Do you have any recommendations for novels apart from Murakami? I really enjoy surreal writing, folklore and „den Einbruch des Phantastischen ins Reale“ but I just do not connect with his novels.
There's Banana Yoshimoto although from what I remember, her fiction is more dream-like than magic realism. Then again, that might be more interesting to you anyway? Her voice is very different from Murakami too.
There's also A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in case you're not already familiar with that.
I'm currently writing a piece on rural nostalgia and realism in Pokémon. Realistic unreality might have just been the word I was looking for! As for theatre, when I joined the Kyogen Circle at my Japanese university and saw an actor eat an (imagined) apple in stylized exaggeration, I thought "Hey, that's exactly what eating fruit looks like in Animal Crossing!"
Really enjoyed the writing and animation stemmed from post ww2 to inspire hopeful future for the next generation and there is a lot of government investment in the animation industry compared to other countries I've seen.
I think the realism in anime is the bridge to cross over to the unrealistic aspect of the literature. Thanks for delving deeper into its history.
Do you have any recommendations for novels apart from Murakami? I really enjoy surreal writing, folklore and „den Einbruch des Phantastischen ins Reale“ but I just do not connect with his novels.
You may enjoy Kobo Abe if you like surrealism.
Thank you! Will take a look.
There's Banana Yoshimoto although from what I remember, her fiction is more dream-like than magic realism. Then again, that might be more interesting to you anyway? Her voice is very different from Murakami too.
There's also A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in case you're not already familiar with that.
Thank you! I might give Banana Yoshimoto a try. ☺️
I'm currently writing a piece on rural nostalgia and realism in Pokémon. Realistic unreality might have just been the word I was looking for! As for theatre, when I joined the Kyogen Circle at my Japanese university and saw an actor eat an (imagined) apple in stylized exaggeration, I thought "Hey, that's exactly what eating fruit looks like in Animal Crossing!"
Bahaha, I guess the next post will be "Realism & unreality in video game mechanics"?
I'm not sure if there's any rural nostalgia in Pokémon for me personally, at least not in the games, but looking forward to that piece!
Really enjoyed the writing and animation stemmed from post ww2 to inspire hopeful future for the next generation and there is a lot of government investment in the animation industry compared to other countries I've seen.
I think the realism in anime is the bridge to cross over to the unrealistic aspect of the literature. Thanks for delving deeper into its history.
Great post. Are you living here in Japan?
Thank you! I'd love to move to Japan soon but so far I've only visited.
You wrote so eloquently on the part of the culture, I'm surprised. Ah, you're a fellow translator. That explains it. Excellent. 夜露死苦
Love this piece. The realism and unreality in nonEnglish storytelling is a neural connection I've had since I was a kid, thank you for writing it out!
This is s good, thank you so much! Will be sharing this everywhere!
Fascinating read!
I enjoyed reading this! Thank you for sharing what you've learned.
Thank you for commenting! I'd love to post essays like this every once in a while so it's great to know you enjoyed it.