Reading and Sharing of Assassination of Knight Leader

If you were asked to list the most popular Japanese writers in China? I believe there is a person whose name you won't forget. He is Haruki Murakami.

Haruki Murakami 1949 was born in Kyoto, Japan. Influenced by his family, Haruki Murakami likes reading very much. Haruki Murakami graduated from the Literature Department of Waseda University, majoring in film and drama. Waseda University is also a prestigious school, equivalent to 985 in China. There are 13 Japanese prime ministers who graduated from this university, and more than13 Japanese parliamentarians. Out of pure love for music, Haruki Murakami ran a jazz bar with his wife for seven years in his early years.

Haruki Murakami won numerous awards. So far, he has won many awards, such as Kafka Prize, Andersen Prize for Literature, Jerusalem Prize and so on. He is also known as the "Nobel Prize winner". Although the commercial value has long been recognized by the global market, Murakami is obviously not satisfied with the general business writing. He represents a new generation of Japanese born after World War II, deeply influenced by European and American artists, loves jazz and creates a unique Murakami style. Although Haruki Murakami races against the Nobel Prize every year, he has been active on the list.

The Assassination of Knight Leader was published in February 20 17. After a year, the simplified Chinese version was introduced to China by Shanghai Translation Publishing House. This novel is divided into two parts, the first part is "expressing ideas" and the second part is "rheological metaphor". The Chinese version is nearly 800 pages, and it is said that the Japanese version has more than 1000 pages. In the process of reading, I have a feeling of being led by suspense. I have read it several times. But on the whole, the novel is easy to read but not easy to understand.

What kind of story is this?

This novel is written in the first person. I am a 36-year-old portrait painter. I can't live with me because my wife suddenly announced that she was having an affair. I'm devastated. I left home that night in a used car, journey to the south. After a month and a half of travel, the homeless "I" turned to my American college classmate Tian Yu Masahiko for help. Yayan's father in Tian Yu is a famous Japanese painter, and he has a house as a studio in Odahara. However, my father was admitted to a nursing institution because of cognitive impairment, and the house was just empty. Masahiko of Tian Yu asked me to live in his father's house, which helped him look after the house, and the quiet environment was suitable for creation. Tian Yu Masahiko also introduced me to a painting class in front of Odahara Station. In the nine months since I moved, a series of strange things happened.

To sum up this story in one sentence, I experienced all kinds of incredible adventures from being abandoned by my wife to getting back together with her. I was taken to an unrealistic world because of a person and a painting, and then I finally met myself after many tests and was reborn.

Next, let's sort out the main plot of this novel through the stories of three men.

The story of three men

Mysterious neighbor-colorless

This is a mysterious neighbor, a Gao Fushuai, who realized financial freedom very early. Colorless and handsome, four British cars, living alone in a mansion on the mountain, living elegantly. It is worth mentioning that the setting of the role of "Colorless" is very similar to the hero of the famous novel The Great Gatsby. Haruki Murakami personally translated the Japanese version of The Great Gatsby, and he is also obsessed with this novel. Haruki Murakami also talked about the colorless appearance in an interview: Isn't this Gatsby?

Colorless, the name literally means no color. Colorless gives the impression of white hair and white clothes, even the business cards are white. In an era of such advanced information, "I" can't find any information about him. "I" heard through the grapevine that I had been in a detention center and had an "unopened room" at home, that's all.

Although Wuse is an unmarried person, he once had a girlfriend who had been dating for two and a half years. As soon as they hit it off, Wuss was crazy about him. Until now, there is still a whole set of clothes in her white mansion. 15 years ago, my girlfriend ended their relationship with a fairly active sexual act without warning, married someone else two months later and gave birth to a girl seven months later. Therefore, depending on the time, the girl may be her own child. Unfortunately, this girlfriend died seven years ago. Walking in the mountains, she was stung to death by a golden wasp. The daughter she left behind is thirteen years old and her name is Akikawa Shinsihui.

I bought the white apartment opposite Akikawa's house, and watched Truth Hui's every move with a telescope every night. After I moved to Odahara, Wuse entrusted me to paint his portrait through his agent. No color and careful design approach me, in fact, the ultimate goal is Truth Hui, because Truth Hui happens to be a female student in my painting class in Odahara.

