Word of the Day

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Eggs and a Wall from Jerusalem — Haruki Murakami Speech

The whole speech of Haruki Murakami at the ceremony for 2009 Jerusalem Award can be found here:
http://www.47news.jp/47topics/e/93880.php

Some excerpts follow.
If we have any hope of victory at all, it will have to come from our believing in the utter uniqueness and irreplaceability of our own and others’ souls and from our believing in the warmth we gain by joining souls together.


Take a moment to think about this. Each of us possesses a tangible, living soul. The System has no such thing. We must not allow the System to exploit us. We must not allow the System to take on a life of its own. The System did not make us: we made the System.
That is all I have to say to you.


I wish he had just protested Israel, Soviet Union, USA, state, machinery of violence or whatever leftists are wont to criticise for overwhelming the powerless. According to Tatsuru Uchida, whose discernment I infinitely admire, Murakami talks about the language or symbols when he warns us not to get controlled by The System. Utterly uncomfortable and perverted. By that definition, The System, the language, created Murakami, the writer. Nothing comes out of nothing. If Murakami writes something at all, the writing owes its life to a previous life. There is nothing irreplaceable or unique in all this.

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