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“Is It a "Culmination" or "Reproduction"?” by Satochi Ogawa
Speaking of the Japanese novelists who were influenced by European literature and who repeatedly take the same motif(-ves) or theme, we come to our minds, Kenzaburo Oe and Haruki Murakami. I remembered “the later years' style” of Kenzaburo Oe when I read The City and Its Uncertain Walls.
This novel is full of frequently appeared motives of Murakami. At first, I thought it is a “culmination of the career of Murakami”, but I can say it is a “reproduction”. In any case, his technique becomes the level of Meister. For example, in the plain and rhythmical style of writing, expressions compare the real and the unreal, go and back between them. There are many descriptions that the opposing concepts that are turned over, are made Aufheben, or are suddenly separated. This assemble of techniques forms the plain also difficult story and can “tell phenomenons are can’t be expressed by words”.
I would like to say it is "the harvest (or fruit)" neither "culmination" nor “reproduction”. Many frequently appeared motives and themes are in this novel, in other words, I can say they have already existed in the original work The City and Its Uncertain Walls in 1980.
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