A master of form.

I've been spending a lot of time on literary pursuits this weekend, the main one of those has been getting a start on my thesis. But instead of boring you all with those more academic pursuits, I want to discuss briefly what has been more a matter of pleasure reading in the past week.

I have been reading in those few random moments of spare time, a collection of short stories by Haruki Murakami. "But Bill," you all say, "Murakami is a gimme hipster pick. Everyone loves Murakami." I am no exception to this statement. I loves me some Murakami, but I take a little minor exception to something I read in the introduction to his book. I realize that when you are writing an introduction to a book, you want to speak highly of its author. I also realize that Murakami is one of the greatest literary talents to come out of Japan. However, I take exception to the use of the term "master of form" when it comes to the short story.

Now, I fully admit, I have not read a ton of his shorter works. I am about a third of the way through the collection at the time I am writing this. Still, the person who wrote the introduction brought up the name of the one writer whom I find to be the hands-down master of the short story form, and that's Raymond Carver. I know that I have a deep-seated love for Carver that many of my contemporaries don't share. I also know that after reading essentially Carver's whole oeuvre over the course of last semester, that I'm just silly with his work, but still, I'm going to be so bold as to say it here:

Haruki Murakami is not the short storyist that Raymond Carver is.

Call me a jerk if you must, but I feel that way. I will also balance it by saying that Murakami is one of the better double-threat writers I've seen, in that he is ridiculously talented at writing both short stories as well as novels. I'd love to go on some manner of long-running rave about Carver's work, but all I will say is read it for yourself. Do yourself a favor, pick up any collection of his (Cathedral is always a great starting point) and treat yourself to a great read. I am ever-so curious to see what would have happened were he to have written a novel, but that's one of those great secrets that's probably better left unknown. To do one of those wonderful pop culture comparisons that you love to get from me, I fear that if Carver were to try to put all of his efforts into writing a novel at some point in time before his untimely death, it might be as big of a letdown as Michael Jordan leaving the NBA to attempt a career in major league baseball, where all we learned was that arguably the greatest player in the history of the NBA couldn't hit a curve ball. Just remember: It's better be known as a master of whatever it is that you do, rather than great at your one thing than to prove to everyone why it is that you went in that direction in the first place.








On a very unrelated note........


Jon, start blogging again. We all miss you.