Things seem to be going according to plan and everything is under his control. Until the end, we didn't know what he was like. This man has many advantages. Obviously, he also has his own dark side. But it is this achromatic color that connects all the stories. The story unfolds through colorless. After all, the mysterious cave was opened by a professional who was removed from the cave. When I entered the underground world and met a river, it was also a secret cave. Finally, it was a secret cave that saved me from it. Haruki Murakami also said that in a sense, the colorless person is also the person and engine to promote the plot. Without him, the story will not turn around.

(2) the author of the assassination of Knight Leader-Tian Yu Yan Yu.

After reading this novel, I was particularly impressed by the painter Tian Yu's talking soul returning to Odahara in the middle of the night, sitting on the wooden stool in the studio and looking at the painting "Assassination of Knight Leader" with rapt attention.

After living in Odahara for several months, the protagonist "I" found the "Assassination of Knight Leader" hidden in the attic. This painting was painted by the famous Japanese painter Tomohiko Tian Yu. This is a typical Japanese painting, but it has not been made public. Asuka period's character, the scene in the opera Don Juan. Murakami's description of the painting is so detailed that any reader will seem to have witnessed it when reading it.

When Tian Yu was young, he was interested in modernist painting and went to Vienna to study. However, after returning to China, he suddenly turned to Japanese painting. I don't understand when and how he decided to boldly turn to Japanese painting. Tian Yu Juyan studied in Vienna from the end of 65438 to the beginning of 65438, which happened to be the period when Hitler was in power in Germany and Austria was annexed by Germany.

Tian Yu has a younger brother named Tian Yu Ji Yan. 1In June, 937, Ji Yan, who was studying at Tokyo Art School, was forced to join the army, and was sent to the battlefield in China with his teacher to directly participate in the Nanjing Massacre. Under the orders of a young superior officer, Ji Yan's hand, who should have played the piano, was forced to hold a saber again and again to cut off the heads of unarmed innocent civilians, which made Ji Yan suffer serious psychological trauma. After leaving the army in the second year, he cut his wrist in his attic and committed suicide.

At the same time, in order to oppose the evil deeds of the Nazis, Tian Yu Youyan, who was studying in Vienna, participated in the plan to assassinate senior Nazi officials, but the assassination failed. His lover was brutally killed by the Nazis, and all his companions were spared. For political reasons, only Tian Yu Yukihiko managed to save his life. Tian Yu You Yan has lost precious relatives one after another, and his mind has been seriously traumatized. In this painting, he turned what he could not actually achieve into a new form, that is, he realized it in a new way.

According to the novel, Tian Yu Youyan painted this picture with her own blood and flesh. I'm afraid it's the kind of painting that can only be painted once in a lifetime. He painted this for himself and people who are no longer in this world. "That's what survived and separated from his living soul. "Tian Yu Youyan was so fascinated by this painting before his death that his soul returned to Odahara's studio at night and wanted to take a last look at this painting dedicated to his soul.

In the nursing home, "I" and Knight Leader repeated the scene of "assassinating Knight Leader" in front of Youyan in Tian Yu. A few days later, Tian Yu Yukihiko's soul crossed over and passed away. When he died, there was a smile on his lips.

The story behind this painting reproduces Tian Yu's career. We like to use the word lifelike to describe the artist's superb skills. In the novel, the characters Knight Leader, Long Face and Donna in Tian Yu's painting come out of the painting one by one. The appearance of all the characters in the painting is "regenerating" his experience of never resorting to language.

③ Portrait painter-"I"

As a 36-year-old portrait painter, there are two clues worthy of special attention: first, as a painter, I want to make a breakthrough in my career; The second is the shadow left by my sister's death.

Regarding the first point, as a painter, "I" want to draw something for myself. I was born in the Academy of Fine Arts. I painted abstract oil paintings when I was a student. After graduation, under the pressure of survival, I started the business of painting customized portraits for elites from all walks of life. But "I" is not reconciled, and I always feel that this is contrary to the pursuit of the year. Therefore, my stay in Odahara has become the best opportunity for me to find myself and achieve self-breakthrough.

