Underground 2
Tags
Summary
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers with a deep interest in Japanese society, the dilemmas of modernity, and issues of collective trauma
- Thinkers who wish to go beyond news labels and understand extreme events and cult phenomena at the level of individual psychology and social structure
- Loyal readers of Haruki Murakami who want to understand the peak of his documentary literature and the development of his thought
- Researchers and students in sociology, psychology, journalism, or crisis studies
Not a good fit for
- Casual readers seeking light reading or twisty plots
- Readers expecting simple moral judgment of the events or sensational stories
Reading tips
- It is recommended to read the predecessor Underground first, to build an overall understanding of the victims' side, before entering the 'perpetrators' perspective in this book, for a more three-dimensional understanding.
- Please be patient while reading; the interviews are extremely dense in detail. Pay attention to how the interviewees describe their emotional changes, cognitive distortions, and their relationship with the guru Shoko Asahara.
- The book can be read in comparison with Murakami's fiction from the same period or later (such as 1Q84), to observe how his documentary thinking was transformed into literary imagery.
About the publisher
Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.
Contents
- 版权信息
- “黑匣子”：开启与解读 （译序）
- 写在前面
- 采访
- “说不定真是奥姆干的。”
- “按照诺斯特拉达穆斯的伟大预言安排人生日程。”
- “对我来说，尊师本应是最终解答疑问的人。”
- “这已接近人体实验了。”
- “说实话，我的前生是男性。”
- “那时心想：‘留在这里绝对死掉。’”
- “曾被麻原要求过性关系。”
- “在法庭看到麻原的言行，感到作呕。”
- 同河合隼雄先生的对话
- 围绕《地下》
- 与“恶”共生
- 后记
FAQ
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About the author
Haruki Murakami is a Japanese novelist and translator of American literature, born in 1949 in Fushimi, Kyoto, and a graduate of Waseda University. He entered the literary world in 1979 with Hear the Wind Sing and has since continued to produce novels, essays, and interview-based nonfiction, with 57 titles by him carried on this site. His fiction often traces urban individuals' sense of loneliness, loss, and self-discovery, moving between the real and the surreal in a light yet introspective tone that has become a highly recognizable personal style. Representative works include Norwegian Wood, A Wild Sheep Chase, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, many of which are classed as classics and foreign literature. He has also translated American writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, and his own work has been translated into many languages and recognized with international awards including the Franz Kafka Prize and the Jerusalem Prize, giving him wide influence among contemporary world literature readers.
Lin Shaohua, born in 1952 in Jiutai, Jilin, with ancestral roots in Penglai, Shandong, is a renowned Chinese literary translator and essayist who previously served as a professor at the College of Foreign Languages, Ocean University of China. Since translating Norwegian Wood in 1989, he has devoted himself to introducing Japanese literature to Chinese readers, translating more than forty works by Haruki Murakami as well as notable works by Natsume Soseki, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, and Yasunari Kawabata. His fluent and nuanced translations have won him a wide readership in the Chinese-speaking world and have profoundly influenced the reception of Murakami and modern Japanese literature in China. In 2018, he received the Japanese Foreign Minister's Commendation. His translations span novels, essays, and interview collections, with representative works including Snow Country, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Kokoro, The Setting Sun, and The Izu Dancer.
