![]() ![]() The Elephant Vanishes is a collection of short stories that Murakami published between 19 and it begins with “The Wind-up Bird and Tuesday’s Women,” which is rather similar to the start of the novel, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. The Elephant Vanishes (English, 1993 Japanese, 2005) ![]() In this sequel to A Wild Sheep Chase, the narrator sees a girl wearing a Talking Heads sweatshirt and comments: Dance, Dance, Dance (Japanese, 1988 English, 1994) One time it’d be Mickey Spillane, another time Kenzaburo Oe, another time Allen Ginsberg. The only thing that changed was the book. He describes her as spending her time in a Beat-style coffee shop, where she smoked cigarettes and read: Near the beginning of this novel, the narrator recalls seeing a young woman, now deceased. A Wild Sheep Chase (Japanese, 1982 English, 1989) For Murakami, they function as insights into a particular character, in the same way that he used references to particular artists or pieces of music. Still, the references are not as superficial as they seem. ![]() Indeed, they appear more like cultural touchstones or are used to show a character’s wanderlust or awareness of Western culture. These are not normally of much significance and speak little to any influence that the Beat writers had over Murakami. Whilst Murakami gives few interviews and has not mentioned the Beats in any essays (that I know of), there are various references to Kerouac and his Beat peers in several of his works. ![]()
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