During this period, "I" spent four paintings, which are as important as the characters in the story.

1, portrait of achromatic color. This is an opportunity for colorless and "I" to get to know each other, and the finished product is often abstract. "This painting is a breakthrough in my previous style, which is beyond my logic and understanding. It unexpectedly depicts some negative factors that colorless itself does not want to admit. Colorless was so satisfied with the painting that he took it away without ribbons and hung it in his study.

2. A man driving a white Subaru Forester. This is a stranger I met on my trip. I'm not even sure if that person really exists. This painting is also an abstract style, and it has not been finished yet. It was placed next to the oil painting "Assassination of Knight Leader" in a small rural attic, and was finally burned to ashes.

3. The portrait of Paul in Akikawa. This painting is also a realistic painting without color support. Before the painting was finished, Paul Akikawa disappeared and was not finished. This painting was presented to Paul Akikawa.

4. The hole in the jungle, this is my main animation. This painting is the center of the whole story. Because the portrait of Akikawa and the hole in the jungle appear alternately, "I" always has an ominous premonition. After Akikawa Paul disappeared, "I" found her amulet in a hole in the jungle. This painting was finally given to the colorless person.

Although, in the end, "I" returned to the work of painting portraits for others, after all kinds of tests, my mood has been very different.

Secondly, my sister's death left a deep shadow on me. When I was 15 years old, my 12-year-old sister died of heart disease. This has had a great impact on my life. My sister and I have a very good relationship, but we lost our relationship because of my sister's death.

This novel, after all, is a story about trying to save the relationship with my sister. I've been looking for someone like my sister. When I first met my wife grapefruit, she reminded me of my dead sister. My wife grapefruit is three years younger than "me" and the same age as my sister. It's only three days before my birthday. Although their appearance is different, the change of expression, especially the rotation and flash of eyes, gives me the impression that they are almost magically the same. It's like the old days were resurrected by magic or something. I am attracted to my wife because of her eyes.

However, one month before the sixth wedding anniversary, his wife grapefruit suddenly announced that she was having an affair and wanted to break up with me. During the days when I lived alone in Odahara, "I" have been reflecting on what is wrong with our relationship. Suddenly one day, "I" finally woke up: "The problem between my wife and me may be that I subconsciously want to replace my dead sister."

Here is another hero of the novel, Akikawa Shinsihui. Truth Hui is a taciturn 13-year-old girl, a student of my painting class in Odahara. Wisdom truth is the first person to see The Assassination of Knight Leader besides "I" and the first person to see the shape of "Knight Leader" besides "I".

She has eyes similar to the charm of my dead sister, and the souls of the two girls seem to be integrated through time and space. The appearance of Zhenhui gave me a lot of comfort. In a sense, I regard Truth Hui as a continuation of my sister's life and protect her very carefully. The interests of truth have played a key role in the transformation of "I".

She is very enthusiastic. She instinctively realized that the telescope in the white mansion opposite her was monitoring her home, but for whatever purpose. Realizing the danger of this role, she broke into the colorless white mansion and was trapped there. There were many crises during this period, and she was attacked by wasps like her mother. Truth Hui spent four hard days there. With Knight Leader's help, when she was hiding in the cloakroom, her mother's clothes saved her.

After Zhen Hui disappeared, "I" reunited with my sister in the metaphorical channel to save Zhen Hui, and my sister's voice encouraged me to "listen to the wind". I can see my sister's loss directly again, so I managed to get out of the narrow cave and come to the stone house. I finally understand that my wife, the physical body double, is not my sister to me. Only when the problem between my wife and grapefruit is solved can I see grapefruit again.

After returning to his wife, she gave birth to a girl, although "I" didn't know whose child it was. The novel wrote: "It makes me happy that the baby is a girl. Because my sister Lu Xiao and I spent our childhood together, having a little girl around me always seems to make me feel relaxed. " At this point, the knot of losing my sister can be said to have finally been solved.

Artistic features of novels

(a) the end of the closed loop.

