Writer by profession

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Writer by profession ( Japanese 職業 と し て の 小説家 shokugyo toshite no shosetsuka ) is a book by Haruki Murakami . It was first published in Japanese in 2015, and in 2016 in a German translation by Ursula Gräfe by DuMont Buchverlag .

content

Haruki Murakami sums up his own career in the book By Profession Writer . He begins by founding his own jazz bar after graduating from university and watching a baseball game in 1978. During this game he spontaneously decided to become a writer, after the game he bought paper and a fountain pen and in the months that followed he wrote his first novel Wenn der Wind singt , which shortly after its publication also received the award of a literary magazine.

For Murakami, access to writing is easier than to other arts, but many authors fail to establish themselves in the book market. He also describes his ambivalent relationship to the Japanese literary scene, especially to the jury of the Akutagawa Prize , which he initially did not meet with benevolence. He compares the beginning of his literary work with the emergence of the Beach Boys and the Beatles in the 1960s. Both had revolutionized the music world back then.

In addition, Murakami goes into the work on his novels and stories and claims that they require a lot of discipline from the writer, as writing is a rather boring process and not every formulation that the author needs a lot of effort is appreciated by the readers. He also considers it necessary that a writer reads a lot himself and should also translate literary works in order to train his imagination and expressiveness. In addition, Murakami considers physical activity to be essential in order to promote one's own creativity. Murakami is also aware of the problem of inventing characters and the differences between first-person and narrative narration.

He is critical of the Japanese school system, which is no longer up to the demands of the 21st century and is stubbornly geared towards memorization and conformity. Murakami acquired his knowledge of English-language literature mainly self-taught, but English lessons at school were of little use to him. In addition, his stays in the USA, where he was able to establish himself on the American literature market and thus opened up an international audience, were stimulating for his career. This has resulted in him gaining more critical acclaim in his home country, Japan.

criticism

"In" Von Beruf Writsteller "you get to know a cautious author who on the one hand repeatedly emphasizes that only one's own standards count, but on the other hand deliberately leaves what defines them in the indefinite. Understandable: Since Murakami is not a fan of the aesthetic of genius, he would be revealing too much craftsmanship that would attract imitators. So the book has an unusually vague sound for him. "

- Andreas Platthaus In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , December 2, 2016

literature

  • Haruki Murakami: A writer by profession . Autobiography. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 2016, ISBN 978-3-8321-9843-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/buecher/rezensions/belletristik/haruki-murakamis-essays-von-beruf-schriftsteller-14552642-p2.html