because I wanted to remain focused on simply reading. Now, I’ll flip through it and find some gems to mine.

Bonus Section! Murakami Observations

A few notes for Murakami fans where I gather some of my thoughts about the book.

• The narrator is simply 僕 and his real name is never mentioned. Though, why 僕? Why not 私 or 俺?
• Actually, very few characters have names. There’s The Rat and J, and that’s about it.
• Man, the guy drinks a lot of コーヒ and ビール. Every other page he’s knocking one back.
• From reading translations of Murakami, I know of a character called The Rat, that appears in several of Murakami’s early novels.  I was thrown by RTK with a kanji that appeared here – 鼠. This is listed by Heisig as ‘mouse’, but I knew it must refer to The Rat. Just a case of the character having a broader meaning than the keyword, really.
• Plenty of references to Western pop culture, including several to one of my favourites 「ラバー・ソウル」which would later be written about in greater detail in Norwegian Wood. Most of the references are jazz based, though.
• I thought I wasn’t going to see it in this book, but towards the end, the protagonist starts cooking up some spagetti.
• It’s clear from these observations that from as early as Murakami’s second novel, he had already formed a clear style that would flourish through his later work.
• Also, why has the novel never been released internationally? Murakami is said to be unhappy with it, but I think that fans would lap this up.

Advertisement

Filed under: Uncategorized   |  6 Comments