Haruki Murakami claims to be quite satisfied with the story ending of this novel. The plot trend of Haruki Murakami's works, the more common mode is from loss to pursuit, until it is lost again, and the ending is often loss. In the novel "Assassination of Knight Leader", the ending is a closed cycle, the protagonist has a relatively happy ending, and even Truth Hui gradually loses her vigilance in getting rid of the color. After roaming in the surreal dreamland, the character's body seems to have returned to the original point, but the soul has been truly redeemed after some purification. This is also one of the different experiences of reading this novel.

(B) concrete abstract concepts

Most of Haruki Murakami's novels use realistic style to promote unrealistic stories, which is also the writing style that Haruki Murakami is very good at. This novel is an attempt by Haruki Murakami to concretize abstract concepts. This concept borrows from Knight Leader's body, and the metaphor becomes a long-faced man, while the white Subaru man is a double metaphor. Even the conceptual "assassination" is achieved by imitating the scene of the opera Don Juan.

In the second part of the novel, especially the interpretation of Knight Leader's assassination, the long-faced man poked his head out of the ground, and "I" followed the long-faced man into the underground world, where I met the faceless man and Donna, and finally returned to the hole in the jungle. These unrealistic techniques are very intriguing.

Knight Leader: Call yourself an idea. It doesn't matter whether the idea is good or evil. They vary from person to person.

Long-faced person: According to the long-faced person himself, metaphor can only exist in relevance. In contrast, ideas have nothing to do with relevance and can exist anywhere as an independent thing.

A man with a long face is a window to the subconscious. "Look at what happened and record my duties." His behavior is only influenced by the correlation between things and expressions. So before entering the metaphorical channel, the long-faced person said to "I": I hope you can find the path. In fact, "I" have been looking for my sister.

Faceless people: Faceless people play the role of ferrymen. "My duty is to send you to the other side. My job is to let you cross the gap between nothing and nothing. "

White Subaru: Double Metaphor. That person is another self in the heart of the hero "I". It is the source of evil and the dark side of a person's heart.

Ideas and metaphors are also blank parts of this work. Everyone may have his own understanding of ideas and metaphors, just as a thousand readers have a thousand Hamlets.

(3) Familiar Murakami elements

In this novel, we can see almost all the elements in Haruki Murakami's works, such as caves, 36-year-old girls who are always beautiful, and successful men.

Some netizens commented that the Murakami elements in this book are very familiar and there is nothing new to read. I want to express a different point of view. We might as well think of it as an "old element &; New combination. " For example, the smallest element of Lego bricks is some particles, which are reassembled and then become new works. Another example is that the most basic element of human beings is genes, and the recombination of human genes is the continuous continuation of modern civilization.

In fact, writing is the same, just a rearrangement of words. Why did Murakami fully mobilize all the familiar Murakami elements to create this novel? When readers question whether it is repetitive, translator Lin calls it "rotation". Lin said: "Murakami once said that writing novels is to build real walls with fake bricks. My task now is to see how Murakami builds new walls with old bricks."

Understanding of this work

(A) thinking about good and evil

Every character in this novel can be said to have his own dark side. Angry at my wife, I almost accidentally strangled the woman I met at the seaside hotel, but I finally forgave my wife and took good care of the children whose father I didn't know. Colorless is a contradiction. Miansai stayed at the bottom of the cave for an hour with a bell. He once said that if it was "I" at the bottom of the cave, he had the idea of leaving "I" in the cave, which was evil in Mian color. But when all this really happened, when I heard "I" ringing the bell in the hole, I saved "I" from the hole without hesitation. It can be said that this is the colorless goodness that finally defeats evil.

In addition, the novel bluntly wrote about the German annexation and the Nanjing Massacre. Such a clear political stance really surprised me. Although the Nanjing Massacre did not appear in Haruki Murakami's works for the first time, it is really admirable from an objective and fair standpoint. This novel was banned by right-wing forces when it was published in Japan.

Some people say that this is Murakami's flattery to China readers. I personally don't quite agree with this statement. After the war, the Japanese have a mentality that they are also victims of the war. This consciousness is so strong that their understanding of being the perpetrators will fall behind anyway.

Shortly before the release of The Assassination of Knight Leader, Haruki Murakami won the Andersen Prize for Literature. In his acceptance speech, Haruki Murakami said: Individuals, societies and countries all have bright and dark sides. We should all face our own shadows and learn to coexist with them instead of trying to avoid or rewrite history.

