Blog Post #5

I am writing my final blog post on my thoughts on the final paper. 

I can't remember the last time I wrote fiction. It must have been early in high school. Since starting college anything I have had to write has been non-fiction, mostly research based. So this final paper is a kind of fun and interesting switch-up. What stood out to me today in class was what Murakami said about writing naturally. This is how I have always wrote. I tend to come in with some specifics I want to throw in, but then I kind of just have to start writing and see where it takes me. I know the stream of consciousness style of writing can sometimes lead to some clunky sentences and of course many a grammatical error, but it seems to work. 

I have employed this strategy for the final paper. So far I have made it through the beginning and got close to half way in. I've already thought through the end, but am now stuck somewhere in the middle. This is great, because this is where the substance needs to be. Of course the hardest part is building the journey between the intro and end, but in creative writing I have an infinite amount of ways I can go. This is never the issue with a research paper. You are given an objective task. This task is the substance, and everything else will form around it. Now it is my story and only I can figure out where it goes next. Overall it has been fun though, it forces me to think in ways I haven't been able to in a long time. In the end there isn't a wrong answer, which is something I am so used to. 

It is interesting to sit and ask yourself, what would Murakami do? Would he explain this more? No, always no, leave it vague, but also particular. How would he work in some obscure reference? Do I throw in a strange sex scene? He would, but no. It is a cool experience to weave your own voice through his filter. 

In class it was said, the deeper you dig to try to find the meaning in Murakami's work the more things seem to not link-up. My take on this is, him being this "natural writer" sometimes leads to a labyrinth. He takes you down so many pathways, and you will inevitably be lost. Truthfully I think some of the charm of his books is in the fact that not everything lines up, not every path leads anywhere, and honestly I think it might just be him writing as it comes to him and then forgetting to tie up all the loose ends. 

I'll be excited, and hopefully not disappointed, to see how my paper finishes up. Overall it has been a great semester of learning more and more about his works and those who surround him. 

- Emmett Glazer