Feelings towards Barn Burning and Samsa in Love - Sam

When I first began reading Murakami years ago, I was shocked to learn that he is an outcast in the Japanese literary scene. Many literary critics in Japan and overseas often have negative things to say about him, and even professors that I have spoken with at BU have overly negative feelings. As we have progressively explored Murakami’s work over the semester in comparison to his influences, I have started to develop similar feelings to these aforementioned critics. This is largely true for his short stories rather than his novels.

The most recent example is when we read Cathedral and Barn Burning. I read Cathedral first, and I absolutely loved it. The main character has vision but lacks understanding/empathy and the blind man lacks vision but has a heart full of understanding/empathy - I thought that dichotomy was brilliant. The main character’s disdain and jealousy of Robert was palpable, but as the story proceeds, he slowly comes to understand him. At the end, the main character and Robert draw together, and as they do, the main character finally develops warm feelings for Robert. However, with Barn Burning by Murakami, I found the story to be uninspired. The structure of the plot is the exact same - a girl brings a guy over, the girl goes upstairs, and then the guys bond. The difference is that rather than the guest in Barn Burning being a cool guy, he is (in my interpretation) a murderer… ok. There is often an argument about whether Quentin Tarantino is original in his works, as he uses scenes directly from the past. However, I more so see someone like Quentin as paying homage, whereas in this case, Murakami reuses a plot line in a story that is just not nearly as compelling or interesting to me. I feel the exact same way when comparing The Metamorphosis and Samsa in Love. In Samsa in Love, Murakami uses the exact plot line except here, the character has now turned into a human. The girl comes over to fix the lock, he develops feelings for her, and he hopes to see her again. The takeaway and themes of The Metamorphosis are often debated, such as themes of class, capitalism, isolation in modern society, reliance on someone who earns money to survive, etc. In the quick rehash of this story, Samsa in Love, what is the takeaway? Humans have feelings… and we should all just love each other? Clearly I am being a bit snarky as the work also discusses war, but I simply just did not care for it that much.

 

I feel as if I have been much harsher than I intended to, as I do like Murakami’s novels. However, in these recent readings, I have felt that the original work completely bested Murakami’s short stories which were influenced by the original, and they just do not seem essential to me. If I were to base what I wanted to read next solely off of the short stories listed above, I would go and read Kafka and Carver rather than Murakami.