"Pull time to your side"

"Pull time to your side" is a recurring phrase in the novel Assassination of Knight Leader. Every time I read this sentence, I stop to think about what the author wants to express.

Everything has good and bad sides. There are both things that time takes away and things that time gives. What did time take away? What did you give? What is the meaning of time?

Pulling time back to me, I think it contains at least two meanings: on the one hand, the protagonist wants to have more control over life and can decide the direction of life by himself; On the other hand, as painters, most people hope that their works will be handed down from generation to generation, and they hope to paint for themselves and remain immortal in the palace of art.

This is also the voice of the screenwriter. Haruki Murakami was forced to write for business when he was young, just as portrait painters were forced to paint business portraits for a living. Haruki Murakami said, now I want to write something for myself and wait for the work to slowly ferment in time. Murakami attaches great importance to the credit in readers' minds. Murakami said: "To form this kind of credit relationship, I must also spend as much time as possible, not afraid of trouble, and write every work carefully. We must buy time. To this end, we must respect time and cherish time. "

I think the novel "Assassination of Knight Leader" is Haruki Murakami's practice of "taking time to himself", and he did it.

The story behind the novel creation

(1) Why is the protagonist a portrait painter?

It is the first time that a painter has become the protagonist of Murakami's novels. Haruki Murakami revealed in an interview that a few years ago, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in literature by Stanford University. When he went to Stanford University, he met a Japanese teacher named Susan napier, and talked with her husband at a banquet and learned that he was a portrait painter. At that time, Murakami talked a lot with this painter and learned that portrait painter is a very interesting profession, so the protagonist this time is a portrait painter, which has a lot to do with Murakami's trip to Stanford.

Because the opening is already written. Because I live on the top of the mountain deep in Odahara, I am not an ordinary office worker, but a freelancer. However, if I am a novelist by profession, it will be boring, so I set myself as a painter. I am a somewhat different professional portrait painter.

(2) "Second Destiny"

According to Murakami's own disclosure, he always liked the story of Er Yuan in Ueda Akinari's The Story of Spring Rain, and always wanted to write something. In fact, chapter 14 of Assassination of Knight Leader does quote the story of Eryuan. The Second Destiny is about the son of a landlord who likes to delve into knowledge. When reading alone in the middle of the night, he can always hear voices coming from under the stones in the corner of the yard. The next day, I had it dug out and dug up a monk who was both a Buddha and a mummy from under the stone. This story is also one of the elements of Murakami's novel.

owl

There is an owl in the novel. If there were no owls making noise in the attic, the painting might not have been discovered, so owls became a very important existence.

Murakami said he had owls at home. When he lived in his old house, the house had an attic where owls lived. It's very cute. From then on, Murakami thought that the owl would appear in the novel sooner or later. When writing this novel, the owl element was used, and the owl is a very key existence.

The philosopher Hegel famously said: Minerva's owl takes off at dusk. Minerva is the goddess of wisdom in Roman mythology, and the owl perched beside her is a symbol of thought and reason. The setting of this owl guardian painting actually has profound meaning.

I also recommend you to read a book called The Owl Takes off at Dusk, which is an interview with Haruki Murakami and reveals many stories behind Haruki Murakami's novel The Assassination of Knight Leader.

abstract

1, we introduced the main plot of this novel. In order to better understand this novel, there are two external lines and two internal lines worthy of attention. The two outer lines are the paintings of "No Color" and "Assassination of Knight Leader", and the two inner lines are the influence of what I want to paint for myself as a painter and my sister's death at the age of 12.

2. Haruki Murakami's works rarely have happy endings, but this novel does form a closed circle with a warm ending. Haruki Murakami is best at writing unrealistic stories in a realistic style. Almost all elements of Haruki Murakami's works can be found in this work, and we might as well regard it as "old elements, new combinations".

Everyone has a bright side and a dark side. Just like our own shadow, we should learn to coexist with it.

The protagonist "I" is bent on making a breakthrough in creation and painting works handed down from generation to generation. This is actually the author's own voice. This novel is Haruki Murakami's practice of "taking time to yourself".