Hotel Theory

Hey guys, sorry I have really been slacking on this, but we're back. Unfortunately, I have extremely limited internet access, and way more limited free time these days. Anyhow, on to the book. There are so many things to talk about, I am really loving it so much, although its a lot more difficult to get into than his other stuff... but I get the feeling that its inaccessibility is intentional. He is using the two columns, which I don't quite know what to call, to represent literally the concept that he is proposing in the "hotel theory" column. I am about halfway through the book, and I am beginning to feel a little bit bored with that column, but the entire thing still interests me... I like the idea of visiting the theoretical column and the narrative column like you would exist in a hotel room, according to mr. koestenbaum. I feel like I need to read it through once, and then go through it again and really try to pay attention to the way the two columns interact. I'm sure they were put in a certain order so that certain concepts he brings up are read at a specific point in the narrative. Its really funny the way he seems to have put himself into the narrative, spying on the goings on at Hotel Women from across the street at Hotel Theory.

Ahhhh, too many things to remember to say. I am curious how other people have approached the business of reading the two columns at once. I have sort of been reading a chunk of one, and then the other, switching off, and trying to staying pretty much on the same page. I won't go more than the next page ahead of the other, and usually there is a good place to stop in the column I am reading so that I can go catch up with the other one. I think WK has successfully accomplished this... I am never lost when I go back and forth.... the narrative is memorable and simple enough, and the "theory" is broken up enough into tiny chunks, I don't really ever feel confused or lost. That's a pretty big accomplishment. I also feel that if I were to read either of them straight through, I might get bored, so I am wondering if anyone is going about it that way. The Lana Turner/Liberace story has a lot of flavor of his novel that I loved, Moira Orfei in Aigues-Mortes. Its just so preposterous and silly and the language is over the top, the way the characters' dialogue is sort of melodramatic at points. You get the feeling that he is serious about what he is doing, but not serious at all. Its a lot of fun.

Ok, I don't think I can write anymore about this right now, but I look forward to getting this conversation going, because there are a lot of aspects of the book that I am really interested it. Any thoughts on the legitimacy of the "hotel theory"? He seems to be half-joking, yet dead serious. Great.

A book to add?

If I may, I suggest that Chabon's "Gentlemen of the Road" be considered for our list.

Yiya! Finally Read The Book!

Hi guys!! So I am going to post my thoughts first, before I forget them, and then I want to run through all of the posts and add some comments!! I hope that is OK. I am so happy we are doing this BTW, and I LOVE our next book choice, I think it's a great compliment to this one. I apologize If I repeat anything people have already said, I will comment on all the posts also.

So, my first impression and observations are such: There are definitely significant and distinct themes that run throughout the whole book. I am a huge fans of these themes and love how Murakami has chosen to weave them together through a unique- dualistic- plot structure. Those themes being: This type of Debord's "Society of the Spectacle", Dreams (fairytales) + Reality/Dualism (which he explicitly mentions), being chased- as a life journey, time (temporality), my favorite- The deep sea! His writing style is what struck me the most. It is simple, yet with an artful- creative want to be eloquent. It works though. It could be the translation also? I do think that he approaches creative writing like an artform, not that any writer doesn't, but specifically as an art piece. If that makes sense. From what I've read, I definitely agree that the structure and presentation of the story as a "film" is accurate. I don't dislike it though, because I feel that in a very Japanese way it is done in a Blade Runner, sci-fi manner to be a common mode of observation. It could be orwellian, purely cinematic, self-reflexive, alien like- two realities, or all of the above. But I think that it remains consistent with a lot of the themes for the story- particularly the spectator/spectacle. I really appreciate his reference to what I will wager is a Simulacrum- a la Nietzsche and Baudrillard. esp. with his use of metaphor and I feel like Tokyo is the BEST location for the setting of a description of a Simulacrum.

Ok, enough with my thoughts, I will offer up just my favorite part. OHH wait- i also felt like there was a strong reference to japanese horror film and how the spectator is related to that, specifically in the scene where Eri is in the TV and the ubiquitous "WE" yells for her to "RUN". Ok, favorite part/moment was when Mari describes how for the first and only time in her life she just felt like she wanted to or could be friends with the Chinese prostitute and how being from different worlds, it could never be- I felt that that was the most sincere moment. Sorry if this is not what any of you wanted, but I love what we got goin on here. Please excuse my poor syntax and grammar/spelling.

I'm am definitely enjoying the book so far, although I agree that it lacks some of the buildup that makes him such an addictive author. I think what Murakami does best is create and maintain tension in his narratives. He is great at creating a very cohesive, slightly-off world that is both familiar (probably because he uses a lot of pulpy, genre-specific characters and pop culture references) and completely surreal. I've found with a lot of his books that my favorite part is about 1/2-3/4 of the way through, and that I am sometimes less engaged by the end of the novel. That is not to say that I think his endings are particularly poorly written, but I think that once the suspense and mystery that drive his narratives have been resolved or revealed there is little else to go on besides his writing style alone, which is not enough to support the remainder of the book.

I also think he writes plot better than dialogue, and that this book might have benefited from a more outlandish and whimsical storyline, rather than the more terrestrial, conversation based scenes like all the stuff at Denny's.

