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Comment by bluepizza | Hacker News Reader

Why does it undermine the whole thing? Isn't he allowed to be flawed? Does every author need to perfect and morally ideal?

I would suggest take him as he is, including his flaws.

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I dunno, I feel like if you're a novelist, it behooves you to do at least a passable job of representing half of human existence in your works. I see that more as an incredibly low bar to pass, not being 'perfect and morally ideal'. For me a flawed author is someone with wooden dialogue or unsatisfying endings, not a lack of interest in representing certain kinds of human beings authentically and seriously.

You're being downvoted, but you're absolutely right. Even though I personally enjoyed some of his books they'll never quite be in the same realm of those of my favourite authors because it's glaringly noticeable when characters that represent half of humanity are systematically written more poorly than the other half. It knocks the readability of a book like Hard Boiled Wonderland down from exceptionality and into the realm of guilty pleasure reading for me (and lessens my inclination to reread it).

Imagine how boring the world would be if every artist tried to conform to how you thought they should represent characters.

I respectfully disagree. I prefer honest self expression above meeting any bars at all.

A reader who is engaging critically with a Murakami book can't help but be creeped out and shocked by the dreamlike scenarios, including, as you mentioned, women that don't seem real, but also, most characters don't feel real. Intimate scenes are empty, unemotional, disconnected from reality.

They are expressions of deep self obsession, where the whole world bends for a character. The result is disconnection and boredom. Characters that feel silly, dumb, unwise, ego obsessed.

Still damn good books. The fact that they discuss this aspect is fascinating. I'd much rather have this aspect of humanity expressed, no matter how difficult it is, than to pretend it is not there.

As someone else said in this thread, it is your time, and if you decide to not waste it on Murakami, that's fair. But if you ever decide to give it a second shot, I'd say don't expect any bars to be met. Just engage with it as it is.

I think I see what they are saying. Everybody has their own standards and I’m of the opinion that there are so many great books and we have so little time on this planet that if you have a problem with a book, quit it and move on to the next.

There are authors who are famous for being great at everything except endings. One of them has let me down a couple of times and I won’t start a book of theirs if reviewers say anything about a bad ending.

I like Murakami. I've read practically every word he's written. I have almost every novel he's published and look forward to new releases.

He's got some very unique ideas and I like unique.

But that dude's got some weird thing going on with women.

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