Haruki Murakami and Seiji Ozawa hang out, listen to records, and talk about music.

Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa – Haruki Murakami (2016)

“Like love, there can never be too much ‘good music.’ “ - Haruki Murakami

The Japanese author Haruki Murakami has been one of my favorites ever since I first read A Wild Sheep Chase in my sophomore year of University (oh so very long ago...around 1992-1993).  I owe my love of Murakami to my man Elliott French, who loaned me his copy of that book.  I have also been aware of Maestro Seiji Ozawa’s work, as I spent 7 years playing cello in the school Symphony Orchestra.  Coupled with my father’s enjoyment of classical music at home, this left me with a life-long love of classical symphonic and chamber music.  When I read that Haruki Murakami’s newest book was to focus on conversations between these two giants, and their shared love of music, I grew restless to read it.  Thank Mario for the University of Houston’s M.D. Anderson Library and the bad-ass librarians there who keep the shelves full of fresh new books!

Previously on this Intellectual Journey, I had the chance to read and write about Haruki Murakami’s first non-fiction book, the moving and shocking Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche.  Where that book delved into a tragedy that shook a nation to its core, and the after-effects of it all, this book is a joyous celebration in many respects.  Murakami has been a life-long fan of music, with a deep knowledge of Jazz and Classical music.  Ozawa has been working as a conductor since the 1960’s, where he was Leonard Bernstein’s principal assistant.  He was barely 30 years old, knew very little English, and eventually studied and worked under the tutelage of some of the greatest conductors of the 20^th century.  Both of these men have very strong opinions and ideas about music, but since one is a music creator and the other is a music aficionado, there is no rancor in any of their conversations, only mutual admiration and the joined love of good music.

The interviews recorded here were conducted over the course of several years, and include the time period when Maestro Seiji Ozawa suffered from a debilitating condition which required surgery and left him unable to conduct what was usually a quite frenzied schedule.  Through the course of these meetings, Murakami would pull out music from his vast collection of records and play them for the Maestro.  These included classic performances by Glenn Gould, and various world-renowned Symphony Orchestras.  Some of these were recordings of Maestro Ozawa’s performances, and others were from various contemporaries of his.  The insights that both men bring to the various recordings is just wonderful for a music nerd like me.  It is the next best thing to sitting in a room listening to music with them.  What a cream-dream that would be!

I learned quite a lot about music, about the art of conducting, about the art of teaching young students how to make good music together, and about the relationship between the conductor, the score, and the musicians that make that score come to life.   I also learned a lot about Haruki Murakami himself, and the deep musical knowledge that he has acquired over his lifetime.  Their discussions regarding the differences between a professional writer and a professional conductor make for enlightening reading.  As a writer, Murakami answers to no one, sets his own time-table, works completely alone, and keeps a very rigid schedule.  He awakens around 4 AM, writes for about 5 hours, then proceeds to go eat lunch and get on with the rest of his responsibilities.  Maestro Ozawa likewise gets up around 4 AM, but he states that he gets quite a hunger around 3 hours later, which causes him to interrupt his work.  He then spends the rest of the day in the myriad other duties of a professional conductor.  The quiet morning time is for his most difficult work, that of reading scores and understanding what the composer intended.  Murakami does not travel much due to his work, but Ozawa is all over the world, from guest conductor stints in Vienna, Berlin, Boston, etc., to his several once-a-year Orchestras that gather up players from around the world.  He has to be an organizer, a teacher, a musical genius, and above all, a leader of people.  

 While both men live in quite different worlds, their relationship only got stronger as the interviews took place.  One of the coolest things in the book is a short afterword by Seiji Ozawa where he discusses how him and Haruki met, how he grew to appreciate the talks with Haruki more and more, and how much he actually learned and remembered through the conversations.  Books like this give a great insight into the minds of genius.  I highly recommend it to anyone who loves classical music, and any fan of Haruki Murakami.  I learned a great deal.  

(On his website, Haruki Murakami lists a selection of music that he and Seiji Ozawa listened to during the course of this book’s writing, and provides links to listen to these recordings.  AWESOME.  Here is the link: http://www.harukimurakami.com/resource_category/playlist/absolutely-on-music )

(This book can be purchased here:  ABSOLUTELY ON MUSIC  )

This Japanese Author has Blown My Mind!

