October 9, 2012
slaughterhouse90210: “Where I’m living is not a storybook world. It’s the real world, full of gaps and inconsistencies and anticlimaxes.” ― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

slaughterhouse90210:

“Where I’m living is not a storybook world. It’s the real world, full of gaps and inconsistencies and anticlimaxes.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

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Filed under: seinfeld television haruki murakami literature existentialism postmodernism 
April 30, 2012
YOU MIGHT FIND YOURSELF: ON SEEING THE 100% PERFECT GIRL ONE BEAUTIFUL APRIL MORNING

youmightfindyourself:

by Haruki Murakami

One beautiful April morning, on a narrow side street in Tokyo’s fashionable Harujuku neighborhood, I walked past the 100% perfect girl.

Tell you the truth, she’s not that good-looking. She doesn’t stand out in any way. Her clothes are nothing special. The back of her hair is still bent out of shape from sleep. She isn’t young, either - must be near thirty, not even close to a “girl,” properly speaking. But still, I know from fifty yards away: She’s the 100% perfect girl for me. The moment I see her, there’s a rumbling in my chest, and my mouth is as dry as a desert.

…

Read the whole thing.  It’ll have been ten minutes well spent.

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Filed under: haruki murakami literature love 
April 5, 2012
"Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back. That’s part of what it means to be alive. But inside our heads - at least that’s where I imagine it - there’s a little room where we store those memories. A room like the stacks in this library. And to understand the workings of our own heart we have to keep on making new reference cards. We have to dust things off every once in awhile, let in fresh air, change the water in the flower vases. In other words, you’ll live forever in your own private library."

— Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore (via libraryland)

(via aaknopf)

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Filed under: haruki murakami literature 
March 12, 2012
"

Why? You might ask. How can so many people go about their daily lives in such a terrible place? Don’t they go out of their minds with fear?

In Japanese, we have the word “mujō (無常)”. It means that everything is ephemeral. Everything born into this world changes, and will ultimately disappear. There is nothing that can be considered eternal or immutable. This view of the world was derived from Buddhism, but the idea of “mujo” was burned into the spirit of Japanese people beyond the strictly religious context, taking root in the common ethnic consciousness from ancient times.

The idea that all things are transient is an expression of resignation. We believe that it serves no purpose to go against nature. On the contrary, Japanese people have found positive expressions of beauty in this resignation.

"

— Excerpt from Haruki Murakami’s Catalunya International Prize acceptance speech from June 2011. Read the full speech on Senrinomichi.com. (via murakamistuff)

(via kateoplis)

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Filed under: haruki murakami japan buddhism Stoicism 
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