I like it though.

and so on

ok so now i'm about 150 and like i have to totally agree with Em and david that the dialogue is really bugging me. there was this part when mari and the musician were talking and it became this kind of argument or at least mari was taking it really offensively and i think it was about if the musician brought eri to the love hotel or not or something.... but i was getting really thrown off by it. i mean it felt maybe real like i can see someone (like mari) being despondent and closed off kind of getting really strangely offensive and over-reacting....especially at the age of like 19. but i was kind of distraught by the whole convo. i wanted the musician to be pissed off too but he was so taking it and trying to be understood. i donno.... maybe its just my own frustration with the unreal dialogue... or is it too real somehow?

anyway also any predictions what will happen to the office man? who works at veritech? and why is his office so important?

and where is eri? does mari have the power to get her out with some kind of revelation or is eri all on her own? what is the significance of her disappearing in real life and waking up in the TV? i kinda think it has something to do with her snow white status.

i'mcannot decide if the whole story is just simple and or if murakami will surprise me. i hope he surprises me. on the back of my copy of the book it says something about receiving the Kafka award and i keep hoping that it ends without revelation like Kafka.


ps. i went to the murikami show at the MOCA and there is a louis vitton store in the museum... selling stuff to people who are buying it! craziness!

First Book, First Review, First Comment, WOO!

So you guys, I am beginning to think that nobody's heart is in this but mine, but I'm still going to go ahead and hope somebody else remembers to post too. Actually, I think I'll just send out en e-mail reminding you.

Anyhow, I don't have the book with me because its at my house, and the internet is not, so I'm just going from memory here. I didn't get a really strong impression from the first 50 pages, it just felt like set-up... not too exciting. The only thing I really took notice of was the way he writes the book like its a movie script. I don't particularly care for the way he literally directs the "camera", but I do think its sort of nice the way he begins each chapter by stating the location first, then giving a brief description of it, before moving on to the characters. I feel like the parts that have dialogue are taken up mostly with dialogue and only short indications of what the characters are doing, no feelings or inner thoughts or anything, so its just sort of very blunt.

Um, David and I were talking and we both think that his dialogue tends to be a little awkward, or false feeling. I am not sure if that is because he is not so good at writing dialogue, or if something gets lost in translation, but I have a feeling dialogue might not be his strong point. The major problem I have had with Murakami before is something to do with that I think. I am always really enthusiastic about his ideas and I really enjoy the writing, but I tend to get a little annoyed by the style about 3/4ths of the way through. I'm specifically thinking of Hard Boiled Wonderland right now, the bit where he is talking to the scientist and the girl underground, and the scientist is basically just explaining the whole thing, really ruined the effect the book had of really intriguing and engaging me, and the dialogue was just a little bit silly with all its out-dated slang and cheesy phrases.

So, that is basically my first impression. Hopefully you guys were a little more attentive than I was, because I haven't really come anywhere close to any idea of what this thing is about. I need to give it some thought, but maybe you guys have some ideas?

Oh I guess the only other comment, is that I like the image of the man in the TV with no face. Um, which is really a very helpful comment. Ok.

Compiled List!

Ok, so we have a very long list... let's talk about how we are going to choose the books we read, and especially our first book. Let's make it a fun one? OK! Let's do it!



stranger in a strange land- heinlein
midnights children- salmon rushdie
special topics in calamity physics- marisha pessl
Kafka on the Shore -Murakami
Down and Out in Paris and London - Orwell
Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino
The Street of Crocodiles - Bruno Schulz
Hopscotch - Julio Cortazar
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities -Delmore Schwartz
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Cat's Grin - Francois Maspero
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
Step Across this Line - Salman Rushdie
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters - JD Salinger
Everything is Miscellaneous - David Weinberger
Propaganda - Edward Bernays
Exterminator! - Burroughs
Time out of Joint - Phillip K. Dick
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers
And The Ass Saw The Angel - Nick Cave
The Glass Bead Game - Hermann Hesse
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City - Nick Flynn
An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England - Brock Clarke
The Blue Octavo Notebooks - Kafka
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: Twenty-four Stories
Norwegian wood by murakami
evidence of things unseen by mirriam wiggins
The Sound and the Fury
Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere
Air Guitar by Dave Hickey
Hotel Theory by Wayne Koestenbaum
The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis
The Absence of Myth by Georges Bataille
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
Neuromancer by William Gibson
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa
the diaries of adam and eve, mark twain
invisible cities, italo calvino
if on a winters night a traveler, italo calvino
franny and zooey, j.d. salinger
murakami, either kafka on the shore or wild sheep chase
jitterbug perfume or
skinny legs and all by tom robbins
lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
heartbreaking work of staggering genius, dave eggers
it can't happen here, sinclair lewis
neuromancer, william gibson
go now, richard hell
the woman chaser, charles willeford
watt, samuel beckett...or malloy, malone dies, the unnamable (a trilogy by beckett)
the metamorphosis, franz kafka
wrong side of paris, balzac
in cold blood, truman capote
brothers karamazov, dostoyevzky
do androids dream of electric sheep, phillip k dick
tropic of capricorn, henry miller
slapstick, vonnegut (or at least some vonnegut)
low life, luc sante
leaf storm: and other stories, gabriel garcia marquez (short stories)
coming through slaughter, michael ondaatje (possibly, could be lame)

Compiled List!

book suggestions from somebody else

j.k huysmans, against nature
joan didion, play it as it lays
dennis cooper, period or god jr.
foul mouth, bruce hainley
raymond roussel, impressions of africa
jorge luis borges, ficciones
jun'ichiro tanizaki, in praise of shadows