The Box Man – Kobo Abe (1974)

            A few months ago, while searching the interwebnets for new reading material, I did a search for “Weird Books.”  I found many different lists, some showcasing books that have weird bindings or fonts, and others discussing weird books that seem more like art projects than writing.  One of the many “Top 10 weird books I have read” lists I perused included the mention of a very strange novel from Japan, “The Box Man”, which was described as hallucinatory, bizarre, oddly structured, and all-around weird book.  I headed to the M.D. Anderson Library and checked this bad boy out.

            It is usually difficult to discuss a novel without giving away crucial plot points, so I will try to refrain from spoiling this strange book for you.  However, let me say that the story is being recounted by a “box man,” which is exactly what it sounds like, a homeless person who has decided to cast off their outward selves and live full-time with a large box over their heads and torsos, while peeking at the world through a small slit cut out at eye level.  The narrator describes in hallucinatory, sometimes oppressively convoluted, sentences how the anonymity afforded by the box strips away the Self even more so than being a normal street person.  Even normal bums avoid the box men.  The world becomes very small when everything one owns is somehow rigged up to hang from the inside of the box.  The life described by the narrator is quite bizarre, especially in such an uptight and controlling culture like Japan.

The real weirdness begins when the story continues and it becomes apparent that perhaps the narrator is not reliable, that perhaps he is mentally ill, or that maybe he has switched places with another person who wanted to know what it was like to live as a box man.  This other person then seems to also sink into a miasma of internal chaos, brought about by the life of a box man.  It becomes difficult to tell who is speaking, or if the entire thing is all in the head of the original box man.  At times, various conflicting affidavits and confessions are reprinted, expanding upon the story and forcing the reader to re-question everything they had already questioned about the narrator and the experiences he is recounting.

I swear at one point I was reading the internal monologue of a dead person laying on a morgue slab, as various people attended to his body and worked to make it look like he had died in a drowning accident, something that is referenced several times earlier in the novel.  The only feeling I can compare this to is reading the chapter in Alan Moore’s Jerusalem which is told from the internal point-of-view of a mentally deranged woman in an institution.  It really does feel like the words on the page are re-wiring the pathways in your brain!  I felt something similar while reading the Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea.  My mind is not the same having read Kobe Abe’s “The Box Man.”  That is the wonder and power of reading.  It is a much more direct method of ingesting ideas than watching film, or other such story-telling modes.  I am interested in finding more books by Kobo Abe, and seeing if they are all as bizarre as this novel.

(This novel can be purchased here: THE BOX MAN  )

The aftermath of a tragedy lasts far longer than the media's attention span

Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche – Haruki Murakami (2000)

            My man Elliott French got me into Haruki Murakami when he lent me the book A Wild Sheep Chase.  Man, was that an odd book!  Mr. Murakami has since become world famous for his great novels and short stories.  When the cult Aum Shrinkyo attacked the Tokyo subway with Sarin gas, it caused a national freak-out.  Murakami wanted to explore not only why it happened but how the culture of Japan helps create such lunatic fringe groups.  He sought out victims of the attacks, both civilian as well as civil workers, and interviewed many of the Aum members involved in the attacks as well.  His collected interviews are what make up this book, Underground.

            The stories are harrowing in that what was otherwise a normal, but busy, day in the Tokyo subway became a nightmare of death and chaos.  The Aum members detail their involvement, and discuss their feelings about it all.  The victims describe their day, and the aftermath they experienced in the days and months after the attacks.  Many of them suffered not just from the Sarin gas but also from psychological trauma related to their inability to work in the months following.  They express deep contempt, not for the Aum people who they see as misguided fools, but for the national government and media who created a circus of bullshit surrounding the attacks, further damaging these people’s lives.

            Japan is a very strange place.  Personal privacy is highly valued.  Social order is at a premium, but an attack like this reduces all to victims.  For many, it is something they wish to forget and move on from.

            Many of those that died did so because there were no adequate paramedic responses to the crisis.  Doctors at the E.R.’s did not even realize it was a Sarin gas attack for hours, mistreating the symptoms and increasing the victim’s suffering.  Others were poisoned by the gas but mistook the symptoms for allergies or a cold and went on to work!  This is a sobering and heavy book, but oh so excellent.

Others just stood there dumbfounded

 

            It made me admire Haruki Murakami even more.  He lets people speak for themselves, and does not include his own questions in the narrative.  This makes it more personal, as if the victims are speaking directly to the reader. Great stuff, and highly recommended.

(This book can be purchased here:  http://www.harukimurakami.com/book/underground-the-tokyo-gas-attack-and-the-japanese-psyche )