I never read Murakami, but that hushed tone and emphasis on insignificance you describe seems to me typical of a whole string of Japanese writers and moviemakers, including the moviemaker Ozu and the novelist Kawabata. I have read the latter's The Master of Go and was very impressed. Incidentally, for a little-known modern writer who has made a great impression on me, try the Norwegian Tarjej Vesaas.
The greatest twentieth-century writers I have read are Thomas Mann and Andre' Gide. The latter's The Pastoral Symphony pretty much broke my heart, and the former's Doktor Faustus and short stories are things I go back to over and over again, for inspiration and to learn from them. Doktor Faustus also might interest you as a fantasy writer, since it is a textbook instance of how to suggest the supernatural without ever making a certain statement that it either exists or does not. And it contains a haunting, terrifying conversation with the Devil that goes on for dozens of pages without ever losing interest.
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Date: 2010-06-13 07:37 pm (UTC)The greatest twentieth-century writers I have read are Thomas Mann and Andre' Gide. The latter's The Pastoral Symphony pretty much broke my heart, and the former's Doktor Faustus and short stories are things I go back to over and over again, for inspiration and to learn from them. Doktor Faustus also might interest you as a fantasy writer, since it is a textbook instance of how to suggest the supernatural without ever making a certain statement that it either exists or does not. And it contains a haunting, terrifying conversation with the Devil that goes on for dozens of pages without ever losing interest.