Lolah Runda
asked
Derek Vasconi:
Hi Derek, my name is Lolah I was going through your biography and saw that you lived in Japan for 5 years how was is like, are you fluent in the language? and also you mentioned Haruki Murakami as one of your influences, what is it about his work that captured your attention?
Derek Vasconi
Hi Lolah! Huge thanks for your interest in me and my work! I appreciate it so much!
So to answer your questions, I am not fluent in the Japanese language, but I speak enough of it and understand enough of it that if I had to go back and live in Tokyo on my own, I would be okay. I can always learn more, and I always am learning something new with the Japanese language every day. How about you? Any interest in the language or the culture?
Murakami has been in my life a long, long time. He's not so much an influence as a personal guide to all things surreal and metaphysical in my life. I can't even begin to explain why he's important to me or how he's been such a huge part of who I am, but if I had to answer that, it would also answer your question about what captured me with his work. I would have to say it's his magical realism style approach to the world, and the fact that his stories don't necessarily wrap up nicely, and that when you read his stories it's like he's sitting right there telling you all of them in person. Like a conversation. He never goes too crazy with his descriptions of things, at least in terms of piling adjectives up adjectives into describing something. And most of all, he just lives in a world so different from anyone else that when he allows me to visit it with a new story, it's like I feel incredibly privileged, blessed, and full of wonder all at once. Have you ever felt that way about an author? That's what he does to me. And for the record, 1Q84 is the greatest example of what Murakami can do with your heart and soul if you are willing to take that journey with him in his stories.
And he likes Jazz music, so being that I am also a musician, well, I really appreciate how he sneaks in something about his love of music in just about all of his works that he writes.
So to answer your questions, I am not fluent in the Japanese language, but I speak enough of it and understand enough of it that if I had to go back and live in Tokyo on my own, I would be okay. I can always learn more, and I always am learning something new with the Japanese language every day. How about you? Any interest in the language or the culture?
Murakami has been in my life a long, long time. He's not so much an influence as a personal guide to all things surreal and metaphysical in my life. I can't even begin to explain why he's important to me or how he's been such a huge part of who I am, but if I had to answer that, it would also answer your question about what captured me with his work. I would have to say it's his magical realism style approach to the world, and the fact that his stories don't necessarily wrap up nicely, and that when you read his stories it's like he's sitting right there telling you all of them in person. Like a conversation. He never goes too crazy with his descriptions of things, at least in terms of piling adjectives up adjectives into describing something. And most of all, he just lives in a world so different from anyone else that when he allows me to visit it with a new story, it's like I feel incredibly privileged, blessed, and full of wonder all at once. Have you ever felt that way about an author? That's what he does to me. And for the record, 1Q84 is the greatest example of what Murakami can do with your heart and soul if you are willing to take that journey with him in his stories.
And he likes Jazz music, so being that I am also a musician, well, I really appreciate how he sneaks in something about his love of music in just about all of his works that he writes.
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