Japanese writers: Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Haruki Murakami and Murakami Ryu

Now Japanese writers such as Haruki Murakami and Ryu Murakami are very popular, but the modern reader probably does not know that the history of the new Japanese prose in Russia has begun not with them. In its origins were the works of Akutagawa Ryunosuke. We will talk about these three personalities in this article. Since the first can be rightfully classified as "modern Japanese writers," it is first worth discussing the work of Akutogawa and his two compositions: "The Life of an Idiot" and "Cogwheels."

Akutogawa Ryunosuke. Prose as a "purple flash." "The Life of the Idiot"

For those who are more or less familiar with the Japanese literature, it will not be a novelty that the plot does not occupy the most important place in it. This, for example, is the poetry of Basho. In fact, these are only observations that are definitely rhymed in a certain way. And if we open, for example, "The Life of an Idiot", then we run into exactly the same prose. The book consists of very small stories-sketches. Only after reading them all there is an integral picture in the reader's head. The focus of Akutagawa's work is that both the sketches are of themselves valuable, and the big picture.

Akutagawa and Dostoevsky. "Toothed wheels"

What is the connection between the prose of Ryunosuke and Fyodor Mikhailovich? First, Akutagawa knew and loved Russian literature well, and secondly, the Japanese writer, like the Russian, portrayed the existence of man in marginal and border situations, where life comes in contact with madness and death. The cruelty of the "Toothed wheels" is also that they are autobiographical.

"Toothed wheels" and "Life of an idiot" are examples of the writer's death prose. He died early, at age 35, he took a lethal dose of Veronal. In a literal and figurative sense, they gave up their nerves. But this does not mean that his prose is interesting only to psychologists, psychiatrists and doctors, not at all. Akugatava's prose will appeal to all those who are not indifferent to real, good literature and the ultimate, "damned" questions of human existence. And now it's time to talk about the theme "Japanese modern writers".

Haruki Murakami: "Wonderland without brakes and the End of the World"

Modern Japanese authors, although they retained a certain national identity, but became very "Western": their works are mainly plot, which is reflected in our narrative.

"Wonderland ..." is like a long fall in a rabbit hole. The main character is a specialist in encryption of a special kind, called shuffling. The essence of the method is that the text is coded through a story that exists only in the head of the shuffler, and this happens unconsciously. However, the professor-inventor of the method found out that all the specialists, except the protagonist, died during the experiment. And the whole book the scientist tries to save him. To do this, they descend into the underworld, the passage into which opens in the professor's closet, meets with terrifying creatures, spreading chilling fear, flee from the slowly overtaking flood, climb the rope ladder to the high tower.

And the protagonist decides to stay in the inner world of his head, which means the death of the body. This story unfolds in every second chapter of the book and at first it has nothing to do with the main story.

In the head of the hero there is a whole city, around it - a high wall. The locals have such a custom: everyone has to cut off the shadow. The hero gets a job as a librarian in this city. Its main function is to read old dreams placed in the skulls of dead animals.

No one can leave the city, because the wall is high, and the shadow lives separately from a person for not more than a week. But the main character, even finding a way out, is not able to leave this closed world, which will disappear if he remains alive.

Here such strange subjects are preferred by modern Japanese writers, then everything will be "miracles and wanderers", as L. Carroll said.

Ryu Murakami. "Children from the storage room"

Perhaps, the most famous work of the author. A novel about two children. They were lucky enough to survive after their mothers were left with newborn babies in their storage cells. They are almost the same age, very similar and have the same psychological problems: fear of closed space and related difficulties.

Once these people were treated with the sounds of the heartbeat of a pregnant woman, but then in the turmoil of their lives they forgot this sound. But all his life he was looking for. They had to go through a lot of things in order to remember it. One brother had to live in the contaminated part of the city, where a touch to painted red objects and surfaces promises a slow and painful death, and even find a poisonous gas "Datura" and poison them with a multi-million city, wreak havoc.

The second had to go a long way: to become a superstar, cut off the tip of the tongue, go crazy, inadvertently kill his own mother and go to jail. And all this only to realize that any mother gives her child a message: "Live, my heart beats for you."

Books by Japanese writers: some for reflection, others for entertainment

For the reader, far from philological refinements, only one question is important about who to choose for reading in the evening. The answer suggests itself: depending on what a person wants to get from acquaintance with Japanese prose.

For example, the contemporary authors presented here can be read on weekdays, after a tiring working day. Despite the flamboyance of the plot, their works do not require intellectual tension from the reader. Accordingly, Akutagawa should be moved on weekends, when the reader's head will be fresh and receptive to the beauty of the style. In extreme cases, you can have a notebook, (or a sheet of paper) on the cover of which will be written: "Japanese writer and a schedule reading his works." If it is difficult for a person to decide, let him try to observe the system in his self-education.