September 07, 2005
Fictionsuit (singular)
Well that's a coincidence. No sooner do I blog about my ex-Fictionsuits partners in crime and what should I find on Misuba's homepage but his latest project, called, er... Fictionsuit. It's a collaborative-fictive community, and it's well worth a browse.
Posted by chris at 10:14 PM | Permalink
October 17, 2001
Haruki Murakami NY Times feature
A Japanese Writer Analyzes Terrorists and Their Victims - NY Times article interviewing novelist Haruki Murakami. His perspective is all the more interesting given his recent book, Underground, a series of interviews with the victims and perpetrators of the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack. More Murakami:
- Featured Author: Haruki Murakami (NY Times feature: audio / reviews / first chapters)
- Up from the underground (Metropolis feature, October 2001)
- the outsider (Salon interview, December 1997)
- The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (my favourite of his novels)
Posted by chris at 09:08 PM | Permalink
September 10, 2001
"Why my wife owned a shotgun, I had no idea."
Cool - madorangefools has blogged this excerpt from The Second Bakery Attack, which is part of Haruki Murakami's collection of short stories, The Elephant Vanishes.
Murakami's one of my favourite authors, and this seems like as good an opportunity as any to command you to read anything of his you can get your hands on, but especially The Wind-up Bird Chronicle or A Wild Sheep Chase, both of which are complex, surreal and marvellous.
Oh - but you might want to avoid Norwegian Wood, as I found it so infuriating that I just wanted to throw it at people. Luckily it's quite a small volume, so no damage was done, but anyway. You're better off reading this interview with the man himself in this week's Metropolis.
Posted by chris at 07:48 AM | Permalink
September 07, 2001
Douglas Copeland feature
The Telegraph (no! wait! come back, it's ok, really!) has an interesting feature article on Douglas Coupland at the moment. Among other things, he talks a bit about his time in Japan; I hadn't even realised he used to live here, let alone the role the place played in the genesis of his writing career. Good stuff. (via linkmachinego)
Posted by chris at 04:13 PM | Permalink
June 12, 2001
Sputnik Sweetheart
Oh my god.
That was brilliant. There's probably nothing I can say that will do it justice - read Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami. Just read it.
All the way through, I was convinced that it was going to have the same kind of ending as South of the Border, West of the Sun - which would have been fine, considering the tone of Sputnik. But instead... speechless. I'm drained and thrilled.
I'm also gushing far too much. Off to find some tissues. Sniff.
Posted by chris at 02:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
May 27, 2001
number9dream
Oh, I nearly forgot. Also on one of the videos received from home, sandwiched between two episodes of Spaced, was a late-night book review panel program. The book in question was number9dream, which I read a couple of months ago. The reviews were fairly luke-warm, which is fair enough. It's beautifully written in parts and very enjoyable, but loses it a bit near the end.
It was all going pretty well - fairly low pretentiousness factor, well informed comments (though one of the reviewers did keep mispronouncing the hero's name) - until one of the critics, in all seriousness, used the word "architectonics".
What? I mean, I know it's a real word (barely, though) but, for god's sake. Critic one, listening public nil. Very clever. What's wrong with "plot" or "structure"? Grief.
People who go around trying to discombobulate others like that really piss.. me... off.... oh. Whoops.
Posted by chris at 02:14 AM | Permalink
April 07, 2001
Gibson on Japan tech in the Observer
Got it - tracked down an interesting little article that Dave mentioned: William Gibson writing (for the Observer, syndicated in the Japan Times) on the Japanese love of and symbiosis with technology - and why London gets it.
Apparently, Vancouver doesn't.
Posted by chris at 11:40 PM | Permalink
